Miss Taylor should take care whose blood she draws with her pen. Ian Lennard, Lord St. Clair, generously consented to an interview with us after a certain female gossip columnist recently revived the many rumors circulating about him. You left England at nineteen for the Continent and returned three years ago after an absence of six years. Their assertions range wildly from your being a spy for the French and the lover of a Spanish don's wife to one man's claim that he saw you begging in the streets of Paris. You must admit you've been reticent to deny the rumors.
People believe what they want to.
Besides, I find some of the tales very entertaining. Like the one that has me rescuing the King of Spain's illegitimate daughter from Barbary pirates whom I vanquished single-handedly, thus gaining the reward of a mansion in Madrid. That's my favorite. The King of Spain has no daughter, illegitimate or otherwise, and I've never even met a Barbary pirate. I was once presented to the King of Spain and my mother's family does own a mansion in Madrid, but that's about it.