‘Don’t deny it. You’ll contrive to meet him, won’t you, even once wed?’

‘No, of course not. I wanted to remain friends. He would not agree to it.’ Harriet felt colour creep up her neck and into her cheeks. It was devastating to think of her last meeting with Silas. She almost wished Polly back in her bed.

‘Your own face betrays you. I would like to say something. You should give what I say due consideration.’ Polly paused. ‘It is not too late to avert the course you are on.’

The fire hissed in the silence that followed. Harriet’s mouth was dry.

‘It was Uncle Walter’s wish that I marry Albert Boothby.’

Polly’s hand shook as she lifted the water glass and gulped the remaining contents down. ‘You know, it suited Walter to keep me confined so he could go about his business unhindered, with you as his unpaid and uncomplaining servant. I am ashamed that I had not the strength to fight him, but now he is gone. He is dead and gone.’ Polly looked around the room as if to confirm Walter’s absence. ‘And you are my niece, my beloved sister’s child. I would have you happy. Your life is a precious currency, not to be spent unwisely. I know I am the last person who should say this, but,’ she reached across the table to shake Harriet’s arm, ‘Harriet, wake up. Women’s choices are limited, but they do exist.’

‘What would you have me do?’ Harriet said numbly.

‘Answer me this. Answer quickly, without pause.’ Polly narrowed her eyes and Harriet quailed. ‘Who resides in your heart? Quick now.’

‘Silas.’ His name rode up from her throat on a sob that opened the floodgates. ‘I love Silas. I loved him from the moment I saw him on Lady’s Bridge. I can’t forget him. I have sent him away.’

‘Why?’

‘What do you mean? He is too young and the wrong class and a foreigner in the town. I’m thinking of our family. What will become of us without the security Albert Boothby can offer?’

‘Let me shoulder that burden now. I owe you a great debt, Harriet.’

Harriet put her head in her hands. ‘The wedding arrangements…’

‘Can be undone.’

She looked up, wonderingly. ‘Am I really contemplating calling off the wedding? What will he do?’

‘He’ll find another young woman with a womb for rent.’

Harriet gasped. ‘Aunt!’ Then they were both laughing, slightly hysterically, and Harriet clutched the edge of the table. ‘My head feels light.’ She took a breath. It was as if she had been submerged in silt beneath deep and still waters and was finally realising it was in her power to rise, to test her limbs, and swim for the surface. A bubbling laugh escaped her. She knew what she wanted, and she would summon all the courage she had in the getting of it.

Chapter 46

John Gunson followed his wife and Silas into the cottage, removing his topper as he ducked over the threshold. His hands jerked involuntarily, his nerves getting the better of him, and he peered around the smoke-hazed room, rather than meet the eye of Louisa Leigh. She would view him as the engineer of all her losses.