“Look away,” said Thomasin. “He is heading over here.”
“Ellen!” Hugh called towards them. “Ellen, I must speak with you.”
“Sir Hugh,” said Thomasin, neatly stepping between them, “did you not use up your quota of words the other night, when you interrupted my family’s dinner?”
“My sincerest apologies for that,” he replied, trying to pass her by. “Ellen?”
“Ellen is a servant of the queen, and she is about her business at the moment. What can you possibly have to say to her?”
Hugh looked around them, seeing that no one else was there, then frowned at Thomasin. “What business is it, when the two of you are sitting and talking? And my words are for Ellen’s ears alone.”
“And yet she may not wish to hear them, and then, sir, you will simply have to eat them.”
“Is it the fashion now, Mistress Marwood, for young ladies to be so impertinent to their betters? What if the queen heard of your poor manners?”
“I should welcome the opportunity to explain to her how they arose.”
He stared back at her, his tawny eyes flashing. She saw him make the decision to ignore her and repeat his advances. “Ellen? Ellen, for love of God…”
Ellen rose to her feet. “It’s all right, cousin, let’s hear him out.”
“These are words for you alone.”
But Ellen lifted her chin and looked at him evenly. “You have no right to request that. Whatever you wish to say may be spoken before my family, just like the other night.”
Hugh frowned. “Very well. Ellen, I have made a terrible mistake. A dreadful, terrible mistake that haunts me day and night. When I think of what I had in your good self, what goodness, what simplicity, what trust and faith … and I allowed myself to be influenced into throwing it away. And now I suffer for it, every day. My wife is a very devil, Ellen, and I cannot abide another day with her. She tortures me with every means at her disposal.”
Thomasin turned away to conceal her smile. At least Cecilia could be thanked for that!
“Ellen,” Hugh continued, “I wish to live simply, a retired life in the country with a woman who loves me, perhaps a family…”
“A woman who loves you?” interrupted Thomasin. “You would phrase it like that, instead of a woman whom you love?”
“Yes, yes, of course, a woman whom I love. That is you, Ellen. I have never stopped loving you. Please, give me some hope for the future. I will put Cecilia aside, through annulment or divorce, leaving us free to marry. You can be my wife, Ellen. We can be happy together. You could come with me, today, back to Raycroft and I will cast that woman out! What say you?”
Thomasin turned to hear her cousin’s view, hoping that her resolve would not weaken.
Finally, Ellen spoke. “Sir Hugh, as a married man it is improper for you to speak to me in this manner. I will not be your wife, or your concubine, or whatever you wish. Nor would I be the cause of any woman being cast out of her legally married home, especially not my cousin. It is not my desire to be any man’s second choice. Come, Thomasin.”
Thomasin took the arm that Ellen held out to her and together they went into dinner. Yet Thomasin could feel her cousin’s arm shaking through the material of her sleeve.
“That was excellent,” she said. “I could not have spoken better myself.”
“The cheek of him!” Ellen muttered through gritted teeth. “The absolute cheek! For me to be the instrument by which your sister is thrown out of her home! To replace her in his bed while it is still warm! I have more dignity and fellow feeling that he has in his little finger.”
“To think we had him so wrong,” Thomasin added.
“It is a lesson better learned now than later.”
“Indeed, that is true. May all the men at court reveal their true selves to us in such a manner.”
The dinner plates were being brought up from the kitchen as the two women found themselves seats near the fireplace.Thomasin’s stomach growled as the scent of meat reached them. Ellen was watching the doorway, in case Sir Hugh had followed them in.
“Honestly, I hope he disappears back down to Sussex,” Thomasin said. “He and Cecilia deserve each other.”
“Let us not speak of him.”
“Of course not. Let us put him out of our minds forever.”
