“I shan’t tell you that,” Alice said mulishly. “I am allowed to keep some secrets to myself, aren’t I?”
“Secrets?Have you turned insane you wench! You will tell me so I can find the family of this rapscallion and get him to do the proper thing. Else, I will be pushed to extreme measures!” Aunt Agatha threatened. “I thought you were the sensible one, not some heedless lightskirt who would debase herself like some common harlot!
“Couldn’t you have done the sensible thing like Eliza here and waited for the proper man? Her baron has a shipping business to the Americas and a caravan business up to Scotland. Couldn’t you have waited for a sensible man like that? Now you have ruined us all!”
A subtle glance passed between her and Penelope. Alice notched her head up in defiance. “Well, I am on the shelf, but you already know that. I’ll happily take myself to a convent and vanish from Town if it makes you so uncomfortable. I would hate to ruin yourspectacularreputation around London.”
Her aunt’s eyes hardened, “Are you mocking me?”
“She is,” Eliza sniffed.
“I will not stand for that insolence!” her aunt snapped. “And I will not stand for your defiance either. You will tell me the name of the man, or I will not be so lenient with you!”
Alice stood. “I have no intention of marrying, so I suppose I shall ship myself off to a convent and save you and Uncle all the trouble.”
Penelope’s eyes widened and she rose too. “Alice, what are you—”
“No,Elly,” Alice silenced her sister tellingly with a warning look and a hand to her wrist. “It is better this way. You… you will be fine. I am sure Lord Brampton will marry you soon enough. You be happy enough for both of us now. As far as I am concerned, the one duty I carried over from mother and father is now fulfilled.”
Pure distress hardened Penelope’s face. “N-no, no, you should not be getting punished for such a silly mistake—”
“Silly?” Her aunt squawked. “You think this is some trifling matter, girl? Men have all the latitude to do whatever they please in this land, but not the women. The only currency a woman has is her virtue and her reputation, and Alice has lost both. It is up to me now to make sure our family does not sink with her!”
Turning to her aunt, Alice replied, “Now that you know, may I be excused? I must lie down for a moment… I am feeling rather queasy.”
Aunt Agatha’s face paled immediately. “Y-yes, go to your chamber! At once!”
Without another word, Alice left the room to her quarters, slipped inside, and locked the door behind her. Inside, as tumultuous as it felt in her head, her heart pulled steadily; there was no calamity, there were nowhat-ifs.She had lost the only good thing she’d wanted in London anyway—Edward.
Maybe it would do her good to be somewhere else for a while.
Only one thing was for certain now—no one could ever learn the truth.
CHAPTER 31
ONE MONTH LATER
Amonth had passed in excruciating loneliness. But Alice could no longer summon in her heart anything except apathy at the events of the last weeks.
Humming an old tune from childhood while tying her bonnet, she silently readied herself to go on another solitary run to the apothecary and haberdashery, early morning before her relatives had awoken. Though being barred from seeing her sister these past weeks as part of her punishment while her aunt and uncle hastened to come up with some plan—or more euphemistically known as a husband who would turn a blind eye to her burden for a few coin—Alice had made sure to visit her sister in the early mornings and late nights and continue supplying her medicine to hide her worsening symptoms.
In a bitter twist of fate, everything had worked out for the positive, as the truth of Penelope’s condition was willingly being ignored by all now, for they simply chose to put it down to her nervousness and sadness concerning Alice.
Leaving her rooms, she quietly tiptoed down the stairs for the front door of the townhouse, when she spotted a familiar signature letterhead on a card lying on the silver tray in the hallway.
With trepidation, she plucked the card up and opened it, and read an invitation to Vauxhall, a celebration of Benedict’s graduation.
Should I go? I do not really wish to see Edward, but I know Elly will be hellbent on attending and she won’t go without me. That is if Aunt and Uncle countenance it at all. I suppose I could slip away without them knowing…
Sliding it back into the envelope and tucking it into her reticule, she donned her coat and leghorn before stepping out to board the waiting carriage. During the two-hour walk back and forth, she still weighed her mind about attending Vauxhall.
“Why have they chosen such a licentious place, anyway?” she wondered while stepping back into the townhome.
The Grand Walk was particularly delightful and close to it was the Rotunda where many entertainments were flaunted, but not far from there were the many secret lovers’ niches that made Vauxhall infamous.
“They should have started in the afternoon,” Alice muttered quietly as she snuck back into her room. “But no, the celebrations start at eight, when the place is pitch black and the moon is out,” she scoffed.
Penelope cleared her throat as she entered the room. “What do you meanwhen the moon is out?”
