Free Simply Scandalous by Kate Pearce Page B

walked across to Jack, kissed his cheek and then Vincent’s.
    â€œThank you for coming to find me. I appreciate it.”
    â€œThank you for having the courage to meet us, madame, although after what our grandmother told us about you, we weren’t surprised.”
    Helene laughed and patted his cheek. “I see her spirit in you both.”
    Philip shook Jack’s hand. “Shall we return to the drawing room? Your mother must be wondering where the devil we are.”
    Christian waited until everyone but Richard had preceded him from the room and then turned to his half brother.
    â€œThis makes it even more interesting, doesn’t it?”
    â€œWhat does?”
    â€œThat Vincent Lennox isn’t quite the man he claims to be.”
    Richard moved toward the door. “Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
    Christian smoothly barred his way. “Which begs the question, which Lennox did you fuck at the pleasure house?”
    Richard just stared at Christian. “Perhaps I had them both.”
    â€œAnd, yet again, I underestimated you, my dear brother.” Christian stepped out of the way.
    â€œPerhaps you did.”
    Â 
    Emily opened the door into her bedchamber and stepped inside. The long evening of avoiding Richard’s inquiring looks and remembering to be polite to the Lennox family had given her a headache, and she never had headaches. She considered them a ridiculous female weakness. Thank goodness, Jack Lennox had proved an amusing companion and had kept her entertained during dinner. Like most gentlemen of her acquaintance, he’d barely expected her to do anything except laugh at his gallantries and utter one-word answers whenever he required them.
    With another furtive glance at her door, she hurried to her chest of drawers and drew out the box Thomas Smith had given her in the park. She’d already started reading the letters, which were not addressed to anyone but were obviously meant for a lover. Emily had a sinking feeling that the lover was not her father, but another man entirely. But why had Thomas Smith kept the letters? Had he acted as some kind of go-between?
    She took out the pile of letters and put them in order from the first tentative note to the last impassioned plea for the lover to take her away from the horror of her marriage, of her children. . . . Emily stared at the last of the letters, the one that had shaken her so badly. In the world of the ton , it was not uncommon for a married woman to take a lover after she had fulfilled her duty to her husband and provided him with an heir. But this affair, this affair of her mother’s, appeared to have started before her marriage and continued almost until her death.
    Emily put the pile of letters down and stared at them. It certainly explained why Philip had been such an unwelcome visitor in his own home, and why he had stayed away. Had Philip lied and never actually relinquished Helene? Was that why Anne had taken her own lover? Her mother was dead, and she could hardly ask her father such an indelicate question. He would surely want to know why she wanted answers after all these years, and she was reluctant to disclose her recent reacquaintance with Mr. Smith.
    Emily put the letters aside and took her mother’s diary out of the box. She suspected that many of the answers to her questions lay within the pages of the thick journal. A hint of her mother’s stale perfume wafted up from the book and something tugged at Emily’s memory, making the task of opening the book too painful. She dropped it back into the box and tossed the letters on top.
    It seemed her courage had deserted her again, just as it had after Ambrose had kissed her so passionately and stepped away. She put the box back into her dresser and rang for her maid. Mayhap she would try to read the book again tomorrow.

6
    â€œI hope you don’t mind us coming around to the kitchen.”
    Ambrose put on the pine table the