Page 18 of Miss Dramatic
The aggressively cheerful piano music came to a merciful cadence. “You were knocked top over tail? Phillip knocked me top over tail. All it takes is his smile across the breakfast table, and I’m back to doing aerial somersaults in my heart. Most bewildering.”
“You are happily bewildered, though,” Rose said, “and delighted with the notion that Lord Phillip is tumbling about in midair with you. Now imagine you are in the initial throes of those feelings, thinking that for the first time, somebody haschosenyou, is enthralled with you, and would love to spend the rest of his life with you. Then you learn that it has all been a sham.”
“You’re saying Gavin was acting the part of the smitten swain?”
In for a penny…“Acting the part of thelover, my lady. The devoted lover. The first of his kind to grace my experience. Mourning was well behind me. I wasn’t getting any younger, and he was nigh irresistible. I was ripe for the plucking.”
“Oh dear. He played you false?”
Better if he had.“Not in the sense you mean. I never found him in any other lady’s bed. He was never rude or overtly mean.” Rose paused to consider what exactly she was about to reveal. “You will hold this conversation in confidence?”
“Of course. I am not a gossip.”
By reputation, Lady Phillip had been the next thing to an antidote. Bookish, much given to managing her funds, not very well liked.
Deserving of trust, if anybody was.
In for a pound.“I was gently informed by another member of the troupe that actorsact, and they expect to bepaidfor their performances. For all of their performances.”
“Good God. Might you have misconstrued the innuendo?”
The urge to cry was shifting into an urge to throw rocks and shout and gouge a knife into sturdy old wood.
“I was not mistaken. Mr. DeWitt performed wonderfully, and then his behavior toward me abruptly cooled. No explanation and no overt rudeness. He became painfully correct. When I remarked the shift in his demeanor to a senior member of his troupe, the situation was explained to me. I could not bring myself to pay him—did not know what sum would have been expected and would not have been able to look him in the eye, as angry as the whole business made me.”
Lady Phillip took the seat beside Rose. “Well, good. At least you were angry.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Consenting adults may do as they please, but Gavin should have been clear with you regarding the terms of the arrangement. He deceived you and had his pleasure of you—even actors cannot dissemble in some regards—and that is despicable. Heinous. Beneath contempt. He toyed with your trust and your affections, and I can assure you of one thing, Mrs. Roberts: Gavin DeWitt did not need your coin.”
Lady Phillip’s outrage was reassuring, but not as gratifying as it should have been. “He was a penniless actor. I’m sure he had need of every…” Except he hadn’t been apenniless actor. Gavin DeWitt was heir to a thriving business and a pretty rural property… His older sister had been legendarily well dowered.
He’d bought a thoroughbred colt on a whim, simply because he liked the look of the beast.
“He didn’t need the money,” Rose muttered. “Then why not simply part from me fondly, allude to wonderful memories, and be about his nextrole in the hay, as it were? Why the chilly reserve and air of subtle disdain?”
She fell silent, the only sound the soft murmur of water lapping past rocks.
“Gavin DeWitt and I are of recent acquaintance,” Lady Phillip said slowly, “but my husband considers him a friend and entrusted my safety to him. To have treated you so ill seems out of character.”
“I could not fathom it at the time. How could I have been played for such a fool?How could he do that to me?”
Rose had never voiced the question aloud, but all the bewilderment and disappointment in the world filled those few words. How could he humiliate her, disdain her, he who’d heard her every confidence, dried her tears, and held her through hours of darkness? He who had been so patient, so kind, soloving?
“You have a chance to confront him,” Lady Phillip said. “At the very least, you deserve an apology. Gavin is nobody’s fool. He must realize that if you choose to alert the right gossips, you could ruin Diana’s chances in London next year.”
“I wouldn’t do that.”
Lady Phillip paced a few yards down the towpath, skirts swishing. “If you want to return to Hampshire, I will make your excuses, but I suspect Gavin DeWitt has haunted your nightmares and will continue to do so if you can’t get him sorted out.”
“We’re to hack out tomorrow afternoon.” Rose wasn’t about to turn up as sniffy and distant as he had on her. They werestarting afresh, by heaven. “I will stay another day or two at least, and I really am interested in your investment advice.”
“And I am keen to give it. I plan for us to begin by discussing charities, which we ladies are usually left in peace to run as we see fit. When we confidently manage those, we are better schooled for taking on the profitable enterprises.”
Rose stood and started off in the direction of Miller’s Lament. “You’ve given this a good deal of thought.”
“Years and years of thought. Women run households, budgeting to the penny. We run charities, and we inherit our husband’s properties and businesses and keep them prospering, as you have with Colforth Hall. The notion that women aren’t competent to handle financial matters is poppycock wrapped in nonsense tied up with a bow of balderdash.”
