Aunt Roz nodded. “They both agreed on that. She wasn’t the type to take her own life. Nor did they get the impression that she planned to do anything drastic.”
I shot her a look. “She must have had some form of plan, then. If she couldn’t, for whatever reason, marry the baby’s father.”
“Or she simply planned to brazen it out,” Aunt Roz said. “The problem, of course, is that it’s difficult to know who to believe.”
“Of the two of them, do you mean?” I leaned towards the mirror to fluff my hair. “Do you think one of them lied?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they both did,” Aunt Roz said. “Olivia seems sweet on young Reggie Fish, and determined to hide it from Lady Violet. She believes that he wasn’t responsible for Miss Fletcher’s predicament, but that could be untrue. She might not be willing to believe it of him, or she might know better, but refuse to admit it. And if he was responsible, that would give both of them a reason to want Miss Fletcher gone.”
“Unless he wanted her and the baby,” I said, “and then it would be Olivia who had the motive.”
Aunt Roz nodded. “Or perhaps young Mr. Fish wasn’t responsible, but he was in love with Miss Fletcher, and when she couldn’t—or wouldn’t—marry whoever the baby’s father was, Mr. Fish offered to step up instead.”
That was something Christopher might have suggested doing for me, had I gotten myself in the family way by some cad who wouldn’t marry me. Not because he’s in love with me, of course, but because we’re best friends, and the next thing to siblings, and he won’t ever be able to marry someone he loves anyway, so the situation would benefit him, too. He’d end up with an heir he wasn’t likely to get any other way, and a wife who would be happy to let him live his life the way he wanted.
Reggie hadn’t struck me as being queer, or for that matter in love with Cecily, but I knew better than to discount any possible explanation.
“What about Violet?” I inquired.
“I don’t trust Lady Violet,” Aunt Roz said. “Olivia at least seemed sincere in her appreciation for young Reggie. Violet seems to me more of a dark horse.”
“She spent the evening with Geoffrey Marsden,” I said as I sat down on the bed next to her and folded my hands in my lap, “and he’s about as dark as they come. Although he’s a catch, of course. Wealthy and titled and handsome.”
Aunt Roz nodded. “Awful reputation, though.”
Indubitably. “And when Cecily said that she couldn’t marry the baby’s father—if indeed she said it, and it wasn’t just something Olivia made up—she could have referred to that. If I had—” I shuddered, “ugh, what an awful thought, but if I had got myself in the family way by Geoffrey Marsden, I wouldn’t feel like I could marry him, either. Shackling myself to someone like that would be the utmost in stupidity. It would amount to a lifetime of watching my husband poking other women.”
Aunt Roz nodded. “So if it was between marriage to Geoffrey Marsden and a dose of pennyroyal, you might choose the latter.”
“I…” I hesitated. It wasn’t a choice I ever wanted to be in a position to have to make, frankly. “If the dose of pennyroyal was to fix the problem of the pregnancy, then perhaps. I wouldn’t choose to take enough of it to kill myself.”
Marrying Christopher as well as raising the baby on my own would both be preferable solutions. I could brazen out an illegitimate baby. Besides, I could always marry Geoffrey and then divorce him again if I didn’t like what he was doing. Being a divorced woman with a child—especially when your husband is a known bastard—is marginally better than being an unmarriedwoman with one. At least it shows that someone was willing to marry you.
“But you don’t think she did that,” Aunt Roz said, yanking the conversation back on course.
I shook my head. “I don’t think she set out to kill herself on purpose, no. When I saw her last night, she didn’t seem suicidal. Miserably sick, yes, but not resigned, like it was something she had done to herself. And I can’t imagine why, if she wanted to get rid of the baby, she would have chosen someone else’s home and engagement party to do it.”
Aunt Roz pursed her lips. “You’re absolutely certain that this isn’t Crispin’s doing?”
“He said it wasn’t,” I said. “He could have been lying, of course. Although I don’t see why it would make much of a difference to him whether he marries Laetitia or Cecily. Neither of them is who he wants.”
“No,” Aunt Roz agreed. “But it would explain why she might decide to do it here this weekend. The event of the season. The home of the woman he chose instead of her.”
I supposed it might. And although it pained me to admit, I added, reluctantly, “It would also explain why he looked so shaken when he came out of her room last night. If she had told him about the pregnancy, and then informed him that she had taken steps to deal with it and that it was too late for him to do anything to stop it, of course he would be upset.”
But Aunt Roz shook her head. “He wouldn’t have left her alone if that were the case, Pippa. He isn’t the type to shirk responsibility in that way. If he were responsible, he would have insisted on staying with her until it was over.”
“Laetitia might have been waiting for him,” I said, “and he didn’t want to make waves.”
“No,” Aunt Roz said firmly. “Stop playing devil’s advocate, Pippa. Cecily may have told him what she was going to do, andordered him out, but if he went, it was because the baby wasn’t his. If it had been, he would have stayed. And at the very least, he would have phoned for the doctor.”
Fine. “Geoffrey, then. If she did it herself, and there was a reason to do it here, it had to be because of Geoffrey.”
Aunt Roz tilted her head consideringly. “Did she speak to Geoffrey yesterday?”
“They danced once, I think. Although I can’t imagine a pregnancy being something that she’d announce in the middle of the ballroom. And he spent the rest of the evening with Violet. In the garden, according to Nellie. Cecily received visitors in her room.”
“Visitors, plural?”
