Page 134 of The Seaside Homecoming
“Why do you ask?”
“Fair hair?” Claire prompted. “Well dressed?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“A Scotsman came to the house once and asked for me. I saw him briefly and heard his voice, but Aunt Mercer refused to allow him to speak to me and told the butler to send him away. I’ve often wondered who he was. Might it have been the same man?”
“Very possibly. I wrote to him at Emily’s urging and asked him to call and discover if you were in good health. We were all concerned when you did not reply to Emily’s and Viola’s letters. He wrote back that he’d tried to call but had been turned away.”
Claire nodded. “Sadly accurate. And how are you acquainted with this man?”
“He was a guest at Sea View. Our first, actually—he and his stepdaughter.”
“He is married?”
“Widowed.”
“Ah. He must think a great deal of you to go to so much trouble.”
Sarah glanced down, but not before Claire saw the blush move up from her neck to mottle her cheeks.
Claire said knowingly, “And you clearly think a great deal of him.”
“I ... esteem him and certainly appreciate his acts of service on our behalf.”
Claire continued to watch her with interest. Gently, she asked, “Did he pursue a relationship with you?”
“I suppose he did, or might have. I discouraged him.”
“Why? Were you unsure of his character? Or still grieving Peter?”
“Neither of those. I am needed here. For Mamma. For the guest house. And you’ve just come. Are you eager to be rid of me already?”
“Of course not. And to hear Emily describe it, you are due the lion’s share of credit—and did the lion’s share of work—to get the guest house up and running after all our losses. But Mamma is not an invalid any longer. And Sea View seems to be doing rather well. Surely, now...?”
“I have thought about it. Of course I have. But to grow attached to a man like that, with property so far from here. I would lose you all forever.”
“Not lose us, surely.”
“Then rarely get to see any of you. You are more familiar with the journey than I am. Is it one you would want to undertake often?”
Claire sighed. “Not willingly, no. Then again, I had to pinch and scrape, and worried at every stop if I would have enough for the next inn, the next fare. I imagine traveling in a private chaise would be a far different experience.”
Claire’s face heated as she realized what she’d said. Shehadmade the journey in a private chaise once. With Lord Bertram. They had not made it all the way to Scotland, but still...
As if reading her thoughts, Sarah tentatively asked, “Wasit as we heard? Did Lord Bertram truly abandon you on the way?”
Dread burned Claire’s stomach like acid, just as it had that night. She nodded, unable to meet her sister’s eyes. “Even before we reached Gretna Green. He bought himself a bottle of brandy that night and drank it to pass the time. Perhaps he was having second thoughts already. I certainly was. I remember him touching my cheek and saying in a slurred voice, ‘Fifteen thousand pounds and the face of an angel....’
“When I asked him what he meant, he said, ‘Your dowry will come in handy, I don’t deny. Debts to settle. White’s. Boodle’s. The horses...’”
“I asked if he was under the misapprehension that I had a dowry of fifteen thousand pounds. He said yes, Charles Parker had told him so.
“I told him he’d misunderstood. Or Charles had. That our father had settled that amount on all five of us, to be divided equally.
“Perhaps I should not have told him about the dowry. At least not until after we had married. I tried to convince him we had come too far, that Papa would help us.
“He seemed somewhat appeased, or so I thought. We spent the night at an inn outside Carlisle. I still believed we’d marry the next day. But in the morning, he was gone.”
