Page 85 of Sacrificing the Untamed Lady Henrietta
“Lead the way, My Lady.” He flashed her a grin as they exited the Old Bell, taking one of the waiting carriages into Scarborough. Henrietta remained silent throughout the journey, her mind racing with thoughts of the enigmatic Isobel, though she leant her head on Ewan’s shoulder. She did not wish him to think that their squabble was serious for, in truth, she was glad of his presence. As before, it made her feel infinitely safer.
They pulled up outside the postal office some twenty minutes later, with Ewan remaining inside the carriage whilst Henrietta moved into the alleyway. For a further fifteen minutes, she waited. Her eyes darted this way and that, looking for any sign of the woman, but it soon became clear that she was not coming.
Exasperated, she turned once more to look the length of the alleyway, in case she had missed something. A movement drew her attention—so small that it could have been a rat scuttling from its hole. However, she could not ignore it. Drawing upon her courage, she began to walk down the alley towards the far end.
Turning the corner, she found Isobel cowering behind a stack of crates, her exit blocked by a high wall. Evidently, she had been spying on Henrietta, hoping to stay undetected in her hiding place.
“It seems I have finally caught up with you, whoever you are,” Henrietta said coldly. Isobel had nowhere to run to now.
She sneered. “Not for lack of trying.”
“Why did you lie?” Henrietta asked bluntly, not wanting to waste time beating around the bush. “I felt sympathy for your condition, and it was all deceit and subterfuge. You are working for Mr. Booth, are you not? Come now, you cannot deny it.”
“And what if I am? What business is it of yours?”
“It happens to concern me a great deal,” Henrietta replied, refusing to back down from Isobel’s bitter voice.
“Why should it? Your family was the one to cast him out. I should say you deserve whatever you get.”
“At Mr. Booth’s hand?” Henrietta shook her head in despair. “I wished only to offer you kindness, and you hurled it back at me. I asked you to watch Mr. Booth, and tell me of any peculiar behavior. Why agree, if you only intended to deceive me?”
She shrugged. “I had every intention of meeting with you, until Seth told me what you had done—thatyouwere the cause of his dismissal and our misery. You speak of lies, but you deceived me first.” Bitterness dripped from her every word. “Indeed, he said I ought to stay away from you, and arranged for me to take rooms elsewhere. He does not wish me to be associated with the likes of you, for rather obvious reasons.”
“You spoke to him of me?”
“Of course, I did. I am duty bound to him.”
Henrietta frowned. “How can you be? You are no relation to him—I know there is no sick mother, and I know you cannot be his sister, for she died when she was younger. Who are you to him? Why are you protecting him in this way?”
“Even with all your education, you can’t figure it out?” A cold laugh rasped from the back of her throat.
“I don’t know who you are, Isobel.”
Her stare hardened. “I am his wife, Lady Peterborough. For that is who you are, isn’t it—his former employer’s daughter, recently married to a grand Lord? How pleasant that must be for you, when we are barely scraping by,” she spat. “You are not my husband’s friend at all. He scoffed when I told him what you had said to me—how you had fooled me into watching his every move.”
“How can you be his wife?”
She laughed icily. “We wed in secret. It is why I told you I was his sister—it is an easier explanation in this world of cruel gossip. We have been married for almost five years, though not even your father thought to notice. We have two children to feed, and you ruined it all. You caused him to lose his employ, and now we have nothing. Lord Averson has yet to pay my husband, and until he does, we are destitute.”
“I can offer you recompense, if it is money you require.” Guilt twisted in Henrietta’s stomach. She had not meant to cause so much trouble for this woman and her children, but Seth was not entirely innocent in all of this. He was the one who had brought Aaron Oliver’s wrath down upon himself, and he had been made to endure the consequences. Henrietta could not be held responsible for that, no matter how Seth wished to punish her.
“I thought you could not sink any lower,” Isobel muttered. “Have you not done enough to my family?”
“Mr. Booth spoke out of turn. What else could he expect? I do not deserve the hatred he is bombarding me with.”
Isobel sneered. “You deserve everything you get.”
“Has he told you of what he plans to do to me?” Panic shivered through Henrietta’s words.
“Even if he had, do you think I would tell you?”
Henrietta leveled her gaze at Isobel. “And would you have me suffer for something I did not do? My father dismissed him, not I. I only wished to submit an application to become a physician, and he spurned me in front of my father.Thatis what caused his dismissal.”
Isobel’s expression changed for a moment. “You wished to become a physician?”
“Are you about to mock me?”
“No… I once thought to be a nurse, but my husband forbade my working as soon as we were wed. It is a noble profession, and one where we women may be as brave and fearsome as the men. I would not mock such a thing. It is, perhaps, foolish, but it is also admirable.” She paused, the cogs visibly whirring in her mind. “He told me that you put one of your pendants into his coat pocket when he was not looking and framed him for the theft.”
