‘Good birth and breeding and fine connections?’ Esther gave a contemptuous laugh. ‘Most of my gentlemen can boast the same, along with refined, cultured wives, but that doesn’t stop them coming to me for pleasures the like of which you have no idea of. Every man is the same under the skin – even you, my dear brother.’
Jeremiah almost choked, so great was his fury. If he had ever been in doubt that the devil could enter a human being he doubted it no more. His sister was possessed, it was the only possible answer to such fiendish depravity. ‘You will leave this house this instant,’ he began, only to be checked by his wife rising to her feet.
For only the second time since he had entered the room he looked at Mary, and she seemed to take on the form of an avenging angel before his maddened gaze. ‘Esther will be residing here until the child is born,’ she told him. ‘Your sister will take her meals in her room and will exercise only within the grounds of the house if she wishes to take the air. There will be no contact with the children, nor with any visitors who may call. This has been agreed.’
‘But—’
‘We will fulfil our Christian duty, Jeremiah.’
Helplessly he stared into the forbidding face of his wife. Gone was the compliant, amenable spouse he had shared his life with for the last twelve years, and in her place was a tight-lipped, angry woman who felt she had been ill-used. But how could he have told Mary the truth? And he had never dreamed that Esther would have the temerity to return to the place of her birth if she was still alive. Weakly now, he mumbled, ‘Mary, listen to me. This is impossible. Your uncle—’
‘Do not speak his name.’ She actually took a step towards him before she checked herself. ‘He is a good man, a righteous man, and you have repaid his patronage with a web of deceit and deception. He would not forgive you, Jeremiah, and neither can I .’
She stopped the response he’d been about to make with an upraised palm, and after one last scathing glance at him, turned to Esther, who had had the good sense to remain silent during the exchange between husband and wife. ‘Bridget has lit a fire in your room and will bring you a tray later,’ she said with icy politeness, pulling on the bell-cord at the side of the fireplace. ‘As far as the servants are concerned, the story my husband and his parents circulated will hold true. You are the wife of a French nobleman who unfortunately met with an accident recently, and after his untimely death it was discovered that the estate was deeply in debt. You wished to be with family when your child was born.’
Esther nodded. She wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, and it would seem this dried-up stick of a woman was the one she needed to appease. Nevertheless, her sister-in-law’s overt condemnation rankled, and Esther vowed that before she left this house she would see her day with the pair of them.
‘While you are under this roof you will be known as Mrs Esther Lemaire,’ Mary added, her back as straight as a ramrod, ‘and you will conduct yourself accordingly. I want no mention of your stage name, Marceau, in this house. I will not have a breath of scandal contaminating my children. Is that clear? One indiscreet word and you will live to regret it.’
After a perfunctory tap at the door, Bridget entered the room, glancing uncertainly at the tableau vivant facing her. Again it was Mary who took control, her voice cool and without emotion when she said, ‘Mrs Lemaire is tired after her journey and wishes to retire for the night. Show her to her room and see to it a dinner tray is provided at eight o’clock.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
Jeremiah waited until the maid and his sister had left the drawing room, the latter sweeping past him as though she was the lady of the manor, and the moment the door was shut, he said, ‘Please listen to me, Mary. I had no idea Esther was still alive, I swear it.’
‘And that makes your subterfuge acceptable? I think not.’
‘You didn’t have to let her stay.’
‘Don’t be so ridiculous.’ She had never spoken to him in such a tone before. ‘If we had not offered your sister refuge in her condition, what do you think the servants would have thought? Not only thought but said, Jeremiah. Gossip travels like wildfire, make no mistake about that, and human nature being what it is this tasty morsel would have kept folk well-fed for years. She is dressed like’ – here Mary’s speech failed her for a moment – ‘like a strumpet, but by keeping to the story of marriage to a Frenchman, this can be explained by the fact that the fashions in France are more flamboyant than in England. I have made it clear what I expect of her and that for most of the time she will stay in her room. The servants will not think that unreasonable in view of her condition and the long journey she has undertaken.’
‘The servants.’ There was a note of irritation in Jeremiah’s voice now. ‘What does it matter what they think? And they wouldn’t dare breathe a word, I’d make sure of that.’