CHAPTER SEVENTEEN F: BLANCHE AT THE DOOR
Blanche came to the workroom on a gray afternoon without sending notice.
She stood in the doorway wearing a velvet cloak that cost more than the women’s weekly wages combined.
The conversation stopped.
Selena set down her needle.
“Is Father ill?” she asked.
“No.”
“Is Verity well?”
“She is well enough.”
Blanche looked around the room with undisguised discomfort.
“I came to speak to you privately.”
Mrs. Elkin gestured toward the narrow landing.
“You may use the passage, provided you do not block the stairs.”
Blanche followed Selena outside.
“You have made yourself the subject of every conversation in the county,
” she began.
“I doubt that.”
“Lady Pembroke asked whether you intend to remain employed after marriage.”
Selena stared at her.
“There has been no proposal.”
“Everyone expects one.”
“Everyone seems remarkably busy with my future.”
Blanche’s expression hardened.
“Father has been refused another advance.”
“I am sorry to hear it.”
“He believes the duke could help.”
“The duke has already made his position clear.”
“You could persuade him.”
“I will not.”
Blanche looked genuinely frightened for the first time.
“You do not understand what happens if Father cannot pay his obligations.”
“Then tell me what you know.”
Blanche hesitated.
“He may have to let the house.
”
Selena thought of the rooms where she had spent her childhood, the conservatory bench, and the small bedroom with its cracked window.
She felt sadness, but not the obligation Blanche expected.
“Then Father must make arrangements,” she said.
“He cannot continue borrowing against a future he has already spent.”
Blanche stepped closer.
“You would let us lose our home?”
“I would not let anyone sell my freedom to keep it,” Selena replied.
Blanche recoiled.
For a moment she looked less like the confident woman who had issued the dare and more like a frightened daughter whose plans had failed.
“I thought you would be grateful when William noticed you,
” she said.
“You wanted him to humiliate me.”
Blanche looked down.
“I know.”
“Then do not ask me to pretend you were helping.”
Blanche turned toward the stairs without another word.
Selena returned to her table, where the unfinished coats waited.
She sat down and picked up her needle, but it took several minutes before her hands stopped shaking.
