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The Lady in Question

Chapter One

June 1820

Dearest Cassie,

I have at last returned to London to take up residence in my husband's house. I am all too aware that Mother has yet to forgive me for my transgressions and continues to forbid you to so much as speak to me, but if it is at all possible could you pay me a call this afternoon? I have missed you terribly, dear sister. I arrived three days ago and there is no one here to talk to save the servants, and they are an odd lot indeed ...

"Given the circumstances, that is, all things considered, and the time that has passed ... " Lady Wilmont, Philadelphia -- Delia to her dearest friends, and, up until a scant six months ago, Miss Effington -- picked at an odd thread on the arm of the far-too-masculine sofa in the parlor of her late husband's town house and forced a casual note to her voice. "Do you think Mother will ever speak to me again?"

"I certainly wouldn't wager on it at the moment. She's already gone on far longer than I would have expected." Cassandra Effington, Delia's younger sister by no more than two minutes, drew her brows together thoughtfully. "You know how Mother is. She has taken all of this as an affront to the stars, a defiance of destiny, that sort of thing."

"Yes, she would, wouldn't she?" Delia heaved a resigned sigh.

"Mother will come around eventually." Cassie leaned closer and patted her twin's hand. "In truth, I think now that you have returned from exile -- "

"It wasn't exile, Cassie, it was the Lake District."

Cassie scoffed. "The Lake District in winter sounds very much like exile to me."

"Not at all. Besides, each of our brothers visited and Father sent letters."

"Even so, for the most part you were ensconced with a relative so distant we have scarcely heard of her."

"Great-Aunt Cecily. She was quite nice -- if rather private -- which was well and good, because what I needed was time and distance," Delia said firmly. "Away from London and gossip and scandal."

"Perhaps we should send Mother to the Lake District. It's taking her rather a long time to get over her -- "

"Anger? Outrage? Embarrassment?"

"Yes, of course, all of that." Cassie waved away her sister's words as if they were of no importance. "I believe Mother could manage anger, outrage, embarrassment, humiliation, disgrace, dishonor -- "

"I don't think I actually used the words humiliation, disgrace or dishonor," Delia murmured.

"Use them or not, they are present nonetheless," Cassie said firmly. "However, my point is that Mother could cope with all that and more. She is, even if merely by marriage, an Effington. And Effingtons are well used to dealing with the petty problems brought on by the occasional minor scandal."

"You think this was minor, then?" Delia sat up a bit straighter.

"Oh, dear Lord, no. Not at the time anyway." Cassie shook her head with far more enthusiasm than was necessary. "No, an Effington running off with a scoundrel of Lord Wilmont's reputation was quite the biggest scandal of the year."

"I suppose so." Delia sank back in her seat, an odd rational portion of her mind chastising her for such posture. Miss Philadelphia Effington never slouched. Apparently, however, Lady Wilmont did.

"This may well be the biggest scandal of the last few years," Cassie added. "In fact, I am hard-pressed to recall a bigger scandal ever. Although I do suppose -- " "That's quite enough, thank you." Delia sighed again and slumped deeper into the sofa. The perfect carriage expected of a properly bred young woman of two-and-twenty scarcely seemed of significance when one was the center of the biggest scandal of the last few years. Or ever.

"Oh, dear, I haven't been any help at all, have I? Very well. Perhaps I have exaggerated somewhat. It probably only seemed so huge because it occurred in December and there was little else for everyone to talk about." Cassie cast her sister a sympathetic look. "I do apologize, dearest, it's simply odd for me to be in this position. And frankly, that's why I think Mother has had such a difficult time with it all."

Delia raised a brow. "Because it isn't you?"

"Exactly." Cassie nodded firmly. "She and everyone else have always thought if one of us were ever to be embroiled in a scandal of this magnitude -- "

"It could have been far worse. I did marry him, after all," Delia pointed out.

"In this particular case, I daresay that does make it worse," Cassie said. "I still do not understand why you did it."

"Nor do I," Delia said under her breath.

She had no idea how to explain what she could only call the madness that had inflicted her in weeks surrounding Christmas and ultimately led to scandal and her current odd position of barely wed widow.

Six months. It scarcely seemed long enough for a life to change so completely. Six months ago she hadn't a care in the world save for the usual questions about whether or not she or her sister would find a suitable match in the coming year.

"Your letters were not at all informative, at least not about anything of significance. We have had no chance to talk since it all happened." Cassie shrugged casually. "You fled so quickly -- "

"I didn't flee. I" -- Delia wrinkled her nose -- "escaped. It was cowardly of me, I know, but I was hard-pressed at the time to accept that I lost my mind, ran off and ruined my life."

"It's not entirely ruined. You did marry him."

"You just said in this case that might well have made it worse."

The Lady in Question. Copyright © by Victoria Alexander. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.