Royal Regard

Chapter Sixteen, Part 1

Bella had been pacing her sitting room so long she was surprised there were no holes through the new Turkish carpet. The lovely, finally finished room, which had brought her so much joy until she faced more pressing concerns, might as well have been invisible.

Charlotte had tried to distract her cousin from the frustrated anger by complimenting the moss-green walls and silver gilt accents, making much of the tapestry-covered Robert Adam chairs that had replaced the fussy French rococo. For the last half-hour, though, she had been playing Patience at Bella's roll-top desk, the shuffling of cards playing counterpoint to the raindrops running down the window, the tapping of her fingernails on the table keeping the rhythm of Bella's mad ranting.

"They are monsters! Expecting me to do their bidding because I am a weak-minded woman and they the wise, all-knowing gentlemen. Gentlemen! Ha! Gentlemen do not sell their wives! I am no longer a child to be given to some man to line my father's pockets!"

Frowning at the mention of Uncle Jasper, Charlotte simply let Bella's bluster continue. After her last run of three turned up no new cards, Charlotte peeked at the hidden stack. Disappointed to find none to complete a row, she gathered up the deck to start again, shuffling it loosely through her fingers.

"Of course you are not a child. But ladies do not gainsay their husbands, and you are a lady, no matter how much you screech. Myron is right. You could do much worse than Wellbridge."

Bella stomped her foot, setting the tea tray rattling on the side table. Once Charlotte had finished dealing for the next game, she abandoned the cards briefly to pour herself another cup, the last in the pot. Finding only a scant half-cup, she seated herself in one of the new shepherdess chairs to make more.

"I am not going to marry a man because he isn't the worst I could do! I am not going to marry at all! For heaven's sake, am I the only person in London who remembers I am still married?"

Charlotte dumped the dregs into the slop bowl, then measured out new tea leaves from the silver caddy. When she tipped the samovar to release the last drop of water into the teapot, she had only enough to brew another cup or two, so she strode to the bell pull to summon a maid.

Taking her lukewarm cup back to the desk, she responded, "Of course you will marry. You can't just shift for yourself with all that money. You need someone to manage it, and you don't want to spend the rest of your life lonely just to make a point."

She picked up the remainder cards and turned over the first three. As she stared at the board, her brows turned down and face grew hard. Apparently deciding there was no time like the present, without looking at Bella, she delivered the coup de grace: "You might still have children."

Bella's face drained of all color and she abruptly stopped pacing. "Children are the very last reason I would consider another husband. I have lost six. If God were willing, I would be a mother by now."

Charlotte dropped the cards on the table, hands shaking. "Six? I only ever knew about... you never told me."

Bella was almost silent. "I withheld it from even Myron most often, and it was not something I wished to dwell upon in every letter." She squared her shoulders. "In fact, I prefer not to dwell on it now."

She proved herself by changing the subject. "I am more than capable of managing my own affairs, no matter how many men Myron would rather find to do it for me. This fortune can do no good at all if it is squandered to pay for the illicit pleasures of a rake like Wellbridge."

"He has no need of your money to pay for his pleasures." Only Bella would notice the cunning in Charlotte's smile as she moved the second column to the fifth, to finish a tableau. Turning up the Ace of Clubs, she began a new foundation and opened a new column. "And you might enjoy his improper behavior, if you'd stop acting like such a widgeon."