Page 37 of The Seaside Homecoming
“You’ve changed,” Georgie observed. “Is that what marrying does to a woman? I liked the old speak-first-think-later Emily better.”
“I wanted to spare Mamma’s feelings. I did not wish to cause a scene, to embarrass her or the rest of us.”
Mamma gazed across the room. “I can’t believe she came to church, as bold as brass. What did she think would happen?”
“Hardly bold,” Sarah defended. “She sat in the back and left before the service ended.”
Emily said, “I planned to speak to her afterward. I had no idea she would run off like that.”
“Why did she?” Georgiana asked.
“Perhaps she realized she’d made a mistake in coming.”
“Why should it be a mistake?” Georgie stood and propped her hands on her waist. “What are you not telling me?”
Becoming aware of all their gazes upon her and the expectant silence, Mamma came back to herself and looked around at her three daughters. “Will you tell her, Sarah? I can hardly bear thinking about it, let alone describe it to my youngest child. And no need to go into gratuitous detail, if you please.”
Gratuitous detail?Sarah knew few details, let alone gratuitous ones. She did not want to be the bearer of such news.Especially to sweet, trusting Georgiana. Had no desire to see the carefree innocence snuffed from her eyes. But the duty fell to her, and the wave of guilt that always accompanied those memories swamped her anew. For she alone had known what Claire intended to do and had not stopped her or raised the alarm.
Sarah licked lips that were suddenly dry and began. “You were told Claire went to Scotland to serve as companion to Papa’s aunt. That was not strictly true.”
“Then where has she been these last two years?”
“She did live with Great-Aunt Mercer, but that was not why she left Finderlay.” Sarah raised a palm to forestall the flood of questions she saw building on Georgiana’s face.
“Let me start at the beginning. I don’t know if you will remember, but the Parkers hosted a house party of nearly a fortnight’s duration in honor of a visiting friend. You were too young to be invited, I was in mourning, and Viola chose not to attend. Only Emily and Claire went, as the party was mostly for young people, and Mamma’s health was not good at the time.
“During the party, Claire formed an attachment with a young man, the guest of honor. On the last night of the party, he convinced her to run away with him. She came home at, I don’t know, half past eleven. I was already in bed. I woke up as she was changing into traveling clothes and packing. I asked what she was doing, and she confessed all. She was giddy with excitement and not thinking straight. I tried to talk her out of such a rash course, to make her see reason. I did not understand why the pair needed to elope. Claire was of age. Why such a hurry that they could not wait three weeks for the banns to be read and then marry in church?
“At all events, she seemed to be floating above the ground, inhabiting some distant sphere, and I could not pull her back to earth. I warned her she would break our parents’ hearts,but she said they would forgive all once she married Lord Bertram.”
Mamma groaned.
Sarah had done her best not to mention the abhorred name, but it had finally slipped out.
She went on, “Claire begged me not to tell anyone until they were safely away. She was six and twenty at the time and convinced it was her last chance to marry.”
Georgie grimaced. “I don’t think I like where this is going....”
“I don’t blame you. I don’t know all the details, but apparently the man changed his mind. When Papa learned that Claire was gone and confirmed with Charles Parker that his guest had left in the night, Papa was, as you can imagine, justifiably furious. He took off in our coach-and-four, hoping to overtake them, but he failed. He assumed they had chosen the fastest route to Gretna Green and would return the same way, but he did not find them. Of course, Papa did not know that the man had abandoned Claire somewhere and gone back another way, no doubt to avoid just such a confrontation.
“When Papa returned to Finderlay, he was exhausted and chilled through. He took ill and, as you know, suffered his first apoplexy soon after. From Charles Parker, he learned that Bertram had briefly returned to May Park for the rest of his belongings and that he had not married Claire after all.”
“But why?”
Emily spoke up. “When Charles was here after Christmas, I asked him about it. He told me about Bertram returning to the house. It seems he cried off when he learned Claire’s dowry was far smaller than he’d believed. Charles tried to tell him it was his duty as a gentleman to marry her anyway to spare her reputation. Still, he would not be moved.”
“The snake!” Georgie exclaimed, throwing up her hands. “Why am I the last to learn of this? I am not a child!”
“If it makes you feel any better,” Emily said, “Viola and I only learned of it last summer.”
“Well, you should have told me too.” She sank back into her chair. “Go on, Sarah, please.”
“Papa wanted to pursue Lord Bertram and force him to marry her. Unfortunately his ill health prevented him from doing much more than writing a few letters. Letters that went unanswered.”
“Then how did Claire end up at Aunt Mercer’s?”
“I don’t know, exactly. Apparently she was too ashamed to come home unwed. After a few days away, in the company of a man not her husband, her reputation was ruined, whatever may or may not have happened between them. I would guess she used what money she had to travel on to Edinburgh, hoping our relative there would take her in.”
