Page 35 of An Accidental Elopement

The news Lavinia had shared with him would shock Cecilia and Archie had no idea how to break it to her. But he knew as much as this was certainly not the time.

“I’m very sorry about Flint’s reason to become engaged to you."

Cecilia stared at him for a moment. Her gaze was so intense as if she was a tailor trying to take his measurements simply by looking at him.

“Yes, well, that was unpleasant,” she repeated without looking at him and Archie had the feeling that he had misunderstood something.

“Will you be alright to go down to dinner?” he asked to plant them on safe ground again.

She nodded and even smiled a little. Archie smiled as well and returned to his own room. No, now was definitely not a good time to tell her.

***

That morning Archie had been shown to a private parlor when he arrived at the inn. It was not unlike the parlor he and Cecilia had shared in another inn further away, but this time he held no friendly feelings towards the woman he was going to be sharing it with.

Lavinia was fun and beautiful with dark brown hair and a figure with a generous bottom and bosom. She was adventurous both in life in general and in the bedroom, which Archie had certainly enjoyed in the months their affair had lasted. Her adventurousness was also what had landed them in the theater manager’s office that fateful night.

Even if he had not married Cecilia, he would not have sought her out again after he returned to London, however. There had been a calculation in her eyes as she had led him through the hallways to the theater manager’s office. A calculation he had chosen to ignore but one that he had later thought was her wanting to show off for the theater manager. Archie would not be surprised if he learned that she shared the theater manager’s bed now.

He paced the floor restlessly as he waited for Lavinia to arrive. He had left without telling Cecilia, which did not sit well with him. It felt as if a small, sharp stone had lodged itself under his ribs. Despite what she had told him last night, he could not help but want to convince her that she should give him a chance again. Give them a chance again.

If he could persuade her to share his bed and that would somehow miraculously bring the fun, caring, and charming woman back that he had met before their wedding day, that might very well prove to be as close to the perfect marriage as he had ever thought he could come.

Archie turned from the window as the door was opened behind him. He had expected Lavinia to be clad in a lavish dress with her hair up and jewelry glinting from both her ears and neck. As it was, her dark brown hair was arranged in a non-descript chignon at her nape, she was wearing a modest gown of deep purple, her decolletage hidden by the high neckline, and she wore no jewelry.

“Finally,” she breathed as she closed the door. “How many times do I have to tell you that I need to speak to you?”

Archie assumed that was a rhetorical question and did not answer it.

“What do you want?” he demanded.

Since she had not gone for niceties then neither would he. She pursed her lips and walked to stand beside him by the window without replying. Her heavy perfume which smelled of some kind of hothouse flower wafted towards him, and he took a step back without thinking. If this was her way to lure him back into her bed, she would not succeed.

“I assume you want more money.” He tried to keep his voice neutral and even.

“No, well, in a way I suppose,” Lavinia told him and turned to face him instead of the window. Archie frowned at her mysterious utterance, but he had no time to question it. “I need your help above anything else.”

She turned fully towards him.

“I’m expecting, Archie,” she said and smoothed her dress over her stomach. There was a slight bump that he knew she would never have tolerated otherwise.

Archie felt himself tumble several steps back and when he felt a chair behind him, he blindly swung it around and sat down. A child. Of course, she was expecting. If it had simply been about money, she could have received it from his man of business.

Truth be told it was only dumb luck that he had not fathered a bastard until now. As a youth, he had not been careful about avoiding pregnancies or diseases but left that entirely to the women he was with. When Gregory had started studying medicine and had told him about the many, many different kinds of venereal diseases one could contract (of course in a detailed and fascinated description by a doctor), Archie had begun to protect himself against those by using a sheaf. But nothing was one hundred percent safe.

“How much money do you need?” he muttered, as he rubbed his eyes.

His parents would be thoroughly disappointed with him if this became public knowledge. And Cecilia! The small sharp stone he had felt behind his ribcage earlier seemed to grow to the point where he had trouble breathing. If she learned about this now, nothing would ever be right between them. She would most likely leave him to set up her own household far away from him.

“I told you, it’s not money I’m after. I need your help. I want to place the child in a good family that will take care of it as if it were their own,” Lavinia said.

This made Archie open his eyes and look at her. The astonishment had to be evident on his face because she said with a defiant voice and arms crossed:

“What? Just because I do not wish to keep the child, I still wish for it to be well taken care of.”

Archie supposed that it was right. Although he was surprised that she had kept the child. Some doctors were willing to help women get rid of an unwanted child for the right amount of money. When he asked her, she scoffed at the question.

“One of the other actresses did that last year. The doctor completely ruined everything down there,” she made a gesture to the area between her legs. “Now she can’t be with a man without going through excruciating pain. I’m not doing that.”