For a fullfive seconds, Georgina stared at her father. She realized, at the last second, a part of her had known what he would say. But still, she could hardly comprehend the words.
He’d betrothed her to Mr. Mealy.
Then she shot to her feet. “I will never marry him,” she burst out.
Her father gaped at her. “You most certainly will, and I have the contract to prove it.”
She glared at him, then her mother, who was bent so far over her skirts, her body was C-shaped. “Youknew? You knew what he’d done?” Georgina began to pace. “In my wildest dreams, I never thought my parents could do such a low-down, underhanded thing as to—” She froze, then pointed an accusatory finger at her father. “Yousoldme. You sold me to cover your gambling debts, did you not?”
His jutting jaw was all the answer she needed.
“Oh, Papa, how could you? If Drake was here, he would never have allowed—”
“Well, he ain’t here, is he?” Her father shot back, finally rising to his feet. Tears filled his eyes. “If he was, mayhap things would be different. Mayhap…I can’t say. But I can hardly let your Mama lose her home.”
“I already told you I would never allow that to happen. I told you I would see to the staff. I won’t pay your gambling debts, and you need to quit asking all of us to bow down to this despicable habit you have fostered.”
“That’s crazy talk, g’al. And I won’t have it, especially not under m’ own roof.”
“You will. Because you’re going to tell me precisely what Mealy has promised you, and then you’re going to promise me never, ever to…oh, I don’t have a clue what to do with you. I shall have to consult with Mrs. Dove-Lyon, again,” she muttered, cupping her flaming cheeks.
“What did you say?” Her father demanded. “Who did you say you consulted?”
She dropped her hands. “Never mind that. Tell me what he promised you in exchange for me.”
He licked his lips in a nervous gesture and sent a beseeching glance toward Georgina’s mother. “It ain’t what he promised. It’s what he’s done. Tell her, Olivia.”
Georgina looked at her mother. “You lied to me. Lured me here under false pretense.” Just as she herself had done to Teddy.
Looking utterly defeated and powerless, she peered up at Georgina. “I’m sorry, Georgie. I didn’t know what else to do when your father told me what he’d agreed to after Mr. Mealy purchased all of his IOUs. Mealy offered to give them back, to call them paid in full as a marriage settlement. What else could he do?”
“What else? What else?” she spat. “He could have saidno, Mother. He could have not lost the money. He could have not agreed to sell me.”
“A good daughter would obey her parents,” her father muttered.
“Yes, well, perhaps a good daughter would not have started you being dependent upon her, and a good father would not have asked itof her, but here we are.”
Heaving a sigh, she started from the room.
“Where are you going?” Her mother asked. “You can’t leave. What are we to do? What are we to tell Mr. Mealy?”
“He has m’ vowels, g’al. He can call ’em due, don’t you see?”
Unfortunately, she did see. “I must think. I must find a way to sort things,” she said, adding under her breath, “just as I always do.”
Teddy glanced outside,spotting Thomas atop his wife’s carriage, readied in the forecourt—finally. He’d had to harangue Danvers into seeing to the business.
The clergyman-turned-soldier-turned-butler had argued that Teddy should delay his departure ’til morning, and give himself time to process all he’d recalled, not to mention he could stand to cool his heels concerningLady Arlington.
Lady Arlington,indeed. He never failed to call her by Teddy’s given name.
I hope you’re not planning to go off half-cocked on Lady Arlington,he’d said as Teddy mounted the stairs in preparation for leaving.
Now the butler followed at his heels as he entered the receiving room. He gazed at the desktop where her personal notebooks still sat, and the open cabinet housing her letters.
“What are you after now?”
“After due consideration, I wish to consult my…Lady Belfry’s notebooks anew for any clues as to why she chose to deceive me.”
