“Let’s not talk about the air,” Hannah pleaded. “I’m only trying to say that I want to see you.”
Papa scoffed. “You’ve seen me now. I can stay out the day if you like, but I really must go back tomorrow. I have obligations waiting for me.”
It was hard not to let her disappointment show. “Might I come back home with you, then?”
If he’d been surprised before, Papa grew downrightuncomfortable at this. “You know I love to see you, but Jacob and I had planned a foxhunt with the McAllisters before the season ends. You always say you don’t like to watch those. And then it will be the spring planting. We’ll be too busy to entertain you. Besides, it’s not seemly for a young woman to be alone with a bunch of men. You’ll be happier here, where your mother and Jane can keep you occupied and see about finding you a husband. That’s women’s business.”
“Why can’t Mama come home with me?” If Hannah couldn’t persuade her mother to see reason, maybe Papa could help.
But he soured at this, suddenly irritated. “I never said she couldn’t. She’s the one who insisted on running off to town, saying she could find you a husband more easily here, and look how that turned out! I don’t see why you couldn’t just marry Mr. Keane’s eldest boy, from over near Hemerdon.Henever would have spoken back to his elders like that fellow you brought here last night.”
“I don’twantto marry George Keane.” Hannah couldn’t take any more matchmaking. It was even worse coming from her father because she hadn’t been expecting it. Or maybe it was worse because she couldn’t think of her pathetic string of suitors now without comparing them to Mr. Corbyn and feeling the sting of his sudden departure afresh. “I just want us to go back to the way things used to be. If you would talk to Mama, maybe you could—”
“Bah. It’s too late for that. She’s made her decision, and she’s welcome to it. I’m not going to beg my wife to stay in her own house. If you want to try to talk some sense into her, you can go right ahead, but I have nothing to apologize for.”
Hannah flinched away from the anger in his tone.I didn’t ask you to apologize.
Now he was all worked up again. She hadn’t made things any better by talking to Papa; she’d only made them a thousand times worse. She should have known better.
“I’m sorry,” Hannah found herself mumbling automatically, though she didn’t know what she’d done wrong. “I’m going to go downstairs. I’ll see you in a little while.”
She blinked back tears as she hurried away. Even Papa didn’t want her back home. What had it all been for, then? She’d worked so hard, she’d convinced Mr. Corbyn to do so much for her, and she’d promised him an impossible sum that she still hadn’t managed to pay, and for what?
Hannah paid no mind to where she was going, wanting only to put as much space as she could between herself and her father before she could do anything else to spoil things. When she rounded a corner, she nearly crashed into Eli and Jane.
“Careful,” he admonished, then took in the distress on her face. “Are you all right? Is it about Mr. Corbyn?”
“It’s not Mr. Corbyn, it’s Papa.” Hannah sniffled. She hated how utterly pathetic she sounded. “I want to go back to Devon but he says I have to stay with Mama, except she’s not going back home, is she? Not ever.”
Jane, who was holding her daughter in her arms, cast a worried look to Eli. “Would you like me to give you two a moment in private?”
“No need,” Hannah answered for him. “Everybody knows. I’m just the only one who cares.” Belatedly, she realized that there might be one other person in the house who cared, and lowered her voice. “Wait, where’s Mama?”
“Out on a morning call,” Eli assured her. “But why don’t we all go into the study where we won’t be disturbed?”
How can Mama be out on a call at a time like this?
Hannah followed them down the hall to a little green room filled with books and an oak table. Eli pulled out two chairs for the ladies, but Jane didn’t take hers, instead kneeling down on a nearby patch of empty carpet where she could set Gloria on her belly to wiggle and grunt.
“I do care.” Eli’s voice was gentle. “I’m sure Jacob must too. But you can’t say it was unexpected, Hannah. They’ve been unhappy for years. Just look at what happened last night.”
“That was Mr. Corbyn’s fault! If he hadn’t made such a fuss over it—”
“It wasn’t his fault,” Eli said firmly. “Papa was rude to half the people at the table: Mr. Corbyn, Jane, and especially Mama. I should have put a stop to it myself before Mr. Corbyn had to say anything.”
Hannah bit her lip. Coming from Eli, it was a damning condemnation. He’d always been the peacekeeper in the family, trying to distract their parents from their quarrels with some bit of news or a joke. She couldn’t imagine him talking back to Papa as Mr. Corbyn had done.
“I don’t want to interfere in your life if you’re sure of your choice,” her brother continued. “I expect you have enough of that from Mama. But if the only reason you rejected Corbyn last night is because of what he said at dinner, then I hope you’ll think it over a bit longer. It’s the sort of thing you should be sure about.”
Hannah wasn’t prepared for this. Was she really the only person who objected to Corbyn’s behavior? Well, her and Papa, of course. And possibly Mama, who cared more for manners than for motives.
I’m turning into my parents.This realization was enough to make Hannah wish she could take back her harsh words to Mr. Corbyn last night, if she hadn’t been halfway there already.
But what good did regret do? How could she be sorry for the loss of a connection that had never been real? She couldn’t marry him, so their engagement was destined to end one way or another.
“I am sure,” she promised Eli.
What Hannah regretted was only the way their rupture had come about. She’d hurt Corbyn when she’d agreed he wasn’t a gentleman. And the worst part was, she’dknownit would hurt him before shesaid it, but she’d blamed him for sabotaging all her weeks of planning and she’d let that frustration guide her.
