Page 20 of A Mismatch Made in London

A tear dripped from her eye. “Thank you, miss.”

I had half expected her to be angry with my promise to help. She must think there was little or nothing that I could do, and she might be right. But instead of saying so, she had thanked me. She so badly needed a bit of hope. Her forlorn, tear-streaked face made my heart expand toward her.

I went to search for Mr. Beaumont, something I never thought I would do, and I found him coming up the staircase.

“May I speak with you?” I said.

“Where is Juliet?”

Was he afraid I was trying to compromise him? “I think she’s practicing in the music room.”

Just then we heard the pianoforte.

Without a word, he turned and headed to the music room.

Already my feelings were high. Now I felt the blood rise intomy cheeks.Of all the ridiculous things, forcing me to talk to him only in front of his sister.That was all well and good, for he might not like his sister hearing what I had to say.

Once we were in the music room, I didn’t wait for Juliet to stop playing and acknowledge us. I spun around to face him.

“Are you aware that your friend, Johnathan Skeffington, has gotten one of your servants with child, in your own home, and is refusing to help her or even accept a letter from her?”

“Excuse me, what?” His face scrunched as he gave me his most intense stare.

“Which part did you not hear?” I’d once heard my mother say that to one of my brothers when he was in trouble. “Your servant is with child, and the father is your friend. Mrs. Smith is threatening to dismiss her, and she has no family to help her. This is an injustice, and I—”

Juliet stopped playing. “What is the matter? Amelia? You look positively flushed.” Then she looked at her brother and shook her finger at him. “Jeremy, what have you done to upset Amelia?” She stepped out from behind the instrument and hurried toward us.

“Nothing, but it appears Skeffington ... Miss Moore, you can be sure that I shall take care of this posthaste. If Skeffington is guilty, I shall drag him back here by his ear if I must, but he shall be made to take responsibility.”

“I should hope so. The girl has used poor judgment and done something she shouldn’t have, but she did not get herself with child, not without help.”

“Amelia!” Juliet looked shocked, but then she laughed, a short sound. “Who is with child?” she whispered.

“One of the servants,” I whispered back.

“I shall make sure the girl is taken care of,” Jeremy Beaumont said quietly, before turning and leaving the room.

Well, that went better than I expected. I was glad Jeremy Beaumont was doing the right thing, but it was no more than whata gentleman should do to protect his household from friends without morals.

“It is very compassionate of you to defend her,” Juliet said. “After all, housekeepers dismiss servants for this kind of moral failing all the time. They don’t care if they’ve been abandoned or not.”

I was well aware. “We all make mistakes. And I don’t like thinking about a wealthy gentleman taking advantage of a young servant girl like that. Who is to say that we might have been taken in just as she was, were we in the same circumstance?”

Juliet tilted her head to one side. “You are too good, Amelia, too kind, and also too humble, for I am sure you wouldnothave been taken in just as she was.”

“I am very fortunate, and therefore I shall never know. My mother always says, ‘Judge not lest you be judged,’ so I try to show grace.”

Juliet sighed. “I am too quick to judge other people’s failings.”

“Well, perhaps in this case, we can reserve our judgment for the gentleman who took advantage of a servant girl while visiting his friend.”

“I hope you don’t think Jeremy had anything to do with the moral failing of his friend. Johnathan Skeffington was always a man who drank too much, and Jeremy made sure I was never left alone with him. In fact, he sent me away to stay with our cousins not long after Mr. Skeffington arrived. But you can be sure that Jeremy had nothing to do with what happened to this servant girl. He would never participate in something so wrong.”

“Well, I should hope not.” I mumbled the words, more or less, to myself.

“Indeed, I did not have anything to do with it.” Mr. Beaumont was suddenly behind me. “I did discover that he was trifling with one of the servants, but I did not know it had gone so far, and I sent him home as soon as it was discovered.”

He had changed into traveling clothes.