Free Marchington Scandal by Jane Ashford Page A

notion.”
    Stonenden, watching them go out together, might have agreed. He really had been much struck by Katharine’s paintings. They were good, and he respected her talent. And seeing Katharine more or less under the protection of Tillston had given him the oddest feeling. He had had a strong urge to outdo Tony’s half-joking show of her work with some truly stunning service. Yet when he had moved to rescue her from Winstead’s attack, he had seen more disapproval than gratitude in her face. Stonenden knew Winstead for an unprincipled social climber, ready to go to any length to establish himself, and utterly unconcerned about who might be injured in the process. He fabricated gossip to make himself interesting, and Stonenden knew of at least one case where he had not hesitated to ruin a respectable man’s reputation, quite unjustly, in this cause. Yet Katharine seemed to feel sympathy for the man.
    Stonenden shrugged and turned back to the group around Lawrence. But even as he joined the conversation, the picture of Katharine’s laughing rapport with Tony Tillston came back to him, and he frowned so darkly that a young woman about to address him thought better of it and backed hastily away.

Six
    Katharine and Mary were to accompany Elinor to an evening party that night, and they called for her at nine. “Tom has been out all day,” were her first words. And she settled herself across from them with such a woebegone expression that Katharine immediately felt guilty. She had not thought of Elinor’s problem all day.
    â€œWell, that may mean nothing at all,” she replied, trying to sound cheerfully reassuring. “There are a great many things to fill a gentleman’s time in London. I daresay Tom went to a boxing saloon, or to Tattersall’s.”
    â€œNo, he didn’t,” replied the other dejectedly. “I sent one of the footmen out to search for him. He wasn’t in any of those places.”
    â€œElinor! You can’t have done anything so foolish.”
    â€œWhat do you mean? Of course I did. I wanted to know where he was.”
    â€œBut to send a servant! Don’t you realize that will cause talk?”
    â€œOh no it won’t,” retorted Elinor smugly. “I particularly instructed him to keep it a secret.”
    Katharine groaned. “It needed only that. Everyone will be gossiping about ‘the Marchington scandal’ by now.”
    Tears started in Elinor’s eyes. “B-but I…”
    â€œDon’t cry,” continued Katharine hastily. “I didn’t mean to sound harsh. I know you are very upset. But you must understand that London is not unlike a small country neighborhood, Elinor. It seems quite large and private, but the circle of society is in fact very small, and all the servants know one another and gossip together. You would not have sent one of your country servants looking for Tom, would you?”
    â€œOh, no. They all know Sir Lionel’s people. He would hear in an instant.”
    â€œWell, it is not very different here, though it seems so.”
    â€œI won’t do so again,” answered Elinor in a small voice.
    Katharine nodded and tried to smile encouragingly, not telling her younger cousin that the damage was most likely done. Once the ton got a whiff of scandal, it had its own ways of finding out more.
    Mary Daltry reached across and patted Elinor’s hand. “There, now. Everything is going to turn out for the best. And I daresay your footman is quite trustworthy, and no one has heard a word about it.”
    But when they walked into their hostess’s drawing room a short time later, it was immediately clear to Katharine that Mary’s forecast had been overoptimistic. The room was already crowded, and there was a noticeable rise in the conversational hum at their entrance, several guests turning to look at Elinor. The avid gleam in their eyes told Katharine the whole,