Page 14 of Lady Waldrey’s Gardening Almanac for Cultivating Scandal

“You are the only one making this complicated.”

“It is complicated.”

He looked at her for long moments, then swung his eyes away. “Perhaps it feels that way to you. Let me lay out the choices as I see them.”

“By all means.”

Her sudden flash of temper had not been assuaged by his calm demeanor and his even words.

“I’ve no doubt your brother and his well-established friends could force Shelbourne into marrying you, if that is your desire. You would have your fancy wedding. You’d escape the momentary mortification of a failed engagement.”

He met her eyes for a pointed moment, then continued, “But then you would be his marchioness. You would live out your days pitied and ridiculed as your husband became less and less inclined to hide his various dalliances, as he gambled and frittered away whatever dowry you came with. And you would most likely live alone at one of his country estates, without the comfort of company, most likely without children, too.”

Candace grit her teeth. “That is my betrothed you speak of.”

A stupid argument, considering what Shelbourne had done to her this very evening, but she felt the need to bare her teeth at Canterbury’s blunt appraisal of her situation.

“You do not need to remind me!” A shock of dark hair fell into his eyes and he swiped it back again. “But perhaps you should remind him! I am here with you, and he’s out there making a spectacle of himself, a spectacle of your engagement! It’s only the tip of the dagger that he dances with whomever he pleases at balls. He stays out with heaven-knows-whom at the clubs and frequents the brothel so often he might as well run one.”

“Stop,” she whispered. Her shaking hand came to cover her mouth. “I don’t wish to hear it.”

The ticking clock punctuated the silence between them for many moments. Her stomach roiled—how on earth had she arrived here, at this moment?

“I’m sorry,” he said. “It...it was not my intention to cause you additional grief. He doesn’t deserve you, Candace. He doesn’t deserve the time you’ve spent thinking of him, waiting for him.”

“If what you say is true, then I have no choice. Perhaps the scene in the ballroom tonight could be explained away, but combined with the other things... I must go to him first thing tomorrow morning and break our engagement.”

James shook his head. “I wish you were doing this for the right reason, but I fear you are still trying to protect your reputation.”

“Of course I’m trying to protect my reputation! It’s all I have left. The tattered remains of it, anyway. Every lady I’ve ever whispered about will laugh at my turned back. Every gentlemen who felt slighted will call me damaged goods.”

“Perhaps there’s a lesson in that, then. Be kinder to people.”

“I’m kind enough. You don’t understand the pressure that comes with being the most sought-after lady of a Season.”

“Do you hear yourself? Stop trying to be that lady, Candace. Let someone else have the spot on top of the social mountain. Stop playing their game and you’ll win.”

“What could I win? What remains for me except recrimination wherever I go? They’ll laugh at me, James. And they’ll have every right to.”

“What remains? True friendship. If you’re extraordinarily lucky, true love. You have a wonderful opportunity wrapped in a terrible trial here. You’ll be able to deduce who truly is your friend and who’s just some social climber who views you as a convenient rung in the peerage.”

Her chin wobbled. “What if that’s all of them?”

“It won’t be. You’ll still have Vera, your brother, your sisters, the Devonshires. You’ll still have me.”

Her vision blurred with tears. “I’m scared.”

“I know. I don’t make promises lightly, Candace. But I promise you this—you’ll be happier free of Shelbourne than you would be married to him. I’ve no doubt that your very best days are ahead of you.”

She nodded and dabbed her damp eyes with a lace handkerchief. “I just hope Devonshire isn’t too angry with me.”

James frowned. “Devonshire? Why would he care?”

“He’s the one who arranged the engagement in the first place.”

“Pardon?”

She flicked the subject away with a shaking hand. “My current mortifications are quite enough to deal with at the moment without unearthing past ones.”