Page 97 of The Virgin Who Humbled Lord Haslemere
Benedict tugged her back into his arms and trapped her against his chest. “Do you think he won’t do the same to you? Kenilworth is a monster, Georgiana. He’ll hurt you if you keep upyour pursuit!”
“And he’ll hurt someone else if I don’t! I know he’s dangerous, Benedict, but I have Lady Clifford and Daniel to help—”
“No!” Benedict grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. “I forbidit, Georgiana.”
She jerked her chin free. “I beg your pardon, Lord Haslemere, but you don’t have the right to forbid me anything. As long as there’s a chance Clara Beauchamp is still alive—”
“Thereisn’ta chance! Damn it, Georgiana, she vanished six years ago, and not a single person has seen her since.”
“That’s not true! Jane said—”
“Jane got a fleeting glimpse of a fair-haired lady in a darkened carriage, nothing more. Lady Tilbury said she hadn’t seen Clara since she disappeared.” Benedict clutched at his hair, torn between anger and panic. “Even you and Lady Clifford thought Jane made a mistake.”
“Lady Tilbury denied it, yes, and I believed her at first, but I’ve changed my mind. She lied to me about something else, so she wouldn’t hesitate to lie aboutthis, as well.”
“What do you mean? What didshe lie about?”
“She never said a word to me about a liaison between Clara and Kenilworth. Given she was a great intimate of Clara’s mother, I find it difficult to believe Lady Tilbury didn’t know about it. It puts her denial in doubt.”
Benedict’s head was spinning. Could Clara Beauchamp really still be alive, and hiding in London? “What else did Jane say about Lady Tilbury the night she came to the Clifford School?”
Georgiana’s brow furrowed. “Not much. Just that Lady Tilbury never leaves her country estate in Herefordshire, but that she’d come to London this spring withher grandson.”
Hergrandson? This was the first Benedict had ever heard of Lady Tilbury having a grandson. Lord Tilbury, who’d been a friend of his father’s, had been killed in a hunting accident more than thirty years earlier, and Lady Tilbury had never remarried.
But perhaps Georgiana had it wrong, and the child Lady Tilbury had brought to London was her ward, or—
Benedict stilled, his eyes meeting Georgiana’s. “How oldis the child?”
Georgiana frowned. “I don’t know. Jane didn’t say, but young, I think. Jane said the boy was sickly, and Lady Tilbury had come to London to consult with Doctor Cadogan.”
Benedict digested this, his heart racing. “Lady Tilbury’s country estate is in Herefordshire, you said? Didn’t Lord Draven’s new housemaid also say she’s fromHerefordshire?”
“Ithink so, yes.”
It wasn’t that remarkable a coincidence, given how many people from Herefordshire came to London, but taken all together…
“Lady Tilbury never had any children, Georgiana. That boy isn’t her grandson. When Jane told me Freddy isn’t the duke’s heir, I assumed she meant Lord Draven was Freddy’s father, but—”
“But there was never anything between Jane and Lord Draven. She must have meant something else entirely.” Georgiana’s wide eyes met his. “Perhaps she meant—”
“That Freddy isn’t the duke’sfirstbornson.” If Clara and Kenilworth truly had married, and Clara had given birth to a son, then that child, and not Freddy, was the heir to the Kenilworth dukedom.
Georgiana grabbed Benedict’s hand. “Lady Tilbury, who never leaves her estate in Herefordshire, suddenly appears in London with a boy whoisn’ther grandson, then Clara Beauchamp, who hasn’t been seen in six years, is spotted in a carriage outside Lady Tilbury’s townhouse? If Claraisalive, concern for her sickly child might have lured her to London.”
“Lord Draven was attacked that same week, Georgiana. Mrs. Bury said she’d hired a housemaid from Herefordshire, and that she’d—”
“That she’d happened along at just the right time to accompany Lord Draven to Oxfordshire. If Clara really was in London, heard of Lord Draven’s attack, and feared for his life, she might have risked posing as a housemaid so she could come to High Wycombe to be with him. Jane said Clara had very fair hair—so fair it was almost white. Rachel has dark hair, but—”
“It mightbe a disguise.”
“My God, Benedict.” Georgiana covered her mouth with her hand. “I think…I think there’s a chance Lord Draven’s new housemaid might be Clara Beauchamp.”
Chapter Twenty-three
Draven House looked even more silent and deserted than it had the day before. It couldn’t have changed much in a single day, but somehow the sight of it made a shiver creep up Georgiana’s spine in a way it hadn’t yesterday.
“It looks a bit sinister, doesn’t it?” She shifted uneasily in the saddle. “It’s no wonder Lord Draven never comes here.”
