“Cat got your tongue?” His voice had an edge now. “Of course, Irememberedhim once they told me. The tall man who played opposite you in the pantomime.” He leaned closer towards her, his eyes narrowing. “The man who was gaping at you through the modiste shop window that day. His tongue was practically lolling out of his mouth as he watched you dressing. Itreallyall makes sense now.”
Evelina’s fingers gripped the seat, almost clawing at the wood. He was taunting her, and she didn’t know how to respond to him at all. She wasn’t sure if she would anger him more by replying or not saying anything. He was angry, in his cups, and totally unpredictable to her.
“You clearly like a common man,” he continued, his voice laced with contempt. “A bit of the rough.” He leaned closer still, his eyes narrowing further, so that they looked like two slits in his face. “You acted as the whore for aservant. What kind of woman are you?”
Evelina felt like he had just slapped her across the face. She turned pale and started to get up, but he quickly reached out, taking one of her wrists so she couldn’t move at all.
“I wanted to insist on an examination for you,” he said, his eyes glittering furiously. “To make sure I get what I pay for on my wedding night. No gentleman wants to raise the bastard of a coachman, does he?”
“How dare you?” she cried, twisting her hand free and standing up. Her heart was pounding in a sickening way, and she had to get away from him before she completely lost her temper. “He is worth ten of you!”
“You will stay here!” he roared, getting up. “I command it! You are going to be my wife, and youwillobey me or there will be hell to pay!”
Evelina fled down the path, running as fast as her legs could carry her. She was so intent on getting away from him she wasn’t looking ahead. She stumbled, colliding with a figure in her path, almost falling to the ground.
“Papa,” she cried, upon realising it was her father. “Oh, Papa.”
She couldn’t help it. She burst into noisy tears, clinging to him. He patted her back awkwardly, making soothing sounds, until she stopped crying.
“What is it?” he asked in a low voice. “What has upset you so much?”
She suppressed another sob. “You will not wish to hear it,” she said in a woebegone voice. “You will tell me I must accept it. That it is my punishment for what I have done.”
“Just tell me, Evelina,” he said, gritting his teeth.
She sighed heavily. “He was taunting me,” she whispered, her heart lurching. “About Jude. Calling me a whore and telling me he should have requested an examination to make sure I am not having a coachman’s bastard.” Her face crumpled. “He despises me, Papa. And he willneverlet me forget what I did. He told me I must obey him or else.”
Her father’s face grew stony, but he said nothing. He just kept gazing at her.
“I loved Jude,” she said, her voice ending on a sob. “I truly loved him, and I know he loved me. Why was it such a sin to fall in love with a good man, when it is no sin to marry one who is not?”
Her father’s face contorted with emotion. He looked beyond her shoulder.
“I am concerned,” he said in a curt voice. “I will keep a close eye upon him, Evelina.” He took her hand. “Now, I want you to return to the house. You are overwrought, so I give you leave to retire for the evening.”
Evelina almost slumped with relief. Hesitantly, she kissed him on the cheek before hurrying back to the house. She was so weary and upset that she could barely stand up any longer.
When she was almost to the back door, she looked back. Her father was nowhere to be seen, and she couldn’t see Edward Beaumont anywhere, either. But she was far too tired to care any longer. She just wanted to go to bed and finish this horrible day.
Another day without her love. And the Christmas Eve ball, and Christmas Day, was just around the corner. She had always loved Christmastide so much. But now, she knew it would forever remind her of this time, and everything she had lost. Her desire to make Christmas special again, without her mother, hadn’t worked. Now she wished she hadn’t even tried.
Chapter 37
Jude slowed his pace as he walked towards Mrs. Hopkins’s boarding house. A grand carriage was parked on the side of the road next to it. It was so out of place in this rundown area of Shrewsbury; it stuck out like a sore thumb.
He kept walking, staring at it, suddenly filled with a feeling of foreboding. It was odd indeed. He didn’t think his landlady, or any of her other boarders, would know anyone grand enough to own such a carriage.Maybe whoever parked it here was calling on another house on this street, but that was unlikely.He thought.
He sighed heavily, exhausted after a long day’s work hauling bags of coal into carts. All he wanted to do was eat, wash, and collapse into bed. It had been the only work he could find on such short notice. But he was paid by the bag, and he had worked hard. He had coins in his pocket again. Enough for him to pay for another week at the lodging house and keep his hunger at bay.
He had pushed everything else aside. He had to. Evelina seemed as far away as a princess in a remote tower; unreachable and beyond his grasp. His time with her had always been a fairy tale. This was the real world, the world he had always inhabited; always would.
He passed the carriage, peering at it curiously. It was indeed grand, but he didn’t recognise it. It didn’t belong to the Duke of Bosworth. Why on earth would anyone from Bosworth call upon him here, anyway?
He entered the house and was just about to climb the stairs to his room when Mrs. Hopkins emerged, looking stunned and overwhelmed.
“There you are, Jude,” she said, in a strange voice. “You have visitors, lad. They are sitting in the lounge room. I just made them a pot of tea.”
He stared at the woman, not sure he had heard her correctly. “Visitors? Who?”