Chapter Twenty-Three
Rose and Reed turned as one at the sound of their mother storming across the floor with Claire trailing behind her.
“Married! Married?” Evelyn said repeatedly, getting louder. “Married!” The tenor of her voice betrayed her shock. “That’s why you were out until the wee hours. You eloped with William!” She sounded thoroughly peeved.
Intent on disavowing her mother’s assumptions, Rose opened her mouth, but Evelyn stood before her, nose to nose.
“That was very wrong of you, Rose Olivia Malloy, after all the time Elise has put into planning your wedding. I am most disappointed in you.”
Rose felt all the blood drain from her face. If her mother was upset at her secretly marrying William, how much worse would she take the news that—
“And think of how let down people will be,” Evelyn continued, “all those who were coming to the ceremony and to the luncheon.”
Claire stepped forward, her eyebrows knitted in confusion, and Rose’s heart began to pound. She could practically see the gears turning — and sticking — knowing what her friend was going to say before she said it, yet utterly helpless to stop her.
“I don’t understand,” Claire began, and Rose lifted up her hands to ward off the words. “How could you marry Mr. Woodsom when you are already married to Mr. Bennet?”
Rose smacked her own forehead with her palm and held her hand there, head bowed, shaking it back and forth, knowing the consequences that would follow. Everything had changed in the briefest of moments.
“Married towhom?” her mother practically shrieked this time. She looked at Claire. “Mr.Bennet? Who in God’s name is this Mr. Bennet?”
Turning back to Rose, Evelyn demanded, “What is the meaning of this?”
Before Rose could speak, Evelyn rounded on her only son.
“Did you know about this? Of course you did! Nothing gets by you. Obviously Claire knew,” she said, gesturing at the diminutive blonde, who looked a little sick at having spilled her friend’s secret.
Evelyn threw her hands up in the air. “Have you all gone mad?” she raged. “We have planned a wedding, a large one. How can Rose bealreadymarried? To a man whom I’ve never heard of? Does the whole household have to crumble when I relax for five minutes?”
Reed and Rose exchanged a look as Evelyn finally paused to take a breath.
“Nothing’s crumbling, Mother,” Reed said.
Evelyn headed for the closest chair, tossing herself down and closing her eyes.
“So close to getting four of them respectably married. So close.” She continued to murmur this to herself.
Rose lifted her head and glared at Claire who seemed to have shrunk into an extremely small version of herself.
“I’d best be going,” she whispered to no one in particular and darted from the room.
Too right!And it was the only time in Rose’s long relationship with Claire that she’d had unkind thoughts about her best friend. Particularly thoughts about strangling her.
Rose shared a very different look with her brother, glad for the first time that he had already been apprised of the situation. This moment would have been infinitely worse, like a deluge instead of a thunderstorm, if she’d had to deal with both Reed’s interrogations and censure as well as her mother having a conniption fit.
The siblings approached Evelyn on either side. Reed took one of her hands in his, and Rose crouched down and held her mother’s other hand.
“Mama, I was going to tell you after the situation was resolved in some manner, one way or the other.”
“Dear God,” her mother said, not opening her eyes. “A situation.”
Rose looked to Reed for assistance. His expression said, “I told you so,” yet he proceeded to pat their mother’s shoulder.
“It’s not as bad as it sounds,” he said. “Actually, itisrather bad. However, not without remedy. What’s more, I’m handling it.”
“Our Rose is married,” Evelyn whispered, and a little moan escaped her. “Since when?”
“Is that detail really important?” Rose asked.
