Page 22 of The Ruin of Miss Amelia Burrowes

“I’ve begun this badly. It is a little involved, as many requests of Jonathan’s tended to be. Please, my dear, sit down.” She seated herself and picked up her now-cold tea. She sipped it and made a face.

“Let me ring for more.” Kate made to get up, but Lord Haversham waved her back.

“I’ll ring for the tea.” He strode to the bell pull and gave it an impatient tug. “Begin your tale, my lady. I am all ears to find out what the devil went on.”

“Very well.” Amelia sat with her hands primly folded in her lap. “Our correspondence began almost as soon as the ink had dried on the settlement papers. I was surprised and pleased to receive the first one, which was most flattering, as I recall. But soon after, they became much more amorous, and he began to suggest assignations where we might meet to become more…intimate.” It had been difficult enough to confess all this to her parents; however, to be stating it all so baldly before Nathan and his family… She closed her eyes against tears. It had been her own folly not to inform her mother about the content of the letters when she’d first received them. She must pay the piper yet again, it seemed.

“Please continue, my dear.” Nathan gathered her hand in his and threaded their fingers together.

Nodding, she summoned her courage once more. “To discourage him, I told him I was afraid my mother might intercept the letters and intimated that she would read my correspondence from time to time. I hoped this would curb his epistolary efforts, but instead he came up with a plan to circumvent my scheme. He arranged with a former housemaid of his, who now lived in London, to receive our letters. The idea was for her to hold my letters from him until I called for them. I would read them and leave them with the maid, Mary Adams. I would also leave any letters for Jonathan with Miss Adams to pass on.”

“So where is this Mary Adams now? How may we locate her?” Nathan leaped to his feet, so animated she believed he might try to fly around the room.

“My parents tried, but after Jonathan’s death, everything was in disarray for a month at the least. Then when the rumors began, they questioned me, and I told them about Mary Adams.” She looked from Nathan’s hopeful face to Celinda’s more cautious one. “I gave Father her address, but by then, she’d left London. No one there knew where she’d moved. Father even questioned Lord Carrington’s other servants, but the maid had been gone for some time, and they could not hazard a guess where she might be.” Amelia shrugged. “So you see, the letters are well and truly lost—either thrown away, which I think is most likely, or still with the missing Mary Adams.”

The silence around the room would deafen her in a moment.

“Well, this seems discouraging and particularly futile,” Celinda spoke up, the only one of them not looking like grim Death had come to visit. “Still, I think we may as well do some sleuthing rather than staying home feeling helpless.”

“Celinda is correct, brother.” Kate set her tea down with a determined clatter. “We can still do something, even if there’s not much evidence left. We must make a start.”

“Then we are agreed we shall try to locate Mary Adams?” Nathan rose, and the others followed suit. “Marcus and I will approach Carrington’s family. See if they or their servants remember anything of Mary. Also, if they have any other correspondence belonging to Carrington. It’s long odds, but it won’t hurt to ask.” He gazed at Amelia. “What will the three of you do?”

Amelia looked from one lady to the other, uncertain if she was in a position to put forward suggestions.

Kate cocked her head, as if running through different scenarios they might attempt. “Well, we could—”

“What do you think, Amelia?” Celinda turned to her pointedly and nodded. “You are most familiar with the woman. What should we do?”

Taking her courage in hand, Amelia grasped the reins. “We could return to the lodgings where Mary lived ten years ago. Perhaps neighbors will remember her still or have some idea where she may have gone.” The other women nodded, but Amelia sighed. “These are not odds I would wager very much on, my dear.” She gazed up at Nathan, her growing affection for him warring with the dismay of fighting the same losing battle once more.

“Do not fret, love.” He laced their fingers together, and she reveled in the closeness she’d not felt with a gentleman before. “We will find a way to vindicate you and restore you to Society where you deserve to be.”

“And if we cannot?”

He sighed and squeezed her hand. “We will cross that stream when we come to it.”