Scandalous Miss Brightwells [Book 1-4]

Chapter 14

“Antoinette! I can’t find Katherine! I’m sure she’s not slept in her bed, and Mary knows something—I can tell—but she won’t say.”

A terrible dread washed over Antoinette, who guiltily put on her dressing gown and hurried to her niece’s bedchamber in Fanny’s wake. It was she who discovered Katherine’s note beneath the pillow, and tearing it open, read it quickly.

She dropped the hastily scrawled missive and sat heavily on the bed. “She’s eloped!” She put her hands to her face and heaved in a breath while her sister gasped, stooping to sna

tch the discarded note, crying out as she read it, “She’s run away to be with the love of her life. That’s all she says! That, and that she’ll explain everything in a much longer, detailed letter when she reaches her destination.”

“And where might that be? Oh, Fanny, she’s more like you were than either of us supposed!”

“But I never eloped!” Fanny ran her fingers through her already disordered hair. “This is ruinous. It’s Mr Marwick, of course. She knew I was going to tell her of my concerns about him last night, but she didn’t want to listen.” Fanny began to cry and Antoinette, feeling a little spark of pride for Katherine’s boldness in following her heart, but also sympathy for her sister, for, in truth, she agreed nevertheless that Katherine could have done better, patted Fanny on the shoulder and bade her sit down on a chair by the fire.

Antoinette sat on the arm of the chair. “Katherine suspected, perhaps, you’d not have sanctioned her marriage to Mr Marwick, and in a fit of adolescent bravado, she’s taken her future into her own hands. Please don’t cry, Fanny. I know how much she loves him and that’s all that counts, in my book.”

“But I’m not convinced he’ll make her happy. He’s the first man who danced with her when she came to London, other than Jack. Why, I’d have preferred it if she’d married Jack instead of some man on the make as I know Mr Marwick is. He’s already run through one fortune. I don’t want her to align herself with some reprobate worse than our father.”

“Come now, Fanny; your imagination is running away with you.” Antoinette tried to sound brighter than she felt. “There are few reprobates quite as bad as our father was. We came to London with no reputation to speak of, and we were very lucky to make the marriages we did. But Katherine will be protected by the Fenton name.”

“And the Fenton fortune,” Fanny muttered, dabbing her eyes with her handkerchief.

“Come now; Freddy Marwick is not a fortune hunter. Allow Katherine the latitude you took when you were her age. Katherine is in love. You’ve always said you’d never be like our mama when it came time to your daughters falling in love.”

Fanny sat up, clutching the note to her chest, staring out of the window as if she hadn’t heard Antoinette. “Mary must be made to talk. She knows more than she’s saying, and if we set out, now, there may still be time to prevent this disastrous union. She’ll not have reached the border if she’s going by carriage. Fenton can go on horseback and bring her back.” Brightened by the fact she had a plan, Fanny rose and began to pace. “Poor Katherine has no idea what marriage is truly like. She’ll be horrified by what this man wants her to do with him. Childish, romantic love of the heart is one thing, but a lifetime of bedroom delights with Mr Marwick is another matter altogether. No, we have to bring her back! We can hush everything up.”

Antoinette shook her head. She too was filled with sorrow, but she had to persuade her sister of the truth. “Do you think Katherine would have gone so far as to elope only to change her mind within a few hours? No, Katherine is in love. She confessed as much to me. In fact—” She stopped, reconsidering whether to continue.

“What?”

Tact was needed to divulge the extent of Katherine’s misdemeanours however, as it reinforced the fact that Katherine had truly lost her heart. Antoinette went on, “Katherine is a girl who falls fast and hard, like you, Fanny. She asked me to explain how love and families work, and I did, and so she decided it would be wise to see if she loved Mr Marwick in the…biblical sense before she said yes to being his wife.”

“And what did you do, Antoinette?” Fanny’s eyes were wild in her pale, anxious face. “Oh, dear Lord, you encouraged her to lose her virtue?”

“I gave her something to take as a precaution against the consequences of losing her virtue which, I might add, was only so she could see if Mr Marwick was the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.”

Fanny dabbed her eyes and looked at her sister, shaking her head. “Katherine truly did that? She’s eloped with Mr Marwick after carrying on in this way for the past week?” She gave a little shuddering cry. “I never would have believed it of her. And I truly would not have picked Mr Marwick as the man to sweep her off her feet.”

“Well, he has,” Antoinette said decidedly. “And Katherine has sealed her own fate, but she’s happy I assure you. She was all aglow when she spoke about him. And if you’re going to be true to your word and not interfere when it comes to letting her follow her heart, then you must just wait for them to return after saying their vows upon the blacksmith’s anvil over the border, and then announce the happy news to all the world. I think you’ll be glad you listened to me, for once, Fanny. I am, as you know, rather adept at successfully navigating potentially ruinous romantic liaisons.”

Fanny stood up and walked to the window. Antoinette had made some disastrous romantic decisions in her life. Perhaps the worst was when she’d allowed herself to be seduced by George Bramley, which had resulted in the birth of Young George. What should have been ruinous had instead been astonishingly fortuitous after Lord Quamby, needing an heir and happy to accept the bastard son of his nephew, had married the now-pregnant Antoinette.

Although this had been more serendipitous than calculated good fortune, Antoinette did have a point in that Katherine had always known her own mind. Since coming to London, she’d been so happy, which suggested she’d fallen in love almost immediately.

The last thing Fanny wanted was to estrange her daughter by being the coldhearted and manipulative creature her own mother had been.

“I still can’t accept that this is the right decision for Katherine’s happiness, Antoinette,” she sighed, turning back to her sister. “But if it’s what Katherine wants, then I shan’t dispatch Fenton on a fleet-footed horse to drag my daughter home. If she wants to marry Freddy Marwick this badly, then I’ll accept her decision with good grace. The simple fact she’s eloped indicates the depth of her love for him, as she was clearly quite terrified that we’d not sanction his suit in view of the rumours flying around concerning his recent gaming losses. Perhaps Katherine will reform him.”

Katherine woke to the sound of the maid in her room stoking up the fire. She felt exhausted and disoriented, and when the girl opened the windows, letting in a rush of air that was not salt-laden, she nearly wept. She should have been at a seaside tavern, with Jack, about to embark upon the adventure of their lives.

Instead, Mr Marwick awaited her downstairs. Well, she had to tell him. Not the truth, perhaps, as she was depending upon his goodwill to get her safely home again. But she would tell him that a night’s reflection had made her realise her desire to marry respectably; that it would devastate her parents if she slunk away in the dark of the night when she could have had a grand ceremony with all her relatives in attendance; that she’d acted with much too much haste. Yes, that ought to satisfy him.

But she wouldn’t go down yet. No, a few more hours just might be enough time for her distraught family to discover her whereabouts. If her father were to burst into the tavern to drag her home, she’d be saved any awkwardness and, perhaps, anger, from Mr Marwick and then she could put this whole unfortunate episode behind her.

Feeling slightly lighter of spirit, she finished her breakfast from the tray brought to her room, slept several hours longer, then went downstairs, arriving at the doorway to the private parlour at the same moment as her prospective groom.

It was three in the afternoon, and he was looking anxious though his eyes lit up when he saw her. “My darling Katherine, I wasn’t sure if you’d changed your mind. I’ve been pacing the corridor by your room for hours.” He hurried forwards and gripped her hands, bringing them up to his lips. “Dare I hope that you are fired up at the prospect of spending the rest of your life in my care?” He lowered his head, murmuring against her lips, “I do swear I’ll be the gentlest and most considerate of husbands, my angel.”

Katherine let him kiss her briefly. She felt awkward and unsure how she would broach t