Chapter Five

"Rose."

Ruth stood stiffly from the horsehair chair she had been sitting in while waiting for Rose to return home. Rose stopped in the parlor doorway, looking at her mother a little nervously.

"Come here."

Something in Ruth's tone warned Rose not to argue with her. She went inside, sitting in an uncomfortable, straight-backed chair across from her mother, feeling as though she were being interrogated.

"Mother, what is it? What's going on?"

"Rose..." Ruth's expression changed, growing stern and angry. "We need to talk."

"About what?"

Ruth crossed her arms, staring at her daughter. "You know very well what we need to discuss."

Rose's heart leaped. It must be the engagement to Cal that she wanted to discuss. Somehow, her mother must have found out what had happened. Breaking the engagement would be easier than she had thought. Even her mother wouldn't countenance such abuse.

"Oh, Mother—"

"Rose, I saw Cal carrying you out of his room last night," Ruth interrupted. "Your clothes were askew and your hair had fallen down. Don't pretend not to know what I'm talking about."

"I wouldn't dream of it. Mother, I'm so glad you found out—"

"After Cal had taken you to your room, I confronted him. He told me exactly what had happened, about how you had gone to his rooms with the intent of seducing him."

Rose's face paled. "Mother, no. It wasn't that way at all—"

"I saw you follow him upstairs, Rose. Don't lie to me."

"He said that he wanted to show me his rooms."

"That may have been. You will, after all, be living here after the wedding. But you, Rose, took it as an opportunity to dishonor a fine man, seducing him before the wedding so that you might accuse him of improper behavior, thereby making him look disreputable, and yourself unmarriageable. All this with no thought to our situation, or to the future of either of us. Do you want your reputation ruined, perhaps dragging our good name down with you? Because that is what will happen, Rose, if word should get out. I am well aware that you don't want this engagement, but it is a good match with Caledon. It will ensure our survival."

She paused, her eyes boring into Rose's until her daughter flinched and looked away. "Your plan to get out of this engagement by behaving like a hussy has failed miserably. Perhaps you could have found a way to break the engagement before—perhaps through mutual agreement with Cal, or through a whirlwind romance with another man of our class—but there is no chance of that now. A man expects his bride to be pure, and you no longer fit that description. No, you will marry Mr. Hockley, if only to protect your reputation. You're lucky that he's such an honorable man—he won't reveal what happened last night."

"An honorable man! Mother, do you have any idea what really happened last night? I never even thought about seducing him. He—"

"Not another word, Rose. I won't have you impugning the reputation of such a respected man." Ruth looked at her daughter contemptuously. Before Rose could say another word, she swept out of the room, her posture stiff and angry.

Rose started to stand, then fell back in her chair, her shoulders slumping in despair. Her mother knew, but she believed that Rose was responsible for what had happened. Ruth was so blinded by Cal's money and status that she wouldn't believe that he was capable of harming her daughter.

She turned her head at a movement in the doorway, her face paling further as she saw Cal standing there. His looked at her expressionlessly for a moment before slowly smiling, a triumphant look briefly crossing his face.

Rose could only stare back, her heart sinking further as she realized that he had planned the whole thing.