Page 45 of The Courtship Trap
“I should feign illness,” she mused aloud.
Belinda snorted. “And have Lord Sebastian fetch a physician? I daresay he would see through that ruse.”
Harriet caught Belinda’s smirk in the mirror. “You are enjoying this too much.”
“A little,” Belinda admitted, securing a pin before stepping back to admire her work. “There. Now you look like a woman perfectly suited for the Duke of Halmesbury’s dinner table.”
Harriet studied herself. The intricate ivory gown of velvet complemented her complexion, and the sapphires at her throat were understated but elegant. A picture of composed grace.
A lie.
Belinda’s expression softened as she rested a hand on Harriet’s shoulder. “It is not just the duke that worries you.”
Harriet hesitated. It was not often that someone saw past her outward bravado, but Belinda was no fool.
“I hear you had an affair with Lord Saunton’s brother,” Belinda prompted.
Harriet let out a short laugh. “Oh yes. We were … acquainted … last year, briefly.”
Belinda’s fingers tightened on her shoulder. “Acquainted?”
“For a matter of weeks,” Harriet admitted. “Until he met Miss Emma Davis of Somerset and married her. It was a fortunate escape, truly.”
Belinda arched a brow. “And Lord Brendan Ridley?”
Harriet’s stomach knotted. She looked down, fingers tracing the embroidery on her gown.
“That was … different.”
“Different how?”
Harriet swallowed, meeting Belinda’s gaze in the mirror. “Because I betrayed him.”
Belinda studied her intently, but Harriet had no desire to explain further. She turned her attention back to her gloves, slipping them on with deliberate precision. The silence deepened, until Evaline finally spoke from across the room.
“I can explain it, if you wish?”
Harriet gave a curt nod, a blush of shame washing across her skin as she fiddled with her evening gloves. Belinda andshe had become fast friends in the few days since joining their household, the older woman being both elegant and pragmatic about the ways of high society.
“Brendan Ridley was accused of patricide. At the time of the murder, he was here at Harriet’s, but she would not provide him an alibi, so a young debutante provided it in her place.”
Belinda gasped. “Miss Lily Abbott! That makes much more sense than those bizarre rumors that an innocent young miss had an affair with him!”
Harriet flinched. Rescuing Belinda from her father’s faithlessness was meant to help make up for that repugnant misstep. Which it had, but having dinner with both Brendan and Lily Ridley was not a hill she was ready to climb quite yet.
“It does not matter now,” Harriet said. “This dinner will be a disaster regardless of past sins. His Grace despises me. I … have given him cause.”
“Perhaps,” Evaline murmured. “Or perhaps this dinner will be a chance to mend what has been broken.”
Harriet forced a smile. “Optimism is exhausting.”
Evaline set down her cup with a soft clink. “Then let us simply endure. You are not alone in this, Harriet.”
No, she was not.
But as she rose and took a final look at her reflection, Harriet could not shake the feeling that she was walking into a den of wolves. Or rather, a den of her past mistakes with important peers to witness the reckoning. Each one of them had an axe to grind, and surely her and Sebastian’s fledgling courtship would not survive such revelations if they should come to pass.
Or did he already know what she had done to members of his circle?
