Page 113 of A Much Maligned Miss

“We’re just going to try and find a booth near the fire so Edgar can sit down,” Caroline said, raising her voice above the din. Reg seemed to take this as a directive, for he rolled up his sleeves and headed in that direction.

“Oh, dear,” Caroline murmured. “I do hope he isn’t going to displace anyone on our behalf.” Four disgruntled patrons soon came from that direction grumbling and looking hard done by.

Reg beckoned to them. “There’s a booth free for you now, Miss Caroline,” he said, looking wholly unrepentant.

“Thank you, Reg.” She and Edgar slid into the dark wooden booth.

“Shall I fetch you another drink, Miss Caroline?” She glanced down. She had lost her glass of champagne at some point.

“That would be very kind, thank you, Reg.” He fixed another stern look on Edgar before retreating.

“Atherton keeps you under close surveillance, I see,” Edgar commented, not quite meeting her eye. “Is he afraid you’ll run away?”

“If he is, he has no cause to be,” she replied calmly. “Why? Are you here to try and entice me away?”

Edgar leaned forward in his seat. “Of course I am! Good God, Caro!” he said, coloring hotly. “Do you imagine I would be happy to find my sister in such a place as this?” He glanced about them incredulously. “In such unhappy circumstances?” His voice trembled, and he passed a hand over his face.

“When the rumors started circulating, I simply could not believe them at first,” he said in a low, unsteady voice. “I would never have believed that you could behave with such a—a complete want of moral decency! To run away with a man and without the protection marriage!” he said hoarsely.

“I have never been more shocked in my life! Mama has been an absolute wreck. I simply cannot fathom what could have induced you to behave in such a thoroughly reprehensible manner,” he concluded. To give him justice, he did sound utterly confounded.

Caroline regarded him steadily. “Can you not, Edgar?” she asked. “But there have always been rumors circulating about my dreadful behavior, have there not? And Mama has often bemoaned my rotten character. I’m sure Mrs. Ryland and her cronies were not surprised in the slightest.”

He lowered his gaze. “Caroline, please. You don’t understand. No one thought that you—that you were that wicked!” he burst out but then seemed to have difficulty continuing. “Moreover, you managed to select the worst possible time to take such an irrevocable step,” he added bitterly.

Caroline’s eyebrows rose. “The worst possible time?” she echoed. “How so?”

Reg appeared with a glass of champagne for Caroline and another brandy for Edgar. He placed her drink down carefully, then banged down Edgar’s and retreated a few steps, turning his back to them and folding his arms. Edgar picked up his drink with a hand that shook.

“Won’t you take off your wet things?” Caroline asked impulsively before she could stop herself. Old habits were hard to break, and she had been his older sister for a long time.

For a moment she thought he would coldly decline, but then he seemed to think the better of it and shrugged off his coat. He took a gulp of his drink and then leaned forward determinedly on the table.

“Caroline, I must now tell you something that does not reflect well on me.” He took a deep breath. “Eighteen months ago, I did something which, though I could never regret it, was underhand and unsanctioned, and I knew would break Mama’s heart.”

His voice shook. Caroline blinked. What in heaven’s name was this? A confession? She held her tongue and her brother threw her an anguished look. “I married the most wonderful girl in the entire world,” he confessed shakily.

Whatever Caroline had been expecting, it had not been a clandestine marriage. “Who?” she asked in surprise. “Not Blanche Needham,” she said with misgiving. Mama would be furious.

“Blanche, good God, no! That was nothing. Mere persiflage.”

“Who, then? Someone you know in Exeter?” A vague suspicion arose in the back of her mind. Gervaise’s mocking voice saying …suspicious, I must say, that your brother makes a point to never mention his landlady’s daughter. Most unnatural when you think about it.

“Yes,” he admitted, turning bright red. “You sort of know her actually, from years ago. I believe you were at school together.”

“Diana Hipworth!” Caroline breathed.

“Yes.”

“Oh, Edgar. Mama…”

“I know.” He gulped, his shoulders slumping. “She’s, well, she’s taken it badly.”

“You told her?”

“I didn’t have any choice,” he uttered, shamefaced. “Diana turned up on our doorstep with her mother in tow. They said they refused to keep it a secret any longer and Diana deserved to take up her rightful place beside me as mistress of Benham Hall.”

“Good grief!” Caroline muttered. “More grist to the rumor mill! Mrs. Ryland and her cronies must be beside themselves.”