Chapter 6
Six
Catherine went into Arabella’s room in the late morning. She carried the Debrett's.
Arabella screamed. It was not possible. Catherine opened the Debrett's, and Arabella read it through her tears. Shaking. And then screaming again.
Catherine sent James and their son Sebastian out of the house, to the former Lovelock town house, now owned by her stepdaughter Harry and her husband Thomas Drake.
She sent as many servants as she could to both the Lovelock and the Tregaron town houses.
Harry and Mary came to stay at the Middlewich town house to help Catherine and the remaining staff of only the most-trusted and longest-serving retainers.
Mary and Catherine were experienced in dealing with unmanageable emotions—after all, hadn’t they raised Harry together?
—but Arabella was inconsolable. The only time she quieted was when Harry sat on her bed and held both her hands tightly while looking at the ceiling.
Arabella’s tears might stop then, and she would sleep.
But only for an hour or two before she would wake and the tears and howls would begin again.
Catherine worried Harry’s baby would miss her mother, but Harry assured her that Thomas did more for Hypatia than she did.
“It is not fair to call him a doting father,” Harry said. “In truth, he is a mother without the breasts. Between him and the nursemaids, I scarcely get to hold her. They think I will drop her. Arabella needs me. And I am in no danger of dropping her.”
After three days of Arabella’s wretchedness, Catherine came into her room with a tray of breakfast. She would spell Mary and try to force Arabella to eat.
Mary was asleep in a chair, and Arabella was awake, staring at nothing. Catherine woke Mary and sent her to her own bedchamber.
“Good morning,” Catherine said when the door closed behind the yawning Mary.
“It is not a good one, but I presume it is morning since you say so,” Arabella said. Her voice was hoarse from screaming and crying and moaning for so many hours, for so many days.
“Will you eat?”
“Yes, Mama.” Arabella took a spoon and had a bite of porridge. She laid the spoon down. “I am sorry to have been so foolish and false and caused so much trouble for so many people.”
“You have been hurt and betrayed, dearest, and you know all of us would do anything for you.”
“I woke up and saw Mary in the chair. She should not be sleeping in a chair, not with her pregnancy that she has wanted for so long! It made me feel dreadful.”
“She has only been in the chair for two hours. We have been trying to make sure we each have a chance to lie down. But you’re right that it would be better for her to sleep the night through in her own bed.”
“Yes.” Then, “No one need stay with me any longer. I won’t do myself an injury. And I don’t think I will cry anymore.”
And she didn’t.
The men in the family continued to mutter amongst themselves that they should know the name of the man in question. He was clearly a blackguard since there had been no marriage proposal.
But Catherine and Arabella kept their mouths shut and would not tell. Mary and Harry did not ask.
Catherine breathed a sigh of relief when Arabella’s monthly flow arrived. Now her daughter could rise above this horrible experience and begin to heal. In time, Arabella would find real love.