by Emma Fraser
She shook her head. ‘This is something I have to do on my own.’
Chapter 10
Margaret’s heart was pounding as Robert pulled out a chair for her. It had been the wrong decision to agree to dinner. She should have suggested a walk or that they go somewhere else more private.
‘So, did you miss me, darling?’ Robert said, as the waiter laid a napkin across his lap. ‘I’m sorry I was away longer than I said I would be, but matters were more complicated to sort out than either my father or I thought.’
Margaret took a deep breath. ‘I —’
Robert glanced across the room and towards the couple who had just entered. ‘Look, darling, it’s Cynthia and Percy. We haven’t seen them for ages. Do you mind if I ask them to join us? I know my timing isn’t very good, but we’ll have all the time in the world to talk, after all.’
‘Robert —’ She reached across the table for his hand but it was too late. He’d already beckoned the couple over.
Dinner seemed to go forever. At any other time she might have enjoyed Cynthia and Percy’s company – indeed she had enjoyed it in the past – but now, their anecdotes of hunting and trips to the country, the ostentatious talk of their wealth along with the way they treated the waiter made her cringe.
She managed to make a show of eating, while fielding questions about her work, until the restaurant was almost empty and Cynthia and Percy rose to their feet.
‘Have to be off. Oh, sorry, never asked, when’s the wedding?’
‘Robert and I were just about to discuss that when you two appeared,’ Margaret said, forcing a smile. ‘We’ll let you know.’
Then with final kisses and let’s catch up soon, they were gone.
‘Did you mean that, old thing? Were we going to fix a date over dinner? I’m sorry, I didn’t think. I wouldn’t have asked them over if I’d known.’ He gave her a smile that once made her feel warm inside but now only made her want to cry.
‘I can’t marry you, Robert,’ she blurted. She’d meant to lead gently into this conversation but there was no time. They were the last people left in the restaurant and the waiters were already setting up for the next day.
His brow furrowed. ‘What do you mean you can’t marry me?’
‘I’ve met someone else.’
He leaned back in his chair. ‘That’s impossible. I’ve only been gone a few weeks. Unless, for God’s sake, Margaret, don’t tell me you’ve been carrying on behind my back.’
‘I only met him since you’ve been gone.’
He covered her hand with his. ‘It’s because you were lonely. It’s my fault. I’ll make it up to you.’
She tugged her hand away. ‘I wasn’t lonely. I love him.’
A look of disbelief crossed Robert’s face. ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Margaret. Besides, it’s too late to back out now.’
‘I know I should never have agreed to become engaged when I wasn’t sure of my feelings for you,’ she hurried on. ‘But I’m sure now. I do care for you, Robert, but not the way a woman should for the man she intends to marry. You are a dear friend and I hope you will stay one.’
‘A friend! Do you have any idea how far this has gone? Your father has loaned mine a considerable amount of money to pay off some of my father’s debts – the rest to be paid off when we marry. Your father only loaned the money to mine because he understood that we were getting married and that the Locksley estates will eventually belong to our children. That’s what I was doing in London. Meeting with lawyers and making sure everything went the way our fathers intended.’
A chill swept across her skin. ‘Was that the business you were discussing with my father? Before you left for London?’
‘What if it was? Margaret, we were – are – engaged. It was only natural your father wished to discuss finances with me.’
‘And what did my father get in return?’ she asked bitterly.
‘A promise that my father would do what he could to secure him a baronetcy. Now don’t you see why you can’t back out?’
The chill was replaced by a hot wave of anger. ‘So all I’ve been is a bartering tool. I marry you, your father’s debts are cleared, and my father gets a baronetcy. Robert – how could you!’
‘Why do you think I agreed to marry you,’ he spat, taking her aback with his vehemence. ‘You can’t imagine there was another reason. Your father may be extremely wealthy but he’s still a tradesman at heart and you a tradesman’s daughter.’
‘Robert, please!’ His pride was wounded – that’s why he was saying these things. ‘I know I’ve hurt you, but…’ She swallowed. ‘Didn’t you ever love me?’
‘That’s exactly what I mean about you being a tradesman’s daughter. People like me don’t expect to marry for love. We marry because it is advantageous to both parties. People in my class understand that. It is our responsibility. Our duty.’
‘Oh, Robert,’ she said sadly. ‘I thought I loved you when I agreed to marry you. How could you have contemplated spending the rest of your life with me when you didn’t love me?’
‘Because, you little idiot, there would have been compensations. Business wasn’t the only thing that kept me in London. I have a mistress there. If we had married I would have kept her from you, but I would never have given her up.’
Margaret folded her shaking hands in her lap. That Robert might have a mistress had never occurred to her. How could he? Yet, she wasn’t much better. She had a lover too. At least she had the decency to do the right thing. ‘Do you love her?’ she asked quietly.
‘Why do you keep going on about that? Love has nothing to do with it. Your own father has kept a mistress these last years. You can’t be so naïve that you didn’t know!’
Margaret stumbled to her feet. The waiter appeared behind her with her stole. She huddled into it, trying to stop the shaking that had taken over her whole body. ‘I’d rather live on bread and water than be wealthy and live how you describe.’
‘You only say that because you don’t know what it is like not to have money. I hope for your sake your new lover has enough to keep you in the style you are accustomed to, otherwise God help him.’
She slid the large diamond ring from her finger and held out her hand, pleased to note it was steady. ‘Goodbye, Robert. I’m sorry things have ended this way. I hope my father doesn’t expect the money he loaned your father returned, as I hope your father will keep his side of the bargain. Then we can all be happy without making monstrous lies of our lives.’
Chapter 11
Knowing she had to tell her father next, she went to the house on Great Western Terrace the following evening. To her relief her mother was there, having made one of her rare excursions to Glasgow. Her father hadn’t yet returned from work.
‘Are you staying for supper?’ her mother asked when they were seated in the drawing room.
‘I can’t. I have to get back to the hospital in time for evening rounds.’ She doubted if she could eat a thing anyway.
Her mother plucked at the neckline of her dress. ‘I understand from your father that you may have news for us. He insisted I come to Glasgow to hear it.’
Margaret ran her tongue over her dry lips. ‘Mother, I…’
Just then there was the sound of a door slamming and her father’s voice rang through the house. Margaret leaped to her feet.
She waited until her father came into the drawing room. He’d always been a handsome man, but tonight he looked almost haggard. Her heart gave a painful thump.
‘Margaret! To what do we owe this unexpected pleasure?’ he said, his expression lightening. He poured himself a large whisky from the side table. ‘Would you like a sherry?’
‘No. Thank you. I would like some water, however.’
He filled a glass and handed it to her. ‘How is work? Are you ready to give it up yet?’
‘No, Father. There is something I have to tell you…’
‘And what is that? I gather Robert is back. Have you come to let us kno
w you have set a date for the wedding?’ He sat down, crossed his legs and studied her. ‘I must say, I’m delighted. The sooner we get him involved with the firm, the better.’
So that explained his welcome. ‘I have broken it off with Robert. We shan’t be getting married after all.’
Only the ticking of the clock disturbed the deathly silence that followed her announcement.
‘You can’t be serious!’ her father said eventually.
‘I am, Father, perfectly.’
‘Have you completely lost your mind? Everyone is expecting you to marry this summer. Robert’s father and I —’
‘I know about your arrangement, Father. Robert told me.’
‘Your feelings are hurt – is that it?’
‘I dislike the notion of being used, Father, yes. But that’s not the reason I broke it off.’ She took a deep breath. ‘The thing is, I’ve met someone else.’
Her father narrowed his eyes. ‘Who? Who the hell have you met? Someone we know?’
Margaret took a sip of water in an attempt to moisten her dry mouth. It was ridiculous to be so nervous. But the truth was, she finally admitted to herself, although he rarely raised his voice her father frightened her.
‘Yes. In a way.’
‘Who then? Out with it, girl.’
‘He’s working as a solicitor’s apprentice at the moment.’ She named the firm. ‘He’s only there part time but he expects to qualify soon and is seeking a permanent post.’
‘Only part time? What kind of man only works part time?’
She forced herself to look him directly in the eye. ‘It’s Alasdair Morrison. He’s night foreman in one of your yards.’
Her father stared at her as if he couldn’t quite believe his ears. ‘You are courting Alasdair Morrison! Then you are truly out of your mind.’
‘Oh, Margaret,’ her mother whispered. ‘What have you done?’
‘Just how long has this been going on?’ her father barked.
‘A few weeks.’
‘A few weeks! You’ve been sneaking around behind our backs for weeks —’
‘I should have told you before, I know that, but I had to tell Robert first. I knew you wouldn’t approve.’
‘And you were right. I would have put a stop to it immediately.’
‘But you couldn’t have put a stop to it,’ Margaret said quietly.
Her father banged his glass down on the table. ‘I thought I’d made it clear what was expected of you.’
Margaret looked over at her mother who refused to meet her eyes.
‘Alasdair is only working in the shipyard until he qualifies. You should be glad that he’s a man who isn’t scared of hard work.’
‘He’s still a navvy! My daughter carrying on with one of my workers – you’ll make us the laughing stock of Glasgow! And Alasdair Morrison of all people! That man has been a thorn in my side for years. I should have fired him years ago.’ He swung back to his wife and glared at her. ‘I told you, Elspeth, something like this was bound to happen when you persuaded me to let her go to medical school. I knew she would end up mixing with the wrong sort.’
Her mother shrank back in her chair.
‘This has nothing to do with my going to medical school.’ Margaret lifted her chin. ‘Alasdair is a good man, otherwise why would I be seeing him? If you met him properly you’d see for yourself.’
‘There is no possibility of your mother and I ever meeting him socially. But we’ll say no more about it,’ her father said, striding to the door. ‘Tell him you’re unable to see him again. I’m sure Robert will agree to forget all this nonsense.’
Margaret stumbled to her feet. ‘I won’t break it off with Alasdair!’
Her father stopped with his hand on the doorknob. He kept his back to her. ‘Oh, but I think you will, my girl. I think you will.’
‘That’s where you’re wrong. I will never marry a man I don’t love. Look at you and mother. You can hardly bear to be in the same room together.’
Her father whirled around. ‘How dare you speak to me like that!’
She and her father glared at each other. ‘I dare because someone has to stand up to you!’
For a split second she thought her father was going to stride across the room and hit her, such was the fury in his eyes. But then he seemed to get hold of himself and, no longer able to support herself on legs that had turned to jelly, Margaret held on to the back of the chair for support. Was this really the man who must have once loved her mother? Who most certainly loved his sons. Who’d taught Margaret to drive when she was eighteen? Now she wondered if he even liked her. Perhaps he’d wished she’d been the one who’d died instead of Sebastian and Fletcher. The thought chilled her to her very core. ‘What do you have against him, Father?’ she murmured. ‘You don’t even know him. Not really.’
‘I know everything I need to about him. That man will never be permitted to come near you again.’
‘May I remind you, Father,’ Margaret continued, striving to keep her voice level, ‘I am almost twenty-six. You can’t treat me as if I were a child.’
‘So be it. But as long as you continue to defy me you are no longer welcome in my home. As far as I am concerned you are dead to us!’
She glanced over at her mother, but despite the despair she could see in her eyes, she knew she was not going to get any support from that quarter. It would take more effort than her mother had to give.
Margaret looked her father in the eye. ‘I won’t stop seeing him.’
‘In that case,’ her father said, turning back towards the door, ‘you have made your choice. There is nothing more to say. Furthermore, I shall be stopping your allowance. It won’t take long, I imagine, before you discover that life without the comforts you are used to isn’t the life you want to lead.’
‘Then you don’t know me, Father. You don’t know me at all.’
But before she could add anything else there was only an empty space where he had stood.
Chapter 12
Every day after that awful meeting Margaret expected to hear from her parents, if not her father then at least her mother. But every day she was disappointed. She’d written apologising once again for keeping her relationship with Alasdair from them and imploring them to meet him, but so far, neither of her parents had replied.
She hoped, given time, they would come round.
This evening was the first time she’d been able to see Alasdair since the fall-out with her parents. However, one look at his face and she knew that he had bad news for her too. Her stomach churned as they walked slowly through the park.
Alasdair guided her towards their favourite bench. ‘I’ve been let go from the shipyard,’ he said as soon as they were seated. ‘I assume it’s because you told your parents about me.’
Margaret nodded, feeling sick to the pit of her stomach. ‘They were asking about Robert. I had to tell them I’d broken off my engagement.’
‘You broke it off?’
‘Of course. I said I would.’
‘Was it very bad?’ His eyes glinted. ‘I should have been with you when you told your parents. It would have been the right thing to do.’
‘I meant you to be there, but perhaps it was better you weren’t.’ She shuddered, imagining how much worse the scene if he had been.
‘The solicitors’ office have told me they won’t be keeping me on when I qualify after all – I suspect your father got to them as well.’
She knew immediately Alasdair was right. ‘He says he will stop my allowance. I don’t care about that, but he says he and my mother will have nothing more to do with me unless I give you up.’
Alasdair crouched down in front of her and cupped her face. ‘My poor darling. I never wanted this. I know you care for me, Margaret, but do you care enough? Are you prepared to be with a man who, right now, has no way to support himself? Perhaps your parents are right? Perhaps we should part?’
‘You don’t believe that, do you?’ she aske
d quietly. ‘If being with you means my parents won’t have anything to do with me, then so be it. I don’t want a life that doesn’t have you in it. I’d rather not know where the next meal is coming from than give you up.’
‘You don’t know what it’s like to be poor and I’ll not be the man to show you.’
‘I have a job. I’m able to support myself.’
‘I want to be the one to support you.’
‘You’ll find something else. I know you will.’ She hesitated. ‘The workers would strike if you asked them to.’
