The Gilded Web by Mary Balogh

Perhaps I have failed in my duty after all. But you had beatings often enough, Alexandra, and they seem to have done little good. You are clearly of a stubborn and wayward disposition.”
    Alexandra had lowered her eyes to the floor from force of long habit. There was no point whatsoever in arguing with her father. She stood straight before him, her face impassive. “I am sorry, Papa,” she said.
    â€œWe will be fortunate indeed if you have not brought permanent disgrace on your family,” he said. “We will have to rely on the courtesy of the Earl of Amberley and Lord Eden to keep quiet about your scandalous indiscretion.”
    Alexandra raised her eyes to his for a moment, a look of incredulity on her face. But she resumed her former stance when she saw his reddened face and coldly angry eyes.
    â€œYou will spend the remainder of the day in your own room,” he said. “You will occupy your time in reading your Bible. You will speak to no one until tomorrow. I shall have water and bread sent to your room at dinnertime. You will not communicate with the servant who brings it to you. Do you understand?”
    â€œYes, Papa,” she said. Her voice was quite steady.
    â€œBe thankful that your punishment is to last a day and not a week,” Lord Beckworth said. “I would suggest that you spend at least a part of the day in prayer, Alexandra. God may not be as lenient in his judgment as I have been.”
    â€œYes, Papa,” she said.
    She lifted her chin and straightened her shoulders as she walked past him and out of the salon. A slut? A lover? Wayward? Oh, no, this was becoming insufferable. She met James on the first landing. He was clearly waiting for her. She looked meaningfully into his eyes and shook her head slightly as she turned to the staircase leading to the upper floor.
    â€œI understand, Alex,” he said quietly. “Is it to be for just the one day?”
    She nodded briefly without turning back to him or slackening her pace.
    â€œDid you refuse Amberley?” he asked.
    She nodded again.
    â€œGood girl,” he said. “Good girl, Alex. It will not be too long until tomorrow. I have heard that the play is a bore anyway.”
    Alexandra, halfway up the staircase, looked back at him over her shoulder. She did not disobey her father’s command—she had never dared disobey him—but a smile that would have been imperceptible to someone who did not know them passed between brother and sister.

    â€œN O, REALLY, YOU FELLOWS,” Lord Eden said indignantly, “it is no laughing matter, you know. We could all swing for kidnapping or something else if her family should decide to cut up rough. I could still end up peering down the wrong end of a dueling pistol. I didn’t much like the look of that brother. A decidedly nasty fellow when aroused, I wouldn’t be surprised. And all this is not to mention the fact that either Amberley or I will probably end up in parson’s mousetrap over your atrocious bungling.”
    â€œShe should make an active armful anyway,” Mr. Clement Jones said with a grin. “She fought like the very devil. You had better tie her in the sheets before boarding her on your wedding night, Eden. She might do you some irreparable damage.”
    â€œI say, you fellows,” Lord Eden protested as his two unsympathetic friends roared with laughter. The three of them were taking an early-afternoon ride in Hyde Park. Lord Eden had other pressing matters to attend to, but this meeting was of great importance too. “Between us we have done the girl enough harm as it is. There is no need to be vulgar or disrespectful. The point is, I need your word that not a breath about last night’s doings will escape you. Not even when you are drunk. Faber? Jones? Your word of honor?”
    â€œI call it a mortal shame,” Mr. Faber said, having controlled his laughter finally. “It would make a priceless