Chapter 11
“Look at this!” Father shouted, tossing the scandal sheets across the breakfast table.
Marina jumped as if she had been slapped.
The sisters hadn’t mentioned anything about last night’s events to their father.
They hadn’t even discussed it with one another after they’d arrived home.
Susan had rather hoped the whole thing would dissipate overnight—perhaps something more scandalous would happen to take its place in people’s minds.
After all, Marina hadn’t been on the patio with Gilbert for very long.
But she should have known better. The people of London society would do anything to feed a scandal. She rose to her feet, picked up the piece of paper, and scanned it.
“Father, this isn’t true,” she said, striving to keep her voice calm.
“I was there all night. I saw exactly what happened. This says that Marina and Gilbert were found in a compromising position, but I saw what happened. The truth is that the two of them were alone on the patio for less than a minute. There was an embrace, and he held her hand. That’s all it was. ”
“Do you think that matters?” her father snapped. “Are you planning to go door to door and explain it to everyone in London? Because if not, Susan, they’re going to believe what’s written here, not what you’re telling me.”
“Father, isn’t it more important what’s true?” Susan asked. “And not what people think? What matters is that we know Marina, and we know what happened. We trust her.”
“Of course that isn’t what’s important! Use your head, Susan. People are going to believe these terrible things about your sister—whether they’re true or not is utterly irrelevant! And where were you while all of this was going on, anyway?”
“It’s not Susan’s fault, Father,” Marina spoke up. Her voice trembled slightly, but she met her father’s eyes. “She was doing what she was supposed to be doing—dancing with the Duke.”
“Well, at least one of my daughters has some sense! To tell the truth, I wouldn’t have expected you to be the sensible one, Susan,” Father said. “You’ve always been the most difficult. But then, perhaps your engagement to the duke has done you more good than I realized.”
“I only took my eyes off of Marina for a moment, Father,” Susan said. “Truly there was only a short stretch of time when I wasn’t with her. I know you were joking about going door to door, of course, but I do believe that if we put forth the true story of what happened, people will understand.”
“And how scandalous can this really be?” Marina asked.
“It’s not as if I was out on the patio with a gentleman I hardly knew, Father.
I was with Gilbert, who’s courting me. Even if people don’t find my behavior perfectly appropriate, surely they can understand that I just wanted a moment with the man I’m likely going to marry. ”
“No one will understand that at all,” Father snapped. “It’s going to look as if you were trying to entrap him.”
“Gilbert will tell everyone that it wasn’t like that! He’ll speak for me!”
“And that will make him look as if he’s trying to distance himself from scandal,” their father said.
He sighed heavily. “You need to realize, Marina, that once the ton has decided what the story is going to be, there’s little chance of changing their minds.
They have printed this tale about you—this is what people are going to believe.
There’s very little chance of going back now. ”
Marina lifted her chin. “Then we’ll just marry at once,” she said. “We’ll rob them of their ability to speculate about us—we’ll give them the truth, which is that we are in love.”
“No, you can’t marry now,” Father said. “Everyone will understand that you only did it to rid your names of scandal. You’ll look foolish.”
“I don’t care how I look! I want to marry the man I love,” Marina said, her voice shaking.
“Father, surely this will all blow over if there’s a wedding,” Susan said, but for the first time, she felt a prickle of doubt. What if Father was right? What if people continued to assume the worst of Marina? It would be all her fault for having taken her eyes off her sister.
“No, there’s only one thing to be done now,” Father said. “We’ll have to move forward with your wedding, Susan, as quickly as possible. It’s the only way we can regain control of the story. We have to make sure everyone sees that my daughters are still desired by high-ranking men.”
“Father, the Duke doesn’t wish to be married right away,” Susan said. “He told me he wanted to take his time.” Her heart raced. This wasn’t what was supposed to be happening. Father was supposed to have turned his focus to Marina’s wedding—he was supposed to have forgotten about Susan and Norman.
“That doesn’t matter,” Father snapped. “He’s going to change his mind, Susan. Because of your sister’s indiscretions, this whole family is now at risk.” He sighed. “Marina, you were supposed to be the easy one. You were the one who was going to be married with no fuss and no trouble.”
“I still can, Father,” Marina protested.
“No, you can’t. Not after this scandal. We need to see Susan married first.”
A chill swept through Susan.
What was she going to do? She had made arrangements with Norman that probably couldn’t be undone.
The two of them had decided not to marry one another—that was established.
What was he going to say when Father wrote to him and told him that the wedding needed to take place at once?
Surely he wouldn’t be willing to go along with it.
But what was the alternative? If Susan didn’t marry him, Father would scramble to find her a different arrangement. This time, she might end up engaged to someone truly dreadful. And how could she possibly make her peace with that?
What was Marina thinking? All right, I should have been keeping an eye on her, but at the same time, she’s an adult, and she’s capable of taking responsibility for herself—at least, she should be.
She shouldn’t have gone out onto the patio alone with Gilbert.
She knows better than that! But she’s just been so foolish lately, so carried away with her own feelings of infatuation.
Susan rose to her feet.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Father demanded.
“Do you need me for something?” Susan asked. “Or may I be excused?”
She saw her father pondering the question and knew that he wanted to come up with a reason to make her stay at the table. He was angry, and he wanted to keep his daughters at the table so he could go on scolding them.
Ordinarily, Susan would have remained so as not to leave Marina alone with their father’s wrath.
But suddenly her own anger was too much to be borne.
She did everything for her sister. She went through so much to ensure that Marina’s life could be just what she wanted it to be.
And Marina couldn’t even behave herself for a single night.
Everything was going to be ruined, and it was all her fault.
So let Father scold her all he liked, but Susan was not going to stay and be a part of it.
Father seemed to realize that he had no good argument for keeping her at the table. He inclined his head.
Susan turned and fled.
She would ordinarily have gone to the library, which always felt like a refuge in hard times, but that was the first place Marina would come looking for her, and Susan did not want to be found by her sister.
Not right now. If the two of them got into a conversation, Susan knew she would say things she’d regret.
She’d blame Marina for her actions last night—she would speak to her in anger.
Oh, Leah—if only you were here!
Leah was Susan’s example of what an older sister ought to be, and the model she’d always tried to emulate.
But in Leah, the qualities of an older sister came so naturally.
She was brave and strong and selfless. She was comforting.
She would have known exactly what to say in this moment.
She’d have come up with something that would have made both Susan and Marina feel better, somehow.
Susan couldn’t think of what to say that might have that effect, though, so it would be best to stay away from her sister for now. She avoided the library—and her bedroom, another easy place to find her—and went out into the garden instead.
The bench at the very center of the path was a good place to hide. She would hear footsteps if anyone started to come this way, and at the very least, she would be able to prepare herself to greet them. She sat down on the bench and took in the view of the flowers with a sigh.
She had never been exactly enamored of the garden. But she recalled the time she’d strolled along the path at Norman’s estate, and how much she had genuinely liked it. If she married him, that garden would be hers.
There might be good things in a life with Norman. He had pledged to let her oversee additions to the garden—although who knew whether he had actually meant that? He might redact the offer now that they were actually going to be married.
That is, if we’re actually going to be married. He still hasn’t agreed. Not really. He’s agreed to the original proposal, but how is he going to react when he realizes we have to go through with it?
He might well decide he wanted nothing more to do with her or her family. He would have the perfect excuse to walk away after Marina’s scandal.
Susan half-hoped he would. It would make her look bad, yes, and it would ruin Marina’s prospects, but she couldn’t help it.
She was so angry. Why should she be the one who had to fall on her sword so that her sister could live out her dreams?
Why, when Marina was the one whose reckless behavior had destroyed everything she had worked so hard to put into place?
She sighed and leaned back into the hedges, and though the twigs poked at her back, she found she didn’t mind. The little pains were a good distraction from the ache in her heart and the fear of what lay ahead.
I’ll go through with it. I’ll marry Norman if he’ll have me. Even now, I do want Marina to be happy, and if this will guarantee that for her, I’ll see to it that it happens.
But if Norman rejects me…
If he cast her aside, Father would want to make a different arrangement for her, and if it came to that, Susan thought, she would put her foot down. She would refuse outright.
She had given them enough.
It would be Norman, or it would be nobody at all.