Page 103 of A Royal Kiss & Tell
Martha didn’t dispute her. She sat next to her on the bed and put her arm around her shoulders as she’d done many times through the years. “Don’t fret, milady. His lordship will make it better.”
But Beck didn’t make it better. He couldn’t make it better, no matter how he might have wanted to. If he wanted to. He summoned her to his study later that afternoon. He looked older to her somehow. His eyes were shadowed with exhaustion, and the lines around them were more pronounced than she’d ever noticed before. She stood meekly before him, her arms wrapped around her body, equal parts ashamed and tired and defiant.
Beck sighed. “What am I to do, Caro?What, pray tell? Your reputation is in tatters. I went round to the club this morning and everyone had heard what happened at the Farringtons’.”
A shaft of light broke through the clouds and landed between brother and sister, like some sort of invisible barrier.
Caroline felt as if she’d climbed mountains. Her legs and arms felt wobbly. She sank onto a settee. “I was trying to help.”
“Byseducinghim? That’s what they will say, you know. The fault always is assigned to the female in these situations.”
“I didn’t seduce him. It wasn’t like that.”
Beck came around from his desk and pulled a chair up to sit before her. “Then what was it like? Tell me, Caro. Help me to understand.”
Caroline didn’t have the strength to spare Beck any detail. She told him everything—about the Weslorian girls and the terrible thing that had happened to them, and how Leopold was doing his best to save them. She confessed she’d fallen in love with Leopold, and that it wasn’t infatuation but true love, and he had come to feel the same for her. She told Beck that last night, when it looked as if Leopold would be caught and the girl sent off to her rooms and to God knew what sort of punishment, she’d done the only thing she could think of in the moment and created another scandal to cover the one blooming in that study.
When she had finished, Beck understood. He had softened considerably. He sighed and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his chin as he looked at the window. “Why didn’t you tell this to Mr. Drummond when he called?”
“I didn’t know if I could trust him, and I wouldn’t do anything to harm Leopold.”
Beck spread his fingers wide on his knees. “Well, then. You’ll have to go away from London for a time.”
“Why? I won’t go out, I promise.”
“Caro...don’t you understand? I won’t allow to happen to you what happened to Eliza. This society you love so much is like a rabid dog. They will turn on you and pillory you at the slightest opportunity. You and Martha will go to our country home in Bibury, and hopefully, with the passage of time, the talk will ease.”
Her chest constricted painfully. She couldn’t imagine living in the country indefinitely. What would she do? How would she survive without friends? What about her dresses and her plans to open a dress shop? What about suppers and balls and gentlemen callers, all threads in the tapestry of her life? Who was she without those things? “But...but what of Leopold?”
“No, Caroline,” Beck said sharply. “I am sorry, darling, I know you love him. I’ve suspected it for some time, really. But you mustn’t ask about him, you mustn’t think about him. He is sailing tomorrow and he will not be back. His reputation is in worse tatters than yours.” He surged forward and grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “I understand, darling. I’ve known heartbreak. But it will ease with time and a change of place. You will gradually think of other things.”
Caroline didn’t believe him. She couldn’t imagine she would ever think of anything but her prince.
HOLLISCAMETHEfollowing morning. Beck met her in the grand hall and told her that now was not a good time.
“It’s never going to be a good time, Beck,” Hollis said. “Move aside.”
“Do you really think you’re in a position to come into my home and order me about, Hollis Honeycutt?”
“I do, Beck! I do! She is a sister to me and I will not allow you to stand in my way.”
Beck huffed. “Why is it that you are incapable of listening to me?” he demanded. “Why are youallincapable of listening to me?” he called as she marched past him and up the stairs.
Hollis ignored him. Her face was upturned to Caroline, who had watched it all from above. “Darling!” she cried. “Oh, Caro.” She reached the first floor and looped her arm through Caroline’s, whirling her about and pulling her into Caroline’s sitting room, where dresses in various states of construction were lying and hanging about. She pulled Caroline down onto the settee, took both hands in hers and said, “Caro...he’s gone. He boarded the royal Alucian ship this morning with three maids and a boy.”
She gasped with relief. At least they’d managed to do that. “How do you know?”
“I sent Donovan to help them all. No one else would.”
Caroline couldn’t breathe.
Hollis squeezed her hands. “He told everyone the truth before he went,” she said low. “He called the Alucian ambassador to him as well as the men from the foreign secretary’s office. Mrs. Parker was at the Clarendon Hotel with her husband when it happened, and she said that he explained to them that he’d discovered a nefarious plot. She didn’t hear all the details, as her husband sent her from the common room, but she heard enough to know it involved young women. She said the government men didn’t believe him, and wanted to question him further, but the tide was going out soon and he said if they didn’t have cause to detain him, he was leaving, and that he did. He boarded a ship for Alucia with the rest of them. Donovan said he’s a hero.”
Caroline felt herself choking on her breath. Hewasa hero. He was kind and compassionate and he felt things, and made her feel things, and Caroline couldn’tbreathe. “I’ll never see him again, Hollis. And if I do, he’ll be a man with a wife and children and I... Oh my God.”
“Darling, he tried to see you, but Beck wouldn’t allow it. He told him he’d done enough and it wouldn’t do.”
“He was here?” she cried. While she’d been sobbing herself sick, he’d come.
