Page 52 of Scandal at Greystone Manor

She nodded.

He considered this only for a moment before the truth dawned on him. Isabel had flirted with Drew, had been lively and happy in his presence, and had not wanted to come home. And Drew himself had admitted that was why he was going away. How blind he had been! ‘It’s my friend Drew, isn’t it?’

‘Yes, but he said he would not betray you. That’s why he went away.’

‘Oh.’

‘Jane says I’ll get over him because she did. He had asked Papa for permission to marry her, but Papa would not allow it on account of his lack of a fortune. It is why Jane never married. She says she soon got over him, but I’m not so sure, because I cannot believe no one else asked her, not when she was young and marriageable.’

‘Perhaps Jane is right.’

‘She is jealous. Drew told me himself that there had been someone else, but he had got over it long ago and was glad of it.’

Mark remembered Drew saying something of the sort, but he had had no idea it had been Jane. He found his emotions churning and it had nothing to do with being rejected by Isabel. He stood up and held out his hand to help her to rise. ‘Come, we will go and see your papa and thrash this out.’

She stood beside him, only reaching his shoulder. There were bits of grass and dead leaves clinging to her muslin dress and she brushed them off with impatient hands. ‘You needn’t come with me.’

‘I was coming to see you and Jane about going to Witherington, or had you forgot?’

‘Oh, that pesky orphanage. Yes, I had forgot.’

* * *

Sir Edward and Lady Cavenhurst were in the drawing room with Jane and it was evident they had been talking about Isabel’s extraordinary behaviour, but stopped when they saw that Mark was with her.

‘Come in and sit down, my boy,’ Sir Edward said, indicating a chair. ‘I can see by the look of you that my foolish daughter has told you of this silly notion of hers.’

‘I do not consider it silly,’ Mark said.

‘No, you would not, but rest assured it is only a passing fancy. It is nerves brought about by your father’s demise and the prospect of becoming Lady Wyndham and the role she will be expected to fulfil. We will school her in what is expected of her and no doubt your mother will do so, too.’

‘I think perhaps it is more than that, Sir Edward, and I would not hold her to an engagement that is abhorrent to her.’

‘But the scandal,’ her ladyship protested.

‘We can end it by mutual consent,’ he said. ‘It will be Miss Isabel’s decision, of course, but I shall accept it gracefully.’

‘But why should you?’ Sir Edward queried. ‘She will get over her reluctance by the time you and your mother are out of mourning. If it had not been for Lord Wyndham’s untimely death, you would have been married by now. Less than a month ago she talked of nothing else.’

‘That was before she met my friend, Drew Ashton.’

‘What?’ Sir Edward exploded, turning to Isabel who had seated herself on a chair near the door, almost as if she were prepared to flee again. ‘Has that mountebank turned your head just as he did you sister’s?’

‘He is not a mountebank,’ Isabel cried. ‘He is an honourable man. I love him and he loves me.’

‘I will not listen to this,’ her father told her. ‘I sent him packing once before and I shall do so again. You need not think I will ever consent to you marrying him.’

‘I expect that is why he went away,’ she said miserably.

Lady Cavenhurst turned to Mark. ‘I am sorry you had to hear this, my lord. Isabel is not usually given to tantrums, as you must know. No doubt she will be in a better frame of mind tomorrow.’

‘I came to arrange to go to Witherington,’ he said. ‘I am free tomorrow afternoon, if that is convenient to Jane?’

‘Yes, quite convenient,’ Jane said.

‘Then I will call at two o’clock.’ He rose and took his leave, leaving a silent and morose Cavenhurst family. He had no doubt they would continue to harangue poor Isabel. He did not want a reluctant wife and would happily release her. In truth, he felt nothing but a huge sense of relief. On the other hand, the revelation that Drew and Jane had once wanted to marry had come as a shock to him, but on quiet reflection, he remembered how they had seized every opportunity to be alone when Drew had come to stay at Broadacres. Sometimes his friend had gone riding alone. Had he been off to meet Jane? Was Jane still hankering after him? Was she jealous of her sister? Had they quarrelled over him? Jane had been very quiet while everyone else talked. He wished he had quizzed Drew a little more before he left. Now he did not know where he was.

---