Free Once an Heiress by Elizabeth Boyce Page B

Bachman looked over at the two girls.
    “Who mentioned Thorburn?” Aunt Janine asked.
    Lily winced.
    Naomi had the good grace to look abashed. “Sorry.”
    “Lily waltzed with Lord Thorburn,” Mrs. Bachman volunteered. “She ought not have done so, because they hadn’t even been introduced. But you can’t tell young people anything anymore.”
    “He’s thoroughly disreputable,” Naomi said. “You must be careful, Lily.”
    Aunt Janine snorted. “If debt renders one disreputable, then half the
ton
are notorious.”
    Lily frowned. “Is he badly in debt?”
    “Oh, yes,” Aunt Janine answered. “His proclivity for gaming is no secret, though with his past, it’s no wonder he’s picked up a vice or two.” She turned back around in her seat and sipped her tea.
    Don’t be interested,
Lily told herself. Thorburn’s history wasn’t any of her affair, didn’t signify in the least. Besides, if he was in debt as Aunt Janine said, then he must certainly fall into her category of Leech.
    Lily stared at the back of Aunt Janine’s head. Then, like a moth inexorably drawn to a flame, her feet carried her to the sitting area. She lowered herself onto the sofa.
    “What of his past?” she heard herself say. No! shouted a warning voice in her mind.
    But, she argued with herself, if she learned about him, perhaps she could relegate him to the proper compartment in her mind and forget that foolish kiss. As it was, he was an enigma she’d built up to mythic proportions.
    The scholarly lady set down her teacup; her face took on a faraway look. “The poor boy didn’t have a chance of reaching manhood unscathed,” Aunt Janine said. “His father, the third Earl of Kneath, is known to be a cruel man. Lady Kneath was a lovely girl in her time, but after their wedding, she was seen more than once with bruises on her face and arms.”
    Lily made a disgusted sound.
    “How awful!” Naomi said. Lily hadn’t noticed her friend had joined her on the sofa, but she seemed as engrossed in Aunt Janine’s tale as Lily.
    “It was,” Aunt Janine agreed. “His wife tried to leave him once. Kneath caught up with her, carried her home again and beat her worse than ever.” She paused to take a sip of her tea. “She lost that babe.”
    Naomi’s cup clattered to her saucer. Mrs. Bachman let out a cry and pressed a hand to her cheek.
    “She was
with child
?” Bile rose in Lily’s throat.
    “Oh, yes,” Aunt Janine said with a sad nod. “And almost died herself. She had a son soon after, and another — the current Thorburn — about four years later. After the children were born, she embarked on a career of cuckolding her husband at every opportunity, although from what I hear, she has been settled with her Greek lover these several years now.”
    “In Greece?” Naomi asked.
    Aunt Janine nodded. “Lady Kneath has not set foot in England in ten years or more. It’s truly one of the most spectacularly failed marriages I’ve ever beheld.”
    Lily shuddered. She couldn’t imagine the abject terror Lord Thorburn’s mother must have felt on a daily basis, knowing that at any moment, her husband might turn on her. And what of the children?
    “You said there were two boys,” Lily said, “an older one. What happened to him?”
    “Duel,” Aunt Janine replied. “Killed by his lover’s husband.”
    Naomi wrinkled her nose. “Not much respect for the institution of marriage in that family.”
    “Not much respect for it anywhere,” Aunt Janine rejoined.
    A gloomy silence fell over the group. Lily thought about the Duke and Duchess of Monthwaite, who had been divorced but were now married to one another again. The duke was Naomi’s brother, and Lady Janine’s nephew. She wondered if that was where the others’ minds had gone, as well.
    “Mr. Bachman and I have been happily married twenty-eight years this June,” Mrs. Bachman declared. “Not every couple strays from the vows.” She looked at Aunt Janine. “I’ll remind