Chapter Two
Three Days Later
Miss Adaline Girard descended from her carriage and nodded to a group of women who were walking past. The Misses Gracely’s she knew, though not the other woman with them. They glanced at her and hurriedly looked away, covering their mouths to hide their giggles.
Adaline raised her brows. Good heavens. What had brought that on?
She pushed open the door to her cousin Lucy’s hat shop, already putting the strange incident behind her.
Today was ribbon day. And she was eager to see what gorgeous new creations Lucy had come up with.
Lucy had also informed her she was expecting a new shipment of velvet ribbon in a beautiful sapphire blue, and Adaline was hoping to procure some to wear in her hair with her new ballgown.
As she entered, Mrs. Boyles and her daughter were just leaving. Adaline smiled at them. They froze for a second before returning her smile. Odd.
“My lady,” Miss Boyles said with a quick bob of a curtsy, before she burst into giggles.
Her mother hissed at her and hurried her out the door.
“Whatever was that about?” she asked aloud.
“Adaline,” Lucy said, hurrying toward her. “Thank goodness you are here.”
She grabbed Adaline’s hand and dragged her to the back of the store, glancing out once more at the empty salon before rounding on Adaline.
“Is it true?”
Adaline simply stared at her, baffled. “Is what true?”
“What everyone is saying?” Lucy said, throwing up her hands.
Adaline cocked a brow. “My dear Lucy, I have no idea what anyone is saying. We’ve only just returned last night.
You know how Mother prefers to be in the country since Father passed.
It is a miracle I convinced her to return as early as we have.
But there are several balls coming up that I simply couldn’t miss and—what on earth is it?
” she exclaimed at the growing look of horror on Lucy’s face.
“Oh…oh dear.” Lucy let out a deep breath and then reached out to grasp her hands, tugging her over to plop down on the overstuffed sofa she kept in the back room. “There…have been rumors.”
“Rumors?” Adaline asked slowly.
Lucy nodded. “About you.”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
Adaline waited, but Lucy hesitated.
“Oh, for the love of Heaven, out with it. It cannot be as dire as all that,” Adaline said with a chuckle. “I haven’t even been in town for weeks.”
Lucy pressed a hand to her face and then nodded again. “Very well. Henry has been prattling all over town that he has procured a match for you. With Lord Edward Brelsford.”
“Lord Edwar—the Marquess of Lockhaven?” Adaline’s jaw dropped. “But…I have never even met the man. Surely Henry would have spoken to me first. I cannot believe—”
“That is not the worst of it, dearest,” Lucy said gently.
“Not the worst? My brother has supposedly betrothed me to a man I do not know. How can it be worse?”
At least the man was handsome, she supposed. And not too much older than she. Still—
“Apparently, the marquess was unaware of any such match,” Lucy said, closing her eyes briefly.
Adaline blinked at her. “If he was unaware, then how did Henry…”
“I do not know,” Lucy said. “Only that two days ago, Henry began spreading it about that he had procured this match for you. And that not only had you been informed, but you were delighted. So delighted that you had already begun ordering your trousseau, and new calling cards with your new title emblazoned upon them. And…”
She hesitated again, and Adaline blew out a breath. “Just say it,” she murmured. It couldn’t be much worse than she’d already heard.
“He said you’d already begun choosing names for your children. The first, of course, being Edward, after his father.”
“He what?” Adaline shouted, lurching to her feet. “How could he say such things, in public, without even speaking with me first?”
“Oh, darling girl, it is even worse than that,” Lucy said, her gaze full of sympathy.
Adaline’s knees went weak with dread, and she dropped back to the couch. “How much worse?” she asked faintly.
“Yesterday in church, the first banns were read…for Lord Edward Brelsford, the Marquess of Lockhaven, and his soon-to-be bride, the widowed Mrs. Selena MacLaren.”
Adaline’s head spun. “So…so…Henry has been telling the entire world that not only am I engaged to Lockhaven, but am thrilled about the prospect, to the point of naming our future children, when all the while Lockhaven is actually engaged to be married to another?”
“I’m afraid so,” Lucy said, gripping her hand.
Adaline let out a sound that might have been a squeak, but her throat was so tight with horrified emotion, no sound escaped.
“I…I need to go,” she said, rising stiffly and moving to the door.
“Are you all right, dearest?” Lucy said, following her.
“Yes,” she answered faintly.
In all truth, no, no she was not. But there was nothing poor Lucy could do about the situation.
“I will tell anyone I hear uttering a word of this nonsense the truth of the matter.”
“Thank you,” Adaline said with a vague smile.
But what was the truth of the matter? How had such a rumor been started?
Well…she knew the how of it. Henry.
“I will come to visit you this evening,” Lucy said, watching from the door as Adaline hurried into her carriage. She waved to her cousin before instructing the driver to take her home.
Her numbness was beginning to wear off and was replaced by a burning anger toward the apparent instigator of this humiliation.
Henry.
Oh, they would have words.
The door had barely closed behind her when she was shouting for her brother.
“Miss Girard,” Bartlett, their butler, stopped in front of her, his face lined with concern. “I am afraid I must inform you that the Misses Chomleys and Lady Bennett have sent their regrets for this afternoon. They will not be able to attend your soiree after all as they have taken ill.”
She stared at him, aghast. “They have taken ill? All of them?”
Bartlett frowned with both confusion and insult on her behalf. Dear man. “So it would seem, Miss.”
She rounded on her heels, aiming her voice at her father’s…well, her brother’s now… study. “Henry!” she yelled again with no care for decorum.
He popped his head out of the door to his study, his startled face glancing about until he saw her. And then the coward ducked back in, closing the door behind him.
She snorted and stomped over, not bothering to knock before she threw the door open.
He made a distinctly ungentlemanly squeak as he dropped into his seat. “This is my private office,” he sputtered. “You cannot just—”
“I can, and I shall,” she retorted, marching toward him.
He remained sitting, keeping his desk between them. “Well then, what has you in such an upset?”
She stared at him, open-mouthed with surprise. “Do you really need to ask?”
She could see in his face that he knew exactly to what she referred. His jaw worked a few times, his teeth visibly grinding. “I do not—”
“Henry,” she snapped. “How could you? The whole of London is laughing at me.”
He let out a sigh. “I merely sought to find you the most advantageous match. I would have thought you’d be pleased to be the Marchioness of Lockhaven.”
She threw her hands up. “Perhaps. If I had ever met the marquess. Or, indeed, if he had any notion whatsoever that I even existed!” She planted her hands on the desk, leaning as close to Henry as she could get without actually climbing over the furniture.
“Why would you spread it about that we are betrothed when, apparently, not only did the man never offer for my hand, but he is already engaged to someone else?”
“I had been assured by his own brother that the match was all but set. Lord Hugo was very clear—”
“Lord Hugo is not Lord Edward. He has no say over who his elder brother weds. Perhaps if you had spoken to the duke, you might have had cause to hope. But even then, you should not have said a word until the contracts were signed and the banns were read. Instead, not only have you have bandied it about that a match was made, but you made it seem that I had not only agreed but done so eagerly. So eagerly that I was already ordering stationary and naming my children! Are you mad?” she shouted.
He had the grace to look a little sheepish, but that stubborn streak of his would just not allow him to admit he was in the wrong. “I am only trying to secure your future.”
“Yet all you have done is destroy it,” she lamented.
Henry rolled his eyes. “Well, that seems a bit dramatic.”
Adaline threw her hands up again. “No, Henry. It isn’t.”
“What is all this ruckus about?” their mother said, entering the study.
This time Henry threw up his hands. “Does no one knock?”
“No,” both Adaline and their mother said.
“Now, explain yourselves, both of you. I can hear your voices all the way in my salon. If my guest hadn’t had to cancel at the last minute—”
“Oh no, Mother. Not you too,” Adaline said.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I mean, Henry has apparently destroyed the reputation of not only myself but the entire family. He’s made us a laughingstock.” Then she went on to tell her mother about what had happened.
“I did no such thing,” he said, slamming his hands on the desk as he rose. “Lord Hugo Brelsford is at fault. He is the one who assured me of this match. He is the one who has humiliated our family for his own sport. If you want to blame someone, blame him.”
“I shall blame you both,” Adaline said. “The next time you wish to play games with someone’s life, I suggest you stick to your own.”
With that, she spun around and marched straight to her room, leaving their mother to chastise Henry further.
She had a bleak future to contemplate.
Even Lucy visiting her later that evening did not lift her spirits as they usually did.
Her dear cousin had been her companion for three years when her own parents had died.
Her father had been a vicar. A good man, but not wealthy enough to leave his daughter more than a pittance to survive on once he’d passed, let alone a dowry.
Luckily, Adaline’s father had welcomed his cousin’s child into his family, and she and Lucy had been fast friends ever since.
And they continued to be close, even after Lucy had married Mr. Darrow and used the small dowry the Girards had provided for her to start the millinery.
To call Lucy Darrow honest was an understatement unworthy of the title.
She took the virtue to militant and brutal levels.
But she could at least always be counted upon to tell Adaline exactly what was on her mind.
She was also wise beyond her years with an uncanny ability to predict the outcomes of whatever circumstance came their way.
Though perhaps that wasn’t too difficult, as Adaline had a penchant for finding trouble.
Or diving into it when it found her. So Adaline typically heeded her advice.
But at this moment, even Lucy’s sage wisdom failed to comfort her.
“It will blow over soon enough,” Lucy assured her. “There is always some new gossip or scandal brewing.”
“But what if it doesn’t?” Adaline asked.
“Mother and I have both had our invitations go unanswered, or had our guests plead illness and send their regrets. If this morning is any indication, I will be greeted with laughter and hateful remarks wherever I go. How will I ever find a husband if I cannot get anyone to stop laughing at me long enough to court me?”
Lucy raised a brow. “I didn’t think you were so eager for marriage.”
“I wasn’t,” Adaline said, letting out a long sigh. “But now that Father is gone and Henry is in charge of the household, I would give anything to be the mistress of my own domain. I certainly cannot trust him to secure my future.”
“Hmm, no, I shouldn’t think so,” Lucy agreed.
Then she took Adaline’s hands, giving them a gentle squeeze.
“Don’t you worry. People will forget. And as horrible as this is right now, you are not ruined.
Embarrassed, yes. But that will fade. Let us just hope that Henry keeps his matchmaking schemes to himself from now on. ”
Adaline chuckled, feeling slightly better.
Lucy was right. She may be the joke of the town at the moment, but she wasn’t in ruined disgrace.
As long as she kept a low profile for a few weeks—and Henry didn’t do anything else to worsen the situation—with any luck, she would be back to dancing at balls and walking down the street without being laughed at in no time.