A Bride for the Prizefighter - Alice Coldbreath Page 0,53
said uncomfortably. “And I’m sure I don’t blame you. But you see, I simply could not abandon Cecily to such a fate.”
“Married to some ne’er do well, you mean?”
“He was a thoroughly unpleasant bully,” she said roundly.
He shook his head. “It’ll be him or someone just as bad, more than likely.”
“Honestly, I don’t see how it could be.”
He was quiet a moment. “Not all girls have a Miss Walters to sweep in and save the day,” he pointed out. “You didn’t.”
“It wasn’t quite the same!” she retorted when she could draw breath.
“Wasn’t it?”
“Of course not! You didn’t abduct me for one thing.”
“No? What about Faris?”
“He didn’t abduct me either.” She took a deep breath. “In fact, I wasn’t far from being thrown out on the street.”
An uncomfortable silence reigned for a moment and Mina drew her cloak closer about her. She remembered how highly her father had thought of Sir Matthew as an upstanding member of society. He had been so proud to have his endorsement of Hill School. She thought of the genteel suppers they had used to throw for their entertainment. Lady Ralph, Sir Matthew, and Canon Carter-Hayes had all attended regularly in those days to be entertained by select recitals and entertainments on the pianoforte.
Lady Ralph had even awarded a prize every summer term to the ‘Most Improved Girl’. She even seemed to recall Cecily had won it one year. How long ago it all seemed now. The memories seemed slightly embittered these days, as she recalled how dismayed Father had been by Sir Matthew’s curt letter announcing his withdrawal as a governor and sponsor of the school. Lady Ralph had not even bothered to formally cut her ties, she had simply stopped answering any communications.
As for Canon Carter-Hayes, he had his own problems with some inconsistencies with church funds and had been summoned to the bishop’s palace to explain. Subsequently, he had been ordered to vastly cut down any positions of authority that he held, so they had not been so surprised by his withdrawal from the Board. Mama had begged them not to speak of it as it was ‘not nice’ and she was sure the poor dear Canon had been the victim of some gross deception rather than guilty of any incompetence or dereliction of duty.
“Did he offer you a post?” Will Nye interrupted her thoughts harshly. “Looking after his half-witted niece?”
“She’s not half-witted, only a little naïve,” Mina corrected him. “Nor is she his niece.” When he directed a cutting look her way, she added quickly. “And no, he did not offer me a post.”
He snorted. “More fool he. I expect you could have kept her out of trouble until she was of age.”
Mina looked at him in surprise. “She’s a little old for a governess,” she pointed out mildly. “And more in need of a well-connected chaperone who could introduce her about town. I am not well-connected,” she pointed out. “And would not be able to throw her in the path of eligible beaux.”
“If she has money and he’s not her uncle, he probably wouldn’t want that in any case.”
“What do you mean?”
He cast her an ironic look. “He probably means to marry her himself.”
Mina gave a startled laugh. “I hardly think so!”
“Why not?” Nye asked coolly.
“If you’d seen the way he speaks to her,” Mina spluttered. “Like an authoritarian rather than a suitor.”
“Cecily’s not the only naïve one, I see,” Nye rumbled and she cast him an irritable look.
“He’s at least thirty-five if he’s a day,” she objected. “And Cecily only nineteen!”
His gaze remained steady. “And?”
Mina rallied. “I can imagine nothing less likely!”
“You think men like that speak to their wives gently?”
Mina looked at him shrewdly. “I thought you said you did not know him?”
“I don’t know him,” he retorted. “But I know his reputation.”
“Which is?” She frowned, striving to remember what he had said before. Something about referring people to the Assizes in his capacity as Justice of the Peace.
Nye shrugged. “It’s none of my business,” he said evasively.
Fleetingly, Mina wondered if he knew of anyone who had suffered under Sir Matthew’s ideas of justice. She could always ask Gus if Nye was determined to be unforthcoming. On impulse, she asked. “Why did you tell Gus Hopkirk I was a schoolteacher?”
Nye blinked, clearly taken aback. He did not answer for a moment. “Must have come up,” he muttered.
“In general conversation?”
He cast her a resentful look. “I don’t remember.”
“He said he’s known you since you were a boy,” she persisted, suddenly