The Viscount's Revenge (The Royal Ambition Series Book 4) (26 page)

“Well, what did you find out, Papa?” asked his daughter, Priscilla.

“Just as I thought,” he said.

Mr. Brotherington and Priscilla had heard reports in the town that Miss Colby had returned, looking ill and shabby. Curiosity had overcome him, and he had crept to look in the windows of Fox End, only to see Amanda Colby being ruthlessly kissed by a London swell.

“What happened?” nearly screamed Priscilla.

“She’s gone to the bad, like I always said she would. There’s no sign o’ that aunt or brother o’ hers, and they certainly didn’t arrive in any travelling carriage like she said they would. I sneaked round by the stables and there’s only the horse and donkey. But there’s this great horse tethered outside. So I sees a light in one o’ the downstairs windows and peeps in. And there’s that wretched Amanda Colby being hugged and kissed by a London buck.”

“Ooooh, Papa! Who was he?”

“Well, now you come to ask, it was that Lord Hawksborough, I think. And he don’t mean marriage. Men don’t, you know, when they go stark staring mad with passion like that. There’s one blessing—that’s something that will never happen to you, Priscilla.… Now, the Lord ha’ mercy, what
have
I said to make you burst into tears?”