Honoria and the Family Obligation by Alicia Cameron

Author:Alicia Cameron [Cameron, Alicia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-05-01T18:30:00+00:00

It was nearly midnight when Honoria and her father arrived at the house. Mr Allison had stayed up, but they both refused refreshments and took off their hats and coats and ascended the stairs. They parted with a hug at the top, her father whispering in her ear, ‘He will be alright now, never fear, my dear.’

She let her father go to his room and headed for hers, nodding away the footman who had lighted their path. There was a room across the hall with a door ajar and a candle glimmering - she walked towards it fearlessly.

‘Mr Scribster?’ she whispered before she got there.

‘How did you guess it was mine?’ said he, coming into sight with a candle in his hand.

She moved past him into the room, closing the door behind her.

She heard him swallow audibly. ‘I don’t think it is seemly to close the door, Miss Fenton.’ He grasped at the handle and she put her small hand on his to prevent him.

‘Please - don’t you speak to me of seemliness too, Mr Scribster. I count on you to be vile and abominable at the end of this horrible day.’ She threw her arms around his waist and cried quite as passionately as ever Genevieve had in her arms earlier. He stood stiffly for a moment with his arms extended as though frozen. But in a second he had put down the candle on a handy side table and pulled her close to him, bending his head to rest his chin on her curls.

‘You poor girl. Tell me.’

They stood thus for a moment, Scribster holding her up as her knees buckled. He lifted her gently and put her on the armchair before the hearth, where some coals still glowed.

‘I know what it is - you have been good and strong for your mama and papa, for Benedict, for Serena, for Uncle Tom Cobbley and all. Have you even allowed yourself to cry before now?’

‘Not a lot. Other people were crying so much already. Like Genevieve Horton. I mean Lady Sumner. Why must she have hysterics and become chief mourner - before even my mama?’

‘He’s not dead - yet.’

‘Oh!’ burst out Honoria, laughing despite herself, ‘that is low, even for you.’

‘It is low. But do you suspect Lady Sumner of display? She has never struck me as that type.’

‘Oh, never. It was so unkind of me to say that. It is just that I was working so hard not to have hysterics when I saw him and she just - oh, how unkind I am.’

‘Dreadfully! And fast, too. I noticed it when you closed that door to be alone with a gentleman.’

‘It’s only you!’

‘If your mama were to find out-’

‘-And you are only barely a gentleman, but you are not a blabber.’

‘That shall be inscribed on my tomb.’

She laughed. Then she trembled a little.

‘You must get to bed,’ he said.

‘Yes. But I have to say it aloud first and I cannot say it to anyone else without chafing them sorely.

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