“You must be kidding!” Edmund yelled angrily at his mother as the words sank in. He could not believe it; how had everything gone from so amazing to so terrible in just a few short days. Why could the path of true love never run smoothly? “I cannot believe it; this is terrible.”
“Well you better start believing it,” Iris told him with a grave tone. “These rumours have not started from nowhere, and with the Hartmon family’s power and respect in this town, you will not be able to shake them off.”
Edmund pulled his fingers out from his hair where he had been tugging hard due to stress. “You do not believe what Victoria is saying, do you Mother?”
Iris pursed her lips and shook her head. “I do not believe what is being said about you, no. However, I can tell that something happened at that ball, and I want to know what. I have let you have your privacy about the situation, but now I feel that I do need to know.” Edmund gave her a look. Suggesting to Iris that she needed to justify what she had just said. “If I am defending you against people who already do not believe that a widowed woman should be given an opinion, then I would like to know just what I am defending you for.”
Edmund nodded and took a seat on the sofa. He perched on the edge feeling totally unable to relax. “I did not enjoy the ball from the moment I got there, but I stayed to prove to you and myself that I had really given it a try. Ironically, at the time, I did not want to marry Mary so badly that I was prepared to give it a chance, but it was all very strange.” Edmund shuddered at the memory. “I felt like I was on display and that the others were too. Men staring at women as if they were things to purchase in a shop, and women eyeing up Lords and Dukes because of the amount of money and property they had. It was all very strange.”
“So where did Victoria come into this?” Iris could not stop her impatience from growing. Edmund was telling this tale in a very laborious way, and she needed to get to the details. Like any mother, Iris could not stand anyone talking about her family in a derogative fashion.
“I bumped into her accidentally,” Edmund admitted. “And I spoke with her a little bit. We danced too.” The memory was a little foggy because it was so unimportant to him. Mary filled so much of his brain that he could hardly think of anything else. “But then I left. I realised that I did not want to be there anymore. I walked out of the ball hall and moved into the hallway ready to leave.” He stared at his mother, desperately needing her to understand and believe him. “But Victoria followed me out there. She was ... she seemed determined to make something happen with me. I tried to make it very obvious that I just wanted to leave, but she was insistent. She is the one who tried to kiss me. It was never the other way around.”
Iris breathed out deeply. She believed her son wholeheartedly. He was not a scoundrel who wanted to ruin the lives of others; he cared about reputation and behaviour. She had raised him in a way that caused him to be respectful of the rules and etiquette. She understood that he was telling the truth ... but that did not make it any easier. “I do not know how you can make anyone see that. I know that it is not right, but her story sounds far more believable than yours.”
“It does?” Edmund’s head fell into his hands. “I suppose to the outside world it does, but to me, I know that would never be the case. How can I get people to know that I am not a terrible person?”
Iris tapped her hand on her chin as she thought. This was just the sort of thing that her husband would have been great for. He could deal with any sort of crisis perfectly; she never had to worry when he was around.
But he was long gone now. This was up to her.
“Who do you feel the need to prove yourself to?” she asked cautiously. “Is it the men you work alongside every single day, or is it someone else?”
“Who else could it be?” Edmund asked desperately. “All those people who I do business with will now see me as some sort of scoundrel.”
Iris resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She did not bother to tell Edmund that it hardly mattered since most of the men that he worked alongside were scoundrels themselves. He should have known that already. He probably did, but in his panicked state, he could only think of himself and his own reputation.
“I was more thinking about Mary,” she said softly. “If I have heard this news, then there is a chance that she has too. Maybe you need to be thinking about how she might be feeling.”
“Oh my goodness.” Edmund had not even thought about Mary, not really. He was so convinced that they were solid, that their bond was unbreakable, that he did not pause to wonder what might be happening in her world. “Do you think she has heard?”
Iris shrugged sadly. “I would think so. I believe that everyone has heard. Like I said before, Lady Victoria Hartmon comes from a very powerful family; her father knows everyone. If he is telling people that you purposefully ruined his daughter’s reputation and then announced an engagement to someone else, then it is very likely that everyone has heard.”
Edmund nodded as he tried to process this. He no longer cared about what the Hartmon family and his business associates were saying about him. All he could think about was Mary’s crushed face when she heard such terrible things about him.
“Do you think she will break off our engagement?” he asked, more to himself than his mother, but it was she who ended up answering him.
“She would have good reason to,” she told him honestly. “Which is why I think you might need to speak with her before she can get herself too upset. A woman’s mind does not work in the same way as a man’s. She will not be able to forget about this until she learns the truth from you; she will obsess over it until it drives her crazy.”
“Should I go now?” Edmund pushed his chair back, and he stood upright with determination flooding his face. “Before this can get too far.”
“You should,” Iris agreed. “But not until you have calmed down. You do not want to make this already complex situation any more challenging than it already is. If you try to speak to Mary in a state of panic, your emotions will make you seem much guiltier than you actually are.”
“I am not guilty at all,” Edmund hissed angrily. “I have nothing to feel bad about,”
Iris grabbed her son’s hands tightly and stared intensely at him. She really needed him to listen as she said the words. “You did not do anything wrong; I know that. Do not forget that I am on your side.”