Page 52 of A Kiss to Stop a Wedding
She walked across and picked up the wallet. Inside were a number of folded papers. She pulled one out and read it, then a second.
‘Where did you get these?’ she asked, sitting down on a chair next to the sideboard.
‘I sent an envoy to France to see what could be discovered. By a mixture of, er, persuasion and bribery he came back with these.’ He laughed. ‘They cost me a great deal of money, but I believe it was worth it.’
Flora’s blood turned to ice. If all this was true and it became known about her mother and Papa’s attempts to save her, she knew she would not be the only one tainted. Her aunt and uncle would be damaged byassociation. The Farnleighs’ comfortable, respectable existence would be destroyed.
And Matt. He had an implacable hatred of French spies. And with good reason, she thought, remembering what he had told her. He would want nothing more to do with her.
‘I do not believe any of this, my lord!’
‘Not even those letters, in your mother’s handwriting?’
‘They might be forgeries.’ She put the papers back in the wallet and placed the ring next to it on the sideboard. Then she rose, her legs not quite steady. ‘I shall go back to Birchwood House and ask my aunt and uncle.’
His smile only drove the ice further into her bones.
‘Yes, do that, Flora. And then you will put on your finest gown and come back to Whilton Hall. We shall dine together and say no more about this painful subject.’
‘No. Even if everything you have said is true, I shall never come back here.’
‘Oh, I think you will, my dear,’ he murmured. ‘You will do as I say. Or your shameful history will be public knowledge by the morning.’
Without a word she turned and walked towards the door.
‘Come alone tonight,’ he told her, as she grasped the handle. ‘My cousin is here; she will play chaperon for you.’
* **
Flora hurried back to Birchwood House, by turns running and walking. Her thoughts were in turmoil. It could not be true; Quentin was playing some cruel joke upon her. But why would he do that, if it could be easily disproved?
She was quite out of breath by the time she reached the house, but on learning that her aunt and uncle were in the drawing room, she ran across the hall to join them.
‘Ah, Flora, there you are my love, what a time you have been!’ declared Aunt Farnleigh, as she went in. ‘You have just missed our visitor. Mr Talacre was here and—’
‘Mr Talacre?’
Her uncle nodded. ‘Why, yes. He called to pay his respects, after the ball last night. He asked after you particularly and stayed talking for a good half-hour. Perhaps it is for the best that you were not here. Dancing the waltz with him might not have been the kindest thing to do, Flora. The poor fellow may well have been beguiled, although we had made it quite plain to him that you were engaged.’
She waved an impatient hand, afraid to think of Matt until she had asked the question that was burning her mind.
‘Was Mama a French spy?’
She watched them both, expecting a puzzled frownor a shocked disclaimer. They looked at one another and her aunt burst into tears.
Flora forced her shaking limbs to move to the nearest sofa and sat down.
‘So it is true.’
Mr Farnleigh went over to his wife and put one arm about her shoulders.
‘What have you heard?’ he demanded.
Flora repeated everything the Viscount had told her. When she had finished, he sighed.
‘Charles—your father—fell in love with Mary in Ireland. He had no idea that her family supported the revolution in France. And Mary herself never said anything about it. He brought her back to England as his bride and we thought them well matched. She was always such a sweet, quiet girl.
‘It was only later that we learned of it. Charles came to me for help, when he discovered she was passing secrets to the French.’
