“Assuredly I do not understand. You say my son abducted your daughter with force. Eh bien, I demand of you how this could be done in the middle of London. I find M. le Marquis has been extremely clever if he could arrange so difficult a rape.”
Mrs. Challoner flushed scarlet. “Ma’am! I must beg of you!”
“It is not then a rape?”
“Oh, I — yes, indeed and it is, and I will have justice done, ma’am, and so I tell you!”
“I too desire to have justice done,” said the Duchess softly. “But I am not a fool, madame, and when you talk to me of rapes you talk of what I do not at all believe. If your daughter was not willing she could make a great outcry, and it seems to me that in London there is someone who will hear and come to her rescue.”
“I see, ma’am, you have not heard the whole. Let me explain to you that it was not Mary his lordship wanted, but my little Sophia here. He has been for ever upon my doorstep, and I fear, ma’am, he has quite turned the child’s head. I blush to confess it to your grace, but he attempted to seduce Sophia, of course unbeknownst to me. I do not know what lies he told her, but he had it all arranged to fly with her. I have reared her very strict, ma’am, and how should she dream he did not mean marriage? She thought he would take her to Gretna Green. Oh, I’ll not deny it was mighty foolish and wrong of her, but girls will have these romantic fancies, your grace, and heaven knows what persuasions his lordship may have used. No, Sophy, be quiet!”
Léonie looked at the indignant Sophia, and smiled. “You present to me my son in a new rôle,” she said. “I have never known him to take so much trouble. It seems he was in love with you quite en désespéré.”
“He did love me!” Sophia said chokingly. “He never looked at Mary! Never!”
“Hold your tongue, Sophy! Not but what it is true, ma’am. His lordship was mad for the child. But Mary took it into her head ’twas not marriage he intended, and what she did was to save her sister from ruin.”
“It is of a nobility almost incredible, madame. What did this Mary do?”