A Scandalous Publication by Sandra Heath Read Free Book Online

loudly that she was sure they must hear it at any moment, but they remained completely unaware of her presence.
    Judith gave a brittle laugh. “Convenient for Max? My dear, I found it even more so, for his demise meant one less Wyndham to plague us.”
    “Can’t you forget petty family quarrels for once? Forget what George Wyndham meant to you and think instead what he signified to Max . ”
    “Signified? What do you mean?”
    “I mean that he was the obstacle between Max and Kimber Park. Max had long coveted that estate, Judith. He’d tried on a number of occasions to purchase it, but George Wyndham wouldn’t countenance selling.”
    “How do you know all this? No doubt it’s as much an invention as all the rest of it.”
    “It’s no invention. As you so eloquently pointed out, my father doesn’t share my views about Max, who is a frequent visitor to our house. Max told my father himself about his desire for Kimber Park and his attempts to acquire it. It wasn’t a secret.”
    Charlotte was shaking now, and her heart was positively thumping in her breast. A sliver of ice seemed to enter her at what Sylvia Parkstone was suggesting. Please, don’t let it be true, don’t let it be true… .
    Judith was alarmed now. “Sylvia, I know that you feel justified in loathing Max, but really, you go too far now if you start saying that he was responsible for George Wyndham’s death.”
    “Too far? Are you sure? Just remember, the horse that threw George Wyndham to his death had been won only a day or so before from Max, and that I find too much of a coincidence. Just think, another convenient ‘accident,’ and dear Max gets exactly what he wants. Oh, I admit that he offered a very handsome sum to the grieving family, but it doesn’t alter the fact that in the end he gained the prize he had desired for so very long, and in Max’s eyes, the end always justifies the means.”
    Judith was quite uneasy. “You’re wrong about it all, Sylvia, and I think you’re despicable. If Max is supposed to think that the end justifies the means, then the same and more can be said of you, for there’s no depth to which you wouldn’t sink in your vendetta against him. I begin to think you want him yourself, that all this is nothing more than jealous spite because he’s never cast so much as a single appreciative glance in your direction.”
    Sylvia gave a dry laugh. “I always wondered if you really were the fool you seemed to be, Judith Taynton. Now I know beyond a doubt that you are. You’d be better employed forgetting if I harbor secret desires for him and turning your foolish thoughts to wondering what his desires really are —and I don’t mean that I think he desires me.”
    “What do you mean, then?”
    “Well, since we’ve been together today, you haven’t once mentioned the Westington duel.”
    “Westington? Lord Westington?”
    “The same.”
    “But what on earth has he to do with this?”
    Sylvia was enjoying her advantage. “Oh, simply that he’s yet another injured husband, one of the many Max Talgarth has left strewn behind him over the years.”
    There was a long silence, and when Judith next spoke, her voice was much less sure. “If you’re suggesting that —”
    “That dear Max has been unfaithful to you? Yes, I rather think I am. But you shouldn’t be so surprised, my dear, after all he’s merely running true to form; he simply isn’t capable of being steadfast to one woman.”
    “It’s a lie,” breathed Judith. “A horrid, horrid lie!”
    “If it is, then the whole of society is perpetuating it. Westington has called Max out for seducing his wife, and it’s a scandal that is rattling the teacups with a vengeance at the moment, but then, you might not have heard because you’ve only just come up from obscurity at Kimber Park.” Sylvia’s voice was as smooth as silk. “You know what they say: while the cat’s away, the rat will play.”
    She laughed a little. “I shrink from