Page 12 of The Scottish Duke
Lorna stared at her friend, the words Nan had just spoken taking a moment to register.
“You did what?” she repeated.
Nan moved from the straight-back chair where she’d been sitting to stand at Lorna’s lone window. The unremarkable view was of the lane to the square in Wittan Village.
“I left a note for the duchess,” she said. “I didn’t sign it, though.”
Yes, that’s what she heard. She couldn’t believe Nan would do something like that.
“But you told her about me? Why?”
“Why?” Nan asked, turning to stare at her. Her hands flew out to encompass the small room where they sat. “Look where you’re living, Lorna.”
“This is the only lodging I could afford.”
“Your landlady is a horror.”
She couldn’t argue with that. Mrs.MacDonald was nosy, intrusive, and difficult.
“The duchess needed to know she’s going to be a grandmother,” Nan said. “If nothing else, she could give you some money. How are you supposed to live?”
“I’m doing fine,” Lorna said. She sat on the edge of the bed watching as Nan paced back and forth.
“Fine? I wouldn’t call this fine.”
“I’ve saved all my wages and I go to market every week. I’ve made some good customers, people who will come back.”
“When the baby is born, what will you do?”
“The same thing I’m doing now,” Lorna said, clutching her cloak to her for warmth.
Nan used her half day off to come and visit her. The time they spent together was one of the bright spots of her week.
The past months, ever since learning she was with child, had been difficult ones. Without Nan’s friendship, she didn’t know what she would have done. The other woman had helped her hide her condition for months. She’d even given Lorna some of her own wages.
Yet all along Nan had fussed at her about her plans.
“If the villagers find out, you’ll be shunned, Lorna. Your child will be known as a bastard and you’ll be called a whore. Mothers will cross the street rather than allow you near their children. Men will leer at you. You’ll be the face of sin.”
Nan might be right, but what choice did she have? She had no family. Nor was she going to go to the duke and tell him she was with child. Not when he thought she was the most vile kind of creature, capable of blackmailing him.
“I didn’t expect you to betray me like this,” Lorna said.
“Betrayal? I’m doing what you should have done months ago.” Nan glanced at the walls that she’d tried to brighten with her own sketches. “No self-respecting rat would live here. It’s depressing and you’ve been freezing for months.”
“Mrs.MacDonald charges too much for coal.”
Money was probably always going to be a problem. She had to be smart about her funds, which was why the room was so cold. When the baby was born she’d make sure the space was warmer.
“You only see what you want to see, Lorna.”
She held herself still and silent.
“Even the night of the ball, you had some idea in your mind what it was going to be like, and nothing I could say would stop you.”
Nan extended both hands, palms up, fingers pointed at Lorna’s belly.
“Look what happened.”
