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Sissy tried to keep her face impassive when she heard that feminine voice. She turned to look at its owner and mentally groaned when she saw the perfectly coiffed young woman standing beside her. She truly was beautiful. Side by side they couldn’t have been more opposite, and that glaringly obvious difference hurt Sissy more than anything.
I must salvage what I can of my pride while I find a way to get them both to leave me alone.
‘I have to go,’ she offered with a faint smile before whirling around and scurrying down the street. It was only when she had reached the kerb that she realised she lived in the opposite direction, but to turn around meant she had to pass the occupants of both carriages.
And Morgan with that beautiful young woman.
She instinctively threw them a quick look and caught sight of the woman’s proprietary hand on Morgan’s arm and the look of adoration on her gaze as she looked up at him. Morgan didn’t seem to mind her possessive behaviour. He was looking down at her and murmuring something that made the young woman smile. That only added to the growing ache in the middle of Sissy’s heart. Determinedly shaking off the emotions that clouded her thoughts, Sissy promptly turned her back and left the area.
When Morgan looked up, he found that Sissy had vanished.
‘Come on, let’s get you back to your carriage. I think it is time for you to go home,’ he said to the woman beside him. When Felicity opened her mouth to object, Morgan began to walk back to the carriage, but his thoughts remained on Sissy.
‘Here, take this, dear,’ Mrs Ambleton, the haberdashery shop owner’s wife offered Sissy when she stumbled past the shop.
Sissy looked at the cloak Mrs Ambleton held out to her.
Mrs Ambleton smiled. ‘It will be a bit warmer than that jacket.’
Sissy accepted it off her with a watery smile of thanks. Draping it over her shoulders, she shivered and sniffed miserably and tried to decide what to do.
‘Someone needs to do something about that insufferable oaf. He just sat there grinning like it was funny. Did you see that? It makes you wonder what the world is coming to,’ Mrs Ambleton muttered in disgust.
Mr Ambleton scowled and shook his head at Morgan, who was driving past on his Barouche, before ushering both his wife and Sissy into the shop.
‘You come on into the back and get yourself warm. You cannot go out in the rain. It’s getting worse. Come and have a cup of tea while you wait for it to pass,’ Mrs Ambleton urged.
‘No, thank you,’ Sissy whispered shakily. She carefully avoided the curious looks of the shop’s customers as she hovered just inside the door. ‘I need to get home.’
‘They are leaving now. Lord Campton didn’t look all that happy,’ Mr Ambleton murmured as he peered out of the window to watch the carriages turn around at the end of the street and retrace their route. ‘It looks like they are going back to his estate.’
‘So they should. They should all be ashamed of themselves for what they have just done,’ Mrs Ambleton growled. ‘Coming into the village to show off and mock the villagers. It’s a damned disgrace. His father wouldn’t have allowed him to do such a thing, I can tell you. Why, he would be rolling in his grave if he witnessed this morning’s antics,’ Mrs Ambleton continued.
‘It just goes to show you that money doesn’t come with good breeding. People with wealth are often the most spiteful and arrogant of everyone,’ one of the customer’s declared.
While listening to a chorus of agreements from the shop’s customers, Sissy watched Morgan turn out of the road. She had just witnessed the gentlemanly way Morgan had helped the beautiful young woman into the carriage before carefully closing the door.
But his friend wasn’t that careful driving past me.
Sighing miserably, Sissy felt another wave of tears threaten to overwhelm her. She knew that the longer she stood in the shop the more likely it was that she would embarrass herself. Her tears couldn’t be contained for much longer. With a shaky smile of thanks, she removed the cloak and hurried out of the shop before either Mr or Mrs Ambleton could delay her.
Aware of the startled looks of the villagers on the main street, Sissy dodged down a side alley and took a different route home. While she could avoid the curious gazes of the villagers there was little that she could do about avoiding the stark warning she had received this morning.
‘My world and Morgan’s don’t belong together.’ Sissy had known that all along, but days like today made her feel less than worthy of, well, anything. She felt useless, dowdy, second rate. All sorts of words tumbled through her thoughts, each one as condemnatory as the last.
‘My dear, what on earth is wrong?’ Norma cried when Sissy stumbled through the door looking as bedraggled as she was devastated.
Sissy opened her mouth to tell her but words just couldn’t be spoken. They hovered in her throat and threatened to choke the life out of her. When she realised that her aunt had guests, Sissy glared at each of the startled women, dropped her basket, and ran up the stairs without uttering a word to any of them.
In her bed chamber she slammed the door closed and locked it before resting her shoulders against the cold, hard wood. Her wet slippers slid out from beneath her and she slowly lowered to the floor. Tucking her legs up, Sissy rested her chin on her knees and stared blankly at the room before her.
‘It hurts too much,’ she whispered miserably before collapsing into a wealth of misery that left her crying for hours and her aunt seriously concerned about her.
CHAPTER SIX
Morgan hauled his Barouche to a stop in front of the house. Despite being told to stay away, Arthur had parked his curricle directly outside Morgan’s house. He was busy showing off to the group of men, guests from last night, who had gathered on the doorstep to wait for their respective carriages to be brought around from the stable block. Each man was as wealthy as the next. Equally titled, all with good connections.
They are all arrogant, and dismissive of women like Sissy, and consequently no friends of mine.
