Page 115 of The Music of Love

“I believe I didn’t listen quite closely enough to what you were saying. I’m afraid I thought something quite different.” His brow wrinkled and she groaned. “I thought you were the one she loved and you regretted marrying me. I am an idiot.” Tears built behind her eyes and that made her even angrier. When had she turned into such a watering pot? She closed her eyes and hot lines made their way down her cheeks.

He took both her hands in his. “Look at me.” She heard the sternness in his voice and her stomach clenched painfully. “Portia, open your eyes and look at me.”

She opened her eyes; he looked angry. “I love you.”

She blinked. “What did you say?”

He gave her a look of helpless amusement. “I love you. I’d hoped you might understand how I felt based on my behavior. I see now that I could not have been more wrong. I love you, Portia. Can you get that idea into your beautiful head?”

Portia did not trust herself to speak so she nodded.

“Good. I will tell you again in five minutes. Just to make certain you heard me.”

“And . . . Kitty?” Portia seemed to have lost her ability to concoct complete sentences.

“I was Kitty’s lover years ago—almost a decade ago. We’ve been nothing but friends for a very long time. I know I should have told you as soon as she arrived but she had a dreadful shock when she saw Robert and she needed help.” He grimaced. “I suppose I should have guessed you would draw the worst possible conclusion from the way Kitty and I were behaving. I love Kitty as a friend and would do anything for her, but that is all.”

Jealousy flared at the thought of him with another woman but this time the emotion flickered and then died; he loved her.

“Please, tell me what happened.”

“Are you sure? It is not a pretty story—nor is it short.”

“I’m sure.”

“On the face of things, this whole mess appears to be a coincidence of almost mythic proportions. However, most of it happened by design—Rowena’s design. Robert met Kitty years ago—before he married Rowena.” He stopped. “But I’m getting ahead of myself. Kitty grew up in a vicarage, the youngest of two daughters. She was eighteen when her father died and she needed to find work. She took a governess position just outside Plymouth. Her young charge had an elder brother who came down from Oxford with friends from time-to-time. One of them was Robert. It doesn’t take much imagination to guess what happened, next. They fell in love. Unfortunately, Robert was already engaged.”

“That’s what Rowena told me,” Portia said.

“Well, Robert knew Rowena was not in love with him and he felt certain he could convince her to release him. He told Kitty what he was going to do and promised to return as soon as he’d spoken to Rowena, the duke, and his father.

“Robert told Rowena the truth and she agreed that she didn’t want to marry a man in love with another woman. Rowena said she would go to her father and claim that she’d changed her mind. She didn’t seem upset, and she even invited him to stay the night and dine with her and her brothers.

“The next morning, on his way to Thurlstone Castle, Robert’s horse was shot from under him while he was crossing a bridge.” He gave her a grim look. “Based on Rowena’s recent behavior, Robert and I have assumed it was no accident. A local squire found his body beside the river, not far from his dead horse. He had a broken leg and was badly concussed; there was nothing that identified him. It was weeks before he returned to Plymouth and by then Kitty was gone.”

“This is like a novel from the Minerva Press,” Portia said.

Stacy nodded and continued. “The family Kitty was working for found out that she was with child. It’s not wild conjecture to think Rowena was behind that, as well. They discharged Kitty without references.”

Portia could hardly imagine the young girl’s terror. At least when Ivo had abandoned her, she’d had her friends to turn to.

“She waited for him until she ran out of money, and then she sold the only thing she had left.”

“Dear God,” Portia said. “And Robert?”

“Her former employer told him Kitty had gone to an aunt up north but they didn’t have the woman’s direction. Robert went to her father’s old vicarage, but the new vicar knew nothing about Kitty’s family and nobody in the village had ever heard of an aunt. He had nowhere else to look.”

“What a horrible story.”

“There is more. Rowena knew exactly where Kitty ended up because she made sure the Fants were there to offer her a place to stay.”

“The Fants!”

“They’ve worked at the duke’s Yorkshire property for generations. So when the time came for Kitty to give birth to Robert’s baby, Rowena paid the midwife who attended the birth to claim the baby died.” He gave Portia a chilling look. “The reason Kitty came to Thurlstone was because she received a letter telling her the child was still alive. The letter said that if she wanted her child she would come to the house party.”

Portia shook her head. “But why? Why would Rowena do such a thing?”

Stacy shrugged. “Revenge? Anger? We’ll never know, now.”