Chapter 45 #2
“I don’t know why they act like I am about to drag you away!” Edgar said tetchily. “When it is entirely the other way around!”
Caroline ignored him, watching Lord Faris’s rigid bearing.
He looked angry. She bit her lip. She hoped he and Gervaise were not arguing.
In that moment, Gervaise looked across, his eyes meeting hers for a long moment.
She wondered what message he was attempting to convey with his hard stare.
Possibly, don’t go far. She nodded and thought she saw his shoulders relax infinitesimally.
“Edgar,” she said, turning back to her brother impulsively. “Let us try and find a booth near the fireplace, so you can warm up.”
“Er, perhaps we should wait until that ruffian returns,” Edgar answered nervously.
“Everything alright, Caroline?” It was Effie, purple skirts rustling, who swept to a halt beside them, arm in arm with Vi in her gown of puce crepe.
“Oh, yes of course,” Caroline hurried to assure her. “This is—well, this is my brother, Edgar. Edgar, these are my friends Effie and Violet.”
They both turned to look at him with interest. “We’ve heard all about you, ain’t we, Eff,” Vi said. “You’re not in uniform tonight though. Pity. I like a man in uniform.” Edgar blinked.
“You ain’t been sent down, have you?” Effie asked. “Only we heard as how you’re always being court-martialed.”
Edgar threw a helpless look of bewilderment Caroline’s way but luckily Reg arrived at this point with a large brandy. Edgar seized hold of it and knocked it back with alacrity.
“We’re just going to try and find a booth near the fire so Edgar can sit down,” Caroline said, raising her voice above the din. Reg seemed to take this as a directive, for he rolled up his sleeves and headed in that direction.
“Oh, dear,” Caroline murmured. “I do hope he isn’t going to displace anyone on our behalf.” Four disgruntled patrons soon came from that direction grumbling and looking hard done by.
Reg beckoned to them. “There’s a booth free for you now, Miss Caroline,” he said, looking wholly unrepentant.
“Thank you, Reg.” She and Edgar slid into the dark wooden booth.
“Shall I fetch you another drink, Miss Caroline?” She glanced down. She had lost her glass of champagne at some point.
“That would be very kind, thank you, Reg.” He fixed another stern look on Edgar before retreating.
“Atherton keeps you under close surveillance, I see,” Edgar commented, not quite meeting her eye. “Is he afraid you’ll run away?”
“If he is, he has no cause to be,” she replied calmly. “Why? Are you here to try and entice me away?”
Edgar leaned forward in his seat. “Of course I am! Good God, Caro!” he said, coloring hotly. “Do you imagine I would be happy to find my sister in such a place as this?” He glanced about them incredulously. “In such unhappy circumstances?” His voice trembled, and he passed a hand over his face.
“When the rumors started circulating, I simply could not believe them at first,” he said in a low, unsteady voice. “I would never have believed that you could behave with such a—a complete want of moral decency! To run away with a man and without the protection marriage!” he said hoarsely.
“I have never been more shocked in my life! Mama has been an absolute wreck. I simply cannot fathom what could have induced you to behave in such a thoroughly reprehensible manner,” he concluded. To give him justice, he did sound utterly confounded.
Caroline regarded him steadily. “Can you not, Edgar?” she asked. “But there have always been rumors circulating about my dreadful behavior, have there not? And Mama has often bemoaned my rotten character. I’m sure Mrs. Ryland and her cronies were not surprised in the slightest.”
He lowered his gaze. “Caroline, please. You don’t understand. No one thought that you—that you were that wicked!” he burst out but then seemed to have difficulty continuing. “Moreover, you managed to select the worst possible time to take such an irrevocable step,” he added bitterly.
Caroline’s eyebrows rose. “The worst possible time?” she echoed. “How so?”
Reg appeared with a glass of champagne for Caroline and another brandy for Edgar. He placed her drink down carefully, then banged down Edgar’s and retreated a few steps, turning his back to them and folding his arms. Edgar picked up his drink with a hand that shook.
“Won’t you take off your wet things?” Caroline asked impulsively before she could stop herself. Old habits were hard to break, and she had been his older sister for a long time.
For a moment she thought he would coldly decline, but then he seemed to think the better of it and shrugged off his coat. He took a gulp of his drink and then leaned forward determinedly on the table.
“Caroline, I must now tell you something that does not reflect well on me.” He took a deep breath. “Eighteen months ago, I did something which, though I could never regret it, was underhand and unsanctioned, and I knew would break Mama’s heart.”
His voice shook. Caroline blinked. What in heaven’s name was this? A confession? She held her tongue and her brother threw her an anguished look. “I married the most wonderful girl in the entire world,” he confessed shakily.
Whatever Caroline had been expecting, it had not been a clandestine marriage. “Who?” she asked in surprise. “Not Blanche Needham,” she said with misgiving. Mama would be furious.
“Blanche, good God, no! That was nothing. Mere persiflage.”
“Who, then? Someone you know in Exeter?” A vague suspicion arose in the back of her mind. Gervaise’s mocking voice saying …suspicious, I must say, that your brother makes a point to never mention his landlady’s daughter. Most unnatural when you think about it.
“Yes,” he admitted, turning bright red. “You sort of know her actually, from years ago. I believe you were at school together.”
“Diana Hipworth!” Caroline breathed.
“Yes.”
“Oh, Edgar. Mama…”
“I know.” He gulped, his shoulders slumping. “She’s, well, she’s taken it badly.”
“You told her?”
“I didn’t have any choice,” he uttered, shamefaced. “Diana turned up on our doorstep with her mother in tow. They said they refused to keep it a secret any longer and Diana deserved to take up her rightful place beside me as mistress of Benham Hall.”
“Good grief!” Caroline muttered. “More grist to the rumor mill! Mrs. Ryland and her cronies must be beside themselves.”
Edgar moaned. “I wish to God—” He broke off with a sob. “It’s been terrible! Terrible. Even worse than I had anticipated.”
“Has Mama taken to her sickbed?” Caroline asked with misgiving.
“On and off,” he answered. “It’s worse when she’s out of it. The rows, the recriminations… She gets almost hysterical. Saying I have killed her. That I sunk a knife into her bosom. She said she always expected such treatment from—” He halted guiltily.
“From me,” Caroline finished quietly. “But not from you.”
He lowered his gaze. “She and Diana cannot abide one another. They cannot be in the same room even without the worst kind of allegations arising from it afterward. Mama says that Diana is cruel and vicious and seeking to supplant her. She even said that Diana attempted to push her down the stairs!”
He looked shocked even by the recollection. “She says that Diana won’t rest until she is cold in the grave and she can take over as mistress of Benham.” Edgar covered his face with his hands. “I don’t know what to believe.”
“What does Diana say?” Caroline asked in a level voice, fighting down an inappropriate impulse to laugh. So, Mama has found a new scapegoat to pin all the evils of the world onto.
“She says…terrible things about Mama. Things I cannot possibly repeat. And Mother Hipworth says even worse. That I am a worm not to listen to my own wife. She says—she says—” He gulped, unable to continue.
He rubbed his eyes and said desperately, “Diana is threatening to leave me and return to Exeter with her mother if I do not get Mama to cease her slander.”
“Well, I wish you good luck with that task,” Caroline said mirthlessly, lifting her glass to her lips.
“Caroline,” Edgar said brokenly. “Won’t you—won’t you come back with me? It is a generous offer,” he said desperately, seeing the flat refusal in her expression. “More generous than you could possibly have hoped for after your—your transgressions of late,” he added in a choked voice.
“Few brothers would take back a sister who had besmirched their reputation as thoroughly as you have. But I would be willing to overlook all if you would only accompany me back home, immediately!”
“Oh, you mean you want me to act as a buffer between Mama and your wife?” she enquired politely. “You think they might unite when confronted with a common enemy?”
Edgar’s face fell. “Caroline! No! I would never—!”
“I’m sorry, Edgar, but my days as Mama’s whipping boy are over.
It sounds like she has found a new victim, though Diana is not so defenseless as I.
She is fortunate indeed to have a mother who holds her in affection and who will offer her some protection, though in truth, Edgar, the role of protector should now be yours as her husband. ”
Edgar stared at her. “Caroline,” he uttered in dejected tones. “You cannot mean—” He swallowed. “You expect me to believe—?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I gave up expecting you to believe me years ago. I have lived entirely without hope since early childhood, while Mama made wild and unfounded allegations against me, garnering everyone’s sympathy whilst hardening everyone’s hearts against me.
“I have grown up friendless and entirely hopeless, and I would not wish such a fate on my worst enemy, let alone someone I once viewed with affection.” She paused as Edgar stared across at her.
“You tell me you do not know what to believe. I will tell you now, Edgar. You should believe Diana. You should believe in your wife. Believe everything she tells you about Mama, for that woman is pure, unadulterated poison.” She rose from her seat.
“Caroline! Wait!” Edgar struggled to stand up, making a grab for his discarded coat.
Ignoring his desperate plea, Caroline walked out of the booth, making eye contact with Reg, who swiftly shifted his position to block Edgar into the booth. “Wait!” she heard her brother cry feebly, but she was already heading toward Gervaise’s booth.
“I am going up to our rooms,” she said, only afterward reflecting that she was landing Gervaise in a good deal of hot water if he had claimed their relations were entirely blameless.
He stood up at once. “Let me take you up.”
“No, no,” she protested. “You need to return to your gaming tables. I will be perfectly fine—”
“I am escorting you upstairs, Caroline,” Gervaise reiterated. “Now bid good night to Lord Faris.”
“Good night, Lord Faris,” she murmured, not quite able to meet his eyes.
He hesitated, shooting a look at Gervaise before he responded. “Good night, Miss Halperston. Please be assured I will call again on the morrow.” His words hung in the air, part threat, part promise, and Caroline’s heart thudded with foreboding.