Page 150 of A Scandal for the Beastly Earl

"This is our life."

"Our chaotic, criminal, fire-threatened life."

They descended to find the morning room occupied by a woman who looked nothing like Matilda. Where Matilda had been blonde and delicate, this woman was dark-haired and sturdy, with the kind of face that suggested she'd never met a fight she'd backed down from.

"Lord Blackthorn," she said, rising. "I'm Margaret Wilde. Matilda's half-sister."

Chapter 22

"Matilda never mentioned a sister."

"Half-sister. And no, she wouldn't have. Our father made sure of that."

"Your father?"

"He paid my mother to disappear when I was born. He could not have scandals in the family."

"But you knew about Matilda?"

"I kept track. From a distance. Until she died."

"And now?"

"Now I want answers."

"About?"

"Everything. The fire, her death, why she was so miserable."

"How do you know she was miserable?"

"She wrote to me. For the last six months before she died."

Lucien went very still. "She wrote to you?"

"Weekly. Long letters about how trapped she felt, how cold you were, how desperate she was to escape."

"I... I didn't know she felt that way."

"No, you wouldn't have. Too busy with your own isolation to notice hers."

"That's unfair," Arabella interrupted. "They were wrong for each other. Both trapped. It wasn't just his fault."

Margaret studied her with sharp eyes. "You're the new wife. The one who fell in the lake."

"Dived," Lucien corrected automatically.

"Either way, you caught him. Matilda couldn't."

"Matilda didn't want to catch him," Arabella said firmly. "She wanted to be free."

"Free from him."

"Free from everything. The expectations, the propriety, the life planned for her."

"How would you know?"

"Because I almost had that life. If I hadn't fallen..."