“Forgive me, Mama,” she said, moving to sit beside Mrs Peverill once again. “I had no intention of reproaching you.”
“Oh no, Verena,” protested her mother. “You have every right to be angry. I know it was foolish of me, but —”
“Let us say no more about it. Adam is here now, and we should rather enjoy his unexpected presence. For how long do you mean to remain, Adam?”
It appeared that her brother could only be here a few days, for he had informed his father that he was going on a visit to an old school friend in order to exchange Christmas greetings. They settled it that he should take a room at the New Inn close by, but spend his days with them, Mrs Peverill extracting his promise to remain at least until Friday when she might show him off at the Lower Rooms.
Over breakfast, of which Adam partook, he was persuaded by Mrs Peverill to give an account of what had transpired after their removal.
“I’m afraid we continued fighting until the two of us were incapable of anything further. We had drawn the entire domestic staff out upon us by then. None of them dared to interfere, but at the last Papa demanded his valet and they staggered away together.”
“Did he not say anything — about us, I mean?” asked Verena.
“Not a word. So I did not either. The servants were left to make what they might of the whole incident. You had set it about that Mama was gone to the seaside for her health, Verena, but I don’t think they long believed that. Not after the way Papa was carrying on.”
Mrs Peverill’s eyes widened. “Carrying on? What do you mean, dearest?”
“Was he drinking?” asked Verena.
Adam nodded. “Heavily, I’m afraid. That was after he rushed around searching for you. I found out from the grooms where he went — all over the south coast, I think. For some obscure reason, he seemed to be convinced that you must be in Little Hampton, Mama.”
“Little Hampton!” repeated Mrs Peverill on an odd note.
“Yes, is it not the strangest thing?”
But Verena thought Mama looked a little conscious. What could there be in that name to bring such a reaction? A moment later she had forgotten it, however, for as her brother resumed, a more horrible possibility reared its head.
“Has he been very miserable?” asked Mrs Peverill.
Adam laid down the cup from which he had been sipping chocolate, and looked at her. “Mama, he is a changed man.”
She clasped her hands together, resting her fingertips against her lips. “Tell me.”
Her son shrugged. “I don’t quite know how to describe him. He has gone quiet — despairing almost, as if the life has gone out of him. He is drinking, yes, but he remains quite sober. I believe —” He paused, glancing at his sister’s face.
Verena placed her knife and fork to one side of her empty plate. “Say what you wish to, Adam. I had rather you did so in my presence than that you saved it for Mama’s private ear so that she felt obliged to keep it from me.”
“Don’t say that, my love. There will be no more secrets between us, I promise you. Come, Adam. Verena will hear it with patience, and I must hear it. What do you believe?”
Adam drew a breath. “That he is missing you dreadfully, Mama. If you could but see him. He has lost flesh, his eyes are constantly shadowed — I suspect he is not sleeping. He — hemutters over his glass. We do not converse, you see, apart from what must be said. He has not forgiven me, that is sure. But what I truly think, Mama, is that he cannot now forgive himself. He has had a salutary lesson, which he will not readily forget.”
“No, for he will not be permitted to forget it,” stated Verena in a hard voice, seeing the evidence in Mama’s eyes of her tender heart melting already. “It is a lesson he will remain at, though he rue the day lifelong.”
Adam’s gaze came around to her, and he frowned in perplexity. “I have never heard you speak so harshly, Verena. I know you hate him, but have you no compassion?”
“None at all,” returned Verena, adding on a bitter note, “and I wonder at it that you can have any either.”
Mrs Peverill intervened. “But I have, Verena. I do not like to imagine him in such a state as Adam describes. Perhaps I should think of going back.”
“Going back!”
Verena’s heart sank. This was just what she feared. To have Nathaniel insinuate himself back into Mama’s heart in spite of all. Oh, she could scream with frustration. Now she must use all her arts to persuade Mama against so ruinous a course. She must speak to Adam in private. He must stop painting this pitiful picture — a picture that only served to harden her own heart. If Nathaniel was suffering and remorseful, so much the better.
It was some little time before she could find a moment to get Adam to herself, but at last Mrs Peverill’s tiredness overcame her and Verena called out for Betsey to take her up to her bed to sleep for a while.
There was silence for a short time after the two elder women left the room. Adam, his slim fingers playing a fidgety rhythm on his thigh as he moved restlessly about the parlour, cast his sister an uneasy glance where she stood at the door she had closed behind Mama.
Verena turned to look at him. “Oh, Adam,” she sighed, and crossed the room to embrace him, resting her head on his shoulder. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
