LITMIR.BIZ

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business.

      This whole Season had been strange. First her mother and brother Ned insisted she come to town when she’d much have preferred to remain in the country. Then the surprise of her mother’s ball—

      And seeing Xavier again.

      The purpose of that ball had been a further surprise. It was held for a person Phillipa had never known existed.

      Perhaps that person would explain it all to her. His appearance, the ball, her brothers’ and father’s disappearance—all must be connected somehow.

      She’d ask John Rhysdale.

      No. She would demand Rhysdale tell her what was going on in her family and how he—her half-brother, her father’s illegitimate son—fit into it.

      Rhysdale’s relationship to her had also been kept secret from her. Her brothers had known of him, apparently, but no one told her about him or why her mother gave the ball for him or why her parents introduced him to society as her father’s son.

      A member of the Westleigh family.

      Her mother had given her the task of writing the invitations to the ball, so she knew precisely where Rhysdale resided. Phillipa rushed out of the drawing room, collected her hat and gloves, and was out the door in seconds, walking with a determined step towards St James’s Street.

      She’d met Rhysdale the night of the ball. He was very near to Ned’s age, she’d guess. In his thirties. He looked like her brothers, too, dark-haired and dark-eyed. Like her, as well, she supposed, minus the jagged scar on her face.

      To Rhysdale’s credit, he’d only given her scar a fleeting glance and afterward looked her in the eye. He’d been gentlemanly and kind. There had been nothing to object in him, except for the circumstances of his birth.

      And his choice of friends.

      Why did Xavier Campion have to be his friend? Xavier, the one man Phillipa wished to avoid above all others.

      Phillipa forced thoughts of Xavier Campion out of her mind and concentrated on being angry at her mother instead. How dared her mother refuse to confide in her?

      Phillipa had a surfeit of her mother’s over-protection. She could endure a ball with no dance partners. She could handle whatever mysterious matters led to her family’s aberrant behaviour. Just because an ugly scar marred her face did not mean she was a child.

      She was not weak. She refused to be weak.

      Phillipa took notice of passers-by staring at her and pulled down a piece of netting on her hat. Her mother insisted she tack netting on to all her hats so she could obscure half her face and not receive stares.

      She turned off St James’s Street on to the street where Rhysdale lived. When she found the house, she only hesitated a moment before sounding the knocker.

      Several moments passed. She reached for the knocker again, but the door opened. A large man with expressionless eyes perused her quickly. His brows rose.

      ‘Lady Phillipa to see Mr Rhysdale,’ she said.

      The man stepped aside and she entered the hall. He lifted a finger, which she took to mean she should wait, and he disappeared up the staircase.

      The doors to rooms off the hall were closed, and the hall itself was so nearly devoid of all decoration that it appeared impersonal. Perhaps a single gentleman preferred no decoration. How would she know?

      ‘Phillipa.’ A man’s voice came from the top of the stairs.

      She looked up.

      But it was not Rhysdale who descended the stairs.

      It was Xavier.

      He quickly approached her. ‘What are you doing here, Phillipa? Is something amiss?’

      She forced herself not to step back. ‘I—I came to speak with Rhysdale.’

      ‘He is not here.’ He glanced around. ‘You are alone?’

      Of course she was alone. Who would accompany her? Not her mother. Certainly her mother would never make a social call to her husband’s illegitimate son. ‘I will wait for him, then. It is a matter of some importance.’

      He gestured to the stairs. ‘Come. Let us sit in the drawing room.’

      They walked up one flight of stairs and Phillipa glanced into a room she presumed would be the drawing room. She glimpsed several tables and chairs.

      ‘What is this?’ she exclaimed.

      Xavier looked dismayed. ‘I will explain.’ He gestured for her to continue up another flight of stairs.

      He led her into a comfortably furnished parlour and extended his arm towards a sofa upholstered in deep-red fabric. ‘Do be seated. I will arrange for tea.’

      Before she could protest, he left the room again. Her heart beat at such rapid rate that her hands trembled as she pulled off her gloves.

      This was ridiculous. She refused to be made uncomfortable by him. He meant nothing to her. He’d merely been a boy who’d once been her playmate. Defiantly she swept the netting over the brim of her hat. Let him see her face.

      He stepped back in the room. ‘We’ll have tea in a moment.’ Choosing a chair near her, he leaned close. ‘I do not know when—or if—Rhys will come back.’

      ‘Do not tell me he has disappeared as well!’ What was going on?

      He touched her hand in a reassuring gesture. ‘He has not disappeared. I assure you.’

      She pulled her hand away. ‘Where is he?’ she demanded.

      He leaned back. ‘He spends most days with Lady Gale.’

      ‘Lady Gale?’ What did Lady Gale have to do with anything?

      Lady Gale was the stepmother of Adele Gale, the silly young woman to whom her brother Ned was betrothed. Both Adele and Lady Gale had been guests at her mother’s ball, so Rhysdale might have met them there, but was there more to that connection?

      Xavier frowned. ‘You do not know about Rhysdale and Lady Gale?’

      Phillipa waved a frustrated hand. ‘I do not know anything! That is why I am here. My brothers and my father have disappeared and my mother will not tell me where they have gone or why. I came to ask Rhysdale where they were, but it seems I’ve been excluded from even more family matters.’

      There was a knock on the door and a manservant entered, carrying the tea tray. As he placed the tray on a side table, he gave Phillipa a curious look.

      Because of her scar, no doubt.

      Xavier nodded to him. ‘Thank you, MacEvoy.’

      The servant bowed and walked out, but not before tossing her another glance.

      Xavier reached for the teapot. ‘How do you take your tea, Phillipa? Still with lots of sugar?’

      He remembered that? She’d had a sweet tooth as a little girl. That had been a long time ago, however.

      She stood. ‘I do not wish to drink tea. I came here for answers. I am quite overset, Xavier. I do not know why everything is kept secret from me. Do I look as if I cannot handle adversity?’ She jabbed at her scar. ‘I am well practised in adversity. My mother—my whole family, it seems—apparently thinks not.’ She faced him. ‘Something important has happened in my family—something more than Rhysdale’s appearance—and I am to be told nothing? I cannot bear it!’ She pressed her hands against her temples for a moment, collecting herself. She pointed towards the door. ‘What is this place, Xavier? Why does my half-brother have a room full of tables where the drawing room should be and a drawing room on a floor for bedchambers?’

      * * *

      Xavier stared back at Phillipa, considering how much to tell her.

      He preferred this

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