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"I’m not--" Villiers said

"You are, you are! You look at me the same way that bastard son of yours looks atthat Eleanor suddenly reo It felt as if the air in the room was in short supply

Villiers didn’t say a word, just shifted Oyster closer into his arms His paw flapped lifelessly and Eleanor’s tears ca a handkerchief to her cheek

"It’s your fault!" Lisette shrieked, turning to her father

He was on his feet as well, looking miserable and exhausted "Be quiet, Lisette," he said, his voice heavy

"It’s all your fault--all of it Everything!" She looked around the table, her eyes as bright and hard as cannonballs "He took away ht" She turned to her father "You are a horrible uerite’s voice cut through the tirade with barely controlled rage "You will not speak to your father that way, Lisette You sent away your own child because you said he smelled and cried too much"

"That’s a falsehood!" Lisette shouted "A lie because you’re all liars!"

Marguerite’s hand shot out and she pulled Lisette down frorabbed her chin "Look at et rid of that child You did that to my poor sister, who never recovered She was never the saave that child to his father She did it because she knew you would ruin that boy’s life But don’t you ever, ever, blame another soul for that"

"I will bla half shriek "I will blame him because it is his fault And his, as well" She pointed at Villiers "He brought that boy here, that horrible boy, who made me think about my own child, the one you took from me The one my own mother stole from me"

Eleanor couldn’t bear another moment She reached out and plucked Oyster froan to walk away

"And you!" she heard on a rising shriek "You think I don’t knohat--"

There was a sound, of the slap of water, and Lisette’s voice broke off

Eleanor glanced over her shoulder Anne had apparently snatched a pitcher of water from the sideboard and thrown it directly into Lisette’s face

Eleanor just kept going, down the hall to the library The footman threw open the door, such an appalled expression on his face that she realized everything must have been audible in the entry

"My lady," Popper said, hurrying to her as she sat down on a sofa "I’ll bring a cold cloth"

"There’s no need," Eleanor said, icily calrief "It won’t help" Oyster’s head had fallen over the crook of her arm and she couldn’t see his eyes She closed her own for abefore her All color had drained from his face

"It was me," he said hoarsely "I did it"

"You didn’t do it Lisette threw hiainst a wall"

"I did it," he repeated, his shoulders back as if he faced a istrate "I rubbed a beef steak on the bottom of her slippers, and then I took Oyster out of your rooo"

Eleanor sed "Why?"

"Because I wanted the duke to see what she was like I never thought she’d kill hiht that!"

He looked like a boy who had never cried in his life His skin was drawn tightly over the bones of his face