Chapter Four #2
“Oh, my poor Maria. Poor, poor Maria! What a wretched turn of events. When Mama wrote to me of it, I was crushed. The troubles I endured when I was your age were purely of my own creation, but this—! Philip has asked around—discreetly, of course—and if it can be of any comfort to you, no one has any ill to speak of the young man. There was a fair amount of undergraduate mischief, it seems, but no more than that, and no more than the usual. Indeed, since Mr. Ellsworth was elected a fellow there hasn’t been a whisper of infamy, which is why Philip feels he may officiate your wedding without compunction.
No, Maria, it appears sadly enough to be a case of simple, innocent accident leading to catastrophe! ”
Maria could bear no more. She shook her second older sister off with what gentleness she could muster.
“It may be so, Jane, but I, for one, intend to make the best of it. While I would not have chosen the manner in which things came about, I think—yes—I think that, left to myself, if I had met him under other circumstances, I might have come to like Mr. Ellsworth on my own.”
Jane only hugged her again, eyes filling, clearly not believing a word but appreciating her sister’s effort to make the best of a bad bargain. Which only vexed Maria more.
Both Jane and her Philip deemed it wisest if Maria remained quietly within the parsonage grounds until her marriage, and if not for flying visits from her family members (always involving sighs and shakes of the head and murmured conversations with Jane whenever they thought Maria wouldn’t hear) and the antics of little Pippa and John, Maria would have been tempted to escape her confinement from sheer tedium and nerves.
But one morning a few days after her arrival, when Philip and Jane were out on parish duties and Nurse had the children, the maid Friese poked her head into the parlor, grimacing with alarm. “A Mr. Benjamin Ellsworth, miss.”
That is, Friese was perfectly aware who this Mr. Benjamin Ellsworth was, even if she had never seen him before, and she hardly knew whether admitting him would be a matter of course or cause for dismissal when the master returned.
Alarm of a different nature riveted Maria to her seat.
Having expected this day to be like every other of her enforced seclusion, she had dressed that morning with a minimum of care, merely pinning up her braid and donning yesterday’s morning gown, upon which Pippa had splashed tea.
Jane and Maria had already determined the old thing could never be made white again and must be dyed, but the task had been put off for laundry day, and Maria had decided she might as well wear it again since no one would see her.
No one but her future husband!
He was in the room before she could do more than utter a despairing “What next?” and then she must lurch to her feet to make her curtsey, and—oh!—this was not how she had imagined beginning her new campaign!
Worse yet, now that Maria saw him neither (1) red and sweating and speckled with plaster, nor (2) just awakened from a bout of fever, she realized he was not simply a well-enough-looking young man, but rather an undeniably handsome one.
His black hair was orderly today, and his pleasing form made the most of an otherwise unremarkable dark blue coat and grey trousers.
“I—did not expect to find you alone,” he blurted when he straightened from his bow. “I thought to speak with Mr. Egerton.”
“My brother-in-law and sister are visiting some of their sick parishioners,” Maria answered, one hand splayed over the tea stain on her skirt while the other gestured him toward a chair.
“I don’t know when they will return. Though—the parish isn’t very large.
If you wandered around you might even meet them by chance. ”
She sat.
He sat.
Maria wondered if Nurse might reappear with the children. John was likely settled for his morning nap, but surely Pippa—?
Her niece might have been on the moon, however, considering the uncharacteristic silence filling every corner of the parsonage and threatening to deafen the two of them in the parlor.
“Er—what did you wish to speak to Philip about?” she asked at last. “Perhaps I might be of assistance.”
He crossed his boots at the ankle and then thought better of it and uncrossed them.
Maria had always thought it fortunate that women could hide their legs under skirts, for she had more than enough trouble trying to decide what to do with her arms. Fold them in her lap?
Wrap them protectively about herself? Rest them on the arms of the chair?
Or should she get up again and fetch the bit of work she had stuffed in Jane’s basket?
But getting up would mean another effort to hide the tea stain and would require Mr. Ellsworth to rise in courtesy, and it just all sounded too much.
To think we lay all night entwined, as comfortable as you please!
Actually, she should not have thought that thought, for crimson bloomed in her face, and her blush summoned answering color to his.
He attempted to clear his throat, only to emit a funny, high-pitched squeak like an old floorboard, which both he and Maria had to pretend not to hear.
“I suppose I don’t need Mr. Egerton,” he uttered. “That is, I’m not even acquainted with him. I came to—discuss—matters.”
Somehow, the squeak in his throat (and her own urge to giggle over it) relieved some of Maria’s strain, at least enough for her to remember that she hoped to make a new start with him, whether or not he yearned for his mysterious ring lady.
She winced. Stop that, Maria Barstow. Never mind her for now.
“What a situation we find ourselves in,” she began, her voice emerging at the same pitch as his earlier squeak. Any eavesdropper would mistake them for a family of mice! “Were you here to try to—extricate yourself?”
Instantly his brow darkened, and Maria guessed she had insulted him.
“I was not,” he said curtly. “I gave my word to the baron, as you witnessed, and I have not come to beg off.”
“Yes. Right.” Despite—or perhaps because of—his sharpness, Maria felt a prickle of rebellion.
It would behoove him to remember this impossible, ridiculous situation had been entirely his own doing, thank you very much!
If he hadn’t wanted to renounce his precious ring lady to marry Maria, he ought to have thought of that before he climbed into her bed!