“Beatrice!”Sally reprimanded.
“I know,” Charles said.“About the engagement.”
“Ah, so you’ve broken with Fred Larkin, then?”
“No,” Sally said, the exasperation in her tone more than evident.“I haven’t.”
“I don’t understand,” Beatrice said.“Are you engaged to two men at once?”
“Yes,” Charles said.“She is.”
Beatrice didn’t know what to say.Her sister was more exasperating and surprising than she had ever imagined.
“But that’s illegal,” she said, slowly, as if explaining the concept to two young children.“Bigamy is illegal.”
Sally sighed.“Of course it is.I can’tactuallymarry both of them.But they both want to marry me.And each other.We all want to be together.”
“What—how—” Beatrice found that she was beyond words.
Sally exhaled another huff of frustration.
“I told you Fred and I were engaged.And so we were.But Fred made clear to me that he has a fancy for both men and women—and I made clear to him that I was uneasy about a life spent with just one man.I never envisioned that for myself.Not even when my grandmother used to talk about the hell waiting for any woman who gave herself to a man outside of wedlock.”
Beatrice, who had met Sally when she was the scrawny, scared granddaughter of a religious zealot, did not known how to process this statement.
“And then I met Charles.I knew Fred would love him.Who wouldn’t?”she said, gazing at Charles with pure adoration.
Beatrice was stunned.
And, then, as if attempting to complete the tableau, Fred appeared.
When he saw Charles and Sally, he broke out into a positively rakish grin.They beamed back at him.
Beatrice, however, was far less sanguine.“And what is your plan?I do not think the villagers in town will take kindly to a woman with two husbands.”
“We are working that out,” Sally said thoughtfully.“But we do have a plan.Charles and I are going to announce that we secretly married in London.And that Fred has hired us to work on his farm.”
“What if someone notices?Sally, it could be dangerous.”
She shook her head.“We will be careful.And no one will much care, I suspect.”
“Well,” Beatrice said, “I suppose I wish you all well.”
It was very evident from her tone, however, that she didnotwish such a thing.And she wasn’t even sure why.
Tears threatened again.No, of course, shedidknow why.She was a wretched, awful thing, who couldn’t stand the happiness of others when she herself was so miserable.
Sally cast her a truly pitying look.
“Bea,” she said, taking her arm.“Come with me.”And then, back to her two men, she called, “I need to speak with my sister.I will see you two very soon.”
“Whatis wrong?”her sister demanded, once they had left the men behind.“Why did Lord Leith leave?”
“I asked him to leave,” she said, still sounding, she knew, quite petulant.“We quarreled.He overstepped, Sally!And then when I became cross with him, he said many hurtful things.”
“About what did you quarrel?”
Beatrice swallowed.She had thought this part over since Leith’s departure and was aware that her conduct here was not strictly rational.
