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.She needed to consider the situation rather more dispassionately, and make the decision which would affect her whole future, with a clear head.Concentrating her mind on fielding Susannah’s curiosity had certainly helped her to calm down somewhat, but now she was alone, and free to think as she would, all her doubts and anxieties came flooding back with a vengeance.Could she really marry a man who showed so little regard for her, who was embroiling her in some scheme about which she had the deepest suspicions?She sank on her bedside chair, her head in her hands.No, the real question was, could she live with herself if she spurned him? It hardly mattered what had motivated him to ask for her hand, even though she now had some evidence to suggest he was using her as an unwitting accomplice in snatching a legacy from some person.Some person that she refused to assume was Percy Lampton.That would be too dreadful a coincidence.Oh, how she wished she had not promised to keep the whole matter from her mother! She would have known all about the family connections, and been able to give a name to the poor wretch who was expecting to inherit the property she and Captain Fawley were about to…steal from him.It amounted to that!Though…the cross-looking lawyer had said that the lady who had died had wanted everything to go to Captain Fawley to begin with.So she was not stealing anything from anybody.She was only helping to fulfil the dying wishes of a poor elderly lady with no children of her own….She sat up, pushing a stray wisp of hair from her forehead.She had only a few hours to make her mind up about what she should do.During the carriage ride home, Lady Walton had informed her that the marriage was going to take place that very evening, at six of the clock, in the library of Walton House.While everyone who aspired to be fashionable was promenading round Hyde Park, she would be sneaking into a private room, to take part in a clandestine marriage, which would rob some other poor fellow of a substantial inheritance.It was morally repugnant!She got to her feet and paced to the window.Yet how could she back out? If she refused to go along with Captain Fawley’s plan, he would be the poor fellow who had his inheritance snatched from his grasp.She paced back to the chair.Perhaps the issue was not so bad as she was imagining.Lady Walton had said she should trust Robert.Robert.Hot jealousy had her pacing back to the window, her fists clenched at her side.Lady Walton called him Robert.She had not even known it was his given name, until she had prattled on about all the confidences he had shared with her! It would serve him right if she did jilt him!No, no, it wouldn’t, she gasped, searing pain almost doubling her over as she thought of the effect such an act would have upon him.Jilting him would wound him irreparably.How hard it had been, Lady Walton had said, for him to beg a woman for a dance, let alone for her hand in marriage! He would not understand why she had refused him.He would think it was because he was too deformed, even for a woman as desperate as her, to marry!She could not do it to him.She did not want to hurt anyone.She paced back to the chair, sat down and wrapped her arms round her waist.Since somebody was clearly going to lose out because of the actions she took today, she would rather it was this faceless, nameless nephew, than Captain Fawley.And even if the other legatee of the will turned out to be Percy Lampton, as she suspected…well, she had never liked him.In fact, she wouldn’t put it past him to have sought Susannah out on purpose to prevent things from progressing to the point where Captain Fawley might have proposed to her.He had already lived with the unnecessary stigma of illegitimacy all his life because of the Lamptons’ lies! And now, they were trying to prevent him from inheriting his own fortune.She was not going to side with them.She was on Captain Fawley’s side, no matter what!Getting to her feet, she stomped to the wardrobe and yanked open its doors.Now, what kind of dress did she have that would be suitable for taking part in a clandestine wedding?* * *No sooner had Susannah set out for her ride round Hyde Park in Percy Lampton’s high-perch phaeton, than Deborah urged her mother to get her bonnet and pelisse on.‘The Countess is returning for us both,’ she explained.‘She is going to take us to Walton House….’‘And she did not want to include Susannah in the invitation?’ Mrs Gillies frowned.‘Is her husband so high in the instep that he will not admit someone from her background into his home? I do not think I wish to encourage you in this friendship, if that is the case.’‘No, no, Mother, that is not it at all.Only please hurry to get ready, and I shall explain it all on the way.’ She cast a significant look in the direction of the butler who came with the house, and Mrs Gillies subsided at once.They waited for the Countess to arrive in tense silence.When the Walton town coach finally drew up outside their door, Deborah was surprised by a sharp pain that shot across the back of her hand as she leapt to her feet.Looking down, she saw she had been twisting the strings of her reticule so tightly they were cutting through her gloves into her flesh.Lady Walton beamed at them as they scrambled into the coach before her footman even had time to climb their front steps and knock on the door.‘Oh, I am so glad you have decided after all to come! Robert has been in the state most terrible since this morning after that he came home from the lawyers.He said you were so cross, you would not go through with it.But I knew you would come! For you love him enough to forgive him anything, is that not so?’She turned to Mrs Gillies, who was regarding her with frank amazement.‘Ah, you have not told your mother yet? But, no, since that silly girl who could not see how wonderful Robert is has only just left the house, I suppose you have not had a chance.’‘Er…Mother…’ Deborah began.Mrs Gillies made a dismissive sound as she dived into her reticule for a handkerchief [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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