Lady of Milkweed Manor Read Online Free PDF

he not recognize her after all? She felt relieved yet mildly hurt at the thought. Was she so changed in the years since they had last seen each other? He had changed but was clearly the man she had once known. His hair was a bit thinner at his forehead, the rust-brown stubble on his cheeks more noticeable, the shoulders broader, but his face was still as angular as ever. What had changed most were his eyes. Gone was that teasing spark she remembered so fondly, and all warmth with it, or so it seemed.
     
    “Age … twenty?”
    She found her voice. “Yes,” she whispered.
    “And this is your first pregnancy?”
    She cringed with shame at the baldness of his words. “Yes.”
    “When was your last monthly flow?”
    Never had a man broached such a topic with her! Never had a woman, for that matter. Such things were not spoken of. She was too stunned to speak.
    At her obvious hesitancy, he rose to his feet, but his eyes seemed trained beyond her. “Look here, I heard your little conversation with Mrs. Moorling. If you’d rather wait and see Dr. Preston, that is perfectly all right by me. I shall tell Mrs. Moorling myself.”
    “No!” The urgency with which she spoke surprised them both, and he silently sat back down. Embarrassed by her outburst as well as the whole mortifying situation, Charlotte sat staring at her hands, yet felt the man’s silent scrutiny.
    She took a deep breath and whispered, “The second of January.”
    She heard the scratching of his quill.
    “And Smith. That is your … married … name?”
    She swallowed, completely humiliated. This man who, she believed, had once admired her was now-if he recognized her at all thanking the Lord above that her father had so thoroughly discouraged him. And she couldn’t blame him. “I am … not married.”
    Dr. Taylor hesitated, eyes on the paper, then put down his pen. He looked up at her, his professional facade gone, his expression earnest.
    “Good heavens, Charlotte, what on earth are you doing here?”
    Charlotte sighed. “I should think that painfully obvious.”
    He winced. “Forgive me. I only meant this is not a place for you, a girl with your family, your connections.”
     
    She opened her mouth, but the words “I no longer have either” wouldn’t form over the hot coal lodged in her chest and the tears pooling in her eyes. She bit her lip to try to gain control over herself. She would not seek pity.
    “As bad as all that, then?”
    She bit her lip again but only nodded.
    “I am very sorry to hear it. I suppose your father, being a clergyman, took it very hard.”
    Again, she nodded.
    “Still, there’s not a one of us who hasn’t made some foul error or other. All like sheep astray and all that.”
    She could only look at him, speechless.
    “I’ve had a taste of your father’s rejection, if you remember. I mean no disrespect, but I cannot say I’d wish that on anyone, much less you.”
    She managed a slight smile through her tears.
    “I don’t wish to insult you, but I assume that every attempt has been made to garner some arrangement, some responsibility or recompense?”
    “Please. There is nothing to be done, and even if there were, I should not like to pursue it.”
    “Still, there are legal actions in such cases, if the man-“
    She shook her head.
    “You claim no injury, then?”
    She closed her eyes against the shame her answer brought with it. “I cannot.”
    “Still, though you be a party to it, there remain courses of action to secure your support.”
    “Please. I do not wish to speak of it further. You can be assured that my father and my uncle, a solicitor himself, have discussed these matters with me thoroughly. Exhaustively.”
    “I am sorry.”
    “Everyone has urged, even begged me to reveal the man so they might work on him.”
     
    “You have not told them who the man is?”
    She shook her head.
    “Why on earth not?”
    “Because it will do me and my child absolutely no good … and it will harm