“I shall ruin her,” Hyacinth continued.
“No,” Gregory said in a low voice, “you won’t.”
The rest of his family fell silent, and Gregory suspected that they had not, until the moment he’d spoken, realized that he had not been taking part in the conversation.
“You will leave her alone,” he said.
Hyacinth ground her teeth together.
He brought his eyes to hers, hard and steely with purpose. “And if your paths should ever cross,” he continued, “you shall be all that is amiable and kind. Do you understand me?”
Hyacinth said nothing.
“Do you understand me?” he roared.
His family stared at him in shock. He never lost his temper. Never.
And then Hyacinth, who’d never possessed a highly developed sense of tact, said, “No, as a matter of fact.”
“I beg your pardon?” Gregory, said, his voice dripping ice at the very moment Colin turned to her and hissed, “Shut up.”
“I don’t understand you,” Hyacinth continued, jamming her elbow into Colin’s ribs. “How can you possibly possess sympathy for her? If this had happened to me, wouldn’t you—”
“This didn’t happen to you,” Gregory bit off. “And you do not know her. You do not know the reasons for her actions.”
“Do you?” Hyacinth demanded.
He didn’t. And it was killing him.
“Turn the other cheek, Hyacinth,” her mother said softly.
Hyacinth sat back, her bearing tense with anger, but she held her tongue.
“Perhaps you could stay with Benedict and Sophie in Wiltshire,” Violet suggested. “I believe Anthony and Kate are expected in town soon, so you cannot go to Aubrey Hall, although I am sure they would not mind if you resided there in their absence.”
Gregory just stared out the window. He did not wish to go to the country.
“You could travel,” Colin said. “Italy is particularly pleasant this time of year. And you haven’t been, have you?”
Gregory shook his head, only half listening. He did not wish to go to Italy.
Because I had to, she’d said.
Not because she wished it. Not because it was sensible.
Because she had to.
What did that mean?
Had she been forced? Was she being blackmailed?
What could she have possibly done to warrant blackmail?
“It would have been very difficult for her not to go through with it,” Violet suddenly said, placing a sympathetic hand on his arm. “Lord Davenport is not a man anyone would wish as an enemy. And really, right there in the church, with everyone looking on . . . Well,” she said with a resigned sigh, “one would have to be extremely brave. And resilient.” She paused, shaking her head. “And prepared.”
“Prepared?” Colin queried.
“For what came next,” Violet clarified. “It would have been a huge scandal.”