Page 31 of Murder at Madame Chambon's
“You could accompany me to the opera tomorrow night instead,” he said quickly.His expression was somber, but he was not going to offer words of sympathy he did not feel.
She inclined her head.“I should like that.”
“Your mama… or papa… would not object so soon after—?”He had to ask.Dunstable’s presence was everywhere, as he supposed it would be, considering what he had been to this young woman.The man to whom she was about to become engaged, though she’d carefully not said it in so many words.
“I don’t think so.”She shook her head.
“Your family hails from Norfolk, I believe.”He realized how little he knew of her background.The Tarots were a small family.He’d never heard of them and had gained the impression Mr.and Mrs.Tarot no longer shared the same roof.However, this was not necessarily cause for scandal, though of course any wife he chose would be under scrutiny given the profession William had chosen.
“My mother is from Norfolk and my father from further north.I haven’t seen my father since…” She frowned as she toyed with the drink he’d handed her.Concern clouded her eyes, and she did not look at him as she said, “Not since I was a child.”
“But he is in London now?”William needed to know where to find the man to ask the question he would inevitably ask before the next few weeks were over.He wanted to marry Evelina.It was as simple as that.
“No.Mama and Papa don’t get along very well, I believe, but papa has always been very … generous.”
William felt the first stirring of disquiet.Her parents were estranged?
Then he relaxed.Two individuals who’d chosen to live separately while sparing no expense on their child was not uncommon.Clearly Mr.Tarot was maintaining wife and daughter and there was no suggestion of scandal.No divorce … no public indiscretion.
“Where is your father now?”Regardless of where the man was, William still needed to ask him for his daughter’s hand in marriage.
He saw the color flood her cheeks before she turned away.The glass she held trembled, and she looked suddenly desperate to find somewhere to deposit it.William took it from her, wishing he’d not asked her something that clearly caused her such pain.“He’s at home in—” She hesitated.“He has a house in Scotland.Aberdeenshire.”
“Aberdeenshire.”William smiled, anxious to put her at ease.“A remote but … a beautiful part of the country.”
“I have not visited,” she said softly, dropping her head so that her neck resembled that of a dispirited swan.She took a deep breath then suddenly raised her head to look at him as she said, “Papa left mama and me when I was a baby and I’ve had no contact with him since.Just his financial support.”Her eyes swam with tears and her shoulders rose, then fell as she whispered, “You are entering politics, Lord Bellingham, are you not?”She glanced about the room, then said, “I think I should not dance with you again.”
Her seeming realization of the delicacy of the situation galvanized his determination.“Why would you say that?”he challenged, gripping her wrist gently, as if she might take to her heels.
“I’m not good enough for you.My mother is not … in the same mold as yours.”He released his grip, but she did not flee.“Your mama would wish you to be dancing with someone else,” she added.
William glanced about the room.Then, caging her hand upon his forearm as if he were merely leading her off the dance floor, he skirted Lady Perry, still deep in conversation, and adroitly maneuvered Evelina through a doorway at the judicious moment a knot of guests entered from the passageway.
She went with him willingly, not questioning or resisting as he hurried her around a corner into the gloom of a back passage.
When they reached the sanctuary of a storeroom that opened off a servant’s passage, she fell into his arms, as eager as he to cement their unspoken feelings by this mark of mutual hunger.
She raised her head and his lips met hers, soft and yielding as his arms went about her, and the strains of the orchestra drifted from afar.
The delicate, floral fragrance that had tantalized him on the dance floor sent a rush through him as he breathed her in, and the eagerness with which she kissed him back made him hard with desire.
“I want you, Evelina.What does the state of your parents’ union matter?The fact you’re accepted in these circles is enough for me,” he ground out between kisses.“Regardless of anything, that you are a guest here means you are as worthy as any female in this room.”
She was delirious with happiness when they broke apart, for her eyes shone with unshed tears as she cupped his cheeks and asked softly, “Do you feel what I feel here, William?”as she touched her breast.“It’s only been two weeks since the train crash but when I wake up with the horror of it—” She stopped before adding, softly, “Seeing poor Mimi, my maid, dead on the floor, and hearing the people screaming and the water rising…suddenly I’m reminded of you and how you saved my life.”
“And how little William’s life was only saved because of your bravery, Evelina.”He gripped her hands tightly as he touched his forehead to hers.“I realized in that moment that I had met a very remarkable young woman.You didn’t wail and succumb to hysterics.Your instinct was to do everything in your power to do good.Why, Evelina, without giving a thought to the proprieties, you were intent only on rescuing that little boy and you knew exactly what was required.You removed your hampering gown and you put your life in my hands when I lowered you into the train carriage.”
He drew in a shuddering breath.“What if I had allowed you to slip from my grasp?What if I’d not been strong enough to hold you, much less both you and that little boy?You’d have fallen into the darkness just as the carriage became submerged?That’s what wakes me in the night.The thought of your trust in me—a stranger—and how easily I might have been responsible for your death.”
She smiled as she raised her hand to touch his cheek.“I knew that would never happen,” she said simply.“I did not hesitate to let you lower me int the carriage because from the first instance I just knew you were a man to trust.”
“But when I found you again, you were to wed Dunstable?”He had to confront the elephant in the room.
“I presumed such a fine, handsome man like you was either married or not a man I could marry.”She wasn’t embarrassed to say it.“And you were married, Lord Bellingham.With a very sweet daughter who quite entranced me when I met her.”
“You liked Edwina?”He felt a sudden overflowing of love, not just for his child, but the fact this beautiful woman had brought Edwina up in such fond terms.“She’s a sweet, playful little girl, and she clearly liked you.”He hesitated.“Her mother died in childbirth after a long illness.We’d only wed nine months before and had met a few weeks before that.Our parents approved, and the match was suitable to us both.But I feel I never properly knew Margaret.I wanted to mourn her properly and to say I’d loved her…” He stopped, surprised at his candor, for he’d not spoken his true feelings to anyone.They shamed him.And such unburdening was perhaps not appropriate here.
But she raised both hands to rest on his shoulders once more and said, “It is a burden when one’s obligations of the heart experience conflict.”Perhaps seeing the flare of confusion in his eye, she went on quickly, “I’ve seen my mother only a few times in my life, for she sent me to Paris to be educated by the nuns when I was six years old.Now I see her through the eyes of an adult and … the truth is … I am ashamed of … being ashamed of what you might think of her…when you meet.”
