“And why has he gone, Cecily? You haven’t answered my question.” She took a step forward, careful not to grab for the doorframe. “Kindly tell me the truth.”
The pleasant curve of Cecily’s lips grew thin and hard. “Is it the truth you really want, my dear? The truth of what I think of you, and of your lover?”
Athena braced herself against the blows to come. “Yes.”
“Very well.” Cecily smiled, a look as cold and calculating as it was triumphant. “But first you must sit down, dear child, or you may fall down. I do not believe you are quite steady on your feet.”
“I prefer to stand.”
Cecily leaned against the desk and folded her arms across her chest. “Yes, I informed your brother of your location when he arrived earlier than you had estimated. He would have discovered your absence soon enough.” She sighed and shook her head. “You will recall that I made you no promises—quite deliberately. I prefer not to break my word if it can be helped.”
“What else did you tell him?” Athena demanded when she fell silent.
“Why, merely that your judgment was not sound, and that you should perhaps live elsewhere for a time to gain much-needed experience and become detached from your various… obsessions. I am happy to say that your brother agreed with my judgment.”
“Obsessions?”
“Your charitable causes, of course, which drive you to such excess. And also your infatuation with Holt—for is he not the real reason you went to the ranch? To be with your wild-man lover?”
A week ago she could have answered in the negative with complete sincerity. Then she had told herself that
Caitlin’s welfare was her sole reason for the unprecedented journey. That willful naivete was dead.
“Morgan is not my lover,” she said calmly. “But I love him. He has an honesty you would never understand.”
Cecily laughed. “Indeed. Is he the knight in shining armor come to rescue you from life as a cripple?”
“It is because of him that I can walk,” she said. “He gave me the courage to challenge the things I had always believed without question… about the world, and myself.”
“And now you see the truth?” She continued to chuckle unpleasantly. “How amusing. Since you are so devoted to complete honesty, you will be most unhappy to learn that your Morgan Holt is less than the noble savage you believe.”
“What do you mean?”
“Why, have you never asked him about his past? Have you so little interest in the honor and good name of your brother and the respect of your friends?”
Cecily knew nothing of Morgan’s true nature, or of Athena’s. Her insinuations bore on some other secret, one that Cecily plainly considered most detestable. And she was right… what did Athena know of his past, except that he had suffered?
“I know that Morgan is a good man,” she said. “What he did before—”
“Is far worse than your imagination can conceive. You take such pride in helping the destitute and ignorant, the great and needy unwashed, and yet you remain so sadly callow.” She put on an air of mock regret. “My dear Athena, it is indeed time that you knew the truth. Your lover is far worse than an uncouth boor who should not be allowed among civilized people. He is a murderer—a convict who spent years in prison. And you, child, are simply another one of his victims.”
Chapter 18
Athena was hardly aware that she was moving until her back struck the wall. For a moment her thoughts were in chaos, and then she knew exactly how to respond.
“You are a liar,” she said. “You would say anything to further your own cause… whatever that may be. If you think that you can win my brother by tricks and stratagems such as this, you are the one who is sadly mistaken. Once I tell him how far you will go to become his wife—”
“Do you think that is all I want?” Cecily’s lids dropped over her eyes, as lazily vicious as a panther’s. “Oh, yes, I do intend to marry your brother. And I do want you out of the way… which will be so much easier now that you must no longer be carried to and fro like a spoiled princess.” She laughed again. “No, not a princess. A goddess. The goddess Athena, always ready to condescend to the unfortunate of any rank, and bestow her vast wisdom and generosity upon an unenlightened world. Yet all the time you perched so high upon your throne, you have had no idea how society regards you.”