Read With This Curse: A Novel of Victorian Romantic Suspense for Free Online Page B

was burning. “No impropriety has taken place,” I ventured, but at this my mother flung up her hands in a passionate gesture.
    “No impropriety, the girl says. Clara, don’t you see that any familiarity between you and a son of this house is improper!”
    I flinched. She had never scolded me before others, and that alone would have told me how deeply I had distressed her. She put a hand to her heart as if to still it.
    “Tell me,” she said, this time in a low, controlled voice. “Tell us. Are you with child?”
    Heat rushed to my face. “Mother!”
    “Your mother’s question is quite reasonable, given the circumstances.” Lady Telford’s eyes were like two chips of ice. “Well, girl? Or is it too early to say?”
    I stared from one to the other now, as if they might see reason and relent. “It isn’t even a possibility,” I stammered. “Nothing untoward—nothing of that nature—has happened.”
    Lady Telford sighed and closed her eyes briefly, as if my response had exhausted her. “Mrs. Crofton, is your daughter truly so ignorant of the details of basic husbandry? Or is she lying?”
    “I am not lying!”
    “I asked your mother a question, child. Don’t interrupt your betters.”
    My mother’s face was pale, and her dark eyes were haunted. However humiliating this interview was for me, for her it was equally bad. “I brought my daughter up to be truthful,” she said, still in that terrible low voice. “And I endeavored to instill virtue in her as well. But with her father dead, and no man to provide the discipline she needs, I fear she’s wilder than she should be.” She looked at me now as if I were a stranger. “I shall always regret that my attention to my duties prevented me from keeping a more watchful eye on her.”
    But I’m not wild, I wanted to say, and then realized I wasn’t certain whether it was true. Had I become a wicked woman? I didn’t think I had, but I felt the memory of his lips imprinted on the skin beneath my collarbone and dropped my eyes, wishing I could hide from the two accusing countenances. It was true I had not surrendered myself entirely to him. But I had permitted more liberties than were strictly in accordance with feminine propriety, and the memory made me unable to meet their eyes steadily and with conviction. I must have looked the picture of guilt, for Lady Telford clicked her tongue.
    “It seems all too likely that the girl is enceinte. How vexing. Where may she be sent, Mrs. Crofton? Do you have family who can take her in?”
    I was to be sent away from Richard? My heart gave a painful thud. “I don’t want to leave Gravesend,” I begged, but my mother gave me a hard look.
    “What you want is of no issue. Lady Telford, I regret to say I don’t have any connections to call upon.” What she meant was that none of her family would receive either of us; they had cast her out when she married my father. That she should treat me so unjustly when she herself had been punished for loving a man of a different class outraged me.
    “You can’t send me away,” I flared. “I’ve done nothing wrong. Ask Mr. Richard.” My voice faltered there; if his mother did question him and he admitted that he loved me, would he too be cast off? I could not bear to be the cause of his ruin.
    But it seemed that this was not to be my lot. “I’ll not subject my son to such an indignity,” said Lady Telford briskly. “He might produce some gallant lie to protect you, or, worse yet, decide to marry you to spite us all. He’s quite impetuous enough to do it. No, my son shall not be dragged into this sordid business.” She opened a drawer of the desk, removed a small pouch, and drew from it a few guineas. These she held out to me. “Take it,” she told me, giving a little shake to her hand, so that the lace flounce on her sleeve fluttered. “This should more than pay for your remaining wages, with enough over for fare to London, I fancy.”
    “London,” I repeated