The Marrying Season by Candace Camp Page B

for a challenge. I’ll use my fists.”
    “It won’t help to beat him to death, either,” Damaris pointed out, fixing her lovely, large eyes on Alec’s face, and she laid her palm on her abdomen, adding, “I don’t want our baby’s father in prison or having to flee to the Continent.”
    “That isn’t the worst of it,” Genevieve added.
    “There’s more?”
    “Yes.” Genevieve stood up, as if she must face them on her feet. “Dursbury and several others came running when Langdon screamed. And when he saw us, he—Dursbury repudiated me.”
    Alec and Damaris stared at Genevieve. Genevieve’s grandmother made an odd noise, like air escaping from a balloon, and sat down on the nearest chair.
    “I know where to find Dursbury.” Alec swung around and started toward the door.
    Damaris wrapped her arms around his arm and hung on. “Alec, stop. Think. You will make the scandal far worse if you go charging about beating everyone to a pulp.”
    “She’s right,” Myles agreed, positioning himself between Alec and the doorway. “It would only be harder for Genevieve.”
    Alec cursed, balling his fists at his sides in frustration.
    “Besides, Myles already hit Dursbury,” Genevieve told them.
    “Good.” Alec nodded at Myles.
    “The important thing now is Genevieve,” Damaris said, and turned toward her. “I am so sorry. I know this must be a terrible blow, but, truly, it is better you foundout what sort of man Lord Dursbury is before you married him.”
    “Oh, Dursbury!” Genevieve said contemptuously, shrugging a shoulder. “I care not about losing him. Any more than he obviously cared about me. But my—” Her voice hitched. “My reputation is ruined now.”
    “Don’t worry about that,” Alec told her.
    “Don’t be a fool, Alec,” his grandmother told him tartly. “We must worry. Genevieve’s future is at stake.”
    “It will blow over,” Alec said. “These things always do. The ton will move on to some other gossip.”
    “It is all very well for you to be careless about scandal,” Lady Rawdon said. “For a young, unmarried girl, this is disastrous. Surely you remember what happened to Caro Godfrey after she and Mowbry were found alone in the Willhavens’ garden last year.”
    “No.” Alec looked at her blankly.
    “Well, I will tell you: he would not marry her, and everyone dropped her. She’ll never make a decent marriage now. And they were not even found en flagrante . That Nettleton girl, the one who came out when your mother did—her fiancé jilted her, and she could never show her face in the ton again.”
    “She’s right,” Genevieve agreed heavily. “Langdon had his arms around me; my dress was torn. You know everyone will believe that we—we were—” She stopped, her voice choked.
    “No one who knows you would believe that,” Damaris assured Genevieve, going over to put an arm around her comfortingly.
    “Of course not,” Myles agreed.
    “You know better than that, Myles,” Genevieve said scornfully. “Alec may not follow the rules, but you understand them.”
    Myles shifted uncomfortably under her gaze and said, “It could have all been smoothed over if Dursbury had not been such an imbecile.”
    “Yes, of course,” the countess agreed. “If only Dursbury had stood by her, it would not be irreparable. There would have been a scandal, but the wedding could have been moved up, and soon the tongues would have stopped wagging.”
    “But he did not,” Genevieve said bitterly. “No one will believe that I was innocent now. Dursbury as good as confirmed to the world that I am a trollop. Not only that, they’ll say that the horrid scandal sheet was right, that he seized the first opportunity to throw me over.”
    “I know how to deal with anyone who spreads such rumors,” Alec said grimly, his fists knotting.
    “You may shut people up, my boy, but you cannot make them accept Genevieve,” Lady Rawdon said flatly. “You cannot keep them from cutting her in