Page 50 of Murder at Madame Chambon's
Blackheath smirked.“She was once as young and foolish as that sister of hers.At least, she must have been to have fallen for her cousin, Dunstable, who seemed to find it amusing to toy with her feelings.I wonder if she wasn’t angling for a rich husband, though, and that it was all an act.”
“How do you know so much?”asked William.
“We ran in the same circles, Dunstable and I.And I observed Lady Victoria.But then she inherited a fortune from her aunt, who stipulated that Dunstable keep it in trust until the young lady turned twenty-five.However, he began using it as if it were his own.”With a sudden noise of excitement, Blackheath began to reel in his fishing line.“Got something!Patience rewarded!”
Impatiently, William waited as his companion slit the fish’s throat before tossing it into an empty bucket.Finally, Blackheath looked up, his expression surprised.“Still here, are you?You know I’ve nothing to offer you for dinner, Bellingham.Or any other information you think I might be able to supply you.Sorry, old chap.”
Chapter23
The weather was inclement the following morning.
Evelina buried her head in her pillow while the rain beat against the windowpane and her spirits visited the darkest places they’d ever been.There had been no contact from Bellingham for three days and now Evelina’s mother had indicated that her father had reneged on funding her beyond the next few weeks.
And Dunstable was dead.
Murdered.
The horror of it seemed suddenly far worse than it ever had.
And Evelina seemed far more alone.
Sometime, long after the sun had risen, Kitty put her head around the door to chivvy her into wakefulness.“You’re not sick are you, Miss?”she asked, coming into the room with a tray of tea.“Up with you now.It’s going to be midday soon.”
“And what do I have to look forward to?”Evelina said, not even opening her eyes.“Lord Dunstable is dead and Mama refuses to let me even attend his funeral.The man I thought I loved and nearly wed is gone forever and the man I know I love has forsaken me.And I have no friends.”
Kitty clicked her tongue.“And if you keep up that tone, you will have no friends.Lordy, Miss, I’ve never seen you like this and it ain’t pretty.You remind me of some of my girls when they’ve had a bad evening and don’t have the stomach to go on.Believe me, if you only knew what an easy life you have compared with some o’ them things my poor girls have gone through, you’d not be acting like Misery Muggins.”
Evelina rolled onto her back to send Kitty a baleful look.“Which of your girls made the grandest match?If you want to make me feel better, tell me I have hope, for right now I have none.Mama told Lord Bellingham Papa has reneged on providing me with the handsome dowry that had been the reason Lord Bellingham wanted to marry me, and now that he knows I have nothing, he has abandoned me.”
Kitty made a sound of indignation.“Your mama is the queen of manipulation and will make a girl think anything to get her way.Don’t you go believing her over Lord Bellingham.I saw the way he looked at you, and that was definitely like a man in love.Chances are that your mama, or Lady Perry, is keeping his letters from you and that he has a very good reason for going away for a few days but thinks your heart is easy because you knows he loves yer.”
Evelina gasped as she bolted upright in bed.“Do you really think that could be true, Kitty?”she cried.“Have you seen any letters from him?”
“Course I haven’t else I’d a brought them to you.But Lady Perry and your mama are mighty crafty.They’d a made sure I didn’t see any letter wot they don’t want you to see.”
Feeling far more sanguine than before, Evelina sipped her tea.“Do you really think my mama would do such a terrible thing?How do you know so much about my mama, Kitty?”
“I just do, Miss Evelina.And I worked for many young ladies who were just as sad as you one day, and then the very next, found a man wot made them very happy.”Smiling, Kitty patted Evelina’s shoulder.“Just like you will be.Your Lord Bellingham is the one for you.I feel it in my bones.”
Evelina felt the warmth of her touch as it flooded her with reassurance that all really would be all right.
And when Mary the parlor maid knocked a few hours later to say she had a visitor, Evelina thought her heart would burst with happiness.How much greater was the sweetness of joy when it followed the depths of despair?
But it wasn’t Lord Bellingham.However, having gone to pains with her appearance, she did feel much better as she sat in the drawing room across from Lady Victoria and Clara, who had been out walking and who’d decided to look in on her.
Just as if they were old friends.
Evelina hadn’t enjoyed intimacy in any of her friendships at the convent school, and her time in London had been brief, but now she experienced a real blossoming in her heart at their concern when she confessed she’d had the blue devils and had only got out of bed just for them.
“When I’m a proper adult, I’m going to indulge in the blue devils whenever my heart is broken,” said Clara, daintily picking up a biscuit that had been served with their tea.“Victoria is so bossy, she never lets me be sad for even a moment.Not even when Dunstable died.”
“Why, Clara, we are in mourning now and we shed ever so many tears at the terrible news,” said Victoria.“You make me out to be a tartar with no heart!”
Clara shrugged.“Well, considering you declared once that Dunstable had broken your heart and it would never recover, I would say your heart is more robust than mine, or Evelina’s… or most people’s,” Clara said between mouthfuls.
“I hadn’t realized you and Dunstable once … had an understanding,” Evelina said, feeling a little awkward as she remembered her fair-weather attitude towards their cousin.
“Oh, I grew up remembering how Victoria said—for years and years—that she and Dunstable were going to wed,” Clara replied.“Mama said it, too.But then they had a terrible fight and Victoria said she’d never speak to Dunstable again.”
