Page 68 of The Virgin Who Vindicated Lord Darlington
“Hush!” Amy shot a wary glance at the open door. “They say as he always loved her, and after his brother and wife both died, he saw his chance to have her, and he took it.”
“If he always loved Lady Leanora, why would he have married Lady Cassandra? Any man scoundrel enough to pursue his dead brother’s wife is scoundrel enough to do it before that brother has turned cold in his grave.” Lady Leanora was already a widow when Gideon returned to Darlington Castle. If he’d wanted her, he might have chased her. Instead, he’d courted Cassandra.
“Well, it’s nonsense, isn’t it?” Amy made a disgusted noise. “Mind, these are the same people who think there’s a white ghost drifting about in the woods. I don’t believe a word of anyof it, myself.”
Cecilia fell heavily into the chair beside the bed. No, it couldn’t be true. She’d seen for herself the grief on Gideon’s face as he’d stood by his late wife’s grave. That kind of despair couldn’t be feigned. Amy was right. These were the same villagers who claimed the late Lady Darlington had been buried inside thecastle walls.
No. It was impossible, unthinkable, unbearable. Everything inside her recoiled at the thought, or…was it just her heart that recoiled? She imagined Gideon caressing Lady Leanora’s flawless white skin, running his long fingers through her silky, midnight tresses, and gazing into her beautiful blue eyes.
Her stomach churned with nausea, but she choked back the bile crawling into her throat. Lady Clifford had sent her here to discover the truth, but she’d never get to it if she insisted on letting her emotions overrule her logic.
Very well, then. Logic. Logically speaking, itwas difficult to imagine any man who’d seen Lady Leanora’s facehadn’tfallen inlove with her.
Logically speaking,I never should havekissed Gideon—
“If you ask me, that nonsense about Lord Darlington being in love with Lady Leanora is partly to blame for the rumor he’d murdered his wife. They say he did away with Lady Cassandra so he could be with t’other one, but Mrs. Briggs says it’s all nonsense, and I—are you all right, Cecilia? You’re whiter than the sheets.”
“Yes, I’m…quite well.” Cecilia’s legs were quivering like a jelly still, but she rose from the chair and gave Amy a weak smile. “Pure nonsense, I’m sure, just as you said. Come on, then. Let’s finish up these beds, shall we?”
Much to Cecilia’s relief, the topic of Gideon and Lady Leanora didn’t come up again, but she couldn’t put it out of her mind for the rest of the day. By the time she climbed the stairs to her bedchamber that evening, Amy’s words felt as if they’d been carvedinto her skull.
Cecilia wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or ashamed at having avoided Gideon for the entire day, but either way, her luck ran out when she reached the landing on the second floor. He was in the small picture gallery, his body unnaturally still, staring up as if mesmerized at one of the portraits. At first Cecilia thought it must be his brother’s, but when she got closer, she saw it was the portrait of Lady Leanora that held allhis attention.
He didn’t seem to notice Cecilia, not even when she crossed from the stairway to the end of the corridor and paused beside him. She studied his profile, wondering at the strange look on his face as he stared up at the beautiful woman on the canvas. His jaw was so tight it looked as if it would shatter at a touch, but there was despair in his gaze.
Slowly, Cecilia turned her attention to the portrait, stunned once again at Lady Leanora’s exquisite face. She’d never seen such pale, perfect skin or such luminous blue eyes, butthere was something…unbearable about her beauty.
It wasn’t a warm or welcoming face, as Lady Cassandra’s had been, but overwhelming.Cecilia dragged hergaze away from it with a shudder, but if Lady Leanora’s beauty made her shrink back, it seemed to have a different effect on Gideon, who was still staring up at her as if he couldn’t bear to tearhis gaze away.
Was it possible the villagers were right, and Gideon truly did have a tendre for his brother’s widow? He loved his niece, doted on her, in fact. Wasn’t it possible his affection forIsabellaarose from a passionate attachment to her absent mother? Perhaps he was lavishing all his frustrated love for Lady Leanora on her daughter. Perhaps he’d refused to let her takeIsabellawith her when she fled because he’d hopedIsabella’s presence would lure her back to Darlington Castle.
Cecilia didn’t want to believe it, but the look on Gideon’s face, the way his breath seemed to be trapped inside his lungs…she cleared her throat, suddenly desperate to make him look away from that treacherous face. “I’ve never seen a more remarkable face than hers. I can’t help but wonder what it would be like to see her in person. Overwhelming, I imagine.”
Gideon startled, as if only now realizing Cecilia was there. “It’s a good likeness of her.”
Cecilia nodded, but she avoided looking back up at the portrait as she fumbled for something more to say. She wanted to ask if Gideon thought she’d ever return to Darlington Castle—or if he hoped she would—but something made her bite her tongue, something she feared was a desire not to hear his answer.
“It was a good likeness of her, I should say. It was painted a decade ago, when she first came to Darlington Castle after she and Nathanial married. By the time she left again, she looked…quite different.”
“Different in what way?”
Gideon laughed, but it was a hard, ugly sound. “One’s face is a reflection of one’s heart. What’s inside your heart makes itself knownon your face.”
Cecilia swallowed. “What was in Lady Leanora’s heart?”
Gideon turned to Cecilia, a bitter twist to his lips. “Ice.”
Ice. It seemed a strange word to describe the lady he loved, unless he felt she’d betrayed him. Then it was the perfect word, wasn’t it? Just the word a jilted lover would use.
“They were cousins, you know,” he added. “Lady Leanora and my wife.”
“Cousins?” Cecilia turned to him, surprised. “I-I didn’t realize.”
“Yes. After my brother’s death, Lady Leanora summoned Cassandra to Darlington Castle to act as her companion. I met Cassandra then, and we married six months later.Do you think they look alike?” Gideon’s attention had drifted back to Lady Leanora’s portrait again, an unreadable expression on his face.
Cecilia followed his gaze, but she flinched away before meeting Lady Leanora’s frigid blue eyes. Perhaps there was a similarity in their features, but to Cecilia’s eye, no two ladies could look less alike. “No.”
That caught Gideon’s attention. “Why not?”
