Page 51 of Murder at Madame Chambon's
Evelina was surprised that Clara continued her monologue given the dark looks her sister was giving her, though surprisingly she didn’t interrupt after an initial futile attempt but merely looked as if her heart was breaking all over again.
Which made Evelina feel even worse for the way she must have appeared to Victoria at their first meeting at the zoological gardens—goodness barely ten days ago!—clinging to Dunstable’s arm with Dunstable all but indicating that he and Evelina were going to make a match.
At the time, that’s what Evelina had thought she’d wanted.
“But you made up, and that’s what’s important,” Evelina murmured, thinking now of the fight she’d had with her mama and supposing that some volatile personalities would inevitably clash and make up.Surely her mama wouldn’t completely abandon her and her papa wouldn’t leave her without a penny?
Fear once more clawed up her gullet.
Was that the reason for Bellingham’s silence?
Or, was her mama lying, and Kitty’s suggestion more on the mark and Bellingham had in fact sent her an explanation as to his absence which she hadn’t received?
“Yes, we are cousins, and blood is thicker than water,” said Victoria, adding more briskly, “But now, we didn’t come to talk about that but in fact, to ask you to come to Dunstable’s funeral.”She sent Evelina a long, level look before adding—just as Evelina began to demur—“Lord Bellingham will be there.”
Evelina, who’d started to say that she couldn’t possibly defy her mama, who had refused to countenance it, was left with her mouth open and no words.
Victoria and Clara had paid her a visit in order to provide her with the means of seeing Bellingham when Evelina had begun to despair as to when she’d next encounter him?
When she saw the secretive little smile playing about Clara’s lips, she burst out, “What wonderful friends you are!I don’t know how to thank you—”
“For asking you to our cousin’s funeral?”Victoria raised her eyebrows.“You would like to come, then?”
“My mama refused me permission, and I had resigned myself.”
Biting her lip and looking doubtful, Victoria said, “I daresay it’s wrong to defy your mama but I do think it’s unreasonable of her to prevent you from showing your respect for a man you—Well, you and my cousin were once very good friends, and I saw how taken he was with you on the dance floor and at the zoological gardens but I admired you for remaining in charity with him after you learned that Dunstable had a dark side so it was a lucky escape for you however—”
“A dark side?”Evelina interrupted her.
“Oh, I thought that’s why you rejected him?”
“I…I didn’t reject him,” Evelina said, realizing too late that now was perhaps a good time to have said nothing if only to perpetuate Victoria’s perception, for of course Evelina was inevitably cast into a bad light.She was trying to formulate a way back when Victoria said, with a frown, “So you were engaged to Dunstable when he was killed?”
“No…no!”Evelina shook her head with some energy while Clara leaned in, her eyes large with interest.“I mean, yes, Lord Dunstable had asked me to be his wife and said he planned a grand wedding but then he wasn’t happy with the contract my papa was proposing over my dowry and so Dunstable said we’d marry quietly without anyone knowing.”Evelina felt herself shrink inside.Why was she telling Victoria this?It was supposed to have been a secret from everybody.“I couldn’t understand it and—”
“Dunstable’s dark side emerging,” Victoria interrupted with a glower, appearing to accept Evelina’s words as a valid reason for not having an obligation towards her cousin.“Dunstable said he would look after Clara and me when our mama died, leaving us orphans and with me still with two years before I attained my majority.Then my aunt left me a fortune, charging Dunstable with keeping it in trust until I was twenty-five.Dunstable was our closest male relative, you see.”Her forehead furrowed, and she glanced at Clara, whose eyes were like saucers.Victoria put her hand on her sister’s and said, “You’ve not heard it before, but you are nearly grown enough, so you might as well have the explanation now.I learned that Dunstable was spending our money, Clara.Money that our aunt had left us.And he was doing so in the most reprehensible way.”
Clara gasped, her shock echoing what Evelina felt as Victoria reddened when Clara demanded an example and her sister whispered savagely, “Gambling and on…on other…females.”She put her hands to her face and hunched her shoulders, whispering, “God forgive me for what I’d vowed to keep from your innocent ears forever.But until I learned of this, I truly did want to marry Cousin Dunstable.His betrayal hardened my heart.I vowed never to forgive him.”
“But you did,” Clara whispered.
“How?”whispered Evelina.
“How did I forgive him?”Victoria asked with a frown.
“How did you manage to salvage your fortune if Dunstable was spending it?”Evelina was feeling more justified by the moment when just minutes earlier she’d felt guilty of a great betrayal.
“I sought legal advice.”Victoria smiled for the first time, and Evelina thought she deserved to feel as proud as she did.Why, a woman…barely more than a young girl, in fact, had had the courage to seek redress for wrongs against her?
“I didn’t think that was possible,” Evelina said, awed.“You’re a female.You can’t manage your finances.And Dunstable is your closest male relative.The law is on his side.”
“Not when he is contravening the final wishes of our aunt.Mr.Grimshaw was quite in agreement with me on that.”She pushed back her shoulders and looked about to rise, but Evelina had questions of her own for a sudden idea had occurred to her.
“So, you understood what was in your aunt’s will?Your lawyer actually explained it to you and then told you when your cousin was … going against your aunt’s wishes … and then offered to help you?”Evelina couldn’t quite believe it.A woman having such an ally seemed incomprehensible.
“He wasn’t my lawyer.No, my lawyer was Dunstable’s lawyer, of course—being family— and he was most definitely not a good man.But the lawyer who helped me was the lawyer of our friend, Elizabeth Craddock’s papa, and our conversation came about quite by chance which, I suppose, is how so many fortunate things happen in life.”
“I can’t believe you and Dunstable remained friends after that,” Evelina marveled.
