Free Today's Embrace by Linda Lee Chaikin Page B

injured tone.
    â€œI am sorry, Aunt Elosia, I … was listening. I’m a bit tired is all, and would like to rest in my room this afternoon.”
    Elosia turned prominent pearl gray eyes upon her, and for a moment Evy felt like a butterfly specimen pinned to a board.
    â€œNot feeling well, are you? Odd.”
    â€œNot odd, when the fear of the fall grippe is prevalent.”
    â€œThat reminds me—”
    Evy tensed and waited for the coming onslaught. A mistake to have even hinted of illness.
Oh, Lord, I’m trapped, and I don’t know how to avoid the net
.
    â€œGuess who I ran into when I was leaving Dr. Tisdale’s? Mrs. Florence Tisdale.”
    â€œOh? How interesting.” Evy kept gazing out the window. She could sense it coming now, a boiling cauldron about to be poured over her.
    â€œShe wearies me with that constant twaddle of news about Alice. Another child, she has, Florence says. That makes three now for Alice and that lanky redheaded boy, Derwent, or is it four? I simply cannot keep up with the population in Grimston Way. And of course Florence wanted to know all about dear Arcilla and Peter. She was delighted to hear of Peter’s elevation. He’s assistant native commissioner now. Arcilla now has a baby boy, I told her. She asked about Rogan, of course, and you, said you were not well and had been in to see Dr. Tisdale this morning.” She turned her head and fixed a steady stare upon Evy.
    â€œOh. Did she? Extraordinary,” Evy breathed. “I wonder where she came up with that notion? Um, that I was ill, I mean? Did she say Dr. Tisdale thought so?”
    Evy felt her face growing hot, and her hands turning cold. She would play dumb—evade the truth.
    â€œI gather he did say you’d been in to see him,” Elosia stated.
    In to see him, but he must not have told his wife the reason.
    â€œYou’re not in the ‘delicate’ way … already?”
    Evy held her breath. “Delicate way?” she asked finally, while resorting to wide-eyed bewilderment.
    â€œPregnant,” Elosia whispered, the line between her brows deepening with impatience.
    There it was … that telling word.
    â€œIs that what Mrs. Tisdale told you?” Evy delayed.
    â€œFlorence is dreadfully curious, you know. She does a lot of shuffling around the tulip garden without actually coming out and asking directly. The topic of babies seems to fill her mind these days. And then,gossip does skitter about, you know, and Patricia thought … Well, we shan’t get into that! I hardly think it would prove tasteful.”
    At least Lady Elosia didn’t believe the malicious story Patricia had sown in London at Brewster House! Evy felt more kindly inclined toward Elosia for that bit of good sense.
    â€œNow that you’ve brought up the topic, I’ll go right ahead and say what I think of the horribly mean way in which she lied about me and Rogan in London.” Evy felt her heart thumping and her cheeks warm again. She leaned forward, clasping her package of buttons. “How
dare
she say that I had compromised myself with Rogan in order to steal him from her? That’s what her gossip is meant to imply.”
    Lady Elosia looked upset. “She remains bitterly disappointed about losing Rogan.”
    â€œI’ve taken no malicious pleasure in her loss. Why then does she cast stones at me?” She smarted, remembering how the young woman’s rumor had soiled her honeymoon in London.
    Elosia shrugged and sighed. “Lord Bancroft is a highly respected man in Parliament. A man of powerful influence. The Bancrofts are not accustomed to embarrassment. You’ll need to learn that people can be cruel when they lose.”
    â€œI’m becoming well aware of that.” Evy sank back against the leather seat with an air of weariness. “Rogan and I are married now. One would think Patricia would tuck in her