“We all are these days. And please, call me Mother. All the other wives do.”
“I’d be honored,” Vanessa said.
“Anyway, I won’t keep you long, but I did wish to ask you one thing before I return upstairs.”
Vanessa sat back warily. “And what would that be?”
“Did my rapscallion son tell you about Helene?”
“He did. He explained that it was a very difficult time for him.”
“It was, indeed.”
Vanessa swallowed. “I gather she was a wonderful person.”
Her mother-in-law snorted. “Not quite as wonderful as my son considered her to be. Personally, I found her flighty and frivolous . . . until her tragic condition imbued her with a certain nobility of manner.”
A sigh escaped Vanessa. “I’m afraid all that remains of her character in Sheridan’s memory is that ‘nobility of manner.’”
“Don’t misunderstand me. Her death was a tragedy. I knew her parents, and they were lovely people. They didn’t deserve to lose a daughter so young. If it had been Gwyn . . .” She shook her head. “I would never have been the same.”
“I can well understand that.”
“The problem is Sheridan is much like his father. Once he takes to a person, he is loyal to a fault. Maurice married me because I was the wife of his friend and I needed a husband, so loyal friend that he was, he wed me. That quality is wonderful in a lord of the manor. I can always be sure that Sheridan’s servants, tenants, and other staff will never go without, not if he can help it. He will fight tooth and nail to make sure that anyone he cares about is provided for.”
“I’ve noticed that about him. He seems very dedicated.”
Her mother-in-law sighed. “But somehow, when it comes to Helene, that quality has become twisted in his head. He feels if he admits he no longer loves her the way he used to, then he’s somehow being disloyal to her.”
“I think you’re right about that.” It made her heart sink even more. “To be honest, he married me out of a sense of duty, which isn’t much different from loyalty. In his mind, he’d ruined my reputation, so he had to fix that. But I wasn’t terribly concerned about that. I just wanted him—want him—to love me. What if he never can?”
Her mother-in-law came around the desk to put her arm about Vanessa’s shoulders. “I think he already does love you. He merely doesn’t want to admit it to himself, stubborn devil. He’s kept the torch lit over her grave for so long that he doesn’t know how to put it out. I fear it will take something very powerful to change that state of affairs. We shall merely have to hope it comes along before you’ve been married thirty years, as I was to his father.”
“Thirty years! I don’t want to wait thirty years to see myself loved by the man I love.”
“I was only joking, my dear.” The dowager duchess walked toward the door, then muttered, “Mostly, anyway.”
Vanessa groaned. She certainly hoped her mother-in-law was joking. And how could the man be so good at noticing her feelings but be so blind to what his own feelings were?
Unless he didn’t feel as deeply as Vanessa did. He’d been forced into marriage, after all.
I think he already does love you.
Oh, she hoped that was true. She would cling to that possibility as long as she could. In the meantime, there was one way of endearing him to her, and that involved solving the issue of whether Bonham’s bookkeeping could be trusted.
With that, she settled down to work.
Chapter Twenty-One
Two hours later, Sheridan and Gwyn left Lady Hornsby’s and headed for his coach. “That was an utter waste of time,” Sheridan grumbled.
“I told you and the rest of them it wasn’t her. She might enjoy seducing young—and old—men more than she should, and she might be a bit saucy in her language, but at heart she’s a decent sort and very kind.”
“Except for the periodic cuckolding of other people’s husbands.”
Gwyn sighed. “True. Except for that.”
He helped his half sister into the coach and climbed in after her. “I still can’t believe the countess has been having an affair with Lisbourne all this time.” He shuddered. “Vanessa has no idea what a close call she had.”
“I doubt Lady Hornsby would have stood for seeing Lisbourne marry a much younger woman, anyway, at least not while she and Lisbourne were having an affair. And there’s no telling—perhaps in time she and Lisbourne will marry. He has an heir already, and it’s not as if she could have children, anyway. Hornsby left her well off, and Lisbourne needs money. It could be a match made in heaven.”
“If you say so.” Privately he was skeptical. “But you think she was telling the truth about the house party?”
“The first one? Undoubtedly. Hornsby wasn’t the best husband, from what Mama has said, so it makes sense she would have gone off to her little love nest with her first lover—of many—as soon as possible. We’ll have to compare notes with Mama, but I think it’s believable.”
“Lady Hornsby’s explanation of what she was doing during the second house party seems a bit more believable to me. I can easily see how she would be reluctant to attend a house party when gossip was circling around society that she was mistress to Thorn’s father. Assuming that she and Mother were still good friends—and we have no reason to believe otherwise—she would have stayed away out of courtesy to Mother.”
“But why was she listed as a guest at the party?”
“Those lists were invitation lists,” Sheridan pointed out. “Did you keep a list of the people who attended your ball a few weeks back? I daresay you only kept a record of whom you invited.”
Gwyn frowned. “True. I hadn’t thought of that. I wonder if Mother
