‘What? And have a gardener as a son-in-law! I would rather her illness was treated than leave her in the hands of the man responsible for corrupting her.’
* * *
Evelyn looked at her fingers. She had paused in her frantic writing to dip the nib of her pen into the inkwell, but as she attempted to remove the excess ink, her hand was trembling before her eyes. She took a deep breath to calm herself, tightened her grip, and began writing again. She was blotting the letter when Tilly finally arrived.
‘Where have you been, Tilly?’ asked Evelyn. She folded the letter and hastily scribbled an address on the envelope. She made a mistake, scribbled it out and started again. ‘I’ve been ringing for you,’ she said, without looking up.
‘I’m sorry, Miss Evelyn.’
‘No matter. You are here now.’ Evelyn got up and left her desk. ‘I want you to do something for me, Tilly.’
Tilly took a step back. ‘I don’t think I can, miss.’
‘Of course you can. It is just a letter.’ She held out the ill-written envelope. Tilly looked at it as if she had been handed a cowpat. ‘It’s untidy, but I don’t have time to write it again,’ said Evelyn, placing the crumpled letter in Tilly’s hand and holding it there.
‘They are going to send me away to a madhouse, Tilly!’ Evelyn was on the verge of laughing at the stupidity of it all. ‘I’m not mad. I’m not, really I’m not.’ Dear Lord, the more I protest the more I sound like a woman on the edge, thought Evelyn. She realised she was hurting Tilly with the fierceness of her grasp. She let go and stepped back to give her maid somespace. She could see from Tilly’s face she was scaring her with her desperation. She tried to calm herself. ‘I need to get word to Drake. I need to tell him what they plan to do.’
Tilly turned the letter in her hand. ‘What good would it do?’
Evelyn felt like shaking her. She was running out of time and no one around her seemed to understand.
‘Because he loves me.’
‘He was not waiting at the end of the drive for you! Why wasn’t he waiting for you?’
Evelyn had asked herself the same question a thousand times. She began to pace the room. ‘I don’t know, but he is my only hope. Doctor Birch says I show immoral behaviour and wants to send me to a private clinic.’ She scoffed. ‘He probably has invested money in the clinic and my admission will earn him a pretty penny. I need to escape, Tilly.’
‘You can’t escape. They will only catch you.’
‘Then I am doomed. How do I prove that I am not mad when the world around me is madder?’ Evelyn turned to Tilly, tears stabbing her eyes. ‘Drake will help me.’
‘I heard them talking. They said if you were to marry . . .’
‘Who? Drake?’ There was that wild laugh again. ‘They would rather I was shut away than marry Drake.’
Tilly shook her head. ‘No, your cousin.’
‘Mawgan? I can’t, not now. It would not be fair to either of us.’
‘What choice do you have?’
‘I could still leave with Drake.’
‘Damn Drake!’ shouted Tilly.
Her outburst startled Evelyn. She had never seen Tilly lose her temper before.
Tilly sighed. ‘I’m sorry. If I give this letter to Drake and he is unable to help you, will you consider marrying your cousin?’
‘Mawgan will not ask me now.’
‘But if he did?’
The madhouse or Mawgan? The choices open to her made Evelyn feel sick with anxiety.
‘I would have to marry Mawgan,’ she said finally. ‘But Drake will come for me,’ she added hopefully. ‘He has to.’
* * *
