Page 41 of An Accidental Elopement

Speaking to others had always come easy to him but asking probing questions of his tenants to try to determine whether they might be willing to raise his bastard child as their own did not fit into the category of easy conversation. He was bone weary from constantly weighing every word. So far, he did not believe that any of his tenants suspected that he was asking on his own behalf, but he could not be certain.

Hopefully, he would never have to reveal the child’s true heritage. Lavinia was darker than he and if the child had her colors, chances were that no one would suspect that he was the father. It would be easier for the child that way.

Archie donned the boot and placed both feet on the floor but was not ready to leave the boot room. He needed just a moment more to himself before he might encounter Cecilia or someone from his family. Because Lavinia had certainly not made matters easier for him.

He had gone to see her after visiting the three tenant families. He had been a bit put off by the whole idea of giving the child to a family since it exposed them to the risk of being caught. He had therefore suggested that perhaps, if he gave Lavinia a dowry, she would be able to find a suitable husband who was willing to overlook the fact that she was carrying another man’s child.

To say that Lavinia had been livid would be to put it mildly.

“I will under no circumstances marry. I am only twenty. Do you know what opportunities lie before me on the stage? Do you have any idea what roles I could be given? The fame I could achieve? I will not have that ruined by marrying some small man that will keep me pregnant for the next fifteen years and prevent me from ever enjoying a fun moment in life again,” she had practically shouted at him.

He had quickly agreed that he would keep looking while fighting the urge to ask her who exactly she had been referring to. Most likely her father, which was the only insight that Archie had ever been given into Lavinia’s background. Before that moment it had not occurred to him why she would not ask her parents for help, but if they had ten or fifteen children themselves, they might not have the funds nor the time or energy to care for another. He was discouraged from even asking her whether they could be an option if he paid them. If they had been, she would have brought them up herself.

What remained was to either give the child to one of the tenant families that he had selected or try to find another family somehow.

The door to the boot room was flung upon and Gregory entered.

“Ah, there you are,” he said as a way of greeting and sat down next to Archie on the bench and started pulling off a boot.

“Were you out riding?” Archie asked, even though it should be evident by Gregory’s riding attire.

“Yes,” Gregory answered cheerfully and avoided the otherwise obvious barb. “This is one of the things I miss most about being a city doctor: To be able to go for a ride in the countryside for a couple of hours. Hyde Park is really not the same.”

Gregory had specialized in lung diseases and was working with a well-renowned elder doctor to try and find a cure for tuberculosis. Archie admired his brother’s passion for medicine. He had always thought that he could probably be a doctor as well if he just applied himself, but he had never felt the urge to do so.

“Yes, well, you know that you are always welcome at the Cottage if you need to escape the city,” Archie told him. He thought he had said it in his usual voice, but Gregory stopped and looked up at him with a frown.

“What is wrong?”

If it was that transparent that something was wrong, then it was a good thing that he had not sought out Cecilia right away. After last night he felt more strongly than ever that he could not tell her about Lavinia. Even though he felt certain he would never want to touch another woman again, their relationship was still too fragile and new. Especially when it had almost been ruined because she feared he would be unfaithful.

“Nothing,” Archie answered.

“Fine,” Gregory murmured in a tone of voice that told Archie that Gregory did not believe him. Gregory focused on his boot instead of Archie so at least there was that. Archie should have left while he was ahead, but just rising from the bench seemed an impossible task at the moment.

“Do you...” Archie began before he had thought it properly through. Once again Gregory stopped his work on his boot and looked up at him. “Do you know anything about... pregnancies?” He did not give his brother a chance to answer but babbled on. “I mean, do you know anything about ending them? I heard that it can completely ruin the woman’s lower body...”

He let his voice trail off and looked helplessly at his brother. Gregory’s grayish blue eyes surveyed him as if Archie was one of his patients and Gregory could find the source of his illness by simply looking at him.

“I assume that we are not talking about Cecilia,” he answered in a professional voice that encouraged trust as well.

Archie shook his head.

“It’s the actress, Lavinia.” Just saying it out loud felt as if the fact solidified and became real. Archie gulped and stared at the brown tiles on the floor.

“How far along is she?” This was clearly Gregory the doctor and not Gregory his brother that he was having a conversation with.

“She believes about four months,” Archie murmured and looked at his hands.

“Well, it’s still early. There is still the possibility that she will miscarry although it grows smaller the further along she is. She is too far along though for the more noninvasive methods to usually work.”

“Non-evasive?” Archie had to ask. Despite his extensive knowledge of women’s lower bodies, this was not a matter that he had ever discussed with someone else. Male or female.

“There are several kinds of herbs that might induce a miscarriage early in the pregnancy.”

Archie had no idea how Gregory knew this and now was not the time to question it.

“But you believe that she is too far along for that?”