Hopeless Heart

Will glared at her. “You are going to lose her if you carry on the way you are.”

“Oh, but Georgiana is nothing but wayward,” Cecily protested dismissively.

“In your eyes, yes, but she is old enough to marry,” Will snapped dismissively. “What are you going to do if she announces that she wants to marry someone? Do you intend to try to control her married life as well?”

George sat bolt upright in his chair. “Has someone offered for her?” He scowled. “Nobody has asked me for her hand yet.”

Will sighed. “Not yet, but it cannot be long can it? She is young, beautiful, but also an adult. Women like Georgiana don’t stay single all of their lives.”

That brought him a deep sense of disquiet that refused to leave again, and he tucked it firmly away to consider later. Right now, he turned his anger on Cecily, and watched her cheeks turn florid beneath his hard glare. He didn’t give her a moment to protest her innocence, though, mainly because she was guilty and the cause of Georgiana’s current upset.

“You cannot treat her like a wayward child all of her life. She is an adult now, face it. You might not like it but you have to face it. You cannot control her. She is not your chaperone.” He had no idea why he was here doing this, but after this afternoon he felt he owed it to Georgiana and their lifelong friendship to try to help. He suspected that nobody else would try it-not even her brothers.

“I have to say that I have never seen this side of her before,” George sighed. “She is-” He scowled at the desk-top clearly at a loss to find the words to describe his only daughter.

“Spirited,” Will said with a soft smile. “Gentle. Kind. Warm. Funny, but also spirited.”

“She is causing a scandal, that’s what she is,” Cecily declared loudly. “I don’t want to think about what she has been up to this afternoon, but I am not going to allow her to go about this village upsetting the likes of Mrs Atterton. We are likely to be thrown out of the church if she carries on like this.”

“Oh, come now. That is hardly likely now is it?” Will snapped dismissively. “You really must stop these ridiculous dramatics.”

“Oh, dear,” Cecily declared as she fanned herself furiously. “Oh, dear me.”

“It has to be said,” Will declared. “Cecily, I insist that you are rational about this. Georgiana has been out for a walk - that is all. I saw her with Theresa just this morning. They were doing nothing more scandalous than sitting beside the stream having a chat. How could you allow that woman to come in here and cast aspersions upon her? Do you have no loyalty?”

Even George appeared abashed.

“Well, why is she all wet?” George demanded. “It hasn’t been raining today.”

Will was stumped to come up with a practical answer. He couldn’t tell George exactly what Georgiana had been up to because he would have a conniption. He probably wouldn’t allow her out of the house again. While he wouldn’t object to that too strongly, he couldn’t even begin to contemplate what it would do to Georgiana’s spirit. It didn’t deserve to be snuffed out because of other people’s derision.

“She probably fell in the stream or something. I am sure that Georgiana has a perfectly reasonable explanation. After all, how often has Georgiana brought scandal to your door? Why should you think she would do such a thing in the first place? She has never done anything like it before yet you prefer to listen to a scandal mongering gossip than your own daughter. It isn’t right, I tell you.”

Will gave them a few moments to consider that.

“Georgiana has said she intends to go and live somewhere else,” George confessed, throwing a worried frown at his wife.

Cecily, true to form, began to splutter and protest. When her wailing began again in earnest, Will threw her a contemptuous glare.

“Oh, do shut up, Cecily,” he snapped loudly. This had an immediate effect upon the woman, who fell silent in shocked disbelief. Turning to George, he levelled the man with a hard glare. “I will leave it to you to talk some sense and reason into your wife. Meantime, I will return to speak with Georgiana first thing in the morning when everyone has had a little time to calm down.”

He didn’t even bother to acknowledge Cecily as he nodded to George and stalked out of the house. In that moment, having seen their total disregard for their daughter, he didn’t care whether he offended them or not.

CHAPTER SIX

The following day, Georgiana sat in the post chaise to Mecklemerry with a dark frown on her face. She watched fields and towns roll past but paid them scant attention. She was too busy trying not to squirm in discomfort. The almost overwhelming relief she had felt when she had climbed aboard the chaise several hours ago had long since dissipated and been replaced with abject misery, not least because there was absolutely nothing to do. She was bored; completely, unutterably fed up.

Her flight from her parent’s house at dawn had turned out to be a total success. Having crept out of the back door as silently as a ghost, Georgiana had carried the only bag she had all the way to Gilman in the dark. It was the most daring thing she had ever done in her life but she wasn’t sorry for it. In fact, given the choice she would do exactly the same thing again. Now, though, as well as her most prized possessions, she rather wished she had brought a cushion or something to sit on because the bench seat was darned uncomfortable.

“Excuse me,” she asked the elderly gentleman seated opposite. “Would you have the time?”

She studied the gold chain on his waistcoat and watched him remove a small fob-watch.

“It is a quarter past eleven,” the man replied. He looked at her over the top of his spectacles; a piercing kind of stare that forewarned her that he didn’t approve of her travelling alone.

As if to prove her suspicions he glanced pointedly around the empty carriage. “Do you not have a chaperone with you?”

Georgiana looked at him. She wanted to lie and tell him that her maid was on the roof seat but there was nobody else on this particular post chaise apart from the two of them.