never came to anything, did it?’
‘Ah,’ said Edmund as though he understood perfectly what Stepmama was talking about, when Georgie felt as though she’d dozed off in the middle of a play and had woken up again only at the end to discover she’d missed too much of the plot to be able to make sense of anything anyone was doing. ‘Is that how you became her puppet?’
Puppet? Why was Edmund calling Stepmama a puppet? Just whose puppet Stepmama was supposed to be, Georgie couldn’t tell.
Stepmama flung up her chin. ‘For all the good it did either of us,’ she said bitterly. ‘Sukey never met anyone higher ranking than tradesmen’s sons in Bartlesham, for all that her stepfather was the local squire. I waited and waited, but she did nothing.’
She? What she?
‘Not until we had no choice but to leave Bartlesham,’ Stepmama was continuing, without appearing to draw breath, ‘and I reminded her of the bargain we’d struck, did she finally agree to arrange a court presentation for both girls. And how did she arrange it? Not by presenting them herself—oh, no! She just sent me an introduction to Lady Ackroyd, who is so deep under the hatches she’ll do just about anything legal for cash. And not only did that bit of business cost me the best part of her inheritance,’ she said, waving in Georgie’s direction, ‘but it didn’t do any good. It was vouchers for Almack’s I should have got, if my girls were going to be accepted, not an expensive day out at the palace which everyone knew was a put-up job the minute they heard Lady Ackroyd’s name in connection with it. Which they always do, somehow. And the end result was that not one of those stuffy patronesses was willing to give vouchers to girls whose mother had to pay to have them presented at court.’
‘As my wife,’ Edmund pointed out, ‘Georgie will most certainly obtain vouchers. As will her stepsister. I will make sure of it.’
Stepmama sat down, rather suddenly. It was fortunate that she happened to be sideways on to Georgie’s bedside chair as she’d squared up to Edmund, otherwise she would have ended on the floor.
‘I will also make sure Sukey has a respectable dowry,’ he said. ‘As my stepsister by marriage, it will be my duty to provide for her.’
Stepmama’s mouth opened and shut a few times. For which Georgie was immensely grateful. The volume of the bargaining—for that, she saw, was what had been going on between these two even if she hadn’t fully understood the nuances—had been drilling holes in her skull.
‘Edmund,’ she whispered, since there was a lull into which she could at last interject her own opinion, ‘you don’t have to marry me.’
‘Nonsense!’
‘Of course I do,’ said Edmund, and Stepmama, at the same moment. And as Stepmama got to her feet, Edmund nudged her aside and took her place on the chair.
‘But there must be a way out,’ said Georgie plaintively. She couldn’t bear to think of Edmund trapped into a marriage he’d been so determined to avoid. Just because he’d come in here, in a spirit of friendship. Oh, he’d come up with a wonderful reason to explain his presence, and swiftly, but then he had a brilliant mind. Of course he was going to say the only thing that would make everything appear acceptable to everyone.
The only trouble was she knew it wasn’t really acceptable to him.
‘Don’t be so stupid,’ hissed Stepmama from over Edmund’s shoulder. ‘There is no keeping the two of you apart. There never has been and she should just have made the best of it. And then none of this would have happened.’
‘None of what?’ If Georgie hadn’t already had a headache, this conversation would have been enough to give her one.
‘Yes, Mrs Wickford,’ said Edmund, taking hold of Georgie’s hand again and patting it soothingly. ‘Why don’t you explain just how you came into it? I should love to hear how my mother persuaded you to do her dirty work.’
His mother?
‘Come, come,’ said Edmund firmly. ‘There is no point in prevarication at this stage. I have worked out much of what has happened. All that has so far eluded me is your motive. Though your statement just now leads me to suppose it was to benefit your own daughter?’
Stepmama tossed her head again. ‘I am a mother. A mother will do whatever she can for her children. Even to the extent of—’ She stopped. Glanced at Georgie. Flushed. ‘Well, I am sorry, dear, but though I grew fond of your father by the end, you have to admit he was not exactly the stuff of a maiden’s dreams.’
Georgie gasped. ‘Do you mean to say, you married Papa to...that you were...put up to it?’
‘Well, I’m sorry if you don’t like it, but you have no notion of how hard it is, trying to maintain standards when you are a widow and your husband has left you with nothing but debts. I was at my wits’ end when Lady Ashenden approached me with what sounded like a wonderful opportunity. A chance to give Sukey every advantage she should have had, what with her being so pretty. Her ladyship told me she knew of a widower, a man of substance, who had a daughter in dire need of feminine guidance. That she’d arrange a match between us and see Sukey had the chance to rise in the world.’ She reached for a handkerchief to dab at her nose, which had grown pink with distress. ‘Well, of course, I agreed on the spot. And married your father.’
Georgiana was suddenly aware she’d been clutching Edmund’s hand so tightly his fingers were going white. She made a determined effort to relax her grip, even though it felt as though he was the only solid thing left in a world that was splintering apart.
‘Had my mother,’ he said, flexing his hand as his fingers flushed pink once more, ‘by any chance, had a word with him, too?’
Stepmama nodded vigorously. ‘At our first meeting, he told me that Lady Ashenden had felt obliged to warn him that his daughter was on the verge of creating a scandal that was entirely his own fault for bringing her up in such a lax manner. And that if he didn’t do something soon, she—you—would become the talk of the county. Very upset, he was. Admitted he’d made a mull of things. Said he should have seen he needed a woman about the place to teach you how to go on,’ she said, turning to Georgiana.
Lady Ashenden had told Papa he’d been a bad parent? When he’d been so utterly wonderful?
‘Lady Ashenden had told him how well behaved Sukey was and what a good influence she’d be, just by living alongside of you. And said that if I’d brought up one girl so nicely, she was sure I could achieve the same with you. Well, he only had to meet Sukey the once to see the difference.’
When Edmund winced, she realised her grip on his hand had reached painful proportions once more. But her own pain was so great it was a wonder she wasn’t howling.
‘Begged me, he did, to steer you back to the straight and narrow. As well as explaining all...’ she waved her hand at the bed in which Georgie lay ‘...this sort of thing.’
Now, that Georgie could understand. Her father would never have been able to cope with explaining what was happening to her body, when she started maturing. She’d always, instinctively, tried to keep all this sort of thing hidden from him.
‘He said he hadn’t the heart to discipline you for the faults you’d acquired, when he was the one who deserved a beating for not teaching you right from wrong.’
Georgie
