“I can't say,” she sobbed. “I just can't.”

“Claire, you must tell me.”

“I can't. It's too embarrassing.”

“Nothing is ever as awful as one thinks,” Ellie said gently.

The younger girl covered her face with her hands and mumbled, “Will you promise not to tell Charles?”

“Claire, he is my husband. We have vowed to—”

“You must promise!”

The girl looked on the verge of hysteria. Ellie rather doubted that whatever secret she was keeping was as terrible as she thought, but she remembered what it felt like to be fourteen, so she said, “Very well, Claire. I give you my vow.”

Claire looked away before she said, “I wanted him to wait for me.”

Ellie closed her eyes. She'd never dreamed that Claire had been harboring a secret tendre for Charles.

“I've always wanted to marry him,” Claire whispered. “He's my hero. He saved us six years ago, you know. Poor Mama was pregnant with Judith, and the creditors had taken everything away. Charles barely even knew us, but he paid my father's debts and took us in. And he never made us feel like poor relations.”

“Oh, Claire.”

“He wouldn't have had to wait much longer.”

“But what was the use of trying to scare me away? We were already married.”

“I heard you arguing. I know you haven't…” Claire turned beet red. “I can't say it, but I know that the marriage could be annulled.”

“Oh, Claire,” Ellie sighed, too concerned about the present situation to feel embarrassed that Claire knew that her marriage had never been consummated. “He couldn't have waited for you in any case. You must know about his father's will.”

“Yes, but he could have annulled the marriage and—”

“No,” Ellie interrupted, “he can't. We can't. If he does, he loses the money forever. Charles had to marry before his thirtieth birthday, and the marriage could not be dissolved.”

“I didn't know,” Claire said quietly.

Ellie sighed. What a muck. Then she realized what she'd just said and opened her eyes very wide. “Oh dear,” she said, “Charles's birthday. Did I miss it?” He had said he had how many days before his birthday when they met? Fifteen? Seventeen? Ellie pinpointed the day he'd proposed in her mental calendar and began to count forward.

“His birthday is in two days' time,” Claire said.

As if on cue, a firm knock sounded at the door. “That will be Charles,” both women said in unison.

Then Claire added, “No one else knocks nearly as loud.”

“Come in,” Ellie called out. Then she turned to Claire and urgently whispered, “You're going to have to tell him. You don't have to tell him why, but you're going to have to tell him you did it.”

Claire looked glum but resigned. “I know.”

Charles swept into the room carrying a silver tray with a tea service and biscuits. He shooed Claire off the bed and set it down in her place. “Would you care to pour, cousin?” he asked. “It ought to be well-steeped. I waited with it for several minutes on the stairs to give you two more time together.”