"Isn't it?" Lady Rycroft grasped the chair arm and leaned forward. "You both had intrigues with unsuitable men. At least Penelope saved your reputation before you could do anything too foolish."
Penelope. That was the friend Miss Glass had been visiting with Lady Rycroft last week when she had a turn and walked away without telling anyone. And to think, Miss Glass had a liaison with an unsuitable man yet she didn't like the notion of Matt and me being together. Well well.
"Enough!" roared Lord Rycroft. "Do you really need to air your dirty laundry in front of our nephew, Letitia?"
Miss Glass blinked quickly then took up her teacup and saucer. Her hands shook as she sipped.
Lady Rycroft shot a triumphant look at her sister-in-law, which only made Miss Glass blink harder. Poor thing. I wished I were sitting next to her to offer comfort and show Lady Rycroft that Miss Glass had supporters.
"I have to ask you both to leave," Matt said. "You can't come here and insult Aunt Letitia—"
"She insulted me first!" Lady Rycroft declared.
"Listen," Matt said, his voice strained. "I am sorry for Patience, but I can't stop Payne from speaking to Lord Cox. Perhaps he loves her and will forgive her."
Lady Rycroft made a scoffing sound. "How can he marry her if the indiscretion becomes public?"
"Precisely," her husband said. "He'll be ridiculed if he goes through with it. No one will think ill of him for ending the engagement, not even me."
"A little indiscretion in a woman's past shouldn't taint her future," Matt snapped.
"Clearly things are different in America," Lord Rycroft said with a vehemence that set all of his chins wobbling. "We English have morals. And Patience is not merely a woman, she is a lady. There is a difference."
Matt squeezed the bridge of his nose. He was tired and frustrated, and he clearly wanted his relatives gone. I wished I knew how to get rid of them for him, but I was at a loss. They wouldn't listen to me.
"If Payne tells Lord Cox about my daughter's past," Lord Rycroft said, "then you must set it to rights. Do you understand? If her future is lost because that man wishes you ill, then you have a responsibility to her, Matthew. Is that clear?"
He sighed. "It is. And I agree."
"Richard," Miss Glass said carefully, "in what way are you expecting Matthew to set it to rights?"
"Recompense will be discussed if and when the need arises." Lord Rycroft stood and buttoned up his jacket. "Come, Beatrice." He almost walked out ahead of his wife, but stopped at the door to allow her to go through first.
We three did not follow. The front door closed then Bristow and Peter the footman quickly collected the tea things. No one spoke until they left.
"Do you think Payne is cruel enough that he'll ruin Patience to get to you?" I asked Matt.
He nodded. "It's a cowardly, low act so yes, he would. I expect him to go to Lord Cox soon, unless…"
"Unless what?" both Miss Glass and I said.
Matt merely shrugged.
"If you could stop him, you would have already done so," Miss Glass said. "My foolish brother ought to understand that. The real question is, what will Richard do when Lord Cox breaks off the engagement?"
"If he ends it," I told her. "He might love her too much to let her go."
"Dear India, your idealism does you credit, but the truth is, Lord Cox is not marrying Patience for love. Love within a marriage may be a possibility where you come from, but not for us. It's simply the way it is."
It didn't have to be, I wanted to grumble at her, but I held my tongue.
"I'll set up Patience and the other girls if necessary," Matt said, standing. "I'll even give them the estate to live in, if I ever inherit it."
"You certainly will not," Miss Glass said, also rising. "The estate is for Lord Rycroft, and you will be Lord Rycroft one day."
"Perhaps."
"Don't talk like that. Your health will improve." She stalked out of the drawing room, leaving behind a sense of hopelessness. Despite what she said, she was worried.
The entrance of Cyclops with a letter was a welcome distraction from my grim thoughts. "This just arrived," he said, handing it to Matt.
"It's from Brockwell, finally." Matt read on, then added, "He found a report on the missing mother superior."
"Good," I said. "That's something. What did the police do?"
"Nothing. The statement was retracted and the disappearance was never investigated."
"Retracted by whom?"
"Father Antonio, the priest for the parish then and now." He showed me the letter. "He reported Mother Alfreda missing the day after she disappeared."
"Sister Clare went to him," I said, reading ahead. "She's the mother superior's assistant. She expressed her concerns that Mother Alfreda had not been seen since nine PM. She did not appear all the next day and was not in her cell. They searched the convent and grounds, but there was no trace of her and no one knew where she'd gone."
"Then, the day after he reports her disappearance," Matt went on, "he told the police that the nuns heard from her. Apparently she sent word explaining she needed to leave the convent for personal reasons and would not be returning."
"She broke her vows." Cyclops shook his head slowly. "Must have been strong reasons."
"You think it's the truth?" I asked him. "You think she really did just leave of her own accord?"
"He's a priest, he ain't going to lie to the police."
Matt took back the letter and scanned it again. "Then why did Sister Clare not know about Mother Alfreda being found? Why did she mention the disappearance to us and not state that Mother Alfreda sent word later that she'd left of her own free will?"
I sat heavily on the sofa. Cyclops sat beside me, staring unblinking at the carpet. "The priest lied," he murmured. "That ain't right."
I squeezed his arm. "He must have had his reasons."
"But he's a priest."
"And human," Matt said. "Humans are not perfect."
I tried to catch his eye to determine if he was upset about something other than the priest lying, but he didn't meet my gaze. He sank into an armchair with a deep sigh and rubbed his forehead.
"We'll pay Father Antonio a visit after luncheon," I said. "Hopefully we can get some answers out of him."
"Don't know why a lying priest will suddenly tell us the truth," Cyclops mumbled. "I ain't Catholic, but I always thought them upstanding folk who don't lie or cheat." Clearly he didn't have a good grasp of European history.
"You're right," Matt said. "If Father Antonio lied all those years ago, he won't tell us anything now. What about the nun who left the convent around the same time? If she left because she was unhappy or had a falling out with the other nuns, she might be more amenable to talking to us."
"An excellent idea," I said, warming to it. "Sister Francesca, her religious name was. She'd go by her given name, now. How do we find her if we don't even know her name?"
"We ask the convent," Cyclops said. "We say we're her relatives and need to find her to give her news of an inheritance or something. Send Willie, since they already know the rest of us."