Oh, my goodness.
Admittedly, Charlotte came as a little bit of a surprise to Edmund for three reasons. One, she looked very much like her sister. Their colourings were a little bit different, and it was clear that they both took after different parents, but there was a glint in their eyes that they shared. The second thing was the rounded belly. He was not sure why, but he did not think that Lady Jones would be pregnant, although there was no reason at all for him to think that. The third, and most terrifying of all, was the bruise that stained her cheek. It was not an obvious one, maybe if he had not caught it under a specific shade of the light he would not have seen it, but he did, and now he felt worried.
Maybe that is the reason she did not ask her husband for help. Maybe he is a brute!
“I ... I have come to visit,” he rasped, trying to pull himself together. “Because of the letter that you sent me.”
Charlotte eyed him curiously; she looked as if she was trying to work out what his motivation was for turning up out of the blue. She probably expected him to send a letter first.
“Thank you, Your Grace. Would you like to come and sit with me for a while? I can give you some more information. I could only really give you the basics in the letter. I hope you understand why.”
“Of course, yes.” Edmund was so keen to see Mary that he could hardly wait, but Charlotte was right. He did need all of the information first. “That would be lovely.”
As he followed Lady Jones through her home, he could not help admiring the place. She had certainly taken a step up in the world from the home that she had come from, not that the Roberts home was a bad place, yet she was clearly not happy. And Edmund knew why.
Once they took their seats, and Charlotte delved into the full extent of the story, she felt a weight lifting off of her chest. She had been carrying around a huge burden and struggling under the pressure of that because Mary was suffering so badly. Now she had someone else she could share these problems with. Maybe His Grace had done some bad things, but if he was here to help, that was what they needed right now. Maybe Mary would even find it in herself to forgive him, especially if it turned out that Lady Victoria Hartmon was to blame, which Charlotte definitely thought was the case.
“Now that you know,” Charlotte finished while pushing herself into a standing position, “would you like to see Mary? She does not know that you are coming, but I am sure she will want to see you.”
Edmund gulped down the nerves and nodded. He wanted it more than anything in the world. He just hoped that she did too.
Chapter 23
“Mary?”
Mary slid from the bed and made herself sit when she heard Charlotte’s voice. Everything had been feeling too difficult for days now; she could barely even force herself awake and get dressed. Being asleep was preferable because while she was asleep she could imagine that she was not trapped inside a nightmare. It was only when she was awake that she truly had to face reality. No money, no home, watching her sister suffer through a terrible marriage ... all of it was getting to her, bringing her down. Mary was starting to feel like soon there would be nothing left of her at all.
“Mary, how are you feeling today?”
Mary shrugged. She could not even drag her eyes off the ground to meet her sister’s gaze. As soon as she saw that sympathy, she would fall apart all over again.
“I have something to tell you,” Charlotte continued, knowing that she had to persevere, even though it felt incredibly challenging to do so. “Something important and ... well, I am not too sure if you are going to like it or not.”
That was enough to get Mary’s attention. There was only one thing that she understood at the moment, and that was bad news. It kept coming at her like a tsunami, a never-ending wave that she did not know how to prevent. “What now?”
“It is nothing terrible.” As Charlotte saw that familiar look on Mary’s face, she realised her incorrect choice of words. She had to stop beating around the bush, to just dive right into it. “There is someone downstairs who wishes to speak with you.”
“Is it Walter?” Still, even now Mary could not let go of hope. It was only a gossamer-thin thread, but it was all that she had. “Has he come at last?”
“No, no it is not.” Charlotte felt ice-cold guilt run through her as Mary’s face fell. “It is actually ...” She gulped loudly. “It is His Grace, Duke Smith.”
“What?” Mary’s head fell back onto the pillow. She suddenly felt absolutely certain that she was still right in the middle of a nightmare. “What do you mean? What is he doing here?”
“Well ... he wishes to speak with you.” Charlotte’s heart raced; maybe this was not the best plan after all. “I know you probably do not wish to speak with him, but I believe he might be able to help us.”
Mary propped herself onto her elbows to glare at Charlotte. “Why would he be able to help us? And how does he even know where I am?”
“I ... I told him.” Charlotte could feel her cheeks heating up as she spoke. “I sent him a letter informing him of what Mr Thompson had done.”
Mary felt sick to her stomach at her sister’s betrayal. She could not believe that Charlotte would go behind her back like that. Had they not grown close recently? Had they not gotten to a stage where they did not keep secrets anymore?
“He did not need to know that.” Mary stood and paced across the room to the window. She wanted to look out the window because nature was a better sight than her sister’s guilty face right now. “That was nothing to do with him.”
“But he was part of the inheritance; I thought he deserved ...”
“He deserved nothing,” Mary interrupted angrily. “He was supposed to be a part of the inheritance only in the way that he had to marry me. The home would not go to him.” Even Mary knew that he would have control over it because he was the man, but that point did not help her argument right now. “He did not need to know about Walter. You forget what he did to Lady Hartmon.”
“I have not forgotten anything.” Charlotte was so used to being yelled at, but when it was Mary doing the shouting, it hurt her deeply. “I am sorry; I can get rid of him if that is what you prefer ...”
Mary did not feel like she had the energy to face Edmund right now, but there was a deep pull in her chest encouraging her to do so anyway. She could not stop herself from feeling intrigued by his reasons for arriving. He had obviously come to see her for something, and she did not think he would come all this way just to be horrible to her. No matter what he had done, he was not a nasty, spiteful person with his words.