Evelyn drew back from where she’d been leaning out over the sill, a cold gust of winter wind following her in.
She turned to face the new maid with her rosy cheeks and furrowed brow. “Of course!” Evelyn said with perhaps a bit more enthusiasm than was necessary. Her smile also felt far too bright. “Remember what I told you. If anyone asks, you have not seen me all evening.”
Cora nodded, but concern still clouded her eyes. “Yes, miss.”
Evelyn gave a sharp nod, clutching her reticule tightly—it was all she would be able to bring with her, but it contained enough money that she ought to be able to reach her aunt’s home, and from there…
Well, that was as far as she’d gotten with her plan. She had not seen her aunt in several years, but she’d always been kind to Evelyn, and she hoped that with her help they might figure out where she could go next.
Once her reputation was thoroughly ruined.
She squeezed her eyes tight against the pain, the frustration, the overwhelming anger at the injustice of it all.
Cora misunderstood. “If ye’re having a change of heart, miss, it’s not too late to reconsider—”
“I am not having a change of heart.” Her eyes snapped open with a glare.
Cora eyed the second-floor window warily. “That’s an awfully big drop—”
“It’s not that far.” Evelyn’s tone lacked the right amount of conviction as that last glance outside the window had indeed shaken her nerve.
The drop to the ground had not seemed so very great two days ago when she’d first hatched this plan. She moved toward the window now and stuck her head out, eyeing the garden beneath. Her head spun at the distance to the ground, but she turned back to Cora with a determined grin. “See that? There’s snow on the ground. Surely that will help to cushion the fall, no?”
Cora’s wince was far from heartening. She wrung her hands together before her as she glanced from the window to the bedroom door. “Are you certain you cannot slip out through the kitchen, miss?”
Evelyn just barely held back a sigh. “I cannot do that, Cora, and you know the reason why.” She attempted to soften her tone with a smile. “You are the only servant I trust.”
And to be honest, she didn’t trust her all that much. Cora was a new addition to the household staff, and it was only her newness that made her Evelyn’s best option for an ally. The rest of her father’s staff had been here since before she’d been born and were loyal to him to a fault.
But Evelyn would need someone to close the window after she was gone, not to mention a messenger who could explain her decision to leave to her brother when he returned from his travels.
“Remember, Cora,” she said. “When my brother returns, you must tell him that I was of a clear mind when I ran away, and that it was of my own free will.”
Cora nodded, her brow still furrowed and her fingers fidgeting with the lace of her apron.
Evelyn held back another sigh of impatience. She was glad to have found one servant who she was fairly certain would not run to her father the moment she was out of sight. But it would have been slightly more reassuring if her ally were not quite so nervous all the time.
She squared her shoulders and straightened her spine, hoping some of her own resolve might rub off on the older woman. “Tell Jacob that I will send word just as soon as I am able. And that…” She bit her lip, not sure how many intimate details she wished to entrust with Cora, who could very well cave the moment Evelyn’s father fixed her with one of his cold, hard stares. She wet her lips. “Just tell him that I know he has done all that he could. That...that this is not his fault.”
Cora’s eyes crinkled at the corners with emotion. “Yes, miss,” she murmured gently.
She supposed even a new maid had heard enough gossip in this house to have at least some idea of why she was leaving.
Of whom she was fleeing.
Cora nibbled on her lip as her gaze flickered toward the open window, where sounds from the party below were drifting in.
Tonight’s dinner party marked the perfect opportunity for her escape. With this winter weather, none of the guests would venture outside, and her father and his loyal servants would be too distracted with entertaining to notice that she had slipped away. Plus, there was the fact that this was the one and only occasion since their return to England that her fiancé was unable to attend, holding her hostage at his side as she introduced him to her family and friends.
She doubted any of them truly believed his tale of love at first sight when they’d come across each other during her tour of the continent with Jacob, but no one was rude enough to say so aloud.
And besides, it hardly mattered if anyone believed the ludicrous fairy tale that Mr. Stallworth wove about their first meeting. All that truly mattered was the story he’d told her father.
The tall tale about how she’d been compromised.
Her brother had believed her, but when it was her word versus Mr. Stallworth’s, her father had chosen the family’s good reputation over her future happiness.
Perhaps she shouldn’t have been so shocked at her father’s opinion on the matter. He’d raised her and Jacob to believe that appearances were what mattered most.
Evelyn had just never understood that her father had meant appearances mattered more than anything...including her.
She swallowed down another wave of emotions. These days she was hard-pressed to say whether the choking sensation in her throat was caused by tears of hurt or anger. They were so closely intertwined it was impossible to separate them.
“Perhaps if you were to wait until Mr. Jacob returns,” Cora started.
“I cannot wait, Cora,” she said. Perhaps it was the resignation in her voice that had the maid clamping her lips shut to cut off any further protest.
Evelyn was glad for the silence. If she were being honest, she desperately wished that there was some other way out of this mess that was her engagement. Running away wasn’t exactly her favorite option. But Jacob had tried for weeks to change her father’s mind, to no avail. Even their new acquaintance the Earl of Everly and his friends had attempted to reason with him, but it seemed the harder they tried, the more obstinate he became.
She turned back to the window.
And so it had come to this. Running away. Her reputation would be ruined, but at least she would have her life back. She would not have to face a future beside a cruel, power-hungry knave like Stallworth.
No, she would just be alone.
Her eyes grew alarmingly wet and she blinked away the tears of self-pity as she turned her back on Cora. She leaned over the windowsill just as shrill female laughter pierced the air. She’d left the ladies in the drawing room when the men had gone off with her father to his smoking room.
A smile tugged at Evelyn’s lips. This was the moment she’d been waiting for.
The women were entertaining themselves, no doubt they’d already forgotten that she’d excused herself to use the washroom. They were likely relishing this opportunity to talk about her and her scandal-ridden engagement. Or no…
Her smile grew rueful. Perhaps for once she would not be the subject of gossip this evening. Not when the new Earl of Darling was in attendance with his sister.
Men’s laughter came from another section of the house, closer to her room, joined by the foul scent of cigars. Darling would be there with her father and his cronies if he hadn’t fled yet after all the backhanded comments and whispers that had transpired over dinner.