* * *
‘How is she?’
Doctor Birch made himself comfortable in his favourite chair and took the cup of tea offered by Lady Pendragon. He would rather it was a glass of Sir Robert’s best brandy, but the day was still young and he had no plans to rush to leave yet.
‘I have examined your daughter thoroughly. It is a grave situation indeed and you did the right thing to ask me to see her.’ He took his time as he drunk from his cup, aware that Evelyn’s parents’ eyes were upon him. He placed his cup down and sat back in his chair. ‘She is looking a little better now and has eaten and drunk something. You felt it necessary to bind her arms and legs. Why was that?’
Lady Pendragon looked to her husband.
‘At the time we had no choice,’ replied Sir Robert. ‘When I found her at the end of the drive, she appeared in shock and got into the trap quite willingly. I could get no explanation from her and wondered if she was listening to me at all. When we reached the house, her demeanour changed quite suddenly. She became hysterical and refused to enter the house. In the end I ordered the staff to carry her to her room, and because I feared she would run away again, I thought it was best to restrain her.’
‘How did you come to find her gone?’
‘Her maid informed us of her plans. At first I did not believe her, but she seemed so sincere and fearful for Evelyn’s reputation that I grew concerned. I could have locked Evelyn in her room, but in truth I did not want to think she was capableof such behaviour and did not want to give her ideas where none may be forming. The maid was proved right. Our worst fears played out.’
‘What is wrong with her, Doctor Birch?’ asked Lady Pendragon. ‘Evelyn has been so well since her last bout of hysteria. What has made her behave like this?’
‘I’m afraid it is more serious than a young fancy of love.’
‘Love!’ scoffed Sir Robert. ‘What does she know about love?’
‘Hush, Robert,’ soothed Lady Pendragon. ‘Let Doctor Birch finish what he was saying.’
Doctor Birch swiped at a fleck on his trousers. ‘Evelyn is a slave to unnatural urges. Urges that if left unbridled will lead to prolonged promiscuity. She does not have the insight to see that such immoral behaviour will lead to her ruin and social suicide and, more worryingly, when persuaded that this will be the case, does not care.’
‘Promiscuity?’
‘She has lost her maidenhood.’
‘Dear Lord!’ cried Sir Robert. His wife began to sob in the corner, and rightly so. ‘Are you sure?’
‘She told me so.’
Lady Pendragon, shocked that her daughter would discuss such things, gasped into her handkerchief.
‘But she is to be engaged to my nephew,’ floundered Sir Robert.
Doctor Birch looked gravely at him over the steeple of his fingertips. ‘In my opinion, there are only two cures for her immoral weaknesses. The first, a firm husband who can curb her wanton ways.’
‘Mawgan will not want her now.’
Doctor Birch smiled inwardly. If only Sir Robert knew the real truth about his precious nephew. He was, after all, just an illegitimate child with a prostitute’s blood running through hisveins. Yet, since Nicholas’s death, it had given Doctor Birch a queer sense of pleasure to know that the brat had, by sheer luck of a family tragedy, become the only surviving male Pendragon and would inherit the baronetcy title. The pleasure had only intensified when he’d heard that Mawgan was to marry Evelyn and lay claim to Carrack Estate. The brat would become the wealthiest man in Cornwall, and he had engineered it. No one must ever find out, of course. If it was discovered he had swapped a baby at birth his reputation would be destroyed. Even so, to know that one had a hand in such a transformation . . . like a spiritual healer who had saved a soul.
Doctor Birch shrugged a shoulder. ‘The other way, of course, is an admission to hospital.’
Sir Robert looked at him. ‘An asylum?’
‘Evelyn is afflicted with weak inclinations and a nervous disposition, but I would not wish to see her locked away with lunatics,’ said Doctor Birch, looking at Sir Robert over his glasses. He smiled to reassure him. ‘Have no fear, Robert. I have Evelyn’s best interest at heart. I know of a private clinic run by a colleague of mine. He is an alienist and his clinic is a beautiful manor, situated north of the River Tamar. I will sign the emergency commitment papers today and take her there myself. I have every faith that she can be cured of her . . . urges and will make a fine wife and mother one day.’
Lady Pendragon sniffed. ‘What if she should marry?’
Her husband shook his head in despair. ‘Mawgan will not want her when he hears what she has done.’
‘Do you have to tell him?’ she asked.
‘Yes, I must, as word will get out soon enough. We can only pray that he will forgive her, marry her and save her from herself.’
‘And if Mawgan won’t marry her, what then?’ asked Lady Pendragon. ‘Could the man who has taken advantage of her recklessness be held accountable?’
