Sophie swallowed. “I realize this must come as shock, but Violet is a trusted friend. I don’t believe she’d lie about something like this. In fact, she was reluctant to say who the father was until…”

“Until what?” he prodded.

“Until she realized I had a connection to you.”

“What a coincidence.” He didn’t bother to mask his sarcasm. “It sounds like your friend saw an opportunity and is trying to take full advantage.”

Sophie’s pretty eyes clouded with confusion—and hurt. “What are you suggesting?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” he snapped. “Miss Darby is trying to profit off of my brother’s untimely demise. She intends to blackmail me.”

“No,” Sophie said, clearly horrified. “She’s never asked for anything. That is, I know her family doesn’t have much and would be grateful for assistance, but she’s not the sort of person who’d falsely accuse another for financial gain.”

“Then why are you here, telling me this right now?” he challenged.

Her chin trembled, but she quickly composed herself. “I thought you’d want to know.”

Damn it, none of this made any sense. Edmund had not been the type of man who’d dally with a woman in his employ. He’d been a gentleman of the highest order—upstanding, moral, and true. And now, Miss Darby was attempting to smear his good name by making an allegation that was impossible to disprove.

Reese looked away from Sophie—and the undisguised disappointment in her eyes. “Your friend has made a miscalculation,” he said, his voice harsh and cold to his own ears.

“Violet thought that Edmund cared for her,” Sophie said, insistent. “But when she told him she was with child, he fired her.”

“My brother would never do that,” he said. He’d known Edmund better than anyone. He’d been the rule follower—the one who’d studied Latin all summer instead of going fishing, the one who’d ensured his sotted friends made it home after a wild night of carousing, the one who’d never cheated at cards. Edmund would never take advantage of a pretty young maid. He couldn’t have.

Because if he had, everything Reese thought he knew about the world was wrong. Completely upside-down. Edmund had been the constant, his compass, the guiding presence in his life.

Shit. Reese felt like he was backsliding. All the strides he’d made over the last couple of weeks, with Sophie’s help, were being swallowed up by anger. And now it seemed that the huge boulder he’d been pushing up the hill was on the verge of rolling backward, threatening to crush him under its immense weight.

“I will not allow Miss Darby to malign my brother or extort money from me,” he said coldly. “Feel free to pass that message along to her.”