"I'm sure it has been impossible for her to forgive that man", the friendly man had said about the man who had jilted Edith at the altar.
Bertie ignored the old man's remark. It wasn't a question after all. Instead he wondered what he had told this man about Edith.
He was certain that he had told him too much about Edith, much more than he ought to. Had he told him that Marigold was Edith's daughter? He thought he remembered doing that. He shouldn't have done it.
But he had explained to him why he had left Edith, and that was part of the explanation after all.
Bertie felt ashamed of himself. It wasn't his secret to tell. Edith had been right in not trusting him, it seemed.
"Well, of course she couldn't forgive him", Sir Anthony said with a sigh when Bertie didn't say anything about it. "Who could ever be able to forgive a humiliation like that?"
"You don't know her", Bertie said. "She forgave him the very next morning. That's the kind of woman she is. She is strong and courageous and beautiful and forgiving and... There is no one like her and I can't live without her. I could have had her and I threw her away...I regretted it while I was doing it... but that didn't stop me..."
To Sir Anthony's dismay Bertie started crying again.
"I'm horrible", he sobbed. "I can never forgive myself..."
...
Bertie did nothing but sob for a minute or two, then he pulled himself together again.
"She got over that man", he said. "She got over that editor who died in Germany too, which was probably harder because of the little girl. Just like she is probably getting over me now."
Bertie sighed.
Editor in Germany? Anthony wondered. What was this?
"I'm sure she is taking the breakup much better than I am. Getting on with her life. While I sit here sobbing, drunk as a fiddler, crying like a baby. Making a fool of myself, in front of some one I hardly know. No offence, you are very nice and friendly, but I really shouldn't behave like this."
"It's quite alright", Anthony said. "If it makes you feel better."
"Well", Bertie said. "I'm afraid it doesn't. Which is not your fault at all."
...
Anthony couldn't stop thinking about what Bertie had said about his abandoned girlfriend.
An Earl's daughter? Jilted at the altar? It couldn't be... could it? But who else could it be? Men leaving women at the altar wasn't very common, Anthony knew. Thankfully not, he had to admit. And the way Lord Hexham described her ... strong and courageous and beautiful... Edith was all those things...
Anthony decided that he had to find out. He hoped Lord Hexham's girl was some one else than Edith but he started to doubt it.
"Do you know anything more about the man who jilted your girl?" he asked.
Bertie, who had stopped crying again, looked at Anthony in consternation. Why was the man so interested in that? It had happened many years ago, it wasn't important any longer. Edith had got over it, at least she had told him so.
But the man was so friendly that he decided to oblige him. This was nothing Edith was ashamed of, after all.
"Well, she probably told me his name, but I have forgotten it", Bertie started.
Well, Anthony thought, that explains why he didn't say anything when he was introduced to me.
"He was wounded in the war", Bertie added. "She thought he was a hero. There was something wrong with one of his legs if I remember it correctly. He was quite a bit older than her also, I think. She loved him, she admired him, he mistreated her and she forgave him. She told me she had been too pushy, the man had told her over and over again that he didn't want to marry her. But she had insisted."
"Oh!" Anthony said. This was beginning to sound far too familiar. Even if his arm had become a leg.
"Well, I don't really believe that", Bertie said. "She has never been pushy with me - I am the one to be pushy. It doesn't sound like her at all."
"Perhaps she has changed", Anthony said.
"Yes, that's what she told me. That she decided never to run after a man again. That she should remain a spinster."
That was so obviously the opposite of what Anthony had wanted for her when he left her. He couldn't help sighing as he picked up his glass.
...
Anthony was getting more and more certain that some strange fate had brought Edith's new man to him. The young chap with his life ahead of him that Anthony had prayed for her to get.
A young Marquess - that was even better than he would have expected. But this young man was also a little bit undignified, crying like this to a total stranger. Would a man like that be able to stand up for Edith, if he needed to?
And he had left her, which wasn't good at all. This was not what Anthony had wished for her. If the girl Bertie was talking about was indeed Edith.
"Why did you leave her then", Anthony asked. "If you love her so much?"
"She wanted to bring her, you see", Bertie sighed. "The little girl. The family's ward."
"And you wouldn't let her?" Anthony asked.
"Of course I let her!" Bertie said with indignation. "I will...I would let her do anything she wants."
"So, what is the problem then?" Anthony asked, feeling quite a bit confused. "Why did you leave her?"
"Because I am an utter fool", Bertie said. "That is the long and the short of it. But she must think it was because I look down on her for having a child out of wedlock..."
...
A child out of wedlock?! Anthony almost choked on his whiskey.
This couldn't be Edith after all. Or could it? Had the humiliation he put her through made her so reckless?
AN: Thank you for reading! And thank you so much for all the lovely reviews to last chapter! Please continue to leave comments!
...
I made Bertie drunk in this story because I'm sure he wouldn't be so open about Edith to a total stranger if he had been sober. He has sobered up a bit in this chapter, but not enough to keep his mouth shut, I'm afraid.
...
I'm off to London to see my daughter who lives there. No updates to any of my stories for at least a week.