Amity sighed. She was on her own.
“Marissa,” she repeated.
“And as for what you can say to me, please assure me that you will not end the engagement once you are safe,” Marissa continued briskly.
“I’m sorry,” Amity said cautiously. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”
“You can tell me that your feelings for Benedict are sincere, that the engagement is for real. You can assure me that you will not break Benedict’s heart by buying a ticket on the next ship bound for the Far East as soon as your book is published and the police have arrested the Bridegroom.”
Amity caught her breath, stunned. “You think that I am in a position to break Benedict’s heart?”
She was aghast at the misunderstanding but she had no notion of how to go about correcting it.
“Benedict has waited a long time for the right woman to come into his life. He certainly has not lived a monkish existence.”
Amity cleared her throat. “Yes, I am aware of his past association with Lady Penhurst.”
“It meant nothing to Benedict.” Marissa waved her hand in casual dismissal. “Which is not to say that Lady Penhurst did not have her own plans. She was out to snag a wealthy husband at the time and everyone, including Benedict, knew that. She thought she could seduce him into marriage, but Ben is not that easily fooled. He learned his lesson after the disaster of his first engagement. There was never any possibility that he would give Leona the Rose Necklace.”
Amity remembered some of the whispers she had heard at the Gilmore ball.“I see that she is not wearing the family necklace.”
“Mrs. Stanbridge—Marissa—I don’t mean to disagree with you but I don’t think you understand the nature of my relationship with Benedict. Our engagement is a very modern arrangement. It is based on friendship and mutual interests and... and a number of other things.”
Marissa did not appear impressed. “Has Ben told you about Eleanor, the woman he was engaged to marry when he was much younger?”
“No. I’ve been told that there was a prior engagement, but he has never mentioned the woman’s name. The subject is no doubt far too painful.” Amity took a deep breath. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to change the topic.”
Marissa ignored that. “It was a disastrous relationship from the start. There is no doubt but that Eleanor was forced into the engagement because her family’s finances were in desperate shape. She was barely eighteen. She tried to do her duty. But I’m afraid that poor Benedict believed that she truly loved him. He loved her, you see, the way only a young man can love.”
Amity reflected briefly on her own youthful passion for Humphrey Nash. She shuddered. “I see.”
Marissa patted her hand. “We were all that young once. Luckily, some of us make the right choices at that point in our lives. But I’m inclined to think that success in that regard is mostly a matter of chance. How can a person of that age possibly know what to look for in an alliance that is destined to last a lifetime?”
“Good question,” Amity said.
She cast another, hopeful glance in the direction of the study, but Benedict and Richard were still immersed in the papers on the desk. She knew the conversation with Marissa was veering into dangerous territory. Part of her was curious to know the truth about Benedict’s past, but another part of her did not wish to hear how much he had loved his first fiancée—his real fiancée.
“In the end, as you are probably aware, Benedict was left at the altar,” Marissa said. “Eleanor ran off with her penniless lover the night before the wedding.”
“How very melodramatic of her.”
“Indeed. But as I said, she was only eighteen and at that age everything is melodramatic, is it not?”
“Quite true.”
“It was all very awkward at the time, but Richard assures me that when the dust settled Ben soon realized he’d had a narrow escape. And for her part, Eleanor was honest enough not to take the Rose Necklace when she ran off. Some women in her situation would have kept the necklace and used it to finance a new life with her lover.”
Amity smiled. “So Eleanor wasn’t such a bad sort, after all.”
“No. Just very young. Trust me, Lady Penhurst would have kept the necklace.”
Amity thought about the vindictive expression she had detected in Leona’s eyes. “I think you’re right. Does anyone know what happened to Eleanor and her lover?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact. They got married. Probably lived in a garret for a time. Isn’t that what young runaway lovers do? But in the end Eleanor’s family accepted the marriage. It’s not as if they had a choice. And eventually Eleanor’s husband obtained a respectable position as a clerk in a firm of solicitors. The husband made a few investments that turned a very nice profit and now the family lives a comfortable life. Last I heard they have a house in the country and another here in London.”
“So there was a happy ending for Eleanor and her lover.”
“Oh, yes,” Marissa said. “They have three children, I believe.”
