Chapter 33

CHAPTER33

Julia was having such a good dream.

In her dream, she and Andrew were dancing together in the ballroom of Trowbridge Estate at a party held in honor of their wedding. He looked extremely dashing as he regarded her with that smile tilting the corner of his lips, his eyes darkening with desire…

“Julia! Good grief, how can you sleep when such a calamity has fallen over our heads!?”

She let out a groan of complaint when the curtains were wrenched open, forcefully flooding the entire room with harsh sunlight.

“Mama! Is it not much too early to be awake at this hour?” Julia protested.

“Oh, so you have the gall to be complaining when all of Colman Park has been turned upside down by your scandalous behavior!” Lady Powell screeched.

Julia frowned.

Scandalous behavior? I do not recall such a thing happening.

She had spent most of the night with Andrew, and while he kept whispering innuendos in her ear, they acted within the bounds of propriety for a courting couple the whole time.

And then, she paled when she recalled just what they had been doing after the ball.

Had somebody seen him go into my room last night?

Unfortunately, her mother took her reaction as some confirmation that she had indeed done something worthy of ruination.

“You have been caught with a man,” Lady Powell hissed. “I dared not see how Lord Trowbridge has reacted to the news yet, but you can rest assured that—”

Julia frowned. Lord Trowbridge?

If Andrew had been caught going into her bedchamber, then why would he need to feel so incensed?

“Mama, stop!” Julia told her mother firmly. “How could I have been caught with a man?”

“Oh, you tell me!” Lady Powell huffed. Her face was incredibly red, and Julia feared that her mother—her strong, stalwart mother—was about to cry. “Word has spread about you being seen alone with a gentleman in one of the rooms adjacent to the ballroom.”

“What?”

Julia’s heart sank as she recalled the argument she had heard between Lady Amanda and Lord Morton. How she had barged in with the intention to assist the lady before irreparable damage had been done to her reputation.

How Lady Amanda had disappeared from the scene as soon as Lord Morton turned his attention towards Julia.

I have been set up.

“You will be sent back home,” Lady Powell finally decided. “And you will stay in your rooms and do exactly as your father and I tell you until we find a way to salvage what we can of your reputation.”

“Mama.” Julia looked up at the sound of her younger sister’s soft voice. “I shall go back to London with Julia.”

“Well, if you are going to accompany her, then I have no other choice but to go with you,” Lady Powell said in a firm voice. “At this point, there is very little we can do here at Colman Park. We shall discuss our options going forward once we have apprised your father of this misfortune.” She glared at Julia. “Have Harriet pack your things and help you wash up. We leave as soon as you are ready.”

Julia could only nod dumbly as her mother strode out of her bedchamber. As soon as they were alone, she turned towards Mary desperately. “Mary, you know that what they are accusing me of is false!” she cried. “You know how Lady Amanda has hated me for the courtship with Andrew—”

“Shh! I know, I know,” Mary told her in a soothing voice. “But at this point, we cannot face such accusations head-on.”

“I could never do that.” Julia wept into her hands. “Not to Andrew. Not to you.”

Because her ruination would compromise her sister’s good name as well. Because a scandal never just affected a single person but entire families.

Julia had lived long enough in London to know how quickly and how brutally Society could turn against its own. How harshly they meted out judgment and punishment to those who committed the slightest infractions of the very rules that maintained order amongst their ranks.

“Shh… Dearest, it will be all right,” Mary reassured. “We shall return to our home in London, as Mama said, and then we can weigh our options once we are there. Together, we can think how we can better counter Lady Amanda’s vile claims.”

“What about Andrew?” Julia asked frantically. “What did he do? What did he say?”

Mary said nothing, but the look on her face told Julia everything she needed to know.

What could I have expected? He did tell me last night that he would not be cuckolded, even in courtship.

A scandal of this magnitude would cause him great embarrassment. He had every right to be furious.

But why had he not asked her about it? Would he truly believe them without even bothering to hear her side?

“We do not need to worry about Lord Trowbridge at the moment,” Mary told her gently but firmly. “You need to think about yourself first, and you will not find the space you need in Colman Park.”

Julia nodded wordlessly. She would follow her mama and Mary. She would head back home to London and shut herself in while their family grappled with the repercussions of this scandal.

And then, she was going to deal with Lady Amanda and her insidious betrayal.

* * *

Where the hell is she?

Andrew frowned when his gaze scanned the breakfast hall and did not see a head of vibrant red hair amongst the other guests. A strange hush seemed to fall all over the place as he stalked over to where Selina and William were enjoying their meal with somber expressions.

“What the hell is wrong with everybody?” he asked his best friend. “And where are Lady Powell and her daughters?”

He saw his sister’s knuckles go white as she clenched the fork in her hand. For a moment, he feared she was going to stab someone with it.

“Tell him,” she told her husband softly, her eyes hard.

William nodded and reached out to gently squeeze her hand before turning to Andrew.

“There is…a rumor,” he said with a hard voice. “One that involves Lady Julia.”

Andrew felt his whole body go cold at once. “What sort of rumor?”

“A young lady claimed to have seen Lady Julia in a compromising position with an unknown gentleman last night.”

He did not need to clarify what he meant by “compromising position”. The fact that Julia had apparently been seen in the company of a man unchaperoned was enough to cast aspersions on her character and ruin her.

“And who,” Andrew bit out, “is this sharp-eyed young lady who claims to have seen such a thing?”

“Lady Amanda Thornton.”

Lady Amanda Thornton?He clenched his hands into fists. He had never wanted to hit a woman as much as he did now. It was only through sheer force of will and the fact that she was not amongst the other guests in the dining hall that prevented him from doing so.

“And where is she now?” he asked silkily. “In hiding?”

“Lord Trowbridge, it is not that Lady Amanda Thornton is hiding,” Miss Wentworth piped up, eager to defend her friend. “She is rather distraught after witnessing that particular scene with Lady Julia and has taken—”

“Then convey my sincerest wishes for her recovery,” Andrew snapped at the poor young lady who dared to stand up for Lady Amanda Thornton. “Mayhap, when she does recover, her eyesight and tongue will be much improved, and she will stop spreading such falsehoods!”

Miss Wentworth went pale at his blistering words, but Andrew was much too furious to be concerned about offending a young miss’s sensibilities.

Angrily, he stalked out of the breakfast hall.

If Julia had already left Colman Park, then he would abscond from the entire party, too. He saw no point in lingering any longer in a place that maligned her.

As for Lady Amanda Thornton, he was going to have to have a talk with Lord Thornton about disciplining his own children so that they did not become rabid rumormongers!