"Oh God," he said, lifting his head and clasping her to him, his cheek against her hair. "Oh God, Georgiana, is it possible that you can feel as I do? Then what have I driven you to, love? What have I done to you?"
She pushed at his shoulders until she could look into his troubled face. "What do you mean?" she asked, wide-eyed.
"I know about the child," he said. His face was tormented. "I know that you too have had a lover."
Her eyes grew round with horror. "You know?" she said. "How?"
"The doctor was indiscreet," he said. "He did not break his promise to you, but his hints said as much as words. I told you about myself, love, so that you would know that my own actions have been worse than yours. I don't know how you feel about the... the father. I don't even want to know who he is. But please give our marriage a chance. The baby will be ours. I shall never again allude to the fact that biologically it is someone else's. Come back to me, Georgiana."
"You would do this for me?" she asked. She lifted one hand from his shoulder and put back a stray lock of fair hair from his forehead. "I love the child's father. Very, very dearly."
He closed his eyes and bent his head forward. He drew a deep breath. "It would never work," he said. "If I were to release you so that you would be free to go to him, you would be ostracized from society. And I don't believe you would be happy under those circumstances. I wish you could be happy. I would give almost anything to see you happy."
"I can be happy with you, Ralph," she said quietly.
"Can you?" he asked a little sadly. "We should not have married, should we, Georgiana? We are both too young, perhaps. I should have allowed you to wait for love."
"I want to be married to you," she said.
He smiled. "I shall try to make you forget the greater happiness," he said. "I swear it, love. You wanted to talk to me. Were you going to tell me about the child? It must have taken a lot of courage to work yourself up to telling me that."
"I wish it were only that," Georgiana said, looking him straight in the eye.
"There is more?" he asked.
"Yes, I am afraid so," she said, "and you are not going to like me very well when you have heard it, Ralph."
"Am I not?" he said, releasing his hold on her. "Perhaps we should sit down again."
Georgiana was disappointed. She felt it would be far easier to tell him when she was close enough to hide her face against his shoulder if need be. But she was reassured when he clasped her hand, sat down in the chair that she had recently vacated and drew her down onto his lap. He settled her head on his shoulder and wrapped his arms around her.
"Now, tell me," he said. "What is this dreadful confession?"
"Well," she said, "I have in my workbag a large bundle of money that I was going to begin by giving you. Shall I get it? It is just beside the chair."
"No need," he said. "What is its purpose? Did you steal it?"
"No," she said. There was a pause. "I earned it, actually."
"Indeed?" he said. "And what have you been working at to earn money? Do I not provide you with enough?"
Georgiana ignored the last question. "I have been earning it by allowing a gentleman to make love to me," she said distinctly. Her mind was telling her with equal distinctness that she was approaching this whole confession in quite the wrong way.
Ralph's body jerked quite convulsively. She put an arm up about his neck, thinking that at any moment she was going to be hurled to the floor.
"You have been doing what?" he asked hoarsely.
She said nothing. She merely tightened her grip on his neck and burrowed her head under his chin until her face was safely hidden in the hollow between his shoulder and neck.
They sat thus for a long time, absolutely still.
"My God," he said at last. "Oh my God. Georgie!"
"Are you very angry?" she asked, her voice muffled against his neck. "Please say you will not kill me. I shall never have the courage to move my head, you know."
She suddenly missed the comfort of his chin against the top of her head and realized that he had put his head back against the chair. There was a long silence again. This one lasted for several minutes. Georgiana found every second an excruciating agony, but she had no more power to lift her head than she had to stop breathing.
His next words took her completely by surprise. "Why, you little rascal!" he said. "I suppose Roger put you up to it?"
