Chapter 30
CHAPTER 30
A rm in arm, Alice and Penelope stepped into the townhouse after a long afternoon spent wandering Pall Mall and lingering at the bookstore—a convenient reprieve from the tension that always seemed to simmer over the house during one of Eliza’s visits with Baron Portman.
“Do you think he has left?” Penelope asked, her voice low as if the question itself might conjure him back.
“I do hope so,” Alice replied while unlacing her bonnet. “But I am not looking forward to hearing her wax poetic about him over dinner while miserably attempting to conceal the true ulterior motives behind his recurring visits.,” she shuddered.
“Me neither,” Penelope tutted. “Perhaps we are being too cynical? Perhaps she truly has started to take a liking toward the man. I hope she gets married off soon so she can stop being so grouchy around me when it comes to suitors. We used to be close until our debuts.”
“I hope so too, but to a baron,” Alice tilted her head. “Unlikely.”
“Miracles do happen,” Penelope replied, touching the bracelet she had hardly let go of from the moment Benedict had won it for her at the fair.
“They do,” Alice nodded as they headed to her room. “To the best people.”
Just as they went to take the stairs, Aunt Agatha stepped out of the sitting room, her face tight, her lips flat, and instantly, Alice went tense. “Girls, come in for a moment. We need to speak about something important.”
“If this is about Lord Brampton—”
“It is not,” Aunt Agatha cut in swiftly. “Now come in and sit.”
As they entered, a hushed silence fell over the room. They found Eliza there too and the satisfied smirk she sported made Alice’s hackles rise. Taking the couch, Alice asked sweetly, “What is this about?”
“I… I hoped to say this as delicately as I could, but I am afraid there is no way around it,” Aunt Agatha said quietly. “Which of you is with child?”
Penelope went bloodless. Alice shot a look to Eliza—of course she had heard their conversation; of course she had run to her mother. If she was not afraid of Edward, Alice was sure she would have gone to the Times too.
“Pardon?” Alice asked. “Where is this coming from?”
“Which one of you is increasing?” Aunt Agatha brushed Alice’s question away to bulldoze on with her demand.
“W-why do you think that?” Alice asked innocently. “Is it because Eliza overheard Penelope and I talking yesterday? What right does she have to parrot our private conversation back to anyone?”
“Mother has graciously opened her home to you two urchins, and you think she has no right to know what is happening under her own roof?” Eliza muttered spitefully. “Is that how much respect you have for—”
“Silence, Elizabeth!” Aunt Agatha snapped suddenly. Her piercing gaze fixed on Penelope, who had gone pale under the weight of it. “Is it you, girl? Was it with that man, Rutledge?”
“I—I-”
“It’s me,” Alice blurted abruptly. “It is me, Aunt.”
“You?” Her aunt’s eyes widened. “ You ? Of all people, I thought you had more sense! I thought you were smarter, more responsible! And now—now you’ve gone and ruined us. You’ve ruined us—you’ve tossed us to the rags! Right as we were beginning to make waves in the peerage!”
You. I’ve ruined you. What about myself if I was truly encumbered?
“Oh dear, this is a disaster! Any chance of obtaining a suitable, secure husband for you will be lost, never mind finding one who will take on the child,” her aunt fretted. “Who is the father?”
“I shan’t tell you that,” Alice said mulishly. “I am allowed to keep some secrets to myself, aren’t I?”
“ Secrets? Have you turned insane you wench! You will tell me so I can find the family of this rapscallion and get him to do the proper thing. Else, I will be pushed to extreme measures!” Aunt Agatha threatened. “I thought you were the sensible one, not some heedless lightskirt who would debase herself like some common harlot!
“Couldn’t you have done the sensible thing like Eliza here and waited for the proper man? Her baron has a shipping business to the Americas and a caravan business up to Scotland. Couldn’t you have waited for a sensible man like that? Now you have ruined us all!”
A subtle glance passed between her and Penelope. Alice notched her head up in defiance. “Well, I am on the shelf, but you already know that. I’ll happily take myself to a convent and vanish from Town if it makes you so uncomfortable. I would hate to ruin your spectacular reputation around London.”
Her aunt’s eyes hardened, “Are you mocking me?”
“She is,” Eliza sniffed.
“I will not stand for that insolence!” her aunt snapped. “And I will not stand for your defiance either. You will tell me the name of the man, or I will not be so lenient with you!”
Alice stood. “I have no intention of marrying, so I suppose I shall ship myself off to a convent and save you and Uncle all the trouble.”
Penelope’s eyes widened and she rose too. “Alice, what are you—”
“No, Elly ,” Alice silenced her sister tellingly with a warning look and a hand to her wrist. “It is better this way. You… you will be fine. I am sure Lord Brampton will marry you soon enough. You be happy enough for both of us now. As far as I am concerned, the one duty I carried over from mother and father is now fulfilled.”
Pure distress hardened Penelope’s face. “N-no, no, you should not be getting punished for such a silly mistake—”
“Silly?” Her aunt squawked. “You think this is some trifling matter, girl? Men have all the latitude to do whatever they please in this land, but not the women. The only currency a woman has is her virtue and her reputation, and Alice has lost both. It is up to me now to make sure our family does not sink with her!”
Turning to her aunt, Alice replied, “Now that you know, may I be excused? I must lie down for a moment… I am feeling rather queasy.”
Aunt Agatha’s face paled immediately. “Y-yes, go to your chamber! At once!”
Without another word, Alice left the room to her quarters, slipped inside, and locked the door behind her. Inside, as tumultuous as it felt in her head, her heart pulled steadily; there was no calamity, there were no what-ifs. She had lost the only good thing she’d wanted in London anyway—Edward.
Maybe it would do her good to be somewhere else for a while.
Only one thing was for certain now—no one could ever learn the truth.