"They made a few suggestions, but I-"

"Then the suggestions stopped?"

"Maybe they learned how to do their job better."

"Or perhaps because it was no longer necessary. Is it so impossible that Neville could and would do everything in his power to keep you solvent?"

"If I were bankrupt, he would have nothing, too."

"He could marry well," she said, and hot without some bitterness.

The earl began to pace. "He is a spendthrift. A wastrel. All of London knows of his decadent habits. He would not help me unless there was gain in it for himself. He hates me." He halted and turned a suspicious eye on her.

"Why do you now rush to his defense, after what he has done to you?"

Arabella straightened her shoulders. "I only seek to know the truth. Can't you see that if he has saved your fortune, it gives him more cause to want to destroy me? I'faith, my lord, if he didn't hate you before that, he would have hated you after hearing of your plan, and he would despise me, too."

"If I had not said what I did, you would not have had a chance of catching a courtier."

"Can you not understand, my lord?" she demanded. "I did not want a courtier. I wanted a man who loved me! Now no honorable man will have me after my disgrace."

The earl seemed to shrink a little. "I have done nothing wrong. He can't have saved my fortune."

"Why do you find this so hard to believe? Why do you hate him so?"

"Because he is just like his mother! Everything he does reminds me of her. His looks, his expressions, his words-I can scarce stand to be in the same room with him. I tried to curb The qualities in him that were like her, but I might as well have tried to hold back a flood or stop the sun from rising."

"No, he is not like anyone else in the world. And she abandoned him, too, my lord."

"I know that better than you!"

"You loved her very much, didn't you?" Arabella asked after a moment of heavy silence.

The earl stared at her, then shook his head. "No, I did not."

"Why else would you hate her so when she betrayed you? And I think you feared that Neville would betray you, too. Better to force him away and save yourself from heartache."

The old man felt for a chair and sat heavily.

"He would have offered you comfort if you had not driven him away. Yet despite all this, he was yourdutiful son, for when he found out how things were, he did not leave you to suffer deprivation. Indeed, my lord, he was a better son than you a father."

"You speak your mind very decidedly for a woman, and a young one at that. Although he has stolen your honor, you defend him."

"Would you tell me I am wrong?"

The earl's gaze faltered, and suddenly, he seemed very old and very tired. "You loved him, as I loved his mother," he muttered.

"Yes, I loved him. I trusted him. But if I have cause for regret, it is because I was weak and immoral. He could not have shamed me if I had not chosen to be with him. I must bear responsibility for my act, and so I will. I shall make my own way in the world without you or your son."

"Surely you cannot be serious!"

"I have never been more so." Except when I told Neville I loved him.

"As your guardian, I forbid it!"

"As my guardian, you have failed," she said bitterly. "As I have. Do not trouble yourself over my fate, my lord. I choose it, just as I chose to be with your son."

"You cannot live on your own! It would be scandalous!"

She turned to leave the room. "I did not say I would be living on my own."

She opened the door, to find Lady Lippet anxiously pacing outside it.

"Nettie, talk to this chit!" Lord Ba.r.r.s.ettshire commanded from the withdrawing room. "She says she will live alone in London."

"Utter nonsense! You must both stay here, at least for the present," Lady Lippet said. "Sit down, the pair of you. I declare I am disgusted with you both."

"I don't know what the world is coming to," the earl snarled, "or women, for that matter. How can she stay here? She is disgraced, thanks to my son, but no one in Grantham need know-"

"Sit down, Wattles!"

The earl grudgingly did as he was bid.

"If you will pardon me, Lady Lippet-" Arabella began.

"No, I don't pardon you," the older woman said. "Sit!"

Arabella felt she had no choice but to obey or else the whole household would hear them.

She closed the door firmly before taking a seat.

"So, Wattles, you think she should go back to Grantham in disgrace?"

"Yes."

"I thought you wanted her to marry a courtier. How will she be able to do that in Grantham?"The earl continued to scowl.

"Now, Wattles, we have got to think of Arabella's future. I think perhaps the best thing would be for her to come and stay with me."

"With you?" the earl demanded.

Arabella did not feel any more pleased with this plan than he did.

Lady Lippet nodded and fixed a steady gaze on the earl. "She should be seen to be parted from you and therefore from your son. Otherwise, people might think you were encouraging Neville with an eye to obtaining Arabella's inheritance."

"Good G.o.d, I had not thought of that."

"I told you spreading that tale was a mistake."

"But I don't have an inheritance," Arabella observed.

"This is not the time to tell people!" Lady Lippet cried. "Good heavens, most certainly not the time."

"I should continue living this lie, then?"

"Don't be such a little fool! Of course you must. And you must come home with me directly. Then tonight, we shall go to Whitehall just as if nothing at all had happened."

"I will not."

Lady Lippet clenched her teeth. "You must, or Neville will have everything his way. He can say what he will, and there will be no one there to contradict him."

"Nettie, I think we should go back to Grantham."

"You think," Lady Lippet said sarcastically. "It is your thinking that has got us all into this mess."

The earl rose in outraged majesty. "This is my house, and I will not be spoken to in such a manner."

"Please, do not quarrel!" Arabella exclaimed, tired of the bickering. Tired of everything.

"I will not be party to anything dishonorable," the earl warned.

"Wattles, stop being so selfish."

"Selfish? If that is how you are going to speak to me, there is the door."

Lady Lippet rose haughtily. "You are the most stubborn man I have ever met. If Arabella stays with you, she will be ruined. Come along, my dear, we are leaving."

"Arabella, if you leave this house now, don't think you can come back."

Arabella regarded her former guardian coldly. "I don't want to come back. Do for me as you did for your son. Send my things to my new abode."

Then she left the earl standing alone in his withdrawing room and followed Lady Lippet out the door.With a beaming smile on her homely face, Lady Lippet watched as Arabella sat down on the cushioned seat opposite her in her coach. "I am so glad you are being sensible about this, my dear. There is no reason at all to treat last night's adventure as the end of the world. I a.s.sure you, it is not."

Lady Lippet might believe that, Arabella thought as the coach lurched into motion, but her world, the world she knew and the world she had dreamed of with Neville, was completely destroyed.

She could only hope she had the courage to make her way in a new one and forget everything about honor and morality she had ever been taught.

And she would pray that G.o.d would forgive her for being so weak that even now, she loved the man who had so callously seduced her.

Chapter 19.

"Neville? Neville, is that you?"

Neville raised his head about five inches off the battered table in the tavern and squinted his bleary eyes as he tried to see who dared disturb him. Three empty bottles of sack blocked his view, and he slowly shoved them out of his way. One fell to the ground and shattered, making him wince. His reaction had nothing to do with the loss of the bottle; the sound made his head ache more.

Or maybe it was the sunlight streaming in through the window behind him.

He decided he didn't care who was calling him, so he laid his head down on his arms again and mumbled, "Go away."

"Zounds, it is Neville!" Richard declared incredulously. "I thought that red-haired Irishman was seeing things."

"Now we know he's not dead in an alley, so let's do as he says and leave him alone," Foz said nervously.

"I don't think leaving him here, tempting though it may be, would be a wise idea," Richard said, surveying the wharf-side tavern filled with some of the most unsavory characters Richard had ever seen-and he had seen many in his time. "Half these men look as if they would gladly do murder for his jacket."

"I suppose you're right," Foz replied. "For old times' sake, we should a.s.sist him."

"Help me get him up."

Richard came around the table while Foz went to Neville's other side. They put their shoulders under Neville's arms and hauled him to his feet.

"I said go away!" Neville growled. "I wanna stay here. More wine!"

"Zounds, Neville, what's got into you?" Richard demanded. "How long have you been here?""What's got into me?" he slurred, lifting his head as if it weighed a hundred pounds. "Nothing's got into me -but I got into her!" He grinned stupidly. "That's right! You both owe me fifty pounds!"

Richard and Foz looked at each other.

"I had her last night. The virtuous angel. And it was angelic-but never mind about that. I want my hundred pounds."

"Then you must come with us to get it," Richard said grimly.

"Oh?" He frowned petulantly. "Do you want to ask her? Very well, then, we shall. But let's have a little drink first, shall we? A toast to the fair Arabella-may she rot!"

"Neville!" Foz cried, aghast.

"Sorry, sorry, old son," he apologized. "I forgot you want to marry her."

" 'Ere, now, then!" His hands on his hips, a heavy man in an ap.r.o.n as filthy as his face blocked their progress. "What's all this, eh?"

"We are taking my friend home," Richard replied evenly.

"He hasn't paid up."

"If you are the proprietor, my good man, I shall be happy to-" Foz muttered, reaching for his purse while still trying to help hold up Neville. "How much does he owe?"

"Two guineas."

"You must be mistaken," Richard said.

"Oh, beware the fair Arabella, she's after any young fella!" Neville caroled drunkenly.

"It doesn't matter, Richard," Foz hastened to say, ignoring Neville's tuneless effort. "I've got two guineas."