Dorothy's Derby Chronicles by Meghan Dougherty

Author:Meghan Dougherty
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc
Published: 2015-06-12T04:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

A frosty atmosphere descended upon the Red Lion and did not lift through two long days. Keighley, pronounced much improved, was allowed to go out alone for the first time, so now it was he who walked along the shore and Margaret who stayed in her room. She ventured out only for meals, and even then said and ate little. Some of the rosy color she had gained faded, and her shoulders showed the beginning of their old droop.

These outward signs were merely suggestive of her inner turmoil, which was far more intense. During the long, quiet hours in her room Margaret endlessly reviewed the events that had brought her here and the actions she had taken. She could not see what she could have done differently, but she wished with all her heart that things had not gone as they had. For Margaret had never been so uneasy and unhappy in her life. Something had happened to her in the last week, something she did not at all understand, and it now seemed to her that the future offered nothing but dreary routine and loneliness.

She had resisted thinking about what she would do for as long as possible, but now, somehow, worries intruded, and she felt obliged to plan. She tried to imagine herself going on to Penzance or some other town and finding work as she had once thought to do. The vision nearly made her weep. But when she considered returning to her parents, this alternative seemed even worse. No future looked pleasant or possible, and she could not understand how this had come to be. She had always known it would not be easy to make her own way. But why had it suddenly become impossible to contemplate?

At this stage in her meditations the image of Sir Justin Keighley usually intruded, most particularly the look on his face when he had backed away from her after their embrace. Margaret always shuddered when she thought of it and immediately forced her thoughts elsewhere. She would not think of that, though she refused to wonder why it was so painful or why the question of her future suddenly seemed so important.

Keighley himself had a rather clearer understanding of the situation, but that did not make him any happier. On his long walks he also pondered the future and his own mental state, coming to some hard conclusions. He had known for some time that his feelings were getting out of control, and when he had, much against his better judgment and even his will, taken Margaret in his arms, warnings had sounded throughout his brain. The fact that he found holding her slender frame and stroking her silken hair very pleasant simply intensified his determination to stop.

He had heard many stories of attachments fostered by isolation and propinquity. Matchmaking mamas often counted on it, and freedom-loving bachelors frequently lamented a month spent at the country place of such a parent—a month that ended in an offer and an announcement in the Morning Post.

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