“We can’t talk now.” Roberta flung off her sister’s grip and turned to snatch another handful of toys. “We have to go before William arrives.”
“Are you leaving him?”
Roberta dropped the toys willy-nilly. A cricket ball with a split seam missed the bag and rolled across the floor. “Yes.”
Sidonie wasn’t sorry to hear the news, although she wondered just how she and her sister would survive until the legacy came into effect in January. “But why?”
“The man’s a pig.”
“He’s been a pig your whole married life. Why leave now?”
“There’s no time to explain.” Roberta’s eyes glittered with spiraling dread. “For pity’s sake, help me pack.”
Sidonie’s tone firmed in an attempt to calm her sister. In eight turbulent years of marriage, she’d never seen Roberta like this. “Just tell me what’s going on.”
Nervously Roberta checked over Sidonie’s shoulder as if expecting William to appear like a bugaboo from a children’s story, rising to devour his victim. “Sidonie, don’t push.”
“This behavior seems lunatic. And what do you want with the boys’ toys?”
Roberta cast a fleeting glance at the overflowing bags. “Don’t be a slow-top, Sidonie. I’ll need money. Curse that blackguard for stripping the house of everything worth selling.” Her expression brightened. “Did you find anything valuable in the library?”
Sidonie shook her head. “It’s all rubbish. What’s made you leave William?”
Roberta finally stopped flinging toys about and looked at her, twisting her hands in painful distress. “I lost at cards.”
Sidonie, still reeling from parting with Jonas, staggered back. Horror made her light-headed. Hardly believing what she heard, she pressed a shaking hand to her sinking heart. She was too appalled to be angry, although she’d be angry soon enough. “Roberta, you didn’t. After losing that fortune to Mr. Merrick?”
Roberta had the grace to look abashed, but she rushed on before Sidonie mustered further censure. “A mere trifle. Two hundred guineas at piquet to Lord Maskell. The scoundrel pressed for payment, then threatened to tell William.”
Oh, Roberta, no…
The scale of this disaster beggared imagination. Sidonie had assumed her sister would be so chastened after skirting disgrace with Jonas that she’d change her ways. What a naïve fool she’d been. Roberta would never change. She was addicted to gaming the way a toper was addicted to brandy.
“Roberta, how could you keep gambling after what happened with Mr. Merrick?” she asked through stiff lips.
Roberta’s shrug was unconvincing. She’d known what she risked, but she’d gone ahead and gambled anyway. “I had a run of luck. Only a ninnyhammer leaves the table when the cards are kind.”
“Until you lost two hundred guineas,” Sidonie said bitterly. Acrid rage curdled her stomach as she battled the impulse to wring her sister’s delicate neck. “Where do you intend to go?”
Oh, Jonas, I wish I’d stayed with you. I wish I’d never left Castle Craven and your arms.
“I thought Brighton or Harrogate. Somewhere amusing.”
Sidonie’s lips tightened, but she resisted screaming. It would do no good. “Haven’t you had enough amusement?”
Roberta’s lips started to tremble. “Don’t be cross.”
“I can’t help it.” Sidonie sucked in a deep breath and sought some solution to this catastrophe. The clamor of competing obligations made her dizzy. The marriage lines gave her some pull over William, but that meant never telling Jonas about his legitimacy. And if Roberta hurt William’s pride, it was possible that out of spite, he’d insist on her continuing to live with him, title or no title. Sidonie also needed time to arrange for William to release guardianship of his sons. Roberta’s hysterical escape would make William so angry, he’d never negotiate. Sidonie knew from experience how unreasonable he was when taunted.
She struggled to speak calmly. “William will find you in a fashionable town. You need to disappear. At least until my legacy comes due. Even then, William mustn’t know where you are. He has the law on his side if he wants you back.”
The frenzy drained from Roberta’s eyes and briefly she became again the older sister Sidonie had always loved. “You know what my life has been. You of all people should support my bid for freedom.”
“You haven’t thought about this.” Sidonie stifled the urge to say more.
“I’ll think once I’m away.” With renewed agitation, Roberta reached for a set of spillikins high on the shelf beside her. “We must go. He’ll know I came here. It’s the first place he’ll look.”
Through the red haze of anger, she saw Roberta’s expression change. Her sister went white as new snow, the dirt on her face standing out like a scar against her ashen complexion. As she faltered back, spillikins tumbled from her grip to clatter onto the floor.