Mistress - Amanda Quick [120]
He was touched by her naive faith in him. He tried to hide it behind a blandly derisive expression. “How very democratic of you. You sound like an American.”
“As far as I am concerned, the title of gentleman belongs to those who earn it, not to those who happen to be born into the right families.”
“That is not a commonly held view.”
Her mouth curved in the shadows. “I rarely hold common views.”
Marcus grinned briefly. “I am well aware of that. It is one of your more endearing qualities.”
“Only a man who also holds uncommon views would appreciate such a quality in a female.”
“No doubt.” Marcus went back to his brooding contemplation of the night. It was a relief to be freed from the burden of Hannah’s secret, he thought. Normally such things did not bother him, but he had not liked having to keep the truth from Iphiginia. She was the first woman with whom he had ever wanted to be completely open.
Having a confidante was a new experience for him. It was a simple pleasure but a profound one.
“Marcus?”
“Yes?”
“What are we going to do now? Mrs. Wycherley is dead. She could not have sent those notes tonight. Who is behind this new trouble?”
Marcus brought his thoughts back to the issue at hand. “I don’t know yet, but I have a theory that whoever killed Mrs. Wycherley may have found her list of blackmail victims.”
“And that person has decided to carry on where she left off?” Iphiginia asked.
“It’s possible.”
Iphiginia frowned in concentration. “It makes no sense. By forcing the four of us into a confrontation tonight, he risked ruining the scheme. Hannah revealed her secrets to her husband. She can no longer be blackmailed.”
“Both you and Sands saw Hannah and me in a thoroughly compromising situation tonight, Iphiginia.”
“Yes, but I knew immediately that you were not guilty of seducing Hannah. And Sands did not believe it for very long, either.”
“No one,” Marcus said very deliberately, “least of all the kind of person who is willing to pick up where a blackmailer left off, could have predicted that outcome.”
Iphiginia stared at him in surprise. “Whatever do you mean? Oh.” She wrinkled her nose. “You think that the villain assumed Lord Sands and I would believe the worst?”
“Yes.”
“Well, he was quite mistaken, was he not?”
“It was an assumption that most people would make,” Marcus said softly.
“Nonsense. Only those who do not comprehend connections based on mutual respect, intellectual affinity, and true love would be so idiotic.”
“This may come as a surprise to you, my dear, but I would venture to guess that ninety-nine percent of the populace in general, and one hundred percent of the ton in particular, fails to consider that such connections between men and women are even remotely possible.”
“Is that so?” Iphiginia’s gaze was startlingly direct. “How would you have reacted if you had walked into that chamber tonight and discovered me attempting to conceal the fact that a man was hiding behind the stage door?”
“I would have been bloody furious.”
“But would you have believed me if I had told you that I was innocent?”
Marcus thought about it. It came as something of a shock to realize that he would no doubt believe even the wildest explanation rather than face the possibility that Iphiginia had betrayed him. “Yes.”
Iphiginia smiled with smug satisfaction. “I knew it. You do trust me, sir, do you not?”
“Yes, but I still would have been bloody furious. Pray, do not take a notion to put the matter to the test.”
“I still do not understand what the villain hoped to achieve by throwing us all together tonight. Any way you look at it, he was putting his future income at risk.”
Marcus was silent for a moment while he examined the conclusion he had reached earlier. “Perhaps we are now dealing with someone who gets a thrill out of malicious mischief. Whoever it is may not need the money he could make by blackmailing Mrs. Wycherley’s victims.”
“But he may