‘I’m sorry I was called away last week. And today our outing was cut short.’
‘The fates are conspiring against us.’ Beth wasn’t sure why she said it—it was hardly the right thing to say to convince the man next to her they should marry within the year. She wasn’t normally superstitious, preferring fact and logic to anything occult, but their path to an engagement hadn’t exactly been smooth.
Guiltily she tried to suppress the memory of the kiss with Joshua Ashburton. She felt the heat begin to rise in her body and the blush spread across her cheeks. Staying to help fight the fire at the opera house Leonard Ashburton could probably forgive, but she doubted he would be able to move past her kissing his brother.
‘Indeed. Hopefully our next meeting will be more of a success. My brother tells me you had a pleasant evening at Vauxhall Gardens.’
She shot him a sharp look, but there was nothing but polite interest on his face.
‘It was. Thank you. It was kind of him to accompany me when you were called away. I’ve never been to a pleasure garden before and the experience was one I had been looking forward to.’
They walked in silence for a few minutes, Beth concentrating on her aching feet and legs, too tired to try to impress the man next to her. Equally he didn’t seem overly enthused to use the opportunity to get to know her any better, but she supposed he must be at least as tired as her, if not more so given his active role at the heart of the firefighting.
At her door he waited until the maid had responded to the loud knock before giving a sharp little nod of his head and turning on his heel. It was hardly the farewell of a fond suitor.
Chapter Seven
The atmosphere in the dining room was decidedly frosty when Beth finally rose the next morning. She had contemplated skipping breakfast completely but in the end had decided she would have to face her mother at some point and the ache in her stomach wouldn’t be silenced until she ate a few slices of buttery toast washed down with delicious tea.
Her body ached from the exertion of the night before. Beth had thought of herself healthy and strong, back home she walked miles every day and rode her horse at every opportunity, but the repetitive action of passing the heavy buckets of water backwards and forwards had worked, not only her arms, which felt leaden now, but also the muscles in her sides, which pulled as she walked.
Silently she took her seat to the left of her mother, hoping she would at least get a few mouthfuls of tea before her mother began her tirade.
‘I am very disappointed in you, Elizabeth.’
The cup hadn’t even reached her lips. Beth clenched her jaw and then forced herself to relax and take a soothing sip of tea before she placed the cup back on the table and turned to face her mother.
If she was wise she would suppress the rebellion that was surging inside her, apologise for defying her mother and promise to renew her efforts to catch Leonard Ashburton’s admiration.
‘We put the fire out,’ she said, raising her eyes and holding her mother’s cold stare.
‘The brave men who manage the firefighting equipment put the fire out,’ Lady Hummingford said brusquely. ‘You did not.’
Beth shrugged, a gesture she knew irritated her mother no end, even though she knew it was a childish rebellion.
‘I was a part of it. A small part, but I helped.’
‘You shouldn’t have been there. You should have come home with me.’
Beth held her mother’s eye, lifting her chin a notch. She didn’t want to seem defiant, but she also knew that sometimes she had to stand up for herself. Her mother’s character was so strong, her will so unbreakable, that sometimes it was much easier to just go along with her opinion, but Beth knew sometimes she had to assert herself.
‘I thought it important to stay and help.’
‘What is wrong with you?’ Lady Hummingford stood and began pacing up and down across the tiny room. It only took eight steps to cover the distance from wall to wall before her mother had to turn and start back the other way.
‘What is wrong with me?’
‘It is as if you are not aware how important, how vital it is you get engaged to Mr Ashburton in the next few weeks.’
‘Of course I know, Mother.’
‘But do you? Surely if you know how close we are to destitution, how near to complete and utter ruin, then you would not do anything that may harm your chances of an engagement even one tiny little bit.’
Beth swallowed. She knew they were living on a knife’s edge, that the creditors were circling and it would only take one to swoop in and they all would follow, clamouring for the money Lady Hummingford did not have.
‘Three months,’ Lady Hummingford said, pausing in her pacing. ‘Three months until we lose everything. Birling View, all the contents of the house, the horses. Three months, Elizabeth.’
Beth felt her hands begin to shake and clenched them together in her lap.
‘How?’
‘How? How?’ Her mother’s voice was rising shrilly. ‘Do you have any idea what a mess your father left us in financially? And then all the properties that were entailed went to your damn cousin. The sale of the London house barely covered half of what we owed.’
‘I didn’t know.’ She knew things were desperate. Their finances had been dire for years, but she hadn’t realised they were this close to the brink of complete destitution. She’d thought they would have a little longer to settle on
