Worry knotted her stomach, for the earl seemed so pale, and deep grooves bracketed the corners of his mouth. He had tumbled into the bed, dragged a pillow over his head, and tersely demanded to be left alone.
Once outside in the hallway, she took a deep breath before making her way downstairs. Lizzie was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs, her hand and knuckles gripped tightly on the banister.
“Who is that gentleman?” she asked, shock evident on her face. “And why did you take him upstairs? What is happening, Georgie?”
“I am sorry I did not get a chance to let you know of everything that was happening,” she said wearily. “Where are Sarah and Anna?”
“They insisted they were responsible enough to feed the chickens. They are outside.”
Thankfully their aunt had returned to town, and now that the season was upon them, Aunt Thomasina would not return anytime soon to their idyllic village. Georgianna glanced up the stairs. “Let us withdraw to the parlor. What I have to share cannot be revealed to anyone. Not even our aunt.”
“Good heavens,” Lizzie breathed, pressing a hand to her chest. “Is it very bad? Of course it is. There is a strange gentleman in our house.” As if it was improbable that a strange man could have been found in town, and another at their home, she queried, “Is ithim? The gentleman Mr. Hayle told us about?”
Georgianna hesitated, then nodded.
Lizzie’s eyes rounded, and she truly appeared on the verge of a faint. “Whyis he here?”
Georgianna kept her counsel until they were closed away in the privacy of the parlor, and then she told her sister everything. Well, nearly everything…her own embarrassment kept her from mentioning their passionate kisses aboard the yacht.
Afterward, the silence was painful.
“Is this a poorly conceived jest?” Lizzie finally demanded faintly.
“I am sorry, Lizzie, it is not,” she said softly. “I have told you everything that happened since I left. Now we have to tell Anna and Sarah and—”
“Good heavens, no!” Lizzie cried. “They are too young to bear the burden and responsibility of this…this mad ruse. They only need to know that in the days you went away, you got married.”
Astonished, she stared at her sister. “I…I feel a sense of panic.” Pressing a hand over her fiercely beating heart, Georgianna went to the windows overlooking the gardens, peering at her sisters as they played among the high weeds and flowers. The weight of her deception suddenly felt too heavy.
“Where will he sleep, Georgie?”
She turned slowly to face Lizzie. That was not the question Georgianna anticipated from her sister nor one she had even considered. “Oh, dear,” she groaned, briefly lowering her head to her hands. “Oh, dear!”
Lizzie pressed a hand over her mouth to contain her sudden laugh that was perhaps edged with hysteria. “Howcould you be so bold and simply outrageous?”
“I confess I am still uncertain how it all happened. Perhaps it is not too late to turn back from this mess.”
“It is too late,” Lizzie said, fisting a hand on her hip. “Have you forgotten those two nosey bodies who will be telling everyone by now in Crandell that the stranger without memory is your husband? Until the next exciting diversion or scandal comes along, you and this supposed husband will be under much scrutiny. I daresay the ruse will have to go on for a couple of weeks. But how are we to feed him? We cannot add another mouth to be responsible for. Did you think of this?”
Georgianna dipped into the pocket of her dark bombazine dress and withdrew the crushed bank notes. Her thoughts raced, and she admitted she felt unmoored and frightened. “He had this sum on him—it is sixty pounds, Lizzie. We can now use it to see us through for this year and fill the pantry.”
“Georgie! That isstealing! First such an elaborate lie and now this? Have you no worry for your mortal soul?”
Georgianna jutted her chin determinedly. “It is not stealing but taking back what is owed. I worked hard for that money, Lizzie, very hard, and I am not stealing from the earl. Perhaps it is providence he washed up here in Crandell. Lord Stannisrefusedto pay what is due to me, and a lot of that money would have seen to procuring much-needed necessities for our family!”
Hating the painful pricks of guilt and worry, she started to pace.
“In truth, when I consider all the anxiety and pain his indifferent decisions have caused us to endure, he can do the damn job as well!”
Lizzie’s lips parted, and her eyes rounded. “Do what job?”
“The job of the man of works we had planned to retain with the money he refused to pay over and the job of the maid to help Mrs. Woods. Those jobs he can help with as…as my husband!”
A horrified sound slipped from her sister. “Have you lost your marbles? He is anearl! Despite his rakish reputation, he is a powerfully wealthy aristocrat who we should not dare to meddle with, Georgie! Do see sense in what I am saying! He needs to recover and from what you said, in peace, with little to worry his thoughts. Let us accommodate that, and when he is well enough, we send him on his way. We can always say that your husband has gone abroad. Is that not the same reason our local modiste used to explain away her husband’s absence these last four years? I urge you to not put him to work doing any menial jobs. The very idea is absurd.”
Georgianna waved aside her sister’s objections. “The earl is a spoilt, conceited lord with an overblown sense of his own consequences,” she cried, pacing even harder. “It is perfect, Lizzie. Not only will he help with everything the monies paid over would have done, but you said it perfectly: the earl’s presence at our manor should still the wagging tongues and idle speculation about the nature of my marriage. Mrs. Ford, and the good people of Crandell, will have no reason to doubt my reputation, and I should not lose the income catering for her garden party.”
Lizzie fretted on her bottom lip. “Georgie, what happens if he should recall one day that he is an earl and yet he is here doing menial work? We cannot bear such consequences, and you know they will be dire. We have no station or connections to stand up to a lord!”
