Free A Little More Scandal by Carrie Lofty Page A

to get a word out of you, I’m absolutely assured that I will.”
    “I’m very pleased to be here, Lady Evelyn, but that will not be the case. I wish that you would respect my privacy, and the privacy of our fallen fighting men.”
    Behind that disconcerting mask, Lady Evelyn blinked. And turned to ice. “I suppose I should not want to discuss the less flattering aspects of your profession either.”
    Catrin carefully tucked her hands behind her back. She laced her fingers together and squeezed. “Pardon me, my lady? I’m afraid I’ve lost your meaning.”
    “Nursing.” Roughly forty years old, the heavyset woman shuddered, which wiggled the little weighted bobs on her mask. “To be among all those men for so long . . . I’m sure protecting your virtue became most trying.”
    “Most trying,” Catrin echoed. Nine minutes more. Surely Lady Evelyn would not tease her for longer.
    “I think you must either be very brave or very, very foolish. Can you imagine, Julia? Living so roughly?”
    Catrin bit her teeth together. Bugs, mud, rot in summer. Snow, starvation, frostbite in winter. Explosions that rocked the ground beneath her feet, and wounds so grievous as to make her doubt any good remained in the world. Living roughly had been the least of her concerns.
    “But then to come home to our dear city and face such speculation about your character,” continued Lady Evelyn. “Surely that is nothing short of unjust. Especially the rumors about your condition while shipboard.”
    Heat flared between Catrin’s brows, as if branded atop the bridge of her nose. “Excuse me?”
    “Oh!” Lady Evelyn used a fan that matched her mask to wave away an apparent fit of vapors. “I’m surprised you haven’t heard! Please, don’t tell me I’m the one forced to bear bad news.”
    The gleam in her dark eyes said that after being refused the prize of a few salacious details, she would gladly provide her own. Whether genuine rumor or an instantaneous fiction would never be revealed. When Lady Evelyn repeated them often enough, they would become fact. None of Catrin’s polite protestations or silences would fend off the damage. If they limited her chances of finding a suitable husband . . .
    Perhaps even William, for all his hard edges, would not abide so many indignities.
    “I’m afraid you must be that poor messenger.” Lady Julia tilted her lips at a saucy angle. Catrin had come to think of the expression as Julia’s anticipation of entertainment. She braced herself. “It appears that Miss Jones is not privy to your sources. All extremely reputable, I assure you.”
    On that precipice, Catrin wondered whether Lady Julia’s aid had been worth all this fuss.
    Yes. Surely it was. She would have been the object of newspaper chatter and bored gossips with or without the woman’s auspices.
    She held her breath, like a prisoner awaiting a judge’s verdict.
    “Well, I heard—as Lady Julia said, from a very reputable source—that you were in a . . . a . . . delicate condition while aboard the Honoria. Imagine! To have such a tragedy be the bringer of your good fortune.”
    “Good fortune?” Catrin’s voice was nothing more than a squeak, and not just because of the indignation burning in her throat. No matter how she wanted to forget her argument with William, she could not banish the pit of dread in her stomach.
    What they had done—a child was possible.
    “Why, yes,” Lady Evelyn said brightly. Too brightly. “Such a fortune to eliminate any trace of your indiscretion. And here you are, a summer guest of some of London’s most influential families. For a girl like you, that must have been quite a boon.”
    Lady Evelyn’s sharp smile promised more if Catrin did not acquiesce. By no means did she intend to betray the events of those last few hours before the Honoria sank, but neither did she relish agreeing with any detail Lady Evelyn had presented. Even her silence would be read as confirmation. All of Society