“Poor Lavinia.”
Maria shrugs, as if Lavinia’s plight is the least of her problems.
Sally can barely comprehend everything Maria’s telling her. If Elliott is infatuated with Cecily and engaged to Lavinia, then what was he doing asking her such personal questions on the ride back to Mrs. Cowley’s? At the time, she had thought the behavior flirtatious, and now she’s mortified she ever interpreted it as such.
It’s like Maria can read her mind. “Elliott can be charming, when he wants to be. But more often than not, he’s cruel.”
That’s an accurate description of the man Sally has come to know.
“I’ve spent my whole life living in fear of him—worried that I’ll say or do something that will set him off. So, I can only imagine how bad it’s been for Cecily.”
The carriage slows and begins a steep climb up a private road.
“The other night I overheard him talking to my father,” says Maria. “He said he wouldn’t go through with the marriage if they didn’t give him Cecily to take with him to the new place.”
“Because Cecily, officially, belongs to your father? And not him?”
“That’s right,” says Maria.
“What did your father say?”
“His exact words were: ‘How are you going to learn to love a woman faithfully if you’re always dipping your wick where it doesn’t belong?’?”
Sally cringes. “Lovely.”
“I know.”
“What did Elliott say to that?”
Maria traces a small circle on the window, then turns it into a figure eight. “He laughed.”
“So, your father didn’t agree to the plan?”
Maria looks at Sally like she’s thick in the head. “Oh, no, he did. He’s as desperate to get rid of Elliott as any of us are.”
“Does Cecily know? I mean, did she know? Before…”
Maria shakes her head vehemently. “I hadn’t told her. I thought that if I could talk to my father first, when Elliott wasn’t around, I could convince him to let me keep her instead.”
“But you never did?”
Maria looks down at her lap. “I didn’t have time.”
“If she had known about Elliott’s plan, would that have been enough reason for her to run?”
Maria sits up straight, and her tone takes on a sharp edge. “She didn’t run.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“She wouldn’t have left me.”
Maria sounds almost as delusional as her brother, but Sally lets it go. She is young, and in a family as loveless as hers, Sally thinks that perhaps it is all right for her to go another year or two believing that someone loved her best of all.
JACK
The day passes excruciatingly slowlyfor Jack and the rest of the members of Placide & Green. One actor after another disappears into the taproom, only to emerge looking shaken, or at the very least, subdued.
Placide dresses each of them down, and when he is satisfied with what they did or didn’t say, he allows them to sit, relax, and order a tankard of ale, a plate of food, or both. “Eat up,” he says, as if an extra serving of pudding might fortify them for the days ahead.
