EPISODE ONE HUNDRED AND TEN ESCAPE

EPISODE ONE HUNDRED AND TEN

ESCAPE

T wenty minutes after Miles left her bedchamber, Daisy made her way down to the entry of Devin House. Belle was wrapped in her satin-trimmed blanket and tucked in the crook of her arm. Ada followed, carrying Belle s basket, which now held a jewelry box and a bag of rusks.

Hobbs was wringing his hands. The master s had no sleep, my lady. He s got a tiger s snarl when he s exhausted, but he didn t mean whatever he said.

Daisy managed a smile. Our marriage was a mistake, Hobbs. A rash, impulsive blunder, but one easily solved by an annulment. I d be grateful if you d have my clothing sent back from the country. Please tell Lord Devin that I left a letter for him on my dressing table.

Shall we return to your mother? Ada asked, as Mrs. Bretton handed her a satchel containing nappies and baby clothing.

No. That was the first place Miles would look, if only to blast her for impulsively leaving him. We ll stay with a friend.

I don t believe a marriage is easily annulled, Ada commented, once they had climbed into a hackney carriage. Though perhaps the process is simpler when a husband storms out before consummation, she added thoughtfully. I haven t heard of that happening before.

I m certain that s the case. It s not yet legal. Belle stuck her thumb in her mouth and gave a huge sigh, so Daisy started crooning a lullaby.

If I hadn t been told otherwise, I would swear Belle was your baby, Ada commented. She looks like a miniature version of you.

Daisy glanced down at the baby s white-blonde curls. She is mine. I plan to move to Brussels where my cousin lives. I would be very grateful if you would travel with me, Ada. It s not a long sea voyage, and I ll pay your passage there and back.

You couldn t do it without me, Ada said practically. Are you certain you want to leave Lord Devin? Everyone down to the boot boy says he s generous and fair. Not to mention rich. I d marry him for the bathtub alone, and that s not taking into account his thighs. She laughed.

He s very angry at me, Daisy said. I don t blame him, but I can t live with him under those circumstances.

So what set him off, then? Ada looked at Daisy expectantly. Being an Irishman, my father used to explode like one of them new firecrackers. In his case, it was always a matter of the belly. If he was hungry look out!

I married Lord Devin under false pretenses. I told him Belle was my own child.

Ada frowned. That s absurd. He came around to the house when you were working on those coded letters with Lord FitzRoy-Paget last year. You weren t showing. By the trial, you d have been swollen like a gourd. What s more, Belle was likely born in February, and the ball where your dress fell apart was early March. Surely he doesn t think that ladies prance straight from the birthing chamber to the ballroom?

Daisy shrugged. Why would he know anything about pregnancy? I certainly don t.

Everyone knows it takes nine months to grow a child, Ada objected.

I was so stupid, Daisy confessed. I actually thought that he d be happy to discover I was a virgin. Instead he is furious and thinks I manipulated him into marriage.

That is surprising, Ada said, nodding. The way men go on about chastity and obedience from the pulpit, you d think that a woman turned into a clod of dirt the moment she allowed a man between her legs.

Daisy rocked Belle gently back and forth.

I could have sworn Lord Devin was mad about you, her maid added. The way he looked at you this morning! I had to fan myself after I left the room.

You d be wrong, Daisy said flatly. He didn t even stay around long enough to bed me, and that speaks for itself, doesn t it?

Ada winced. Aye, I m afraid that it does.

As soon as he heard the truth, he put his clothes back on and left me sitting on the bed. Daisy s voice cracked.

Ada s eyes rounded. You were still in that towel?

Not even. And he was in the buff himself.

Where did he go tearing off to, then?

He left to chastise Belle s father.

Lord Devin put his clothes back on, the better to go out and have a fight with your Da?

Daisy blinked.

Everyone in Lady Wharton s household knows about the babes, Ada said, leaning forward to pat Daisy s knee. Your father is infamous for his nighttime activities. Not to mention those other children that appeared over the years, all of them your spitting image.

My mother is convinced that only our butler knows of the orphans, Daisy said, shocked to the bone.

They aren t orphans, though, are they? There s been some debate below stairs about that. Still, even those who didn t think Lady Wharton should have sent the babes to an orphanage are loyal to her, sorry that she married a man like your father. He must walk into a brothel the way fox does a henhouse, if you ll forgive the vulgarity.

I had no idea what he was truly like, Daisy said. Then she sighed. I definitely married a man who is the opposite of my father.

Ada snorted. Aye, that s right. There s scarcely a man in a hundred who would have left you, just out of the bath, naked as the day is long.

Lucky me, I found that very man, Daisy said. A lump in her throat was making it hard to swallow.

Don t look like that! Ada said. Don t go thinking it s anything to do with you.

I m not, Daisy said, untruthfully.

Lust was obviously fleeting: men felt it for any woman who flounced up to them in a brothel. What man would leave a naked woman on the bed-unless he was basically uninterested in bedding her?

Miles wouldn t have walked out on Regina, who had no resemblance to a sack of laundry.

Daisy would have loved to cry, but she couldn t. She was holding a sleeping baby, her baby, so the horrible ache in her chest had to be suppressed. That s what mothers did.

When she and Ada climbed out of the carriage, Frederick s butler, Mr. Oates-Plagitt, rushed out the door. Miss Wharton! I mean, Lady Devin.

Miss Wharton will do, Daisy said quietly, trying not to wake Belle. Is Frederick at home, Oates-Plagitt?

He is.

Sober? She caught the butler s expression. Oh, not entirely, she clarified. But well enough to string three words together?

Definitely sober enough for that. He s in the library.

Excellent. Can you please make sure that Ada and Belle are comfortable? She hesitated. I would be grateful if a maid could be assigned to care for my daughter.

My daughter. It was the first time she had said those words outside of hers or Miles s household.

Certainly, Oates-Plagitt said. The nursery is newly refurbished. I think the young miss will be very happy there.

She raised an eyebrow. Was that due to Livie marrying Major FitzRoy?

No. Oates-Plagitt gave her a wry smile. Master Frederick was hopeful that you d accept his proposal.

He never properly asked me. But the truth was that she could never marry Frederick, because she d been stupid enough to fall in love with a disinterested man. Moving to Brussels, her not-so-precious virginity intact, would be better than staying anywhere in her husband s vicinity.

Ada deftly took the sleeping baby and followed Oates-Plagitt up the stairs to the nursery while Daisy went down the hallway to the library. She found Frederick comfortably stretched out on a sofa before the fire, his booted feet crossed over one arm and his head on the other, deep in a book. A glass of whiskey and a bowl of apples sat on the floor within easy reach of his hand.

Even miserable as she felt, the sight of her friend made her smile. Among gentlefolk, likely you and I are the most habitually disheveled, she observed, walking over to him.

Frederick looked up at her, brow knitted, eyes slowly focusing. What are you doing here, dear girl? Or should I say, Lady Devin?

It hurt to laugh. Not for long.

What in the bloody hell happened? Frederick asked. He sprang to his feet and swayed for a moment. He figured out, didn t he? Here, sit down.

Figured out what? Daisy sank onto the couch.

Drink this. Frederick pushed his glass into her hand.

I don t like whiskey.

It s apple juice. I haven t touched it, because I hate apples.

Daisy frowned, looking down at the bowl at their feet.

Oates-Plagitt read in some infernal pamphlet that apples stop a man from thirsting for spirits. My personal experience is that they choke you with sweetness and do nothing for your appreciation of a fine Calvados.

He pulled her down to sit with him. Back to the point, dear. Devin figured out, didn t he? I suppose he s enraged.

Daisy was so tired that she felt dizzy; the wedding that morning felt as if it had happened a year ago. She frowned at Frederick. How did you know? What do you know?

Well, your husband thinks that child-Belle, isn t she? Devin thinks that Belle is yours, which just goes to show what idiots men are. To particularize that observation: his lordship is an idiot.

How did you realize she is not mine? Daisy asked. My mother would never have betrayed that information.

I established it on the grounds of mathematics, economics, and perception. Mathematically, you ve had no time to carry a child for nine months, give birth to it, and gallop back to the ballroom to debut. Devin and I spent sufficient time with you last year to see an expanding waistline, had there been one to see. Turning to economics, your mother has plenty of money. She would never put a soiled dove on the marriage market; she would have bought you a husband.

I see, Daisy said. Perception?

You re innocent, Frederick said. Any man who s paying close attention to you would know that. You have a spark of humor that can be mistaken for experience, but not for long.

Miles never paid close attention, Daisy said, aching to the marrow of her bones. It wasn t his fault. He didn t want to pay close attention. He wasn t even courting me. Regina burst into the room, and I instinctively claimed Belle as mine. After that, things happened so quickly that there wasn t time for objective reasoning.

Au contraire , darling, there s been plenty of time. If your Miles wanted to face the truth about Belle s parentage, he had all last night to do it. But he never cottoned on to reality-which suggests he didn t allow himself to think about reality. He took the excuse to marry you and ran with it. Frankly, I would have done the same.

Daisy gave him a watery smile. Thank you.

I suppose Belle is your half-sister? His voice was very kind.

She nodded. My father has refused to take responsibility for her. I ve decided to move to Brussels and live with your brother and Livie. My disastrous marriage can be annulled in my absence. I ll pretend that I m widowed, and that Belle is my only child.

You d prefer a false widowhood to marrying me? Frederick asked, not looking very hopeful.

She shook her head. I couldn t.

You really fell in love with him, didn t you? His voice was curiously flat.

She shrugged. I thought I did. It s astonishing how fast infatuation withers when a husband is chastising you for being a liar. Daisy s eyes filled with tears. He says I trapped him in marriage because I fancied myself in love, and oh, Frederick, I think he s right. And he said I was stupid to run to him for help, and I suppose I was.

Frederick growled low in his chest. He said you were stupid?

He said the idea of going to his house was stupid, but it s the same, isn t it? If you re wondering, the marriage isn t consummated, so it doesn t really matter. Those vows we spoke this morning can evaporate as quickly as they were spoken. He never meant them, anyway.

Frederick got up, walked across the room, and came back with two goblets of golden liqueur. Not whiskey. A very ladylike Spanish wine that seems appropriate to celebration disunion.

Daisy took an unladylike swig and started coughing. It s so sweet.

I hate it, so it doesn t tempt me to drink over much, Frederick said. Oates-Plagitt bought a case, hoping to prevent me from putting any further holes in my liver.

I should have come to you instead of Miles, Daisy said miserably. She leaned sideways until she slumped against his shoulder.

Frederick wrapped an arm around her. You know that our esteemed butler, Oates-Plagitt, is able to solve almost any problem, don t you?

Not this one: Miles hates me.

He probably didn t like being lied to, Frederick said gently. People don t.

Oh for God s sake, Daisy cried, straightening up. My father and mother lied to me for years , about everything: about why Livie was living with us, about where my father was living, about the existence of my many half-brothers and sisters!

Many ? Frederick repeated, obviously startled.

I hadn t even gotten around to telling Miles that I wanted to adopt the other children, Daisy said, wiping tears from her cheeks. He was busy shouting at me about my appalling lies.

Frederick was silent for a moment, and then he nudged her shoulder with his. They were appalling, Daisy. You do see that, don t you? Miles married you thinking that he was saving you from a fate worse than death, but it turns out that you had simply decided to raise a child who wasn t your own and used him to get your way.

A sob tore its way out of Daisy s throat. It sounds so awful, put like that.

I know you didn t mean it as such. She felt something on her head, as if he dropped a kiss on her hair.

I thought that I could never find another man who would contemplate marrying me and raising Belle as his own. Would you really have done that, Frederick?

A silence, then: For my sins, I d probably have said yes to anything you asked, Daisy.

She rubbed her head against his shoulder. My mother told me it was a mistake not to confess the truth before we married. But before this happened, he was indifferent, and I was so infatuated He wouldn t have married me if I had told the truth.

I m not so sure about that.

Can you please send your butler out to buy myself and my maid passage on the first boat leaving for Brussels? I can t be faced by all that despisement whenever I glimpse Miles in passing. Is despisement a word?

Frederick shook his head. No, but I see what you mean.

I expect Regina will scoop him up. I expect she never bothers to lie, so she will make an excellent Lady Devin.

She has no need to lie. She simply wields her opinions like a bludgeon. No one dares to contradict her.

Exhaustion weighed so heavily on Daisy that she could hardly keep her eyes open. It s been the most wretched day, she said with a sigh. Not precisely the wedding day I dreamed about when I was a little girl.

Frederick kissed her head again; this time she heard the small sound. I suppose your imaginary groom was infatuated?

Desperate with love, Daisy confirmed. I pictured myself taller and thinner. I would drift up the cathedral aisle, looking so beautiful that he would spring up in his eyes. She shook her head. I was foolish then and foolish now.

You are not a fool, but one of the most intelligent women I know, Frederick told her in a matter-of-fact tone. Before she could respond, he rolled her on her side and shifted so he could stretch out, leaving her wedged between him and the back of the sofa.

Daisy put her head on his shoulder. He smelled like whiskey and wood smoke, with just a touch of ink. I feel very safe, tucked next to you. Do you suppose Belle feels safe in her basket?

She is safe in your arms, he said. Go to sleep, Daisy. Everything is better after a nap.

What are you reading? she asked.

Glenarvon , Lady Caroline s Lamb s new novel, Frederick said.

I didn t like it. Did you know that Miles has never read a novel, not even one? Not even Pride and Prejudice , though everyone in polite society claims to have read it.

That s a clear sign of future marital infelicity, Frederick said. He has no respect for the fictional worlds most of us escape to in order to survive the real one. Why didn t you like Glenarvon ? I m tearing through it.

The biographical aspect. She s not even trying to disguise a nasty portrait of Lord Byron as Lord Glenarvon.

Personally, I m enjoying reading about the corruption of a young, innocent bride, though Caroline hardly fits the bill.

It s an absurd book. What about the fact that the heroine s infant brother is murdered and shows up alive later?

You re spoiling it! He s still dead to me, Frederick complained.

Soon he ll be coming back from the dead. I suppose I ll be an innocent bride forever, Daisy said, hearing the ache in her own voice. Not that I care much, she added. But I don t like being shouted at. I m impulsive and stupid and all the things he said, but I don t like shouting.

You make decisions faster than the rest of us. You do have a tendency to lie to get your way, but you ll outgrow it. As you said, your mother and father lied to you for years, so you never had a good model in that respect.

She chuckled sleepily. I left Miles a message saying that I wasn t in love with him any longer.

Was that a lie? Frederick asked softly.

She didn t answer.

He sighed and opened up his book again. Hopefully he could get to the end before Miles showed up.