CHAPTER 23
“Your Grace, you must get out of bed quickly!”
Caroline snapped into wakefulness. Bethany was standing over her and wringing her hands, and Caroline could hear voices in the distance. They were loud and rather frantic—it sounded to her as though someone was in the midst of an argument.
She sat up, shaking off the remains of sleep. Her heart was racing thanks to the sounds she heard coming up from below. “What’s going on?” she demanded of Bethany. “Is everything all right?”
“I don’t know, Your Grace.”
“Bethany—” Caroline shook her head. Now was not the time to remind her lady’s maid of her request to be called by her given name. She needed information. “Who is down there?”
“It’s your family, Your Grace. I don’t know what they’re here for or what’s the trouble, but it all seems rather dramatic, and I really do think you ought to come downstairs quickly and see whether you can do anything about it all.” She wrung her hands, looking quite distressed.
“That’s my family?” That got Caroline out of her bed. She moved to her wardrobe hastily and pulled out the first gown that met her hands. “Quickly, Bethany, help me to get dressed. You’re right. I need to see what all this is about.”
“Did I do right by waking you?” Bethany asked as she helped Caroline out of her nightgown.
“Oh, yes. I don’t know what this might be, but I do know that I need to see for myself what’s caused my family to come here and make a scene. I’m sure this must have something to do with Prudence! Oh, I just hope everything is all right.”
She dressed as quickly as she could, left her room, and hurried downstairs.
Bethany had been correct. Prudence, their mother, Bridget, and—to Caroline’s surprise—Arabella were all standing in the foyer. Prudence, Bridget, and their mother had bags in their hands and looked as if they had rushed out of the house. Caroline had never seen her sister look so bedraggled.
Levi stood before them, holding up his hands and clearly trying to get Prudence and her mother to speak one at a time, but they seemed incapable of doing that. They kept talking over oneanother. Caroline moved into the room and approached Bridget, who was on the sidelines of the whole affair.
“What’s going on?” she asked, keeping her voice low.
“Oh, it’s awful,” Bridget said. “Prudence arrived back at home last night—well, I suppose you know that already. She said that you were the one who went to find her and thank God you did! I thought everyone would be so happy to have her returned to us that there would be no discord, at least for a little while.”
“But there was?”
“Your father was furious with her. He said she had spoiled a perfectly good match with the Duke of Mowbray with her willful ways, and that she would be lucky if anyone at all would have her now that she was known for this. And then he told us the worst news—he had arranged another marriage for her.”
“He had donewhat?” Caroline blinked. “Doesn’t he understand that’s what drove her to leave in the first place?”
“He said that she had one chance left to marry, and that if she didn’t follow his wishes now, she was sure to wind up a lonely spinster and be a burden on him forever. And then he said she was to marry Lord Cockerwood.”
“Lord Cockerwood? Isn’t he that old baron?”
“That’s right,” Bridget said. “I didn’t know who he was, but then he came by the house, and it’s just the most ludicrous match anyone could possibly imagine! He must be in his sixties. He’s much too old for Prudence, that’s for certain.”
“How did Father even set that up that quickly? Prudence just got back.”
“Apparently he’s been working on it the whole time she was away.”
“That’swhat he’s been working on the whole time she was away?” Fury burned through Caroline. “We were trying tofindher, and Father was arranging a marriage?”
“Yes, and without your mother’s knowledge. She was as shocked as you are. She said she had been trying to manage the family’s reputation.”
“Not very well,” Caroline growled. “Telling people that Prudence had run off—what was that supposed to do?”
“Well, I think she wanted to make it seem as though she had the situation in hand. Boasting about the fact that she’d gotten you married to a duke was a part of it.”
“As if the whole thing had beenplanned?”
“Yes, I think she wanted people to believe that it had been. She seemed to think the best way to control wagging tongues was to act as if everything that was happening was as expected.”
Caroline closed her eyes and took a breath. “All right. But she didn’t accept Father’s plan for a new marriage for Prudence."
