Felicity’s heart pounded hard within her chest at the memory of that terrible day. She did not want to relive it, but what choice did she have? Victor had witnessed what had happened, or at least, enough for him to think she was a wanton, callous woman who had thrown away their love.
He deserved to know the truth, and if he still despised her, then that was something she would have to continue to endure.
She took in a deep breath, tried to focus and recount what had happened from the start.
‘Jenny and her mother were caught up in wedding plans and the marriage was due to take place at the end of the season, which was only a few weeks away. I kept trying to tell Jenny what sort of man he was, but she refused to listen. I decided the only way she would believe that the charming man she was engaged to was actually a cynical rake was to show her. So I told her if she trusted him so much, then to hide behind the trees at a private little spot in the neighbourhood park and I would show her what sort of man he was. Then I asked Montgomery to meet me in the same spot.’
She exhaled slowly to giver herself strength to continue. ‘So Montgomery wouldn’t know it was a trap I left the house first, then Jenny was to follow. Montgomery soon arrived at the secluded spot and instantly turned on the charm.’
Felicity shivered and she remembered the way he had looked at her, like a hungry man offered a banquet on which he was free to feast. ‘He told me that I was the most beautiful woman he had ever met, and I was the one he really wanted. He said he had kissed me when I was sixteen because he wanted to have me as his wife, but I had cruelly spurned him. I knew it was all nonsense and if he had wanted me it would have been because he knew my dowry was as generous as Jenny’s, but he had condemned himself with his own words and I was sure Jenny would soon emerge from behind the trees to tell him the engagement was off.’
Felicity’s heart accelerated at the thought of what happened next. ‘When she didn’t emerge, I knew she must have been delayed. I tried to keep him talking, even flattered him and told him how much I regretted spurning his earlier advances. Still Jenny didn’t appear.’
She gritted her teeth tightly together. ‘It was obvious he wanted to kiss me. When I heard rustling in the trees I thought Jenny had arrived. I couldn’t ask him to repeat all that he had said, so instead I whispered to him that if he wanted to kiss me again, this time I would not spurn him. That would definitely prove to Jenny what sort of man he was, one who would kiss another a few weeks before his marriage.’
Her heart pounding hard at the memory, she forced herself to continue. ‘I had expected just a kiss, the same as he had attempted when I was sixteen. But I was so wrong.’ She swallowed to relieve her suddenly dry throat. ‘He immediately grabbed me, ripping my blouse off my shoulder in the process, while his other hand pushed up my dress and his body pushed me backwards against the tree. I was so terrified I froze. I was incapable of fighting him off.’
She gulped back a tear at the memory, her voice so thick she could not continue. That was what Victor had seen, her not resisting, not because she wanted Montgomery’s groping, but because shock had made her incapable of doing otherwise.
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