Chapter 16 #2
I’m turning into my parents. This realization was enough to make Hannah wish she could take back her harsh words to Mr. Corbyn last night, if she hadn’t been halfway there already.
But what good did regret do? How could she be sorry for the loss of a connection that had never been real? She couldn’t marry him, so their engagement was destined to end one way or another.
“I am sure,” she promised Eli.
What Hannah regretted was only the way their rupture had come about.
She’d hurt Corbyn when she’d agreed he wasn’t a gentleman.
And the worst part was, she’d known it would hurt him before she said it, but she’d blamed him for sabotaging all her weeks of planning and she’d let that frustration guide her.
He hadn’t deserved that.
“It’s only that I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now,” Hannah added quietly.
She hadn’t even paid Mr. Corbyn what she promised, unless one counted the value of the new clothes Mama had bought him, much as she hated to think of someone else wearing them.
Those vivid blues had been meant for his eyes.
“I don’t want to marry anyone. I’d hoped once I broke off the engagement to Mr. Corbyn, Mama would have to let me go home, but Papa doesn’t want me there without her, and I don’t think she’ll ever go back to Devon.
She won’t let me have my dowry, so I’ve nothing to live on. What’s left for me now?”
A tear spilled down Hannah’s cheek unbidden. Eli was right; things would never go back to the way they’d been. Even Corbyn had seen the truth after a single evening together: Nothing would make her parents love each other again.
Eli pulled her gently into his arms. One thing she would say about her oldest brother was that he was quite good at hugs. A moment later, Jane stood up to add her arms to the mix, and Hannah let herself be surrounded with love for a moment.
When it was over, Jane cleared her throat. “Maybe we should talk about the other thing.” She was looking at her husband.
“What other thing?” Hannah asked.
“You go ahead.” Eli nodded. “It was more your idea than mine.”
Jane turned back to Hannah, who by this point was growing rather impatient. “After supper we got to talking about how you might need some other option, and I thought we might offer you work at the club, if you’re interested.”
“Me?” The sound that escaped Hannah’s mouth was nothing but an incredulous squeak. She’d dreamed of this once, but it seemed so long ago.
“I know your mother doesn’t like the thought of you being involved, but the truth is that we’ve been struggling to keep up since Gloria was born, and you did seem to have a knack for bookkeeping and some good ideas for the games. I would need to talk it over with Della first, but I—”
“Ma’am?” Molly stood in the doorway, a worried look on her face.
“We’re a bit busy,” Jane replied. “Is it an emergency?”
The maid didn’t immediately answer, but looked gravely between her mistress and her master. In her hand, she held up a folded newspaper. “There’s a story here about your friend. The washerwoman was talking about it. I think you’d best come and see for yourself.”
Jane and Eli both hurried across the room and bent their heads over the page. Gloria was by this time entirely sick of being on her belly and had begun to fuss, so Hannah picked her up and bounced her a little until her cries subsided.
“Oh!” The cry that escaped Jane was one of pure terror.
“What is it?” Hannah asked, beginning to grow worried.
Neither of them answered her. Eli said to Jane, “You go. Take as long as you need,” and his wife was out the door before anyone could so much as blink.
It was only once she’d gone that he thanked the maid and brought the paper over to Hannah, lifting the baby from her arms to let her read.
The pages were opened to the legal section, and she had to skim several headlines about various court cases before she found one that read: Lady Ashton’s Divorce.
Ashton. Wasn’t that Della’s viscount? Hannah read the story quickly, until she got to the part where a witness before Parliament named Della herself as Lord Ashton’s suspected mistress!
“Good heavens!” She read it a second time, then set the paper quickly down, wishing she could unsee the story. “She’ll be completely ruined.”
And not kissed-a-midshipman-in-the-gambling-club kind of ruined that could be patched over with the story of a secret engagement.
This was the sort of thing that got a woman cut from society.
What would Della do now? And what about Annabelle?
Being named in the papers this way would tarnish their whole family.
“It’s a bad business.” There was real worry in Eli’s eyes. Though Della might be Jane’s dearest friend, he clearly cared about her as well.
“What will this mean for the club?” Hannah felt gauche asking such a thing when Della’s life might be over, but she couldn’t help it. Jane and Della had founded the club together. If one of its owners was disgraced, was there a risk the club might fail? Jane and Eli depended on that money.
Eli seemed to be thinking the same thing, for his eyes darkened further. “We’ll see what Jane says when she gets back.”
* * *
“I can’t believe you let her break off the engagement before she paid you!
We’re never going to see that money now.
It was all for nothing.” James was red in the face from shouting, which he’d been doing ever since Silas had given a summary explanation of their situation over breakfast. He looked a great deal like their father, suddenly.
“What was all for nothing?” Silas snapped. “All the time and effort I spent trying to impress Miss Williams and her mother, you mean? The thing that you had absolutely nothing to do with? Save your outrage. All you did was sit back and wait for me to make you rich.”
“Which you didn’t do! At least I bring something to this business. A brewery needs a cooper. What do you bring us, if you can’t get the funds?”
“Careful,” Silas growled. “If you think I won’t hit you because you’re younger, you’d best think again.”
At Silas’s threat, Marian positioned herself between the brothers. “Stop it, both of you. We’ll talk about this later, once tempers have cooled.”
But James ignored her. “There’s not going to be a later for us if we can’t get that money. We may as well go back home to Burton with our tails between our legs and beg Jack for work. Bloody hell. I can just imagine his face.”
“At least you have a home to go back to,” Silas shot off bitterly.
He couldn’t blame James and Marian for leaving, if that was what they decided to do.
They’d already stayed in London far longer than they’d intended, waiting for Silas to get their investment.
But he hadn’t expected it to hurt this much.
Don’t be such a fucking child. People leave. Especially once you stop being useful to them.
He should know that by now.
“Why didn’t you marry her like I told you?” James threw up his hands in exasperation. “Then you’d have her dowry and we could do whatever we liked with it. If you’d just kept your mouth shut instead of insulting her father, we’d all be rich. Why couldn’t you—”
“Because I’m an idiot!” Silas shouted. “Don’t you think I know that? I don’t know why I couldn’t hold my bloody tongue, but I couldn’t. It’s done, James.”
His blood was pounding in his ears. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He should have held onto Hannah until he’d gotten his money. For longer, even. But it was too late for regrets now. She would never forgive him.
He’d lost her for good, and he’d lost his future too.
“Come on.” Marian grabbed James roughly by his collar and dragged him toward the door. Though he must have a solid two stone of muscle on her, Marian’s confidence helped to balance the scales. “Out with you. Go for a walk and don’t come back for an hour. I’ll deal with this.”
James might have mumbled a few more sullen protests on his way down the hall, but the slam of the door told Silas he’d been evicted from the lodgings. The room was deathly silent when Marian came back a moment later, her cheeks flushed. “Sorry about that.”
Silas found himself staring at his feet. Without James there to yell at, all the anger fizzled out of him, leaving nothing but a hollow ache in its place.
“She might still pay me,” he muttered. He’d kept up his end of the bargain, after all. But he would be damned if he was going to beg for it.
Let Hannah come to him, if she cared about her debt. Let her come and tell Silas why it was so easy to cast him aside.
She hadn’t even hesitated.
“I’m less concerned with the money and more concerned about you,” Marian said softly. “Are you all right?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” He looked up in surprise.
“You seemed to care for this girl,” Marian said hesitantly. “I thought maybe—”
“I didn’t. I cared about getting paid.”
Marian didn’t argue, but Silas didn’t like the way she was staring at him. She couldn’t have forgotten how many hours she’d spent acting as his dance partner when he’d been trying to learn the quadrille last week. He felt like such an idiot.
What had he expected—that Hannah might decide to keep him if he could master a few tricks, like a faithful dog? That her parents would welcome the chance to lower their standing by such an alliance if he could only bow deeply enough or use the right fork?
Laughable. And now he couldn’t even take comfort in the brewery. James was right. He was as good as worthless if he couldn’t get the rest of the funds.
“I know you did your best.” Marian’s smile was sad but kind. “James knows it too, he’s just a little hotheaded. Like you sometimes. But you both have good hearts.”
“What about you? Are you going to go back home?”