Page 95 of Her Whole Heart
Elizabeth shrugged inelegantly, as she might have done when she was fourteen. “I do not really know you now. But as for school—if having friends at Mrs. Buxton’s required me to do things I knew to be wrong so that I might remain in your good graces, I felt it too high a price to pay. I had my sister, and I had my integrity.” She smiled. “And now that I am in London, I have friends too.”
“My brothers and cousins among them.”
“Your brothers are acquaintances,” she corrected the other woman. “But friendly ones, yes. And then there are the Carlisles, Amelia in particular.”
“And Darcy.”
“And Georgiana,” Elizabeth added without commenting about Mr. Darcy.
Lady Henrietta hesitated. “And were you never lonely?”
“Of course I was,” Elizabeth said hotly. “Did you think Ienjoyedbeing shunned by the other girls? This may shock you, but I am not a reticent person. I prefer having friends about me.”
“Pen was my only real friend, or so I thought. I am not sure now.”
“I do not suppose you wish to tell me what she has done?”
Lady Henrietta hesitated but dropped into a chair near the window and motioned for Elizabeth to join her there.
When Elizabeth had settled herself, Lady Henrietta said, “She has been relentless in her attempts to convince me to defy my father and publicly blame you for the fire.”
“I could not have done so, as you are well aware.”
The other woman nodded. “I told her to let it go. My father and I are coming to know one another better, and I do not wish to ruin that. But Pen will not stop.”
Elizabeth’s heart clenched, the painful memories of the fire resurfacing as they often did in her dreams. “I see.”
Her voice barely above a whisper, Lady Henrietta said, “She knows it is a lie. She does it to spite you, and forgive me, that is nothing new. But even if her spite had cause, which it does not—if Pen genuinely cared for me as a friend, why would she be so insistent on perpetuating this gossip when I have told her I do not wish to participate? To do so would injure the relationship I am finally building with my father, but that does not appear to matter to her, though she knows how long I have wanted it. It has been troubling me, Miss Elizabeth, that is all.”
“But why would all of this send you into this room in the middle of a ball? Why now?”
“Pen is here this evening and she wanted to make some sort of scene involving you, to, as she said, ‘send you scurrying home to the country.' But she needs me to be a part of it.”
Perhaps Lady Penelope would have succeeded in creating a scandal had Lord Carlisle’s revelation not sent Elizabeth out of the dining room. “Lady Penelope has a very high opinion of herself if she means to ruin Lady Morgan’s ball with such a scene in full view of Lord and Lady Carlisle,” Elizabeth said drily. “She would certainly not make any friends for herself. Honestly, it is rather amusing to consider.”
“I told her so, and she was very angry with me.”
“She has been very angry with me for years, and I am no worse off for it.”
Lady Henrietta exhaled slowly. “I was a horror, I know I was. I felt my father did not love me and had sent me away. I focused my anger and injured feelings on you because you would not bend to my imperiousdemands.” She glanced down at her feet. “I have not even properly thanked you for coming back for me that night. Truly, I do not remember you waking me, but several of the girls said they saw me come to the door and then close it again.”
“I did not realise you were not with us until we reached the stairs and I counted everyone.”
Lady Henrietta shook her head. “I am a very deep sleeper.”
“So I noticed. It took an entire pitcher of water to rouse you.”
The other woman snorted. “I do remember that. And I vaguely recall you forcing me out of the window onto the trellis. I do not recall when the trellis pulled away from the wall and we fell.”
“You were dazed from the smoke. I was coughing a good deal and could barely see.”
“Good show, then, that you were leading the way.”
“Are you familiar with the phrase ‘the blind leading the blind’?”
Lady Henrietta actually laughed at that.
Elizabeth sighed. They were not friends. Perhaps they would never be able to claim that much. But it did feel better to have Lady Henrietta not actively disliking her.
