Charlotte closed the door behind her and approached Delphine. “How are you?” she asked.
“My whole life is over!” Delphine exclaimed as she tossed up her hands. “What was I thinking when I married Mr. Simpkin?”
“It was a logical choice on your part,” Charlotte said.
Delphine shook her head. “That doesn’t make any sense,” she asserted. “I didn’t want to marry anyone at this stage in my life.”
“That is true, but by marrying Mr. Simpkin, you are now one of the largest landowners in all of England.”
“I care little about that,” she declared.
Charlotte sat down on the settee and patted the seat next to her. “Come sit,” she encouraged.
Delphine begrudgingly walked over to the settee and sat down.
“To begin with you should stop calling your husband ‘Mr. Simpkin.’ His given name is George,” Charlotte said. “He is a good man and has always treated you with kindness.”
“Kindness, yes, but he never once attempted to court me, which makes this all the more confusing,” Delphine admitted.
Charlotte’s eyes held compassion. “Let’s start at the beginning,” she suggested. “What is the last thing you remember?”
Bringing a hand to her forehead, Delphine said, “I was in the drawing room with you and we were discussing the upcoming Season. But I have no recollection of marrying Mr. Simpkin or how I ended up in the woodlands.”
“George,” Charlotte corrected.
She shook her head. “No, he is not George to me. I do not know him well enough to call him by his given name.”
“You have known him most of your life,” Charlotte pointed out. “He may be many years older than you, but you have always been neighbors.”
Delphine jumped up from her seat. “Yes, and not once did my father tell me that I was to marry him.”
“Your father wanted to wait until you reached your majority before he informed you of his intentions.”
“But, why?” Delphine asked as she started pacing.
Charlotte shrugged. “I cannot speak on that, but you did decide it was in your best interest to marry Mr. Simpkin. By doing so, you had the protection of his name and you didn’t have to endure the marriage mart.”
“But I am a countess. I didn’t need the protection ofhisname,” Delphine insisted. Why couldn’t she remember any of this? As she tried to force herself to recall these memories, all she was met with was darkness.
Her friend moved to the edge of her seat. “It will be all right,” Charlotte assured her.
“How can you be so calm about this?” Delphine asked, her voice coming out much louder than she had intended. “My life is over.”
“Aren’t you being a tad bit dramatic?” Charlotte asked.
Delphine stopped and turned to face her friend. “I eloped to Gretna Green and I don’t remember any of it. I think I have earned the right to be dramatic.”
Charlotte tipped her head. “Good point, but what is done is done,” she said. “And Mr. Simpkin is here to take you home.”
“Home?” she repeated. “Where is home? Are we to reside at his country estate or mine?”
“Does it matter?”
Delphine blinked, bewildered by how calm her friend appeared while her entire world seemed to be crumbling around her. “Of course it matters! I don’t want to leave my home to live with…” Her words came to an abrupt stop. “Have we been… intimate?”
“I cannot say,” Charlotte replied.
“How would I know?” Delphine asked. “I don’t feel any different so that must mean I’m still an innocent.”
