My handmaid Rosalind looked ready to breathe fire. "What a shameless little fox! My lady, say the word and I'll drag her out of here. She can't even find the right house to grovel at, and here she is running her filthy mouth."

I motioned for Rosalind to pull the curtain aside fully. My face, half-veiled behind gauze, appeared before the onlookers.

I stepped down from the carriage, slow and deliberate, and came to a stop before her. Nana Burke took one look at the veil covering my face and let a sneer curl across her lips. "So that's why the lady of the house won't let our mistress through the door. Afraid that once a younger beauty moves in, she'll steal whatever affection the heir has left for you."

"You are a few years older than our mistress, after all. Men prefer a pretty young thing in their bed. That's just the way of the world. Every household has its share of wives and concubines. Why cling so stubbornly to something you've already lost?"

Celeste shuffled forward on her knees until she was right at my feet. She tilted her face upward, lovely as carved jade, and gazed at me. "I beg my lady's mercy."

The moment the words left her lips, she tugged the hem of my skirt from an angle no one else could see, then threw herself backward. Her hands flew to her stomach and she screamed, "My lady, please, spare my child! Don't kick my stomach!"

Agony twisted her features. She crumpled to the ground, both hands pressed tight over her belly, tears streaming down her face.

Nana Burke shrieked. "Mistress! What happened to you?!"

Then she whipped around and glared at me, eyes blazing. "Even if you are the heir's wife, that gives you no right to lay hands on a person! She's about to give birth! You strike now, and you'll be killing two lives. Is that what you want?!"

"The heir isn't in the Capital. You think you can act this brazen without consequence? You don't think he'll come back and settle the score?"

Settle the score with me? If he didn't come looking for me first, I'd be looking for him. Keeping a secret mistress, dragging the Gilbert name through the mud. The heir to the Gilbert Estate, stooping to something so disgraceful.

Rosalind charged forward and slapped Nana Burke clean across the face. The crack rang out sharp and loud. "Insolent old hag! How dare you speak to my lady that way. How dare you slander her."