Page 12 of The Heiress's Daughter
“You look a little blue-deviled.”
She started and gave him a guilty look. “Oh, sorry.”
He didn’t want to ask about her mother so he changed the subject slightly. “Missing your sister?”
“Yes—well, no,” she responded, a little flustered. “She’s only been gone a few days.”
“Have you two ever been separated?”
She looked at him in surprise. “No, not since we first met.”
He raised a quizzical brow. “Met?”
She bit her lip. “I probably shouldn’t have said that.” She gave him a cautious glance. “But you know about my sister, don’t you?”
“I do. And I won’t tell a soul.” He was one of the few people in London who knew for a fact that Izzy was really her half sister, her father’s natural daughter and not the full, legitimate sister they claimed her to be.
She regarded him steadily for a long moment, then nodded. “Very well then. We were almost nine. Her maternal uncle brought her to Studley Park Manor—that was my home then—immediately after her mother’s funeral. He didn’t want anything to do with her, thought she was Papa’s responsibility. Papa didn’t so much as look at her, didn’t even meet her that time. He gave instructions that she be dumped in the nearest orphan asylum.” Her voice shook as she said, “Those were his very words: ‘Dump the brat.’ ”
She paused, remembering, he supposed.
“He changed his mind?” Race prompted after a minute.
Her eyes lightened, and she dimpled enchantingly. “Not exactly.”
He leaned closer. “Oh, now I’m intrigued.”
“We hid her until Papa went back to London.”
“Hid her?” He gave her a shrewd look. “Wehid her, oryouhid her?”
She gave a half-embarrassed little shrug. “Well, I knew the best places to hide.”
“And when you stopped hiding, nobody objected?”
“Oh, they did. But I insisted on keeping her.”
She was clearly uncomfortable explaining, but it was clear to Race that she had played the pivotal role in the adoption of her half sister.
“And when your father returned, he allowed her to stay?”
“Oh no. We had to hide Izzy every time he came home. Luckily he didn’t come home very often, so it wasn’t difficult. And eventually he gave up.”
There was a whole other story there, Race could see.From all accounts Sir Bartleby Studley had been a nasty customer, a braggart and a bully—except when he was turning on the charm to seduce some young innocent. And yet this quiet, unobtrusive young woman had not only stood up to him, but had somehow won the right to keep her illegitimate half sister with her—at what?—the age of nine?
Maggie was so wrong to write her off as dull; she was…fascinating. Quiet, yes, but with a delightful sense of humor and, he was learning, many more hidden facets to her. Another young lady might have boasted of getting the best of her father, but Miss Clarissa had to be coaxed even to admit her part in it. Which she minimized.
It must have taken a deal of courage to defy him like that, but she didn’t even seem to realize it.
He thought back to that night at the Arden ball, where that drunken crony of her late father’s—Lord Pomphret—had loudly and publicly accused her sister Isobel of being Bart Studley’s bastard…
If he lived to be a hundred, Race would never forget the way shy, supposedly dull Miss Clarissa Studley, far from shrinking from an ugly and embarrassing public scene, had marched across the deserted dance floor—in full view of a crowd frozen with shock and avid for scandal—and publicly claimed her sister. And refused to leave her side for the rest of the night.
As a demonstration of loyalty, it had rocked Race to the core.
Incredibly, they’d managed to quash the scandal—though exactly how, he still wasn’t clear—it hadn’t hurt that Pomphret had clearly been drunk at the time, and it helped that he shot himself not long afterward—but there was no doubt in Race’s mind that Clarissa’s championing of her sister had played a major part.
Had she hesitated, had she shown any doubt or fear or guilt—the accusation was true, after all—the ton would have pounced. And ripped both girls’ reputations to shreds.Society was excellent at ferreting out morsels of gossip and blowing them up into a major scandal.
