Seventeen
Jane arrived back at the house barely thirty minutes after she’d left, Annabelle at her side.
“Oh!” Hannah gave a little cry of surprise as she embraced her friend. “Eli showed me the story. Are you all right?”
“As well as can be expected.” Annabelle’s eyes were red, though her voice held steady. “Della’s decided to leave England until the story blows over. I don’t knowhowshe’ll manage without me. You see what sort of trouble she got herself into when I was there to keep an eye on her, so you can just imagine how much worse it will be when she’s free to run amok.” She shook her head gravely.
“Well, she won’t be alone.” Jane sounded as worried as Annabelle, though she seemed to be trying to put on a brave face.
“What do you mean?” Hannah asked.
“Now that Viscount Ashton has his divorce, she intends to ask him to accompany her.”
“But he’s the reason that she’s in this mess,” Hannah protested, searching first Jane, then Annabelle for any sign of understanding.Was she the only person who could see sense? “Hasn’t she learned her lesson?”
It was Annabelle who answered. “I warned her something like this might happen.” Her voice softened as she continued. “But the truth is, I really think he loves her. And he’s good for her, in his way. They do seem to bring out the best in each other. If it weren’t for the inconvenient fact of his prior marriage, they would have been a good match.”
“That’s a very important fact!”
“Yes.” Annabelle sighed. “But he’d been separated from Lady Ashton for something like eight or nine years before he met Della, so it isn’t as though she had anything to do with their rupture. If they’ve been unhappy for that long, I don’t see why everyone makes such a fuss over divorce when there aren’t any children to make inheritance a problem.”
Annabelle said it so indifferently, as though the end of a marriage was no great tragedy simply because the couple in question had grown a little tired of one another.
“But what’s the point of a marriage if the vows don’t mean anything?” Hannah asked indignantly. It was a question she might have liked to ask Mama, if she dared. But it was far easier to say it to Annabelle.
“Are their vows so important that Lord and Lady Ashton should be miserable together for the rest of their lives instead of finding happiness with other people?” her friend retorted. “Plenty of couples make mistakes. I’m certainly not going to judge him if he’ll be the one keeping Della safe. I’d rather they were off to the continent together than have her face the scandal alone.”
Jane was nodding along silently.
Hannah wasn’t sure what to say. She couldn’t think of any persuasive argument why Lord Ashton should stay with his wife whenshe didn’t know anything about either party, except that it made her feel very worried to think that every source of security she’d been told to aspire to in life was nothing but a piece of theater: a painted backdrop that could be torn down to reveal the emptiness behind. But she wasn’t sure quite how to express this sort of existential dread without sounding hysterical.
“I’m glad to hear Della has a plan.” Eli spoke up. “Is there anything else we can do for her?”
“Not at present.” A deepening crease marred Jane’s brow. “I gather she’ll be leaving quite soon. We’ve agreed that Annabelle will exercise control over her share of the club while she’s away. And we may need to buy her investment out.” She exchanged a regretful look with Eli.
“Unless you like me so much that you decide to keep me on forever as a partner,” Annabelle said, her voice bright despite the gravity of the subject. “ThenIcan buy Della out for you. I imagine she’ll probably need the money once she spends all hers on something silly like new gowns in Paris.”
“That’s why we came back here.” Jane turned to Hannah. “We need to plan out our next steps for Bishop’s now that Della is retreating entirely from the business.”
“I can still join you?” This was a bright spot in the morning, though she would have preferred it to come under better circumstances. “I wasn’t sure what the scandal would mean for you.”
“We’ll have to inform our members that Della has withdrawn from her role in the club, effective immediately, but we won’t give up.” Jane’s chin wavered, and Eli reached out to give her shoulder a comforting squeeze. “If you need an income to support yourself without a husband, we may as well help each other.”
“Wait, you broke your engagement?” Annabelle whirled on Hannah. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“It was a busy morning!” Jane protested.
“Do you need me to be sad with you?” Annabelle looked her over apprehensively. “Or may I confess that I think spinsterhood is the only sensible option for an intelligent woman?” With a belated wince, she addressed Jane, who was frowning at her. “Sorry.”
“I give you permission to be happy,” Hannah assured her. “It was my decision.”
This was perfectly true. If there was an odd little twinge in her heart when she thought of it, that only came from the abruptness of her rupture with Mr. Corbyn. Nothing more.
Jane was giving her a doubtful look, but thankfully didn’t press the matter when they had business to discuss. “Cecily is already attending three nights a week, and we’ll try to keep her on if she’s still willing. Hannah, if you’re interested in taking over the bookkeeping, it would leave me more time for other matters. If your mother will agree to keep watching Gloria in the evenings, I can attend more often until the crisis subsides. Annabelle, you can start coming in regularly on the evenings that Eli or I are there so that we can show you the ropes. How many days can you manage?”
They spent the next few minutes going over their schedules until they’d arrived at a plan for Della’s absence, although they hadn’t finished dividing all of the labor when a knock at the front door signaled that Hannah’s mother had returned from her morning calls.
Oh no.
