There was a gust of laughter and a smattering of cheers at his words and then rumblings of something uglier.
Sir Rees Newton raised both hands and everyone fell silent.
'I do not know what is at the bottom of all this,' he said, 'but it all sounds like a piece of malicious nonsense to me. You should be ashamed of yourself, Garnett. And if I discover one trace of your five fellow witnesses within my jurisdiction tomorrow, they are all going to be spending tomorrow night in my jail awaiting my pleasure-or my displeasure. As for all you witnesses for the defense, you might want to say an extra prayer for the salvation of your souls in church next Sunday. Lady Hallmere, ma'am, I apologize for the pain this foolishness has caused you. And, my lord.' He bowed stiffly in Joshua's direction. 'I have always believed your account of what happened that night, and I daresay I always will. You were known as a truthful, reliable boy and I saw no reason to doubt you. I would suggest that you give the word for the ball to resume if you feel the night has not been ruined.'
'Not at all,' Joshua said, as Hugh Garnett stalked out and his five accomplices slinked after him. 'Indeed, I believe it is time for supper in the state dining room, though there will not be seats for everyone in there. Perhaps everyone would fill a plate and find a seat somewhere, and Lady Freyja Bedwyn and I will come around and speak with you all. This ball is partly in celebration of our betrothal, after all.'
But just before everyone could rush gratefully into sound and movement, the Reverend Calvin Moore cleared his throat and spoke up unexpectedly, using his pulpit voice, though it shook with indignation.
'This has been a dastardly show of spite,' he said, 'occasioned, I do not doubt, by some trouble over smuggling in the past in which Joshua took the side of law and peace. I will have it known that I came here to deal as best I could with the understandable distress this looming crisis had caused my cousin, the marchioness. I did not come because I coveted the title myself. I did not and I do not. I am a man of the cloth and perfectly happy with my lot in life.'
There was another smattering of applause, but most people by now were eager for their supper and the chance to astonish one another by repeating every word they had just heard as if they hoped to discover someone who had slept through it all.
Freyja raised her eyebrows as Joshua approached her, his eyes alight with laughter.
'You see, sweetheart?' he said. 'Sometimes it is better to keep one's mouth shut and allow one's opponent to ram his foot in his own mouth.'
'As I did in the Pump Room?' she said.
He reached out with both hands and circled her wrists with a thumb and forefinger.
'Now, you cannot expect a gentleman to agree with that,' he said. 'But if the shoe fits . . .'
'This, I suppose,' she said, 'is what Mr. Perrie meant that morning when he told you to leave everything to him.'
He smiled at her.
'You see,' he said, 'my aunt and Hugh Garnett are not even worthy foes. It was all somewhat anticlimactic, was it not?'
'It will feed gossip hereabouts for the next fifty years,' she said. 'It will descend into folklore for generations to come.'
He chuckled.
He had asked none of them to do it, not even Perrie. They had done it for him anyway, in an act of blind faith. Because they had known him and had known Albert, they had not doubted him for one moment. And there was not a one of them who had ever believed that he was the father of Anne Jewell's son, even though he had never denied it and even though it had taken some of them a while to accept her in the village. They had believed in him.
It was hard to believe that he had left such friends behind him and had wanted never to come back.
He spent suppertime circulating among the guests with Freyja, as promised. The only thing that weighed heavily on his heart was the one deception he had perpetrated against everyone. He had even just repeated it- tonight, he had told his friends, was a celebration of his betrothal. But they were not betrothed. Not unless he could persuade her to change her mind about him.
Yet that seemed hardly fair.
Chastity touched his arm just as the people crowded into the dining room were beginning to spill back into the ballroom. She looked ghastly pale. She looked as if she were holding herself upright by sheer willpower.
'Joshua,' she said, 'will you come to the library? I have asked Mama and Constance and Cousin Calvin and Sir Rees Newton to come too. And Miss Jewell. Freyja, will you come too, please?'
But Joshua grasped her hand and squeezed tightly. 'No, Chass!' he said. 'No! Don't do this. It is not necessary.'
'Yes.' She looked dully into his eyes as she withdrew her hand and turned away. 'It is.'
He closed his eyes briefly and admitted to himself with a deep inward sigh that she was probably right. There was no stopping her now anyway.
'Are we about to find out,' Freyja asked quietly, 'what did happen that night?'
'Let us go and see, shall we?' he asked, offering her his arm.
CHAPTER XXII
No one told the truth in the ballroom earlier,' Chastity said. She had invited them all to be seated and all of them complied except Joshua, who stood close to the window, his back to it, and Chastity herself, who clung to the end of the desk as if for support. 'No one.'
'I realized that, Lady Chastity,' Sir Rees Newton said. 'I beg you not to distress yourself. Hugh Garnett can be a nasty piece of work when he sets his mind to mischief, and the men who spoke up with him are a pack of unsavory rascals. Do not think I was unaware of their smuggling antics years ago even though I said nothing at the time. As for those who spoke up for Lord Hallmere, well, they perjured themselves as surely as I am sitting here, but they know him and trust his word and had clearly decided that there are several kinds of truth. I am quite prepared to pretend I did nothing but dance and feast and enjoy the company of my neighbors here this evening.'
