Page 44 of Dared By a Lyon
“Speak to His Lordship, miss. Tell him everything,” Alice urged as she refolded what Ashlyn had thrown into the trunk. “I’ve seen the way he looks at you. He cares for you. He’ll make everything right.”
“No. He knows I lied. The others here at the party—they were passing the pages around, reading passages aloud. Alice, I wrote that Ilovehim.” Tears streamed down Ashlyn’s face once again, and emotion clogged her throat. “I’m ruined. We must leave… But it won’t be easy, as they were all gathered around the stairs.”
“Don’t worry, miss. I know how to avoid those harpies,” Alice said as she shut the trunk and locked it. “We’ll leave through the servants’ stairs. It’s quicker and will take us to the door leading out to the stables. I’ll just ring for a footman—”
“No. We’ll carry the trunk ourselves. We just need some rope.” Ashlyn looked around the room and spotted two lengths of strong corded fabric used as curtain tiebacks. “These will do,” she said, untying them and holding them up. The back steps are steeper, so we can slide the trunk. And where we can’t, we’ll improvise using the ropes,” Ashlyn said. “American ingenuity. We can do this.”
Alice nodded as they looped the rope through the metal handles together.
Hefting the trunk, they left the room, with Alice leading the way.
Surprisingly, they were able to make it to the stables unseen. Luckily, the stable master was a kind older man whom Alice had befriended. With the assistance of Mrs. Dove Lyon’s driver, the two men hoisted the trunk onto the back of the carriage and secured it after assisting Ashlyn and Alice aboard.
As their carriage was driving down the long, winding drive toward the main road, they passed another carriage just arriving.
“Was that another person arriving at the house party? Did they mention more were coming?” Alice asked, distractedly.
Ashlyn paid the new arrival barely any heed as she settled back against the upholstered seats and closed her eyes, trying to calm her pounding heart. “No. And I don’t care who is coming. I just want to leave.” This had been the worst day of her life, and all she wanted to do was escape and pretend—if that were even possible—that this whole week had never happened. She’d never forget Gabriel’s eyes when he saw her on the stairwell. If she’d harbored any hope of their possibly having a future together, it had died right there.
Chapter Nineteen
“What. Did. You.Do?” Gabriel demanded, his gaze pinning Lady Paula where she stood, holding what appeared to be a diary with the initialsAMembossed in gold lettering. “What did you do?”
“You should be thanking me,” she said, her eyes gleaming with satisfaction.
Gabriel glared at her.Thanking her? I’d rather throttle her.
“What’s all this commotion about?” Lady Ashbourne said, hurrying into the great hall at the foot of the winding staircase, where the entire party had gathered. She turned to her daughter. “Darling, please explain. Why is Lord Ravensthorpe giving you such an angry look? What has happened here?”
“Oh, please allow me to explain,” Mrs. Dove-Lyon said in a calm, deliberate voice as she carefully made her way down the stairs toward them. “What has transpired here was a complete, sordid, and malicious attempt for Lady Paula to malign the young woman we know as Miss Elizabeth Vickers. And to ruin her reputation in the eyes of everyone here, Lord Ravensthorpe, especially.”
“Just wait a moment here. What do you mean, sordid event? This is my house—” Lady Ashbourne started.
“Precisely so, as you have tactlessly reminded me on at least one other occasion. That has been the crux of this farce. Now, you would be wise to be quiet, my lady,” the Lyon’s Den proprietress said, looking at both Lady Ashbourne and her daughter, along with that bastard Lord Pervis, who was now standing next to his sister looking even more sullen than usual.
Gabriel had wanted to punch him in the face again during their ride, but Pervis had stayed at the back of the group. Now he understood why. Gabriel’s friend, Viscount Benton Smythe, had told him it was Pervis who suggested the morning ride. Plus, he knew there was a promising piece of land next to the estate that his man of business had suggested he investigate acquiring, so Gabriel agreed to the ride. In hindsight, he should have realized it had been yet another ruse to give Pervis’s sister time to do her dirty deed.
Mrs. Dove-Lyon continued, “I should have known that your children would have been up to something disreputable. It was too much to think that, as your friend of many years, I could trust your offer of holding a matchmaking house party at your home in place of the usual payment to match your daughter with a member of the peerage. I should have realized there were underhanded schemes afoot.” She paused to look directly at Lord Pervis. “And do not think that I don’t know about what your intentions were in lacing Miss Ashlyn March’s wine with laudanum. You are a disgrace to the memory of your late father, who was a good and decent man. I know very well that your debts at the Lyon’s Den and other gambling establishments made you desperate to land an heiress.”
Gasps went around the room as this new revelation sank in.
Gabriel’s own assumptions had been proven right. The bastard had attempted to compromise Elizabeth—or rather, Ashlyn. Beating the man to a pulp would give him a temporary, albeit satisfying, moment of vengeance.
And Gabrielwouldexact his revenge. It might not be tomorrow, or the next day, but he would have retribution on behalf of Ashlyn.
“You have proven yourself to be a false friend,” Mrs. Dove-Lyon continued, glaring at Lady Ashbourne. “Most peopleknownot to make an enemy of me, and yet you have done just that.”
She turned to Gabriel. “Lady Ashbourne’s daughter broke into Miss March’s room and stole her diary. Then she ripped out pages and passed them to all the guests—an act meant to disgrace Miss March and ruin any future she might have with you.”
“She paraded about as Miss Vickers. But she’s her poor relation, Miss Ashlyn March,” Lady Paula declared, smugly.
“Wh-what are you talking about? What is going on here?” Lady Ashbourne sputtered, looking dumbfounded; her face had turned ashen since Mrs. Dove-Lyon had confronted her.
“Yes. I would like to know as well,” a new voice said from behind them.
Gabriel spun around to behold the woman who had been haunting his days and nights since the moment he’d met her.
Wait, this woman looked like Ashlyn, but wasn’t…
