“Time for what? I have been pulling my hair out, trying to find a way to refute this. Meanwhile, Ernest Barrington is recovering more with every passing day and is almost back on his feet, so he will be asking Rose to walk down the aisle sooner rather than later.”
“It is a perfect storm,” Charlotte commiserated.
“It is a bloody mess.”
“You should have told me earlier.”
“There is nothing you can do.”
“I am a countess on a mission. You would be amazed at what I can achieve. I need to find out more about the Canterburys. We need to talk to John too.”
“He was the one who put me in this mess.”
Charlotte gave him a sideways look. “I am sure he didn’t do it deliberately, even if that is true.”
“Maybe not deliberately,” Will conceded begrudgingly.
“Nothing can happen for a month, and each week when the Banns are read in church, anyone can protest. We simply need to disprove Lady Camilla’s story.”
“But it was just her and me. How can I disprove it?”
“And about a hundred other people. This is where the ton grapevine can be positively harnessed. Let us make it work for you rather than against you.”
Will let his head fall forward dejectedly. Charlotte moved across to him and wrapped both arms around him, dropping her head down on top of his.
“I will sort it,” she told him, the exact words he had said to Rose.
“Will’s getting married!”
Mary shouted accusingly as Rose stepped out of her carriage in the driveway of her family home.
“How do you know that?” Rose said.
“Because it is written right here, in the Morning Chronicle.” Mary was jabbing the rolled-up newspaper at her like it was a weapon. “Mr. William Browning and Lady Camilla Canterbury are betrothed.”
“So he could not escape it,” Rose said. She was still holding on to the carriage door and didn’t let go in case her legs went out from under her.
“You knew!” Mary screeched. “And you didn’t tell me? What is that stupid man even thinking?”
“Mary. Stop screaming. It is bad for the baby!”
“Rose Barrington, your whole life is bad for this baby.”
Rose couldn’t agree more.
“Let’s go inside, and I will explain,” she assured her sister. Even if a pregnant Mary didn’t need to sit down, she did. “Where did you get a copy of the Morning Chronicle?”
“Jacob bought it back from London. He hadn’t read it, but I saw it as soon as I opened it. I thought you had come to tell me.”
“I came for a change of air,” Rose told her.And to escape a castle where every room and piece of furniture reminds me of Will.
“Oh, Rose,” Mary pulled her down onto the sofa in the drawing room. “There must be some mistake. The two of you looked so happy on your birthday.”
As Mary began to wail, Rose sat calmly beside her, wishing she could wail too. But within minutes of Mary telling her the news, she felt a bubble of calm spring up around her, as if she was being deliberately insulated from everything that was going on. It was a very strange feeling.
“Show me the notice in the Chronicle,” she said. Mary handed it to her, open at the society pages.
It has come to the attention of our writers that Lady Camilla Canterbury, aged twenty, daughter of the Earl and Countess of Canterbury, is now betrothed to shipping magnate William Browning. Lady Camilla, who was presented to the court two seasons in a row, is rumored to have met the thirty-one-year-old eligible bachelor at a private ball in the capital and they will be married in a month.