"You are wise to be doubtful, for I am a great liar. Ask my father and the lady if you would like confirmation of that fact."

"Neville," Richard said, suddenly lunging from his chair to grab his shoulder so roughly that Neville feared he intended to drag him from the bed. "Did you seduce her?"

Neville regarded the man who had been his friend since his first days in London. That friendship was surely lost to him now.

But what was that compared to the king's ire when he discovered what Neville had done? He would probably be thrown into the Tower; without doubt, he would be exiled from court, left to fend for himself. "You owe me fifty pounds."

Richard leaped to his feet, scowling darkly. "A pox on you, Farrington!"

Neville put his feet on the floor and heaved himself upright. "I'm leaving. Send me the money later. And tell Foz, too. If it is any comfort to you, I will need the winnings because, despite the evidence of his own eyes, my father will give Arabella my inheritance yet."

"We would have done better to leave you in that filthy tavern to get your throat slit."

"I did not ask you for any a.s.sistance," Neville replied as he began to straighten his disheveled clothing.

"Nor do I regret what I did," he lied. "There was the glory of being her first."

"You disgusting scoundrel!"

"Oh, how you hurt me!" Neville replied sardonically. "As if I have not been called that a hundred times.

Nay, a thousand! And a wastrel and lecher and gamester, too." He suddenly grabbed his friend's jabot and pulled him close. "Will you next tell me I am like my mother?"

"Who would you say you are like?" Richard retorted, slapping his hand away. "Buckingham, perhaps?

He would be as proud as you are for what you've done. I suppose you bragged of it in that tavern and every place else you went last night. By now, you and your conquest will be quite famous, and Arabella's reputation utterly destroyed."

Neville shoved Richard away. "You are angry only because I beat you to her!" He spotted the pile of papers on Richard's writing desk. "Odes to her beauty, no doubt," he sneered, grabbing the top one. His smile grew as he read it. "The Virtuous Lady: A Tragedy of Love. What drivel is this?"

"Drivel I doubt you would ever understand," Richard said, s.n.a.t.c.hing the paper away.

"She inspired you, eh?"

They heard a commotion on the stairs, a sound Neville knew heralded Foz's approach.

Foz, who wanted to marry Arabella.Then the hapless Foz appeared on the threshold, his gaze darting between the two men. "It's true what he said. About last night. I went to his father's house and-"

"Did she tell you?" Neville demanded.

Foz shook his head. "Jarvis. Everyone in the household knows about it."

"How much did that information cost you?" Neville asked sarcastically.

His foolish friend regarded him not with anger or hatred but a sort of weary sorrow that was anything but foolish.

Neville blushed, then commanded himself not to be such an idiot. She was as much to blame for what had happened as he, deny it though she might. "And has my father and his delicious ward gone scurrying back to Grantham?"

"No, they have not. Well, not yet. That is, the earl is planning to go home. There was an argument, and Arabella has left the house."

"Left the house?" Neville repeated, taken aback. "Where did she go?"

Who did she know in London that she could go to for help and comfort?

"She's going to stay at Lady Lippet's, Jarvis said."

Neville stared at him. Then he stumbled out the door.

Lady Lippet started and turned from her mirror as someone abruptly entered her boudoir without so much as a knock. "Neville!" she cried, falling back in her chair with surprise.

"Where is she?" he demanded, his eyes bloodshot, his face deathly pale and his bearing as aggressive as a ruffian from the docks.

"Who?" Lady Lippet stammered.

"A pox! You know who! Arabella. Where is she?"

Leaning on her vanity table for support, Lady Lippet slowly got to her feet. "Where are my footmen?

How did you get in here?"

"They were wise enough to let me pa.s.s. Now, where is Arabella, for I will not leave without her."

"Do you think she will want to go with you? You've dishonored her, and the whole city knows it. I have seen to that!" Lady Lippet had waited a long time for this moment, and so she smiled with evil relish as Cordelia's son suffered for his sin and his mother's, too. "Now all of London knows you are as base, deceitful and l.u.s.tful as your wh.o.r.e of a mother, and so does Arabella."

With a bellow of rage, Neville lunged for her, grabbing her by her scrawny throat.

"Are you going to kill me?" Lady Lippet gasped. "You would add murder to your list of crimes?"

His eyes still burning with menacing wrath, Neville let go and stepped back. "You are disgusting," he growled. "Perhaps I should kill you before you corrupt any more innocent women."Lady Lippet rubbed her sore throat. "You are hardly in a position to talk of corrupting women. Besides, your father was her guardian, not I."

"I should have warned her about you, but I thought her own good judgment, with his influence and protection, would keep her safe from you. I curse myself for being wrong. And now I will take Arabella away from you."

"I cannot allow that."

"You? You cannot allow it?"

Suddenly-and Neville never did know how-a pistol appeared in Lady Lippet's hand, perhaps from the wig box kept on her vanity. "Get out right now, or I will shoot you down like the dog you are and claim you were trying to rape me."

There was no denying that she meant every word she said.

"I won't leave without Arabella."

"Fool! Do you think she wants to see you after you humiliated her?" Lady Lippet's eyes glowed with sly triumph. "You can see her again, you know. She will be at Whitehall this evening. Of course, she will not want to speak with you. She will have so many other men to talk to. The Duke of Buckingham is very anxious to offer her a shoulder to cry on."

"You're despicable!"

"No, my handsome young man. I am only a silly, harmless, ugly old woman. Isn't that what everybody thinks? Now, shall I shoot you, or will you go?"

As he stared at her for a long moment, she thought she might really have to shoot him, which would make a terrible bloodstain on her new Turkey carpet.

Fortunately, however, he finally turned on his heel and left.

With trembling hands, Lady Lippet set down the pistol and sank heavily into her chair. Her heart pounded, her legs felt weak-she suddenly felt most unwell.

And her left arm was most curiously numb, although she had been holding the pistol in her right hand.

Chapter 20.

would sooner have gone to h.e.l.l than meet the king in St. James's Park; unfortunately, he had little choice but to obey a royal summons.

After he left Lady Lippet, he marched home, trying to decide what to do, and discovered the king's page waiting with a note ordering him to meet Charles in the park at once. Masking his dismay, anger anddread, and ignoring the page's scornful reaction to his lodgings, Neville had tidied himself up and dutifully followed the young man to St. James's.

All too soon, the king appeared, strolling about with ease and nodding graciously to all and sundry.

When Neville thought of this seemingly kind-hearted, friendly man's lascivious plans for Arabella, he wanted to denounce him for a base scoundrel.

But he could not, for he was no better.

"Ah, Farrington," the king cried when he spotted him.

Neville smiled and bowed. "Majesty."

Charles gestured for him to come closer, then led him a little away from the page, his other attendants and his ever-present spaniels. "We have heard some very disturbing rumors about you and Lady Arabella."

"Rumors, Majesty?"

The royal brows furrowed. "Do not play us for a fool, Farrington. Is it true that you deflowered her?"

So Lady Lippet hadn't lied. The story was already all over the city. "Lady Arabella's virtue was an impediment to Your Majesty's pleasure, at least in her countrified mind. Now that is gone."

"Ah, Farrington, for king and country, eh? We knew there would be a suitable explanation," the king replied, and still with apparent good humor. "Was she as delectable as she looks?"

"A gentleman never reveals the details of his amours, as you know, Majesty, I will only say that it was not a particularly onerous duty."

"And then you quarreled?"

"Yes, sire, so now she will have nothing more to do with me."

The king chuckled. "Bravo, my lord! Bravo! We feared you had forgotten your duty to your sovereign and are delighted to find it is not so. And this argument heralds the complete end to your liaison?"

"Yes, Majesty."

"Well done!"

"Thank you, Majesty."

"And you will have ample proof of our pleasure, we a.s.sure you."

"Again I thank you, sire."

"We have also heard she has left your father's protection."

"So I understand, Majesty."

"A pity about Lady Lippet, but that is better for our plans."

Puzzled, Neville said, "What of Lady Lippet, Your Majesty?""The woman is dead."

"Dead?" Neville asked with wide-eyed disbelief. "I saw her only a short time ago-" He halted in confusion when he realized the king was regarding him shrewdly.

"We heard of this, too, and that you also quarreled with Lady Lippet."

Neville nodded once. "Yes, Majesty."

"You did not kill her."

"No. When I left her, she was alive and apparently well."

"We know. The physician says it was apoplexy or her heart. We never had a thought of charging you with murder."

Neville couldn't quite subdue a sigh of relief.

"But what of Lady Arabella, Majesty? She has nowhere to go in London, no friend-"

He fell silent as the king slowly smiled.

Of course. The king would be her "friend."

Neville felt sick and ashamed. But he would not blame himself. He had not sinned alone, and she had been willing.

"She has already sent us a most welcome message, Farrington. Tonight we shall have great cause for celebration at Whitehall." Then the king held out a purse full of coins. "As promised."

Judas.

The name rang in Neville's ears as he stared at the purse.

"Well, take it, man. Payment for a job well done."

Unable to think of a reason to refuse that would not insult the king, Neville obeyed.

"Since you have proved to be so adept at these proceedings, we trust we can count on your a.s.sistance in the future, should a similar case arise?"

Neville bowed.