Page 166 of The Earl She Once Saved

Tunstall answered with the courtesy Verity heard from him for years. “The company is in the morning room, my lord.”

Roland appeared in the doorway. He looked first at Verity, standing free beside the table, then at Rafe and Ezra. His gaze rested briefly on Henshaw’s leather case.

“I see we have visitors.” He smiled at her. “You look recovered, my dear.”

“I have had a better afternoon than you arranged for me,” Verity retorted.

Roland entered, taking off his gloves one finger at a time. “Mrs. Hale was told you required rest. I hope no one has distressed you further.”

Win stood behind him near the door. Verity saw her draw herself up, but Henshaw spoke before she could answer.

“Lord Edgeworth, I am here concerning your marriage to Miss Calder.”

Roland glanced at the papers. “My wife has engaged a solicitor to instruct me in marriage?”

“Mr. Henshaw came at my request,” Rafe clarified.

“That hardly improves his position.”

Henshaw laid one hand upon the marriage line. “I have examined evidence of an earlier marriage between yourself and Arabella Vane. It took place in Edinburgh before your ceremony with Miss Calder.”

Roland’s eyes came back to the document. For a moment, the easy expression held.

“Arabella,” he nodded. “Good heavens. She has found someone else willing to listen to her complaints.”

“She spoke to me in York,” Rafe told him.

“I might have guessed you would go looking.” Roland put his gloves on a chair. “Arabella and I had an unhappy acquaintance many years ago. I am sure she has described it differently.”

“She has described your wedding,” Henshaw corrected. “This is her marriage line. She has also sworn a statement that the marriage remained in force when you went through a second ceremony.”

Roland took a step toward the table. Verity watched him read the names. He did not pick up the paper. He had seen it before.

“I shall have my own solicitor examine this,” he scoffed.

“You should,” Henshaw replied. “You may also send to Edinburgh for the entry yourself.”

Roland nodded, then looked up at Verity. His smile had thinned. “You have been busy in my absence.”

“Yes,” Verity agreed.

He turned toward her. “And what have they persuaded you this means?”

“That I was never your wife.”

The words felt less strange aloud. She said them once to Rafe in the safety of her room. Here, with Roland before her, she could feel the ground of her life shifting beneath them both.

His eyes narrowed. “You are eager to cast off the name.”

“You gave me good reason.”

“Miss Calder,” Henshaw declared, “is free to use her own name. I have made the relevant facts known to those you approached concerning her confinement, my lord.”

Roland’s gaze moved sharply to him. “Whom?”

“The Harrowby magistrate has the documents. Mrs. Fenwick and the Marchmonts have been told of the prior marriage and that Miss Calder is under no obligation to remain in your house.”

Verity watched the understanding reach him by degrees. First, he thought he could dispute Arabella’s account before a family solicitor. Now he saw that the people he prepared to believe him about Verity heard another account of his marriage before he could return to them.