Read Online The Maiden At Midnight by Kate Harper - Free Book Online

so.’
     

Chapter Four
     
     
     
     
    Isabella knew there would be a fuss and so
she was prepared for the emotional storm that crashed over her head
when she appeared. Quite naturally, her appearance caused a stir of
unprecedented proportions for her aunt was inclined to be dramatic
and immediately called for the heart shorn when Isabella arrived,
collapsing artfully onto a chaise lounge, although this might have
had more to do with Isabella’s outfit than anything else.
    Her mother had hurried forward to gather her
daughter into her arms and Isabella had understood how truly
terrified her mother had been for she was trembling
uncontrollably.
    ‘My darling,’ she’d whispered. ‘Oh thank
God!’
    Which had, quite naturally, brought tears to
Isabella’s eyes. Not for the world would she cause her mother a
moment of anxiety, not after the truly dreadful year they had
undergone and she had held her remaining parent that much harder.
Audrey and Millie had been holding back, white-faced and wide-eyed
but had hurried forward to join the family embrace when their
sister had glanced apologetically towards them.
    ‘Oh Bell!’ Audrey breathed, ‘I was so
frightened for you.’
    ‘Yes, where have you been ?’ Millie added,
sounding shaky. ‘We stayed up all night. Well, Mama and Audrey did.
I feel asleep in a chair.’
    Isabella had hugged them,
feeling wretched. ‘I am so sorry. I had a… a little accident but I am
perfectly all right.’
    Naturally, Aunt Geraldine had demanded to
know the moment she had recovered from her faint where her niece
had been all night and was incensed when Isabella had insisted she
talk to her mother alone. Eliza Hathaway had cut across her
sister’s protestations calmly.
    ‘We will be in the yellow drawing room,
Geraldine. Please, give us a little time to talk.’ And she had
swept her daughter away, leaving Aunt Geraldine searching for
words.
    Isabella had told her
mother the truth, from start to finish. She had been shocked,
naturally. It was shocking to hear that her daughter had been abducted in the
most reprehensible manner but as Isabella was clearly sound in body
and spirit, she rallied quickly. Fortunately, she had managed
Isabella’s absence with the presence of mind that her daughter had
been praying for. Unable to find her at the masquerade, they had
returned home, believing that Isabella would be there. Why she
should have left without telling her mother had been s mystery but
Eliza Hathaway had enough faith in her daughter to assume that she
would have had a very good reason. Of course, discovering that
Isabella had not returned home had proved to be a serious blow, but she had
remained calm – outwardly, anyway – determined to wait for her
daughter’s return. Thank God. The hardest part, aside from the
waiting, had been silencing Geraldine, for the woman was inclined
towards theatrics and a missing debutante was certainly excellent
material to work with.
    ‘I know it is all very dreadful,’ Isabella
had sighed at the end of her tale, ‘and that the consequences could
have been dire, but truly Mama, the earl was fully in his cups and
did not realize how foolishly he was behaving.’
    ‘He behaved appalling!’ Mama had stared at
her, blue eyes trouble. ‘What a thing to have done, my dear! No
matter how drunk the gentleman was, his behavior must breach the
bounds of what is acceptable. If this were to get out -’
    ‘But it shall not!’
    ‘No,’ Mama had agreed, ‘it certainly shall
not.’
    ‘If we can keep my absence quiet, surely
there is surely no harm done?’ Isabella had said quickly, eyes
fixed on her mother’s face. ‘If you said nothing, then nobody will
realize that I was gone all night.’
    ‘I had a job of it, silencing your aunt. She
has a good heart, Isabella, but she has little enough in her life
and likes the opportunity to posture. I managed to hush her; she
was upsetting Audrey and Millie.’
    ‘And the servants?’
    ‘Even Martha does