“I ordered them off the place,� I said bluntly.
“You!� she flashed out imperiously. “And who gave you the power to dismiss my—my father’s friends?�
“I heard what they said, being close hid myself in the coppice.�
“And what said they?�
“It concerned you, mistress.�
“The Duke of Arcester,� she promptly began, “is my betrothed husband. I will hear no calumny against him.�
“Madam,� I said, keenly aware that I had made no charges yet and wondering at her thought, “your engagement is broken.�
“Broken!� she cried in amaze.
“The duke declared himself to his friend to be too poor to marry the penniless child of a—disgraced man—his words, not mine, believe me.�
The awful death of her beloved father had been shock enough to her, but with this insult added I thought she would have swooned dead away. She turned so white and reeled so that I caught her again. I even shook her while I cried roughly,