Free Betrayed by Catherine Lloyd Page A

delusions. She thought she was dragging me down with her shame. I tried to
help her as best I could.”
    “You ruined me for her sake?” Clara asked wretchedly. “For Grace
Leeds.”
    His blonde hair sparkled with drops of
rain. Branson shook his black cloak from his shoulders. He turned to her, his
mouth set, his eyes stony. “Her name was Grace Leeds before she became Grace
Reilly. I gave her my name after it happened. She was my wife.
    “The woman in the chapel,” Clara realized
with dawning horror. “She said her name was Mrs. Branson Reilly.” Her legs gave
way and she stumbled slightly. Branson caught her and half-carried her to the
settee. “Every word of it was true. You are married.” Clara bit her lip to keep
from stuttering.
    “Grace is dead, Clara.”
    Liar . Clara knew Grace was alive. Why did he persist with this fiction?
Grace Leeds was there between them. If not on the material plane, she was alive
in spirit in Branson’s heart and mind. Grace Leeds would never die for Branson
Hamilton.
    Her cousin pressed a finger over his lips
and gazed at her warningly. “If you value your reputation, you won’t repeat
what I have told you today. As long as they believe we are married, you are
secure.”
    Her reputation was the furthest thing from
Clara’s mind. It was his loss that pierced her soul and she felt it most
keenly. “You were never going to help my father. It was all a trick from the
first.” She pressed her palms over her eyes. “What a disgusting trick. When I
think what I did with you, at your behest. You are a foul evil man. You are
still grieving your wife and yet you—you led me to believe—knowing what I
suffered with Strachan, you still did this to me! I thought—I believed—oh God,
what am I to do now?”
    The feelings she had bottled up for Branson
Hamilton and the hope she had allowed to bloom were crushed.
    “Your crocodile tears cannot move me. You
were complicit in the death of a girl not much older than you are now. She
never recovered from the attack made upon her person, though she might have if
you had not lied to shield your father from prosecution.”
    Clara lifted her tear-stained face. “I
could not remember. You must believe me.”
    “No,” he
said with a wrenching cry. “It is not necessary that I believe you or that I
feel anything for you! We had a bargain and you have violated the terms of our
agreement. You will go to Arthur and tell him you lied about everything. It
should be easy enough to convince him he has nothing to fear from me. By all
means, dance with Strachan and enjoy his flattery, but if the flirtation goes
further than this evening, I will tell him how much I enjoyed your body during
your brief stay at Windemere. I will do it because it will give me pleasure to
see you suffer.”
    Her heart
thudded and her mouth was dry, frightened of what he might do or say. Terrified
of public humiliation and being cast out by her new friends. Her hand trembled
as she lifted it to her cheek. “All right, Branson. I
will do as you ask. But if I recant and Arthur is satisfied, then you will be
known as my husband and you will lose your chief weapon over me.”
    She rose shakily to her feet. “Think
carefully. You will have created an enemy against whom you have no weapon.”
    “You are not
such a threat, cousin.”
    “I am the
worst sort of threat,” she said, measuring her words. “You have broken my
heart. I will soon break yours.”
    The tension
between them was broken by Strachan charging into the solarium. Branson turned
to the captain with a careless expression. “Yes? What is it now?”
    “Do not play the innocent with me, Hamilton. I’ll
not be fooled so easily as the rest of them. Clara, come with me. Edgar is
waiting.” He took her arm.
    Branson’s eyes darkened and his jaw flinched. “Take
your hands off of her, Strachan. You’ve abused Miss Hamilton’s trust once
before. God knows how you convinced her to trust you a second