Page 46 of Loving a Noble Gentleman
Chapter 22
‘Your Grace,
I apologise for writing to you in this way, especially since you do not know me, but I feel that it is important that you are aware of what is going on.
My name is Charlotte Jones (nee Roberts). I believe you know my sister, Mary Roberts, well, and I am also fairly certain you are aware of Mr Walter Thompson who was in charge of the will and my late father’s estate. If you are not, I shall fill you in on the details.
When my father passed away five years ago, he left a clause in his will for my sister. He wanted her to inherit the family home, but only if she married first. I believe that the person our father wanted her to marry was you because he worked with you at some point. I am terribly sorry if this is wrong, I am only giving you the knowledge that I am aware of.
You have met my sister, and you have had your ups and downs. Of course, I have only heard one side of the story, so I am not passing judgement here at all. I still think that you would like to know what is going on. If so, then please continue to read.
Because of the complications, Mary asked Mr Thompson to sell the family home and to give her enough money for her to get started. It appeared that would happen, but since then things have gone very wrong. Mr Thompson sold the house, and he left with the money, leaving my sister with nothing.
I understand that this is not your problem, and I know that you might not care about what I have told you, but I need to tell someone. We do not have our father anymore, so there is no one to ask for help. I do not know where else to turn.
I shall write my address on the back of this letter if you wish to communicate with Mary. She does not know that I have sent you this letter, but I do not think she will be angry.
Yours sincerely,
Lady Charlotte Jones (nee Roberts).
“Why does she not turn to her own husband for help?” Iris asked Edmund curiously. “I mean, I do think it is very nice that she has come to you for help, but she is wed to a Lord. Could he not help out her sister?”
“I do not know,” Edmund answered a little helplessly. “It is all so very strange. I have never spoken to Lady Jones in my life, so as you can imagine, even receiving this letter was a surprise.”
Iris narrowed her eyes at Edmund and examined him closely. Her son had not been acting like himself for a while now, and she had been struggling to get to the bottom of it. She assumed it had something to do with the situation with Mary, but since he would not talk to her about anything, it was hard for her to work it out for sure.
Well, it was time for him to start talking.
“So, if the contents of this letter are to be believed, which in my opinion, I would think so, then Mary has suffered a very terrible time recently. She has had her whole life turned upside down. Have you been in touch with her for a while?”
“She made it very clear that she did not want to speak with me,” Edmund replied through thin tight lips. “At least for the foreseeable future. She was not happy with the whole situation regarding Lady Victoria Hartmon. I kept away because I thought it best to give her some space. If I had known that all of this was going on ...”
“Yes, I know. You would have stepped in to help.” Iris reread the details of the letter again, trying to read between the lines. She could tell that there were a lot of things that Lady Jones was not saying with her words; she simply could not work out what they were. “I admit, I had heard a rumour about something like this happening, but I did not know the name. If I had thought for just one second that it was someone we knew ...”
“So, people are talking about it?” Edmund asked, a red-hot rage bubbling inside of him. One of the things that he liked least about society was the tendency that everyone had to gossip about things that were nothing to do with them. In his opinion, everyone was so happy that the bad things were not happening to them that they did not care what damaging effect their words had on other people. “Everyone knows?”
“I believe everyone knows at least something.”
Edmund paced up and down the room, racking his brain for a way to make this right. “What do you think I should do, Mother?” he asked Iris desperately.
“Well, that all depends on what you want to do,” Iris told him. “It says in this letter that Mary does not know that it has been sent. If this is a situation that you would not like to get entangled up in, especially when you are going through your own troubles with your reputation, then youcanjust do nothing. There is no reason why you should have to ...”
Edmund tried to imagine just doing nothing, but the image would not come to mind. He had not wanted things to end with Mary, not after they got over their initial hump of not liking one another. He liked her a lot; he could feel himself falling in love with her. If only it had not been for Lady Hartmon and her lies; if only he had not gone to the ball that night, they would have still been planning their wedding. Everything would have been alright. Maybe he would have been more involved with Mr Thompson and his meetings so he could have stopped all of this from happening.
No, doing nothing was not an option.
“... or,” Iris continued. “You also now have the address of where Mary is staying, so if you feel like maybe youdowant to do something, then you can go and see her.”
“What if she still does not want to see me? There has to be a reason that she has not been in touch with me.”
“Edmund, she has not been in touch with you because she has been suffering the loss of everything. She has also had to contend with the idea that everyone believes you tried to ruin Lady Hartmon.”
“But that is not true ...”
“Oh, I know that. But that is what people are saying. Just in the same way that people are now talking about Mary.” Iris could see that her son just needed a little push in the right direction. Just a boost to encourage him. A little bit of reverse psychology usually did the trick. “Maybe this is not the right time for you to be rushing into anything to do with Mary,” she said with a shrug. “Maybe you are not strong enough because you need to deal with your own things first.”
Edmund got his back up at that comment, just as Iris knew that he would. “I do not think that is the case at all,” he said seriously. “I am strong enough; that is not the issue. I just do not want to upset Mary further, and I am afraid that my presence will do that.”
