“I am here to stay by you. To be your companion through this.”
“Ha.” Marianna’s scoff lacked malice. In fact, her chin quivered.
Ignoring the damp seeping through her gown, Hannah looked out at the uncertain, shuffling crowd, silently daring any of them to throw something. Praying no one would.
She glanced over and saw Marianna’s lips twist bitterly. Even as they trembled.
“I ought to tell you to go away,” she said, voice cracking. “That I don’t need you.” Tears filled her eyes. “But I am too weak. I can’t bear this on my own.”
Hannah held her gaze and slowly shook her head. “You don’t have to.”
Jogging onto the scene, James glimpsed Anthony Fontaine leaning against a tree some distance from the stocks. As James passed by him, Fontaine laid a staying hand on his arm. “Leave them.”
James scowled. “I am surprised at you, Fontaine. This is beneath even you.”
“She might have been hanged, sent to prison, or worse. This is nothing.”
“To a woman like Marianna Spencer?”
Fontaine shrugged. “It will be good for her to be knocked down a peg or two. She holds an altogether too-high opinion of herself.”
For a moment James stood where he was, torn between wanting to rush over and help Hannah up, and not wanting to beseen interfering. It would not help his professional reputation. He eyed Fontaine again. “What will you do now?”
“I leave for America in three days’ time.”
James reared his head back. “America?”
“Yes. I’m ready for a fresh start.”
“You’ll leave Marianna, then?”
“Heavens, no. She goes with me.”
James felt his brows rise. “Does she indeed? After this?”
Fontaine nodded. “Yes. She is my wife after all.”
“And she has agreed to go?”
“Not yet. But I know her well. She thinks she has lost me. Suddenly I have very great appeal.” He lifted his chin, gazing at Marianna with confidence. “She will go with me.”
James studied the man’s profile and asked quietly, “Do you regret it? Going along with the scheme in the first place?”
Keeping his focus on the stocks, Fontaine considered. “I wanted the money, and knew she didn’t love Sir John. I didn’t think I would mind.” He inhaled deeply. “But I was wrong.”
James turned and looked again at the stocks.
Across the distance, Hannah met and held his gaze. Solemnly, she nodded once, and then looked back at Marianna.
James waited one minute longer, then turned and walked home alone.
Later, after Marianna’s release, Hannah returned to the lodging house, cleaned herself up, and changed. She made sure Becky and Danny had all they needed, and then went back out. James had mentioned that Sir John had been called on to testify. She assumed—or at least hoped—he was still in Bristol. She wore her lovely berry-colored dress and spencer for confidence. Would he receive her? If so, would it be eagerly or reluctantly?
She walked to the house on Great George Street—Sir John’s Bristol residence. A place she had lived as Marianna’scompanion before they’d moved to Bath. The place Danny had been conceived.
She swallowed hard at the thought and hoped she would not be met by a sneering, lascivious Mr. Ward. She was thankful anew to have avoided that man’s clutches in the past.
As she walked up the steps to the front door, she felt her palms perspiring within her gloves and prayed silently,Thy will be done....
