Page 104 of Foolish Bride
The next few weeks passed with long, tiring days. The difficulty in getting the banns announced, and arranging a wedding in as short a time as was respectable, created more tension between Elinor and her mother.
Virginia was constantly worried that the events at Marlton Hall and in Scotland would become known amongst the peerage, and all would be lost. She reminded Elinor of this several times a day in dramatic fashion.
The parlor was silent. Mother had gone shopping and thankfully left her at home alone. Elinor picked a book off the shelf and curled her feet under her. The fire burning in the hearth was delightful.
She was just becoming absorbed in the book when the butler announced, “Lady Dorothea Flammel to see you, miss.”
Clapping the book shut, she put it aside.
Dory’s perfect hair and perfect figure were clad in the perfect dress as usual, but her face was pale and her expression near panic.
Elinor’s chest clenched, and she rushed forward. “What is it, Dory? You look as if someone has died.”
“Then you have not heard?” Dory took her hands.
“Heard what?”
“Somehow the incidents of Scotland have become known. It’s all over town. The afternoon paper is said to be printing a story that will tell the entire tale.”
“No,” Elinor said. “How could anyone know? It’s not possible.”
The door flew open, and Virginia ran in. Her hair was half out of its coif. The lace at the bottom of her dress was torn and dragging on the carpet. “We are ruined!” She flung herself onto the settee and threw her arm over her eyes.
“Mother has obviously heard,” Elinor said.
“Oh, Dory, thank God you’re here. We must make a plan of what to do,” Lady Burkenstock urged, but she did not move from her dramatic position.
“Mother, it would be best to wait and see what people actually know. Let’s just see what is written in the paper before we do anything rash.”
Putting down her arm, Virginia looked at Elinor. “How can you be so calm? Don’t you understand? We are ruined! We will have to call off the wedding. We might have to leave the country. We shall never be allowed to show our faces in good society again!”
Elinor raised an eyebrow. Why had the news of her repeated ruin not sent her into fits as it would have done a year ago? “We will not call off the wedding. I am marrying Michael next Saturday. If the chapel is empty for the service, then so be it, but the wedding will go on.”
Mother sat up. “Do you really think that Kerburghe will want to marry you now that your reputation is destroyed? He has his own family to consider. After the scandals that his father created, he will run for the hills the moment he hears of this. After all, that is what he did at the last sign of trouble.”
Elinor narrowed her eyes at her mother. “He will not run, and that is not what he did last time. We will be married next week regardless of what the papers know or do not know, Mother. Is that clear?”
Mother gaped. “I do not think I really like this new side of you, daughter.”
She shrugged and sat on the settee to wait for the paper to arrive.
Dory sat next to her, smiled and patted her hand. “Good for you.”
When the afternoon edition arrived, Mother snatched it off the silver tray that the footman had delivered it on. She fanned it and swallowed. Opening the paper, she closed it again before giving in.
She read aloud.
More secrets are lurking behind the walls of the Earl of Malmsbury’s home. It would seem that the young miss of that household was recently married in Scotland, in spite of the fact that she is about to marry a prominent member of the peerage next week. I have further learned that the sudden marriage was followed by an even more sudden death, making the poor girl a wife and a widow in a matter of hours. The only mystery here is why the laws of our country allow such a person to walk the streets with honest people of importance.
This reporter is appalled.
Virginia threw the paper aside and burst into tears.
Elinor rubbed her forehead. She could take little more of the ton and their gossip.
Dory picked up the paper and read it again. “None of this is true.”
“None of it is a lie, either,” Elinor said.
