Discovering the Devil

S e v e n t e e n

"Oh, wow," Zachary offered kindly, after a heartbeat of silence. Even he did not sound impressed.

"We don't even know who Lord Vatterly is, dear," Percy pointed out.

Emma shook his head. "The only reason you men don't know who that is is because you don't pay attention." She gave an especially sour glance to her husband. "And you've met the Vatterleys at least three times."

"Are you sure, dear?"

"Those are the amount of times we've had them over," Emma said.

"Is his first name Christian?" Percy asked.

"Charles."

"I don't remember meeting a Charles Vatterly," Percy said. It was quite possible they met. Percy had the memory of an elephant.

"Anyway, Emma continued (she wasn't going to let their puny male minds ruin her moment), he's divorcing her on grounds of adultery. Apparently, she was carrying on with one of the stableboys."

Well, that was a bit interesting. Harry never heard of adulterous wives as much as he heard of philandering husbands. "Poor Charles," he crowed as if he had the foggiest clue who the fellow was.

Emma rolled her eyes. "You were the one who wanted a subject change. I don't know why I bothered."

Just then, Charlotte and Miss Redwood entered the room. Harry was embarrassed at how happy he was to see her. Her eyes were still a little red, but all in all, she looked a lot better than she had when she first came down. "Why shouldn't you have bothered?" Charlotte asked.

"I was just telling them about Lord Vatterly's divorce. They're being very insensitive," Emma replied.

Miss Redwood's eyes narrowed. "Lord Vatterly is getting a divorce?"

"Do you know him?" Charlotte asked. "He spends almost all his time in the Capitol."

"Is his first name Charles?" his housekeeper asked. Charlotte nodded. "I believe I might have made his acquaintance before, yes."

"In what capacity?" Harry didn't even know he'd asked the question until Miss Redwood's perfect eyes were on him.

"He called on my mother once," she answered.

"What business does a young man have with a countess who lives in the middle of nowhere?" Harry meant for his question to come off cool and indifferent. So why was his voice strained and desperately curious?

"He was one of many men invited to Fleurs to court me when I came out," Miss Redwood replied coolly. She directed her gaze away from Harry and back to Charlotte. "He's a very sweet man."

Charlotte had a look in her eye Harry really didn't like. "He's an absolute sweetheart," Charlotte agreed. She drummed her fingers against the table. "I've always thought of the two of us as friends. I know he needs true people in his corner now more than ever."

"I don't think you've met him more than thrice, Charlotte," Zachary said.

Charlotte ignored him. "Why don't we invite him here, tomorrow? It'll be fun."

"I'm sorry, what would we be inviting him here to do?" Percy asked.

Emma shook her head at him. "Good company, Percy. Food and good wine, too."

The men looked skeptically at each other. Penelope sipped her tea. Harry looked between Emma and Charlotte. What were they plotting?

"Don't you want to hear all the sordid details of Lady Vatterly's affair with the groomsmen?" Emma asked.