The Bachelor Bargain (Secrets, Scandals, and Spies) by Michaels, Maddison (short books to read TXT) 📕

I had known you would be in such grave danger.” The woman looked completely distraught.

“Neither of us was to know that was going to happen. But I fear it may have been you who was the target…”

The woman’s jaw dropped. “Me? Good Lord, but you may be right. After all, I was the one expected to go, not you… But who would wish to harm me? I have no enemies that I know of.”

“What about Lord Daverell?” Livie was taking a stab in the dark naming him, but she wanted to see the woman’s reaction. “Does he know you are aware he is the father?”

Absolute silence greeted her question, and Livie could see her assumption was correct. There was guilt and shock in Lady Chilton’s eyes.

“Why didn’t you tell me he was the one responsible for Alice’s ruin?” Livie asked.

Lady Chilton pressed her lips together. “I did not want you to think badly of me, or my husband, for not doing more to force his hand. My husband did try to get him to marry Alice, but the man refused, having already entered into a much more lucrative and socially beneficial agreement to marry the Duke of Bremmley’s daughter, rather than merely a stepsister to an earl with very little dowry.”

“I intend to see him ruined,” Livie said.

“One thing you are forgetting is that Alice was just as responsible for her actions as he was. She allowed him to seduce her.”

“She thought she was in love,” Livie replied. “He told her he loved her and promised to marry her.”

“Alice was foolish to believe him, and now she is dead because of it.” Tears began to slide down the lady’s cheeks. “Do you know we argued on the day of her death?”

“Mary did mention that.”

“There’s not a day that will go by that I won’t remember how my last words to her in this life were said in harsh accusation.” Lady Chilton’s voice sounded far away as the tears continued to flow in silent surrender. “There hasn’t been a day since her death that I haven’t felt guilty or blamed myself. Perhaps if I’d been more understanding and given her money myself to start her new life, she might still be alive.

“Yet, instead, I blamed her. I blamed her for succumbing to a scoundrel and falling pregnant with his child. For bringing scandal and disgrace when the rumors began circulating that she had been compromised. But it’s my fault she’s dead. After our argument, she was so distraught, for I was horribly cruel to her about what I considered her pipe dream of starting a new life, alone and with a child.”

“It’s not your fault.” Livie lifted her free hand and placed it around the woman’s shoulders as Lady Chilton gently sobbed, weeks of grief seeming to release then and there. She’d never seen the lady so distressed, and Livie was at a loss as to how to comfort her.

But a moment later, almost as if Lady Chilton suddenly realized she was creating a scene, she took in a shuddering breath and sat straight, carefully drying her tears with a handkerchief that she pulled from her reticule. “My apologies, Lady Olivia. It was rude of me to lose my composure like that.”

“You have no need to apologize, Lady Chilton. I, too, feel terrible guilt over Alice’s death.” There hadn’t been a day since Alice died that Livie hadn’t thought about what she might have done to change what happened. “All we can do now is see that justice is served and that Lord Daverell pays for what he did to her.”

Lady Chilton glanced up at Livie, her eyes stricken. “We cannot. He will simply deny it and ruin my husband in the process.”

“But the man may well have murdered Alice!” Livie implored, trying to make the woman realize the gravity of the situation. “We cannot let him get away with such a thing, if he did push her from the roof that night.”

“Why do you keep insisting she was murdered?” Lady Chilton yelled. “You have no idea what she was like after we argued. She was irrational and depressed. Just because she sent you a letter talking of this new life in America she was going to create for herself, you think she didn’t have the motivation to kill herself?”

Suddenly, Lady Chilton stood and stalked over to the window. “You weren’t there in the month before that, to hear the whispers about her virtue being compromised. You weren’t there to see the once happy sister I knew lock herself in her room and cry herself to sleep each night.

“And yes, once she discovered she was with child, for some reason it seemed to make her happy for a bit, and she made these ridiculous plans of hers. But after we argued, she saw how fanciful they were, and then despondency overtook her again. I knew I shouldn’t have gone to the opera that night and left her alone. But I never thought she’d take her life…”

“But what if she didn’t?” Livie insisted. “What if Lord Daverell visited her, and rather than give her money as he’d promised, he eliminated her to prevent any future scandal?”

Lady Chilton sighed. “You won’t rest, will you, until you find her killer? Even if it means dredging up the scandal again and further tarnishing Alice’s memory.”

“I cannot imagine the friend I loved would want her killer to get away with her murder or that of her unborn child.”

“No. I don’t suppose she would.” Lady Chilton strode back over to Livie and crouched down in front of her. “But she also wouldn’t want you harmed trying to unmask her killer, which is what I fear will happen if you continue on your quest. Alice loved you and she would never have wanted you to risk your own life trying to avenge her. Please remember that, going forward.”

And then in a flurry of perfume, Lady Chilton stood and swept from the room.

Livie let out a long sigh. She