Chapter Two #2
Indeed. In view of all those warnings and cautionary tales, why had she let him?
She sought for viable reasons to explain what she now saw as an act of foolhardy stupidity.
“Because he was so handsome, I suppose. Because he said he’d fallen in love with me and would love me forever, and no one has said that to me since Papa died.
And because he swore that we should be married on his return from Cork, once I came of age.
He promised me so.” Which, now she said it aloud, made her sound like a complete idiot.
In fact, she could not deny that she was just that.
She’d done exactly what she’d been warned not to do.
She’d allowed a young man to persuade her into succumbing to him.
Of course, his hot kisses in the summerhouse, not to mention his hands on her breasts and elsewhere, had done a lot of the persuading.
She’d been a weak fool, carried away by the stirrings of her own body, and look what had happened.
Punishment for her stupidity had been a while in coming, but it was here now with a vengeance.
“What was it like?” Fanny’s voice had taken on pure salacious curiosity now. She’d obviously missed spotting the remorse Georgiana was feeling.
Should she tell the truth or lie? Honesty won over. “Not what I was expecting.”
Fanny leaned forward, her expression betraying her eagerness for more details, but at that moment they were interrupted by the arrival of the tea.
Cook had included cucumber sandwiches as well as cakes, so there was quite a spread.
Not having eaten anything at midday, Georgiana found her mouth was watering despite the way her heart was pounding.
She waved a dismissive hand at Ellis. “You may leave us. I shall pour.” Her voice had only the slightest of tremors, but it provoked a curious look from the old retainer.
Once he’d gone, she poured two cups of tea in silence and offered one to her friend.
Fanny took it but didn’t even take a sip. “You were about to tell me what it was like.” Like a terrier with a rat, Fanny was not about to give up her quest.
Georgiana didn’t bother to pick up her own cup. “You want the truth?”
Fanny nodded.
“Overrated. A decided let down, although I must say that Lieutenant Crichton seemed to find it satisfactory.” She could still recall his groans of satisfaction despite not being able to envision his face any longer.
Fanny giggled. “He would. He’s, I mean he was, a man.”
Silence fell and Georgiana took a sandwich.
They both ate in silence and sipped their tea for a while, Georgiana reflecting back on the brief act that had proved to have such a lasting effect. The ticking from the clock on the mantle seemed inordinately loud.
“So what are you going to do?” Fanny asked at last. And that was the important question and why Georgiana had invited her to call in the first place. At least it didn’t sound as though Fanny was about to shun her in the same way Aunt Patience had.
Georgiana shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m still quite shocked by the discovery.
It was Havers who made the discovery, really.
She noticed my monthlies had not occurred and was brave enough to ask me about it.
I hadn’t realised it indicated my condition.
I hadn’t realised what my condition even was.
Thank goodness for Havers, else I might have gone on for months not realising and wondering why I was getting so fat. ”
“You would have got as enormous as my stepmother soon enough. She resembles a house whenever she’s presenting Papa with another little Fitzwilliam.”
Fanny was one of six sisters, only four of whom survived, daughters of the Duke of Denby’s first wife, a lady who had shirked her duty to provide a male heir and died five years ago, exhausted from producing so many girls.
Fanny’s stepmother, whom all the girls liked, had finally presented her father with the son and heir he’d been desperate to have.
Little Rupert was now four years old, but the young duchess had only managed to produce two more daughters after him, to the duke’s disgust.
“Stepmama Charlotte looks like she’s going to give birth to a horse every time she’s in a delicate condition.
” She frowned. “She’s expecting another at the moment, and Papa is crossing all his fingers that it’ll be a second boy.
He has Rupert, of course, but he says he needs a spare.
Just in case. After all, my sister Phoebe died when she was five, and Augusta was almost a woman grown when the measles took her. ”
Georgiana put her hand on her flat stomach.
It seemed unimaginable that a baby could be growing inside her, a son or daughter of Alexander’s, who might inherit the curling blonde hair she’d so admired.
The temptation to deny its existence and close her eyes to her predicament had been great, but Havers had persuaded her to face it.
Dear Havers. “I need to think of what to do before I begin to show. How long do you think I have?”
Fanny pulled a face. “I have no idea. Like I said, Stepmama Charlotte is always huge. How far along are you?”
“Havers says I must be a little over two months. She knows a lot about babies because she was the oldest in a family of twelve and helped her mother with most of them. She’s been a blessing.
She says I have seven more to go, but far less than that to sort out a solution, as obviously Alexander is unable to make an honest woman of me now. ”
Fanny nodded and took a cake. “I wonder…”
“What?”
“Well, what you need is to be married as soon as possible. So when the baby comes you can pass it off as an early child.”
“I think I’d have to get married tomorrow to do that.
And I’m somewhat hampered in that as, thanks to Aunt Patience and her puritan ways, I don’t actually know any young men, still less one who’d marry me and take on someone else’s child.
” She shuddered. “Can you imagine how awful it would be including that in a proposal?”
“I wouldn’t go telling them you’re with child, if I were you.”
Georgiana shook her head. “This is not something I could tell a lie about, Fanny. If someone wishes to marry me, then they must know the truth. I couldn’t begin a marriage on a lie.”
Fanny huffed and wiped crumbs from her lips. “In that case, if you insist on being so honest, the only thing you can do is go to the Lyon’s Den and throw yourself upon the mercy of the Black Widow of Whitehall, Mrs. Dove-Lyon herself.”
A faint hope arose in Georgiana’s breast, despite the soubriquet this lady owned. “Where? And who is Mrs. Dove-Lyon?”
Fanny leaned forwards again, even though no one could have overheard their conversation.
“She runs a gambling den in St James’s. She also runs a successful matchmaking business.
Specifically for ladies in need of a husband in a hurry.
Ladies who have problems. Problems like yours, I should think, although there must be other sorts of problems.”
“You mean she could find me a husband who wouldn’t mind me already being with child by someone else?”
“Ye-es.” Although Fanny didn’t sound quite so sure now.
Georgiana narrowed her eyes. “How is it you know all this?”
Fanny smiled, more confident again. “Papa goes there, and he has lots of friends who do, too. Not because they want wives, as all of them are married. They go there because…” she paused, and her cheeks flushed pink.
“Because there are ladies there whom they don’t need to marry.
If you see what I mean.” The flush became darker. “And also to gamble, of course.”
Georgiana’s turn to stare wide eyed and open mouthed. “Do you mean it’s a brothel? You want me to go to a brothel and throw myself on the mercy of its madam?” Her voice rose in indignation.
Fanny shrugged in a very matter of fact way. “I think it might be your best bet.”
“I ask you again. How on earth do you know all this? You surely aren’t privy to what your father and his friends talk about when in their cups…are you?” Although having met Fanny’s father, anything was possible.
Fanny sighed as though she considered she were dealing with a particularly stupid child.
“You are so sensible and clever in some ways, Georgie dear, but so behind the door in others. Witness the fact that you let a handsome face talk you into surrendering your most precious commodity.” She held up her hand to silence a protest. “Have you never listened at doors? No. I forgot. There would have been nothing interesting to hear in your aunt’s house.
Well, there is at Denby House, both here and in Wiltshire.
Papa’s friends all have such loud voices, especially when they’ve been drinking.
That’s how I come by all my information.
It’s quite amazing what you can learn if you just listen. ”
Georgiana surveyed her friend with some admiration.
She hadn’t really expected she would be able to come up with a solution, but needs must when the devil drives, and going to this Mrs. Dove-Lyon began to seem like it might be the best opportunity to provide her unborn child with a legal name.
If Fanny was correct. What a good thing Aunt Patience wasn’t a fly on the wall in here.
This conversation would have made her toes curl, and her hair stand on end.
She swallowed down her trepidation. “How do I find this Lyon’s Den?”