Annabel sighed and started to get off the bed. She was Imogen’s chief comforter, although she had to admit that there was a certain weariness about her efforts, after nearly six months practicing consolation.
But Tess reached forward and pinched her toe. “Don’t go,” she said. “I think Imogen could use some time alone. Perhaps she’s been coddled a bit too much.”
“I expect you’re concerned that she’ll snap at you next,” Josie said. “Didn’t you two make up your differences?”
“Of course,” Tess said. “Imogen is quick-tempered, but she can be magnificently apologetic.”
“She’s had plenty of practice with the latter,” Josie said. She caught Annabel’s eye and raised her hand. “I know she’s a widow and she lost the love of her life, but to be honest, Draven was a lummox stupid enough to ride an unbroken horse just to make an extra penny at the races. I simply can’t see the grand tragedy of it all. He was no Agamemnon!”
“That’s true enough,” Tess agreed.
“You’d think she was in a Greek tragedy, from the way she carries on,” Josie said. “Now, shall we have that discussion you began? Because everyone sent me away when you discussed all this before Tess married. But I am sixteen, as I said before.”
“Barely,” Tess said.
“Old enough. I’ll be coming out next year. I need to know what lies ahead of me.” She looked fascinated and horrified at once.
“As a matter of fact, I have no need for any sort of premarital conversation,” Annabel said. She didn’t want to think about bedding the Scot. For many reasons, only one of which was the way he kissed her.
“That wasn’t what I wanted to say,” Tess said, catching Annabel’s eye and leaning forward. “You know that Lucius has a great deal of money, Annabel.”
“An underestimation, surely,” Annabel said. Everyone in England knew that Tess’s husband was as rich as William Beckford, even though Beckford prided himself on being the richest man in the country.
“We’ve more houses than we know what to do with. Would you accept one of those houses, and funds to support it, Annabel? You could live there in perfect ease, and when all this dies down, you could come back to London.”
Now Annabel really felt as if she were going to cry.
But Josie was shaking her head. “Are you demented, Tess? If Annabel went off and lived in some house in the country without marrying the earl, the reasonable assumption would be that the earl had paid her to do so. Her only future would be as a concubine.”
Annabel swallowed. Of course Josie was right.
“One has to presume that you would be extremely well paid,” Josie said thoughtfully. “Plutarch says that—”
“That’s enough!” Tess snapped. “I think that is a very ugly construction of what people would think.”
“People always think the worst,” Josie pointed out.
“I’m afraid she’s right,” Annabel said, hearing the bleakness in her own voice.
“Do you mind, very much?” Tess asked.
Then, seeing the answer on her face: “Oh, darling, don’t go!” Tess reached out and gathered Annabel into her arms.
“I—I—” Annabel said, but the tears wouldn’t be stifled anymore.
“This settles it,” Tess said firmly. “You shan’t go to Scotland. We all know how much you hate the country. We’ll think of something.”
“I have to go,” Annabel choked. “He’s been kind—”
Josie snorted. “Ardmore is a lucky man and likely he knows it.”
“It’s just that he has stables,” Annabel said, her voice breaking with tears. “And he told me that his stables were as magnificent as Papa’s. I just can’t bear it, I can’t bear it. He’ll put all the money into—into hot mash in the winter—” Her voice disappeared in a huge sob.
“I know,” Tess said, her hand rubbing circles on Annabel’s back. “You always took the worst of Papa’s foolishnesses. I never had to worry because of you.”
Annabel took a deep breath and wiped away her tears with Tess’s handkerchief. “We all worried. I remember Josie crying when all the beans caught a blight, and she was just a little child.”
Josie was leaning forward and rubbing Annabel’s foot. “But I never had to worry very much,” she offered. “You took care of everything, Annabel. You always found enough money to buy something to eat.”
“I don’t want—” The tears were coming again, so Annabel took a deep breath. “I don’t want to do that again. I just don’t want to spend my whole life trying to pry pennies from a stable maintained by someone who can truly afford only a brace of rabbits.” The tears were coming again. “I just—I just can’t bear it!” She took a shuddering breath and managed to regain her composure. “I’m sorry. I’m acting like a heroine in a melodrama.”
“You shan’t have to bear it!” Tess said passionately. “My husband and I shall—”
But Josie interrupted. “I’ve thought of a compromise.”
“You go and I stay?” Annabel managed a watery smile. “I’d quite like to be sixteen again. I’ve enjoyed my debut.”
Josie ignored this foolishness. She leaned forward. “Marry the earl in Scotland, as he wishes. Bear it until the scandal dies down, after the season is over. Then come back to London as a countess!”
“You are forgetting—”
“Don’t tell me I’m forgetting about your husband,” Josie said. “Do you know that my governess’s secret vice is the gossip columns? London seems to be perfectly littered with ladies living apart from their husbands. And if your husband won’t provide you with an allowance, Tess will simply do it instead.”
Annabel bit her lip. “I couldn’t do that to him,” she said uncertainly. “If it weren’t for Ardmore, I’d be looking at utter disgrace.”
“Yet if it weren’t for Ardmore, there’d be no disgrace to talk about,” Josie said. “And anyway, he’ll probably be glad to see the back of you. There aren’t many happy couples in literature, I can tell you that.”
“It’s a good idea,” Tess put in. “There’s something almost respectable about separated couples these days. We’ll provide you with an allowance, of course, Annabel.”
“That will work perfectly,” Josie said with satisfaction.
“But Ardmore—”
“Shouldn’t have propositioned Imogen in the first place,” Josie said flatly. “He’s made his bed and he must needs lie in it.”
“Harsh but practical,” Tess put in. “There’s our Josie. How do you feel about the earl?” she asked Annabel.
“As I understand it,” Josie said, “it was more a question of what Imogen felt for the earl.”
“Your understanding of it isn’t important, Josie,” Tess said. “Annabel?”
“I like him,” Annabel said. “There’s nothing objectionable about him.” In fact, his kisses kept teasing at the corners of her mind. Less the kisses than the shocking pleasure she felt…It was rather unnerving. And Annabel was never unnerved, any more than she wept.