Page 20 of The Captain of Betrayal
Emily took the small coin purse that Polly proffered, and hurried from the kitchen, eager to be of help.
No sooner had she gone through the back door of the kitchen than Olive, Duchess of Everleigh, came through it.
"Oh, there you are, Polly," Olive said, as though she had been looking everywhere for her.
"Yes, here I am. In my kitchen, who would have thought it?"
Her nerves were still a trifle raw from her conversation with the Vicar, and when Olive raised her eyebrows in surprise, Polly apologised.
"I am sorry," she said, taking a seat at the wooden table and gesturing for Olive to sit too. "I've just had an awful lot going on, what with..."
"Captain Black bursting back into your life?"
Olive's green eyes danced with mischief as she finished Polly's sentence, and Polly knew that her friend was simply dying to hear everything.
"Who told you?" she asked wearily.
"Ruan, but he's such a bore, he won't tell me anything bar that Captain Black was your childhood friend," Olive replied with a slight pout at her husband's chivalrous behaviour. "Is Captain Black the boy that gave you the ring?"
Polly nodded and her friend clapped her hands with glee.
"Oh, this is simply marvellous--and he's so handsome. Don't you think he's handsome?"
"Yes," Polly admitted, dropping her head into her hands in despair.
"Oh," Olive was startled by her reaction. "Don't get upset Polly, I was just jesting with you. Is he horrible? Is that it? If so, I shall have Ruan run him out of town. Well, out of village at any rate."
Polly laughed, giving her friend a slightly watery smile. It was lovely to have a friend so close that they were willing to have a person run out of town on your behalf. Polly hadn't had a friend so loyal since...
"He's not horrible," she said, plucking at the material of her dress as she spoke. "He broke my heart a long time ago, and I'm having trouble forgiving him--though I shall."
"Do you love him?" Olive asked, so seriously that Polly let out a whoop of laughter in response.
"Love him?" she shook her head in amusement, "I no longer know him. The last time we spoke was fifteen years ago, when he was taken away by Ludlow's steward. Then when I saw him next, he gave me the cut--as they say in town..."
"Ludlow?" Olive seized on the name, her eyes lighting up with interest. "The Earl of Ludlow, is that Black's father? You said that you could not recall his name!"
"Of course I did," Polly laughed at her friend's look of consternation. "For look at you, you're near quivering with excitement at the news. I didn't have you down as a tabby, Olive."
"I'm not, upon my life I'm not--well maybe just a tad," Olive laughed, a mischievous expression on her face. "It's just queer, that's all. One usually hears whispers of illegitimate sons, especially when they are taken in by the family, but I have never heard a mention of James. Does he speak with them, do you know?"
"I don't," Polly admitted, "I know nothing of him."
"It's just strange, and what a pity for the family that James was not the true heir, for his half-brother..."
Olive trailed off mysteriously, casting her eyes away from Polly.
"What?" Polly had sat up straighter in her seat, eager to hear what had become of James' brother. "Don't say you don't know what has happened to him."
"Of course I know what happened," Olive laughed, "I just wanted to demonstrate to you that there's a bit of a tabby in all of us."
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Polly gestured for Olive to reveal her secrets, hungry for information on James' family. Well, his other family.
"The current Lord Livingstone always had a reputation as a cad. He always ran with a wild set; wine, women, horses, the usual pursuits of wealthy young bucks." Olive continued as her friend hung on her every word. "But as the years progressed, his behaviour became more outrageous. He has near bankrupted the Livingstone estate and it is said, that he has developed an addiction to opium after a carriage accident."
"Oh," Polly tried to find it in her heart to feel pity for the man, but she had met so many of theton'syoung bloods, desperate to squander their fortunes, that she found it difficult.
"Such a waste," Olive, whose own father had been a degenerate gambler, rolled her eyes in distaste. "Some men care not for the people who depend on them."
