“No,” he answered instantly.
Blythe folded her arms over her chest. “You will not give me your bed.”
“You certainly are not going to sleep by the fire,” he snorted.
“No. I will make a place on the ground, on the same side of the curtain as Isabella,” she insisted. “That is, if your sister does not mind,” she quickly added.
“I do not,” Isabella responded. “I shared a chamber with three sisters previously so one person is not a difficulty.” Isabella smiled with a mischievous twinkle in her grey eyes.
Four to a chamber must have been crowded. Blythe had assumed that since Valentine was a physician, able to attend university, that he came from a family with some wealth, but perhaps that was not the case. Only those of common birth slept so many to a room, and Isabella did follow the drum. Then again, Blythe had followed her husband, and she was not common.
She really must stop making judgments of people she had only just met.
“I promise that I will not be an inconvenience. I will remain inside and out of your way.”
Isabella frowned. “Inside as you will not be leaving the tent at all?”
“Only when necessary and under the cloak of darkness. I will likely hide here until I can finally return to London?”
“Do you want to return to England?” Dr. Valentine asked. “I could make those arrangements for you.”
Is that what she wanted?
She could leave and never look back but was she ready to return home?
“Why do you want to hide yourself away?” Isabella asked.
“I would rather not face further humiliation. It was bad enough that I was forced to stand on a block because my husband no longer wanted me.” Tears threatened so Blythe stood and walked away, her back to her host and his sister. “I would like to forget that this ever happened and disappear so others can forget.”
“I do not think that will happen as easily as you hope,” Dr. Valentine offered sympathetically.
“They will if they never see me.”
“Returning to England would put you out of sight,” Isabella acknowledged.
Brother and sister would likely be glad to be rid of her, but Blythe’s stomach tightened at the very idea of having to face her father and tell him what had occurred and why John had not returned with her. Then there were her brothers… Yes, it had been nice to think of what they would do to John, but the reality of having to face them was a humiliation she did not want to endure.
“No. I cannot go back yet.” Blythe paced as agitation filled her being. “No matter how much I may want to keep it a secret, my father will find out. He has a way of knowing things. I sometimes wonder if he has spies all around to report back on what his children are doing.”
It was a ridiculous notion because if there were such spies she would have discovered them.
“I would simply like to disappear until I am ready.” Ready to what? Face her father and siblings? She might not ever be ready for that reunion.
“Secure a room at one of the inns in Brussels,” Isabella suggested. “There must be one available.”
Oh, to have a chamber to herself where she could simply be alone and gather her thoughts and decide on what she wanted to do next. Blythe couldn’t remember the last time that she was truly alone. Even if nobody else was in the tent that she had shared with her husband, there were people just on the other side and she could still hear them.
Except, there may be people at an inn who may know her from before she married John. People she had met during her first and second Season. People who knew that she had a husband.
Brussels had once been a popular destination prior to the war on the Continent, and when Napoleon was sent away to Elba, English Society returned because Brussels was not only more affordable, but more importantly—fashionable.
Did she want to risk encountering someone from her past and then having to explain why her husband was not with her?
There was also no reason why she would need to leave her room if one was found.
“I suppose that it is best for me and you. I will be out of the way and you can continue being a rake disguised as a doctor.”
Isabella snorted and Dr. Valentine glared at his sister.
