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honestly had no such notion.”
    The other woman squeezed her hand. “Simon sent letter after letter after letter, or so he told me. But he received not one from you.”
     “But I never received anything from him!”
    Rowena was shocked. No one had ever said a word to her. She’d never asked Alice about it, which she now realized was stupid on her part. They hadn’t become close until a few years ago when Paul had taken ill. By that time, she’d thought it best to avoid discussing the horrid affair with Simon and only referred to him if someone else brought him up in conversation.
    “I know for a fact that he did write at least twice to make an offer for you. The first letter went unanswered. The second, well,” she said softly, “the second letter prompted a reply from your brother, Victor. He refused the proposal, saying you did not wish to hear from Simon again.”
    A sharp pain sliced through Rowena’s chest. She choked. How could her brother have done so cruel a thing? Victor had known how she felt about Simon. He knew that—that she would never choose a man he wanted for her.
    Rowena wanted to scream. It all made sense now. Victor must have destroyed the letters before she’d ever come upon them. If she did not know about them, there was no chance of her going against Victor’s wishes and sneaking out a letter of response.
    She turned to Delphine. “Do you know anything of this? Did Victor ever destroy any letters that you remember? Had you ever seen any messages from Simon?”
    Delphine lowered her head. “I am not sure.”
    That was suspicious. Delphine rarely demurred to anyone. “What do you mean you are not sure?”
    “I mean that…I—”
    “Delphine!”
    “Please excuse us, Lady Chilton,” Delphine said, her voice soft, but almost cracking. She stood and ran into the church. Rowena followed her.
    Delphine’s lips trembled and she refused to look Rowena in the eye. She kept her eyes to the ground and traced her boot in a little circle on the ground.
    “You must believe me that I was planning to tell you today. After breakfast this morning, the way you two stared at one another. And then, when you had gone to rest and Simon had looked so many times at the door as if he were longing for your return, I—”
    Rowena took her sister by the shoulders and shook her. “What? Tell me what you know, Delphine!”
    “I am sorry. I did see two of the letters come. There were more, no doubt, but I remember walking into the study once when Paul and Victor were talking—”
    No. That could not be correct. “Paul?”
    Tears ran down Delphine’s face. She nodded. “Yes, it was Paul. He and Victor were talking about you and the butler came in saying that there was a letter he’d been waiting for. I remember that I was also expecting a letter and had followed Elfry into the room because I wanted to see if my letter had arrived. Anyway, the letter was addressed to you, not to Victor, and it was soon clear that the letter had come from Simon.”
    “God.” Rowena had been betrayed. Not just by her brother, but by the man who had claimed over and over that he’d loved her and wanted her happiness above all. The man who had pretended to console her when months and months went by with no word from Simon, other than a letter to Paul which claimed he’d no interest in Rowena anymore. A letter that had instructed him to ‘break it to her gently.’
    She was a fool. Everything she’d been told was a lie. The letter was obviously forged by Paul or her brother.
    “When I asked Victor about it, he slapped me, and told me if I ever spoke a word to you of this, he would postpone my season and use my dowry to send me off to Uncle Norwell’s estate in Ontario. When I saw another letter a month or two later, he reminded me that he could just as well send me to Canada and be rid of my expenses than to marry me off. I was terrified, so I did not confess what I had seen.”
    Victor Sharpe was a snake. He’d always