“That is no answer,” he pointed out.
“I know of no reason why I should give you one.”
“I should have set your scruples at rest at the outset by informing you that I am not entirely ignorant of your circumstances,” he said.
She regarded him in astonishment. “I cannot conceive how you should know anything about my circumstances, sir!”
“You—or should I say your amiable aunt?—are in debt to Lord Ormskirk.”
“I suppose he told you so,” she said in a mortified tone. “On the contrary, my young cousin told me.”
“Adrian told you?” she exclaimed. “You must be mistaken. Adrian knows nothing of Lord Ormskirk’s dealings with my aunt!”
He reined in his horses to a walk. He thought her a remarkably good actress, but her artlessness irritated him, and it was with a sardonic inflexion that he said: “It is you who are mistaken, Miss Grantham. Mablethorpe seemed to me to be singularly well-informed.”
“Who told him?” she demanded.
He raised his brows. “You would have preferred him to remain in ignorance of your indebtedness to Lord Ormskirk? Well, I can appreciate that.”