“It was your talk of Mr Wentworth.” Miss Redding looked proud and haughty as she said his name, though it wasn’t long before the mask slipped and she appeared as little more than a diffident schoolgirl. “I’m supposed to avoid even the mention of his name in my brother’s company because I’ve so shamed him, but I think it might be rather a relief to speak to you since you knew Mr Wentworth on account of his visits to Blinley Manor where you worked.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Don’t worry, I shan’t say a word. Hugh says you’re in danger because of what happened there but not to bring up the subject. He says I should just let Mr Wentworth’s memory fade away until he’s not even a shadow in our lives.”
“So you’re defying your brother just by talking to me? Aren’t you afraid he’ll look out of the window and see us?”
“Hugh’s just ridden into the village, so he won’t be back for a while.”
Phoebe observed the determined dark eyes that were in such contrast with her trembling mouth. “Mrs Withins will tell him if she sees us,” Phoebe warned, walking on a little. “And you know your brother will be very angry.” Righteous indignation made her tremble. How could she ever have found her heart engaged by a man who thought so little of her?
“Well, I don’t think I’ve ever associated with a woman like you…” Miss Redding’s voice trailed off as she followed Phoebe out of line of sight of the windows, doubling back so they were within the shelter of a large hedge.
Phoebe swung around, one eyebrow raised. “A woman like me?” she repeated. “I thought your association with Mr Wentworth made you a woman just like me.”
Miss Redding gasped. “How dare my brother confide to you so much about me. You’ve…beguiled him. You’re his mistress, aren’t you? That’s why I mustn’t talk to you.” Trembling, she muttered furiously, “I hope his trust is not misplaced, and that you won’t reveal anything that might damage my reputation.”
Phoebe relented a little in her anger toward Mr Redding when she considered that he had trusted her to such an extent. Her ire toward Miss Redding also abated as she considered how young the girl was. Surely she’d have been still in the schoolroom when she’d been so easily led and Phoebe, more than anyone, knew how vulnerable she must have been to Wentworth’s charm.
Just as she was about to say something ameliorating, Miss Redding raised her head. “Our situations couldn’t be more different though, so you must understand my brother wanting to protect me from you. I succumbed to the charms of a gentleman because of my foolish heart, whereas you are forced to do so—”
“Forced to do so?” Phoebe’s sympathy drained away. “Are we talking about Mr Wentworth?”
Miss Redding looked confused for a second before her brow cleared. “I was talking about you and my brother. Yes, I was disgraced through my association with Mr Wentworth because I lost my heart…” she took a breath, adding, “…however, your association with my brother is through pecuniary necessity.” She put her hand up to stay Phoebe’s protest. “I’m not condemning you, but you can’t tell me you love my brother when you’ve only just met him and it’s clear you have nowhere else to go.”
Phoebe resisted the urge to slap her. “You are more straight-talking than you look, Miss Redding,” she murmured at last.
“I pride myself on speaking the truth as I see it.” Miss Redding looked disgustingly virtuous. “I also love my brother very dearly. He’s been both father and mother to me since the early death of my parents. But I can see he’s lonely, and that you coming into his life in such a manner has made him susceptible to…what you might offer. I’m sure it’s a very convenient arrangement and, of course, I quite understand his concerns that I should not associate with you—”
“Except that I might suggest your association with Mr Wentworth has blurred those lines between us which you suggest preclude a certain leveling in our stations,” Phoebe said hotly. Who did this young woman think she was, taking the moral high ground like this?
To her astonishment, Miss Redding promptly burst into tears. Again.
Phoebe shook her head as the girl buried her face in her hands, rocking her shoulders while the green feather of her bonnet threatened to snag on the spikes of the hedge.
“Stop behaving like a sniveling infant,” Phoebe muttered, putting out her hand awkwardly and then withdrawing it. “First you accost me, and then you insult me and say you’re not supposed to be speaking to me. I think it’s time to bid you good day, Miss Redding, before your brother or Mrs Withins sees us and accuses me once again of upsetting you.”
Miss Redding looked up at her through reddened eyelids. “Don’t go,” she pleaded. “I know I was rude even though there’s truth in what I say—you surely must admit it. But my situation is so much worse than yours. I have lost everything!”
“Your virtue, which you so foolishly offered?”
Instead of another angry outburst, Miss Redding merely nodded sadly. “My virtue…and then…” she took a deep breath “…that which I cannot speak of. So much worse. And now my will to live.” She began to cry again, but this time with such heartrending sobs that Phoebe was moved.
Drawing Miss Redding deeper into the garden where there was no chance of being observed, she asked, “There was a child?”
“Yes…no, it must never be spoken of!” Ada heaved in another breath and rested her head against the tree trunk behind her, her eyes closed as tears coursed down her cheeks. “I was not supposed to know it lived, but the wet nurse who was going to take little Emily away became ill and…and there was no one to nurse it but me for three days. I grew attached, realized I couldn’t live without my child, that I’d sacrifice everything. But Hugh said my reputation would not survive, and that without that, I might as well be dead.” She dropped her hands and stared at the sky and Phoebe, who’d tried so desperately for a child for so many years, felt a deep and primal tug for this foolish, deluded schoolgirl who, like her, had thought she was in love with Wentworth.
“Hugh took your child away?”
“He arranged it, yes.” Miss Reddi
ng stared at her feet, before glancing up. “What could he do but find a good home for her? I am not yet twenty and must find a husband for we are not wealthy, and he is concerned about my future. With a child, that would of course not be possible, and not only would I be socially ostracized, but Emily would be too. But oh, sometimes I wish I were dead.”
Phoebe frowned. Ada looked even younger with her face pink and puffed from crying. She did a quick mental calculation. So Ada had been Wentworth’s plaything when he’d been playing with his cousin’s wife: Phoebe. No doubt he nightly congratulated himself on his prowess in luring the innocent child into his bed—or wherever the deed was done—and then foisting a child on her, believing it wouldn’t be long before he’d impregnate Phoebe with the heir who would give him the keys to Blinley Manor. Oh, how she loathed him.
“When was your child born?”
“Eight months and three days ago. Hugh won’t tell me where Emily is, except to say that she’s with a family who loves her and not in the Foundling Home, which was my greatest fear.” The girl slanted a look at Phoebe. “Hugh said you were good at the voice and mannerisms of a lady. That you were Lady Cavanaugh’s lady’s maid. You’d have seen Mr Wentworth often, then. I wonder if you ever heard him mention me.”
“Oh, I barely saw Mr Wentworth,” Phoebe said quickly. “I came to work for my mistress only a short while ago. Of course, I heard her speak of him, and I know the ill he did her, but I know nothing about him other than that.” No, the last thing Phoebe wanted was to be quizzed, or inadvertently reveal something she ought not to about her own shameful past with the odious creature who had done so much harm to both her and Miss Redding.
Miss Redding looked disappointed. “I loved him, you know,” she whispered, plucking a leaf from the tree against which she rested. “I never would have done what I did had he not told me he would marry me as soon as he could extricate himself from a certain difficulty—a woman who had a hold on him, he said, and whom he had to kindly let down since they’d known one another for many years. He said he’d obtain a special licence and we would elope.”