Chapter Two
Georgiana was ensconced on a chaise longue in the now perfectly respectable and dust sheet free pink drawing room, a cosy fire blazing in the hearth, when her expected visitor arrived.
Lady Fanny Fitzwilliam, the oldest surviving child of the new Duke of Denby, swept into the room like an embryonic whirlwind, leaving poor Ellis trailing in her wake.
“Georgie, my darling, what on earth are you doing here in this big empty house?” She bent and bestowed resounding kisses on each of Georgiana’s cheeks and settled, like an exotic bird of paradise, on the chaise longue beside her.
“Your message was so enigmatic, I just had to come and find out what was going on. Do tell. I have to know why you’re no longer residing with your sainted aunt. ”
Georgiana waited until Ellis had retreated and closed the drawing room door behind himself, acutely aware that he would be back shortly with the tea she’d requested.
Perhaps she should have asked for it to be delivered half an hour after Fanny’s arrival to give them time to talk uninterrupted. That might have been better.
She took a deep breath. “I couldn’t go on staying under my aunt’s roof a moment longer.”
Fanny seized her hands in her own. “Good heavens! I thought it must be something like that. Why ever not? Although, of course, she is a terrible termagant and you’re probably far better off away from her.
Free to do as you wish with no one to prevent you.
Free,” and here she waved an elegant hand at Georgiana’s dull gown, “to wear what you like from now on. Just as you used to when your dear papa was alive.” She paused for breath, leaning towards her friend conspiratorially.
“Tell me everything. Did you argue? Did you finally tell her what you think of her? I want all the gory details. Leave nothing out or I shall be vexed.”
Now that her friend and closest confidante was in front of her and so keen to hear what she had to say, Georgiana was seized by extreme hesitation.
How could she explain her situation to her friend, dear as she was, without shocking her to the core?
She licked lips that had gone dry with nerves.
Supposing Fanny reacted in the way Aunt Patience had?
Suppose she never wanted to be friends with her again?
Then she truly would be alone in the world.
Money could never replace true friendship.
Fanny squeezed her hands, gazing at her out of her wide brown eyes. Kind eyes. Honest eyes. Sincere eyes. But nevertheless, eyes eager for scandal. “You know you can tell me anything.”
For a moment, Georgiana was back in school again with Fanny, making an apple pie bed for one of their mistresses and giggling together. She didn’t want to lose her best friend. Her only true friend.
“I suppose,” she began, determined to get it over with as quickly as she could, “that I had better take the bull by the horns and just come out with it.” She took a deep breath.
“Aunt Patience has thrown me out. Washed her hands of me. Told me never to darken her door again and that I was no longer to consider myself a niece of hers.”
“Good heavens,” Fanny exclaimed, eyes widening.
“That sounds a little extreme to me, although you could consider it an advantage as you so dislike her. Whatever did you do to provoke such an outburst? Although, I will freely admit that Miss Patience Frampton is quite the most demanding and stern guardian anyone could possibly have had. Quite the puritan. I’ve always wondered how you put up with her after your papa so thoughtlessly died and left you in her care.
I know I could never have tolerated being treated as a child for so long.
” She chuckled. “Thank goodness my stepmama is so easy going and my papa has never shown any interest in his many daughters.” She paused.
“Nor, it seems, in his son, now he has one. However, I digress. Go on.”
Georgiana looked down at her hands, swallowed hard, then, with considerable trepidation, raised her eyes to meet her friend’s. “I…I found it had become necessary to admit to her that I am with child.”
Fanny’s eyes few wider still and her mouth dropped open. She probably hadn’t been expecting such a revelation. Well, almost certainly not. “No…” she gasped, and closed her mouth. Her eyes, however, remained stretched wide. “How…?”
Georgiana frowned. “How do you think? The same way everyone gets like that.”
“But who…?”
Georgiana could see her friend mentally flicking through all the young men she knew, which, in Georgiana’s case, was not many. Almost none, as her aunt had kept her shut up like a novice nun, a fact Fanny had pointed out on many occasions.
“But your aunt never lets you out of her sight…”
Georgiana huffed in impatience. “Well, I didn’t get like that in front of her, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
Fanny managed a nervous titter. “I wasn’t, although it’s an amusing thought at what her expression might have been like.
But, I have to ask, however did you and whoever it was manage to find the opportunity?
” She paused. “And where is he now, this cad who deflowered you and seems to have vanished away rather than face up to his obligations? Surely, he should have married you?”
Georgiana sighed. “It was the grandson of one my aunt’s oldest friends—Lieutenant Alexander Crichton, and he can’t face up to his obligations because he’s dead.”
Fanny’s eyes, if it were possible, grew even wider. Any more and they’d come popping out of her head. “Dead? How?”
Georgiana swallowed, for even though two months had passed since she’d heard of his passing, it still hurt, and probably always would. Only now the hurt was much overshadowed by the dilemma she had so recently found herself in. A dilemma that was going to be impossible to hide before too long.
“He was serving on the ship The Sea Horse, carrying troops across to Cork, at the end of January, shortly after we met. There was a storm. His ship sank, and most of those on board were lost.” She had to dig her nails into the palms of her hands to keep her voice steady, although this was only partly due to grief and predominantly due to a mixture of anger and anxiety. “His body has never been found.”
“Oh.” Fanny’s face fell. “I saw him once or twice at balls. He was so handsome and dashing in his uniform, as are all our gallant soldiers and sailors.” She frowned. “But how did you contrive to meet him when your aunt wouldn’t allow you to go to balls? And become so…afflicted?”
Another sigh squeezed itself out of Georgiana as she tried to conjure up the face she thought she’d fallen for so deeply two months ago and failed.
All she could see now was a vague outline and his smart naval uniform.
“I thought him most handsome too.” Only now she couldn’t be so sure.
Their acquaintance, such as it was, had been so short.
“I guessed that, or you wouldn’t be in the condition you are now.” Fanny paused. “How did you get like this? I mean, I know how, obviously, but when did it happen and under what circumstances? I’m curious to know how you escaped your guard dog of an aunt long enough to, er…?”
Georgiana sighed. “I encountered him first at a party my aunt threw, to which she invited only select friends. One of them brought her grandson with her, home on leave from the navy. We met and immediately realized we were in love.” One of the few social events her aunt had deemed suitable.
It had been Georgiana’s one and only sortie into society. A rather fateful one.
Fanny pulled a wry face. “Did it happen at the party?”
Georgiana shook her head. “No. My aunt was taken ill with what she thought was the influenza and had to take to her bed. She is not a good patient and always thinks she’s dying when it’s nothing but a slight cold.
Alexander took advantage of this to call on me.
” Her cheeks heated. “Encouraged by the note I sent him informing him of my aunt’s illness.
We, er, we went into the garden where there’s a secluded summerhouse. ”
“But how did your aunt not notice your absence despite being confined to bed? She’s like a bloodhound crossed with an eagle and knows everything that goes on in her house.” Fanny chuckled. “You must be a very sneaky one.”
Georgiana found her cheeks were heating.
“We, er, we weren’t very long.” In fact, Alexander had been so quick she’d been not only disappointed but also puzzled as to why people thought the act so pleasurable.
But she wasn’t about to share that bit of information with Fanny, who, she assumed, had never done the deed herself.
Fanny leaned closer still. “Why did you let him?” Like all young ladies attending social events, both of them had been told time and time again, by school mistresses, governesses and female relatives, never to allow any young gentleman to take liberties with them.
Not that the “liberties” had ever been fully explained, but young ladies always had a way of finding out exactly what was meant by them, especially ones who had attended school.
Rumors were rife at school about young ladies who had succumbed to these “liberties” and paid the price.