Caroline turned and met his look of disbelief. “I believe that’s better than remaining in a marriage where I will forever come in second to Nelson’s mistress.”
“What’s this?” her father asked, his brow furrowing as he frowned.
“That was the emergency on my wedding day. That was why we canceled our wedding trip. His mistress tried to kill herself because Nelson had married.”
There. She had finally revealed the ugly truth. Well, at least part of it.
“I threatened to tell his father and mother about the entire matter once I learned about it.” She sat down on the chintz-covered settee. “That’s partially why he beat me ... the first time.”
“I knew nothing about this,” Uncle James said, staggering to the nearest chair. “I swear.”
“No, no one did. I told no one of the beatings, and Nelson is a superb liar and quite cunning when it comes to hiding his mistress from public scrutiny. She knew about me but thought that since it was an arranged marriage, it would mean nothing. She figured me for a homely creature who had to pay in order to get a husband.”
“Why did her opinion change on your wedding day?” Elise asked.
“She was at the wedding. I had no idea, of course. She snuck in with a group of invited guests. She wore appropriate clothing, so no one thought anything of it. She saw us take our vows and sawhow beautiful I was and how happy we both looked, and realized this wasn’t a marriage in name only, as she’d thought it to be.”
“I’m mortified that she was allowed into the church,” Uncle James said, shaking his head.
“Be that as it may, how did you learn of her attempt to end her life?”
Caroline looked at her father. “She sent a letter to say good-bye. We had barely arrived at our new home to allow Nelson to change for our trip when the butler met him with the letter in hand.
“Nelson raced out of the house, telling his valet to cancel our trip and see that I was installed in the house. I was stunned. I thought surely something must have happened to his mother or father, but since we’d left them at the reception, I couldn’t imagine what it could be. It wasn’t until the next morning that Nelson returned. He was haggard and clearly hadn’t slept. I demanded to know what was going on. He didn’t want to talk to me and went to his bedroom.”
Caroline drew a deep breath. “You know me. I wasn’t satisfied with his refusal to speak. I followed him upstairs and let myself into his room unbidden. He was angry but grew angrier still when I demanded to know why he had abandoned me on our wedding night. I told him that if he didn’t tell me everything, I would go to his parents. That was the first time he hit me.”
She could see her father’s jaw clench. Elise’s eyes narrowed.
“I think at first he was shocked by his own actions. He told me he was sorry that my pressing to know had forced him to react in such a violent way.” She gave a bitter laugh. “He made it clear that it was my fault that he hit me.”
“Nonsense,” her father declared. “His lack of restraint was his fault and the reason for your despair. Go on.”
“We argued. I reminded him again that we had just been wed and I felt I had a right to know what was going on. He finally told me. He said his mistress had been so distraught over our marriage that she had tried to take her life. Had she died, he said it would have been my fault. That was when he struck me again. I fell to the floor, and he kicked me several times. I begged him to stop. I kept reminding him that I was his wife.” She felt the tears come and tried to sniff them back and control her emotions.
“That only served to irritate him all the more. He yanked me up from the floor and threw me on the bed—” She shook her head. “I can’t go on.”
She didn’t have to. She could see by her father’s expression that she didn’t need to.
“Why didn’t you tell me this when we first found out you’d left him?” Papa asked, his voice barely audible.
“I was still in such shock myself, and besides that, I feared you would kill him if you knew. I thought, too, that he’d be reasonable about ending the marriage. Instead, he locked me in my room and would not let me go. He said there would be no divorce. When I finally managed to get away and come here, I did so with little more than the clothes on my back.”
Her father said nothing, which frightened Caroline all the more. She could see that Elise, too, was disturbed by his silence.
Her uncle spoke up. “I swear this is the first I’m hearing of anything about the physical abuse. As you know, I took Caroline in when she arrived. I thought it was just a lover’s spat that would be easily resolved. Nelson came to me to talk, I supposeto see if he could figure out just how much Caroline had said. He’s been here several times since, demanding she return to her home. He told me his father will not abide even a hint of scandal, much less a divorce. He told Nelson to do whatever it took to see this marriage remained intact or he would disinherit him. Furthermore, I learned that the inheritance he received from his grandfather was conditioned on his being married.”
Uncle James looked so haggard that Elise couldn’t help feeling sorry for him.
“I am not going back to him,” Caroline insisted. “I am not with child, so there is no issue there. I will even lie and tell the court the marriage was never consummated. I want my divorce or annulment or whatever I can get that forever divides me from being Mrs. Worthington. Then he can marry his pregnant mistress.”
“Pregnant? His mistress is with child?” Uncle James asked.
Caroline shrugged. “So she says. That was in her letter the day we were to leave for Europe. She said she was going to bear him a child, but since he had done this horrible thing—marrying me—she knew they’d have no place in his life and so had decided to end both lives.”
Caroline watched as her father got to his feet. He didn’t look at anyone. “Caroline, you may come with us to Duluth. Pack your things and have them ready in an hour. I’ll send some of the boys to get them.”
“She can’t go. Don’t you see? We must not come between them. It’s bad enough that she’s taken refuge here in my house,” Uncle James declared. “A judge will see that as us alienating the relationship.”
