a friend from the dance hall?”
Charles’s parents stared at me disapprovingly as I set my napkin on my plate and stood up. How could I ever think I’d fit into this world?
Tears blurred my vision. No, I would not let them see me cry. I lifted the hem of my skirt and ran, down the hallway and out to the foyer, where I let myself out the front door. I sat down on a stone bench on the porch, contemplating my next move. Moments later, I heard the creak of the hinge behind me. Expecting to see Charles, I turned, and was disheartened to find Josie standing beside me with a satisfied smile.
“He’s in there explaining to my parents that he’s proposed to you,” she said, shaking her head at what she obviously believed was a laughable idea. “You should see Mother. She’s devastated.” She looked back to the house and smirked. “I know who you are, Vera Ray,” she continued. “I knew your mother, too. I assume you’re a thief like her. Like mother, like daughter, right?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“So your mother didn’t tell you about all the things she stole from our family? The jewelry? The coins from father’s study?”
“Josie,” I stammered, “you—you must be mistaken. My mother would never—”
“I watched her take a diamond bracelet from Mother’s jewelry box,” she said.
“I don’t believe it!” I cried. “How dare you speak of my mother that way? She was a good woman. She did her best to take care of you, Josie. But you tormented her.”
Her icy stare frightened me. “I know your angle,” she said. “Just like your mother, you see my family as your meal ticket.”
I shook my head, wiping a tear from my cheek. “You have it all wrong.”
“Well,” she said, “if you expect me to stand back while my brother is duped by a common whore, then, my dear, you’re mistaken.”
The words stung. “A common…?”
I couldn’t let the vulgar word cross my lips. “What makes you think that I…?” Then I remembered the envelope in the suite. The money Charles had set aside for the poor widow. Josie had seen it. She’d thought it was for me.
“No, no,” I continued. “You have it all wrong. That money was for—”
Josie shook her head. “And now you’re having his child.”
I placed my hand on my belly.
“How long did you think you were going to keep that a secret?”
I gasped. How does she know? I hadn’t told anyone. Not even Charles.
“You didn’t have to tell me,” she said. “It’s obvious.”
“But I—”
“How much?” she said.
I searched her face. “I don’t understand.”
“How much do I have to pay you to get out of our lives, to get out of Charles’s life?”
I shook my head. “Why would you do this?”
“Because he can’t be permitted to end up with a woman like you,” she said. “It would destroy Mother. And Father would write him out of”—she gestured to the house and gardens—“all of this. Do you think he would love you then? Well, Miss Ray, I know my brother better than you, and I can tell you the answer is no.”
I loved him with every inch of my heart, but would my love be enough to make him happy, without…the privileged life he was accustomed to?
I knew it then. I couldn’t fit into Charles’s world any more than he could fit into mine.
“So how much do I need to give you?” she asked again. “How much to get you out of here?”
I held up my hand. “Nothing,” I said, rising to my feet. “I understand.”
I walked up the gravel path and to the road. Charles’s voice rang out in the distance, calling to me like a lighthouse to a lost ship, and yet I kept walking. The charade had to end. Josie may have been cruel, but she was right. It would never work, Charles and me.
“Vera!” he shouted, catching up to me. I felt his hand on my shoulder. “Please wait. I’m so sorry about the way they treated you in there. Let’s go. Let’s leave together.”
I blinked back tears. “I can’t, Charles,” I said. “This is what I have feared all along, but today, it just confirmed everything for me. I love you. So much. But I can’t marry you.”
I hated to see my words wound him so deeply.
“Why not?”
“Don’t you see?” I ran my hand along his face. “We could never make it work. We’re from two different worlds.”
“But that doesn’t matter,” he