Free Once Tempted by Elizabeth Boyle Page B

she could probably give the housekeeper, Mrs. Delaney, some believable excuse about coming to town for the night on an errand for her ladyship. She spent the ride over to the Mayfair address fashioning a reasonable one.
    But her knock on the door was not answered by the housekeeper but by Addison, the butler from Finch Manor.
    “Addison, what are you doing here?” she asked, almost afraid to enter the house.
    “Awaiting you, Mrs. Keates.”
    She stared at him, still stunned by his sudden appearance in town. The loyal family retainer would never leave her ladyship, let alone Finch Manor, not unless . . .
    “Is that her, Addison?” Lady Finch’s voice called out from somewhere close by. “Bring that impossible girl to me immediately. And don’t let her get away.”
    Olivia would have liked nothing more than to back down the steps and run, but Addison, true to his mistress’s edict, caught Olivia by the arm and pulled her into the house.
    She couldn’t help wondering if perhaps she’d been a little too hasty in making her escape from Bradstone.
    “There you are!” her ladyship said. “Do you know the fright you have given me?” She sat in a high-backed chair, not unlike the one she had at Finch Manor and used for interviewing—or rather, chastising the servants, Jemmy when he overspent his allowance, or Lord Finch when he spent too much time in his orchid house. Next to her, Jemmy sat in an equally formidable chair, his features pale and drawn.
    “My lady, what are you doing here?” Olivia still couldn’t believe her employer had followed her to town—a place Evaline Reyburn, Lady Finch, hadn’t set foot in twenty years.
    “Concern for me?” Lady Finch said. “Isn’t it a little too late for that when you nearly put me in my grave with vexation over your disappearance? How could you do this to me?”
    Olivia shuffled a bit under the lady’s emotional outburst. “I’m sorry, my lady. It was just a bit of urgent business that came up. I didn’t want to worry you with my poor concerns.”
    “Your poor concerns? Since when is confronting Lord Bradstone a poor concern?”
    Olivia’s mouth dropped open at this, but she snapped it shut quickly and tried to brazen out a falsehood. “I don’t know what you mean. I have a cousin. Yes, a cousin. She is in dire financial circumstances. A widow, like me, without—”
    “Olivia Sutton,” Lady Finch blurted out, halting the stumbling tale. “You have always been a poor liar. You were the first day you arrived with Lord Finch. A widow, indeed! When the entire town was talking of the murder at the Chambley ball and the disappearance of both Lord Bradstone and his paramour, Miss Sutton. How coincidental then that you turn up on my doorstep not two days later, calling yourself Juliet Keates, and claiming to be the woman I’d sent Lord Finch to fetch from town. Her name was Mary.”
    Olivia shook her head as she watched her secrets and lies unravel before her.
    Lady Finch continued, “That you were able to convince Lord Finch to help you, I have no doubts. The man knew better than to return home empty-handed.”
    “You’re confused, my lady,” Olivia told her. “Everyone knows that poor girl died aboard the Bon Venture with Lord Bradstone. I couldn’t be her.” Olivia sent a withering smile to Jemmy, hoping the young man would rise to her defense as he did when his mother became too overbearing.
    But this time Jemmy shook his head, the disappointment in his eyes sending a river of guilt through Olivia’s heart. “Is it as mother claims? Is your real name Olivia Sutton?”
    She bit her lip, unable to tell the truth but unwilling to lie to the young man who was like a beloved brother.
    “Olivia,” Lady Finch said, in a voice so soft and maternal that it made both Jemmy and Olivia turn and stare. “When you came to my house, I wrote to your mother to confirm who you were.” The lady reached for her reticule, which was lying on the small Queen Anne