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had clearly declined to marry her, likely deciding that Kira
     Melbourne was not the kind of woman upon whom a man of his consequence should waste
     his honor.
    “Still, can Lord Vance cast her aside so easily?” he asked. “She is relations to an
     earl.”
    Aunt Caroline waved that fact away with a ring-laden hand. “Westland disowned his brother when he married the Persian woman. I doubt Westland
     has ever met Miss Melbourne! Without his backing, I daresay, she is just another poor
     country mouse scheming to marry one of her betters. And now she has her claws in my
     sweet James!” She sniffed as if she might cry.
    “Do not upset yourself.” Gavin squeezed his aunt’s shoulders. “Perhaps we can find
     a way to quell the talk of Miss Melbourne’s downfall.”
    Aunt Caroline shook her salt - and - pepper curls. “That is unlikely. People can scarcely talk of anything else!”
    Gavin’s gut clenched, at both his aunt’s distress and his own unease. He bloody hated
     scandal. His father had introduced it into his family long ago. Memories of the terrible
     tattle tainted his entire childhood. Vicious gossip had once caused Aunt Caroline
     to take to her bed for a month with a nervous prostration. As a family, they had been
     shunned and taunted. James knew how he—how the whole family—felt about being the favored
     food for gossips. Why would he marry such a girl?
    Then Gavin remembered Miss Melbourne herself. Scandal or no, she was a woman worth
     having in one’s bed. He, however, knew enough to keep a woman like that as a mistress.
     Dear gullible James would assume he must marry her.
    Caroline went on. “It is simply shocking that Miss Melbourne could sit at dinner with
     her demure smile and her very proper clothing when she has nothing innocent about
     her!”
    Amid the sounds of Aunt Caroline’s tirade, Gavin paced to her dressing table and sat
     on her stool. Still, something didn’t make sense.
    “If Miss Melbourne wanted an earl for a husband, why is she now settling for James?
     He is a country clergyman, unlikely to shower her in wealth. Perhaps we need only
     to point that out.”
    Aunt Caroline slapped her hands to her heavy bosom in a dramatic gesture. “Now that
     she has been compromised beyond every sensibility, she must settle for any husband
     who will have her. James’s kind heart has led him to this.”
    His aunt was right, Gavin realized. James always wanted to help others. As boys, his
     cousin had helped care for the sick, mended wounded animals, and cried with those
     who grieved. James did not love Miss Melbourne; perhaps he did not even desire her.
     He pitied her, with her unfortunate heritage and fallen reputation.
    Aunt Caroline continued to pace. “I spoke with James before I sent for you. He will
     not be swayed.”
    Gavin was not surprised. James could never be swayed when it interfered with helping
     a needy soul. His cousin would give a stranger his last crumb of bread, even if he
     were starving himself. James would think it simple enough to give a desperate woman
     a good name.
    “How am I to bear having a trollop for a daughter-in-law?”
    Gavin had no answer for his aunt, no consolation to ease her, as he did not share
     James’s extreme sense of charity.
    Despite the impending calamity, he was rather curious to know the truth about James’s
     fiancée. Even if he discerned it, however, the truth did not matter. If, by some miracle,
     Kira Melbourne was as virginal as a nun, gossip had branded her a whore , and the ton had followed suit. The truth rarely repaired a woman’s reputation. The girl was simply
     ruined. And James had apparently proposed, despite the trouble it would bring the
     family.
    “What are we to do, Gavin?”
    Indeed? What could they do? If the ton bandied about Miss Melbourne’s name in such a fashion, the scandal would reach Gavin’s
     small family. His sisters, both searching for husbands this season, would be affected.
     And after