Page 66 of How to Start a Scandal

She offered a stiff nod. ‘He was greatly displeased and fled town so quickly, he left before the final few pieces could be given to him.’ She fingered the delicate emerald earbobs she wore. ‘It didn’t matter. News of how easily I’d been duped made its way through the ton like wildfire. I’m sure I looked like the greatest of fools. Only no one understood why I’d been so readily hoodwinked.’ She turned away and touched the crook of her forefinger to the corner of her eye.

It was that one subtle move, evidence of his mother crying over what he had left her to face alone, that pushed him over the edge. Guilt burned a hole straight through him.

‘If you don’t stop him, what’s to keep him from demanding more money from us in the future?’ Seth asked. ‘What did William possibly do that was so bad?’

‘Please do not make me speak of it,’ she said on a shuddering exhale.

‘I must know.’ Seth approached his mother and put his hands on her shoulders.

He hadn’t noticed how slender she had become. The mourning gown covered almost all of her in voluminous dark skirts. Beneath the black bombazine, her arms were little more than twigs that felt thin enough to snap. Up close, he could see how the worry of the last few years had etched lines on to her regal face.

All this time, he’d assumed the weight beneath his mother’s burden had been all his doing. Now he understood it had been William’s. However, it was Seth who had left his mother vulnerable for a man like Pattinson to rob.

‘I must know.’ Seth spoke more softly as he guided her back to the plush sofa.

A servant came in as she was lowering herself to the blue velvet. Seth sat beside her and poured his mother a cup of tea, adding in the lump of sugar he knew she preferred and stirring until it was thoroughly dissolved.

Lady Dalton accepted the tea with a grateful smile, though tears still shone bright in her eyes.

‘Will you tell me?’ Seth asked. ‘I will do everything in my power to ensure we are protected.’

‘Oh, Seth.’ His mother’s gaze searched the surrounding air as if she could find an answer there. ‘He debauched ladies.’

Seth winced. It was scandalous, of course, but nothing that might cause familial ruin.

‘Unfortunately, there are many rakes in the ton. I’m sure such gossip can be ridden out—’

‘He died from syphilis.’ Lady Dalton’s face hardened. ‘He had been diagnosed by a physician three years prior to his death.’ She sucked in a deep breath. ‘Yet he continued to try to debauch ladies of the ton. I...’ She swallowed. ‘I had him committed and made excuses of him being too ill for company. I couldn’t think of anything else to keep him from hurting others. And he was truly ill. He needed care I couldn’t provide.’

Seth’s mother stared down at the floor, the perpetual rigidity of her back bowing under the burden of such awful secrets. ‘Mr Pattinson found the receipts and called them to my attention. No matter what excuse I gave, he saw through it. I don’t know how he knew, but he did. All of it. He threatened me with that knowledge. We would have been totally ruined if I hadn’t done what he asked.’

Seth stared at her in horror. It was a good thing he was sitting rather than standing when faced with such news. William. The brother he had always assumed to be so perfect had actively sought pleasure at the possible harm of others.

Syphilis.

‘I gave up on him.’ A sob erupted from his mother. ‘He died in there. Alone.’ She put her hands over her face and wept with a force that crushed Seth’s heart.

He opened his arms and his mother, his fragile, broken mother, fell into them and cried until her tears ran dry. He patted her back, painfully aware of how the cage of her ribs jutted against the fine black fabric of her gown.

He understood then that the black attire was not mourning for the son she had lost, but for what it had cost her to do what was right.

Seth would face that now. Not only would he bring Mr Pattinson to justice, but he would ensure the scandal never emerged.

Violet was nearly in tears with resolve by the time Lottie entered the double doors of the drawing room. The woman rushed to Violet in a rustle of grey silk.

‘Darling, what is it?’ Lottie asked.

Violet kept her attention fixed on the interwoven vines on the rug beneath her slippers. Before she had begun her lessons with Lottie, she had thought this would be an easy thing to do: learn a bit about seduction, write about the courtesan and her wanton ways and publish an exposé that would get the Society Journal into every household.

She had not expected Lottie to be so considerate, so forthright and kind. Nor had Violet anticipated she would learn so much about her own heart or finally begin to truly accept herself. Certainly she had not expected Lottie to become a friend.

But there it was. Violet was in agony over what she had almost done and Lottie stood there, oblivious to the ugly truth as she sought only to console.

‘I have not been honest with you.’ Violet’s words trembled as she spoke. ‘I have lied to you about my purpose from the first.’

‘Have you?’ Lottie said in a gentle voice.

‘I am...’ Violet swallowed hard and set some steel to her spine. She had to do this. It was only right. Violet squeezed her eyes shut. ‘I am the author of the Lady Observer.’