Chapter 27 #2
Abby paused and looked at Lara meaningfully.
‘Sometimes I would go driving in Hyde Park just in the hope of seeing him riding there.’ Abby pulled the soft shawl she was wearing more tightly around her shoulders and knees.
‘My mother was not in London much at this time, preferring to spend her days in Cambridge near to the libraries and her garden. During the Season, I lived with my aunt Augusta. It was assumed that I was being closely chaperoned, because she was a very severe woman. But the truth was, she was preoccupied with establishing her own daughters and she despised me. By the time anyone realised how deeply my affections were engaged it was too late. I had never listened to my aunt’s advice as her strictures were so numerous and in the main they were nonsensical.
So when she confronted me about Charles I neither believed her nor heeded her.
It took the intervention of her brother, my uncle Henry, to sever the connection.
Charles did not contest this. He had never viewed our relationship as anything other than a game, my fortune not being large enough to tempt him.
I still do not know what my uncle Henry said to Charles, but I do know from my mother that when Henry met Charles, he succeeded in humiliating him.
Charles never forgave him. He was an extremely proud man. ’
Lara rested her head back on the panel of wood under the counter and wished she could reach out and hold Abby’s hand.
‘After a period of two years, I became engaged to Miles. As near neighbours I had known him for many years, but as is often the case I could not see what was under my nose.’ Abby smiled sadly.
‘Before I married Miles I told him about Charles.
I thought it was only fair. We married and all was well.
I thoroughly enjoyed being a young wife.
I had much more freedom than I had as a single woman and Miles liked to spoil me.
He bought me clothes, jewels and horses, and thoroughly indulged my every wish.
I confess it went to my head somewhat. I liked to think I was smart and fashionable and it did not help that others began to follow my lead.
At that time, I made a good friend, Lady Emma Ketteridge.
She was some years younger than me, but was witty and vivacious so she appeared older – Kate very much reminds me of her.
Emma was a very wealthy woman, and it was not long before she caught the eye of Charles Hartbury.
Now she was rich enough to tempt him. He set about ensnaring her in the same way he had captured me.
But this time he was in earnest. I knew him to be the worst possible kind of man.
As a married woman, I heard far more about him than I had ever known as a single woman and it made me afraid for my friend.
I tried to tell her what he was like and even confessed to my previous infatuation in the hope that it would show her that I understood.
All it did was to convince her that I was acting out of jealousy.
‘At this point I took Miles into my confidence. He was not in a position to talk to Emma’s father as they were not that intimate and he believed it might damage my reputation by discussing my past with one who was almost a stranger.
’ Abby rubbed her nose. ‘Miles was always very protective of me,’ she said fondly.
Then she frowned. ‘It was at this point that we started to argue. I was genuinely worried about my friend and wanted at any cost to protect her, but Miles would not hear of it, if in doing so it might threaten my good name. So the arguments raged on.’ Abby sighed.
‘At length I came up with an idea. When our relationship had ended, Charles had written me an extremely cruel and vindictive letter. I believe he poured into it all the vitriol he could not display to my uncle Henry. Charles was essentially a bully and was cowed by someone stronger than himself, but he liked to exert his power over those whom he considered weaker. When the relationship ended, I had returned all his letters and asked him to return mine. He had not done so and it occurred to me that he might have kept them all. If I could show Emma this last letter from Charles, she could no longer delude herself about the type of man she would be marrying.’
‘How did you get hold of the letter?’ Lara wanted to know. By now, she was sitting cross-legged on the floor listening to Abby’s story. She was using the red jumper as a make-shift muff to keep her hands warm.
‘Miles saw to that. He was clever enough to realise that if Charles was a bully, there would be those among his staff whom he would have belittled and abused. It did not take him long to find a man whom Charles had dismissed unfairly and who had a score to settle. Using his connections in the household this man found the letters Charles had written and brought them to Miles.’
‘What did Emma say when you showed her?’ Lara asked.
‘She did not say anything,’ Abby replied. ‘I wish she had. I wish she had shouted at me, even struck me. I have never seen anyone in so much emotional pain.’
‘What did she say to Charles? Do you know?’ Lara asked.
‘She did not see him for a week or so, during which time I understand he became increasingly frantic. He had huge debts and his creditors were starting to hound him. When she did see him she broke off their “understanding”. I believe there was an engagement of sorts but she had kept it secret from her family, knowing they would not approve. I even think there had been talk of an elopement. In the course of their meeting, my name was mentioned. On returning home, Charles discovered the loss of his letters to me.’
‘What did he do?’ Lara was afraid she already knew the answer.