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He can't marry her. He can't possibly divorce Evangeline, certainly not
if she's having another child. The scandal would be appalling.

The best thing Victoria can do is forget him."

"Try telling her that if she's truly in love with him. I saw them
dancing and even flirting once or twice, but I never imagined it would
go this far. I should have seen all this. I don't know what I was
thinking. No wonder she's out all the time." He was wringing his hands
and blaming himself for all of it, and by the time John Watson left,
Edward Henderson was thoroughly agitated. It was a nightmare.

The two men had agreed finally that Watson would go and speak to Toby
Whitticomb, and Edward would stay out of it completely. It seemed far
more discreet this way, and Watson was afraid Edward's heart would give
out if he went to confront Toby.

In fact, John went straight from the Henderson home to Toby Whitticomb's
office, where Toby seldom went anyway, but by sheer chance, he happened
to be in that morning. Victoria had had a dentist's appointment, and he
was hoping to meet her afterwards, once she got Ad of her sister.

But the story John heard from him was even more dismaying than what
they'd gathered so far. He was quite gentlemanly, if you could call it
that, and assured John that he wouldn't see the girl again now that the
affair had come to light. It was all in good fun, he said. He said she
was quite wild, and that it was she who said she was accustomed to
pursuing married men. There had never, ever, been any promises made, no
hope of a future certainly, since he and Evangeline were quite happy,
within reason, despite what one may have heard, and of course John knew,
he assumed, that Evangeline was expecting again.

And there had never been any mention of anything so scandalous as his
leaving her.

That was quite obviously out of the question. It was simply a matter of
a young girl run wild, and he had been, according to him, her victim. He
said she had literally seduced him. And he looked rather startled as he
said it.

John Watson didn't believe a word of it, and he was sure now that the
whole story he'd heard previously was true. Victoria had in fact had an
affair with him, and he was equally sure that she had been the victim
and not Toby. More than likely, he had made outrageous promises to her,
lied to her, did God knows what else to her, and seduced her.

She was young and naive and he was very glamorous, in his own disgusting
way. It was all quite obvious to John, though sickening certainly, and
the big question now was what to do with her future.

He was back at the Henderson house at noon and told Edward as much as he
dared to. He softened most of it, but the final word was that she had
been involved with Whitticomb, and Whitticomb in turn was more than
happy to end it. He certainly didn't want any trouble. But what they
could do for Victoria now, socially, remained a serious problem.

If nothing was done at all, and Toby talked, she was ruined, no one
decent would ever go near her.

Edward thanked John once more when he left the house again, and he
looked gray by the time Victoria and Olivia returned from the dentist.

It had been an incredibly painful morning for him, and he was filled
with despair as he stood in the doorway of the library and spoke to his
daughters.

"We're going home in the morning, Olivia, " he boomed with a terrifying
look, as he glared at both of them. He couldn't help wondering if Olivia
had known and concealed her sister's dark secret, and blamed her
silently for the deception. "Please pack and close the house at once.

Do what you can today, and whatever you don't finish, we'll leave
and some of the others to finish after we've left." He looked so stern
that Olivia almost trembled.

"We're leaving now? So soon? But I thought .. . you said .

.." She looked totally stunned by his announcement.

"I said we're leaving, " he shouted at her, which was very rare for him,
but he was overwhelmed by the events of the morning. And then he turned
to Victoria, and without a single word, beckoned her to him.

She felt her legs dissolve under her as she looked at him, and then
glanced at her sister. It was obvious to both of them that something
terrible had happened.

"Is something wrong? " Olivia asked softly, and for a long moment, he
didn't answer. He just stood there silently, waiting for Victoria to
join him. And as soon as she walked into the library, he closed the door
resoundingly behind her. Olivia stood in the hall, staring at it, with
her hat still on, wondering what was going on, and suddenly afraid that
he had found out that Victoria was sneaking out of the house to meet
Toby. But she couldn't imagine who had told him. And Victoria had been
foolish certainly, but she wasn't a criminal, though that was how he had
looked at her. She had never seen her father so angry.

Olivia hurried into the kitchen then to tell Bertie what had happened,
or what she knew of it, and that they were leaving in the morning.

She was just as surprised as they were, and within moments, the two
women were bustling everywhere, taking out boxes and suitcases and
issuing orders and directions. It was going to be impossible to do
everything, but her father had been quite clear. They were leaving in
the morning, and she was to do what she could now. The rest would be
done by servants.

As the two women worked frantically, with their aprons on, Victoria was
sobbing in the library as her father watched her.

/ "You've ruined yourself, Victoria. That's the beginning and the end of
it. You have absolutely no future. None. There isn't a decent man alive
who would have you." Just saying the words to her sickened him, and
listening to her sob made his heart ache. He didn't even want to know
what had happened between them, yet he couldn't bear to believe that she
had been callous or cheap about it. The man must have promised her the
moon in order to take advantage of her.

She was sobbing miserably, but she looked up at him then bleakly.

"I've never wanted to be married anyway, " she said, as though that made
a difference now. It was one thing to stupidly say you would never
marry, it was another to be a pariah, and know that no one would have
you.

"Is that why you did this? Because you didn't care? Did you want to ruin
your future .. . perhaps even your sister's future? And our family
reputation? " All she could do was shake her head and cry in answer.

"Did he promise you anything? Did he promise to marry you, Victoria?

" She wouldn't look at her father, her eyes just stared at her lap as
she wrung her hands and cried, and nodded. "How could he? What was he
thinking of? The man is a complete rotter. I never should have brought
him into this house. It's all my fault." Her father then told her that
Toby had begun making remarks about her, had told men in his club that
he was sleeping with her. He had behaved like a complete cad, and had
told John Watson that it was entirely her fault, that she had seduced
him.

He was almost in tears as he spoke to her, and then finally she told
him, as much as she dared, as much as she could now.

"He told me he'd never been in love with anyone but me, that he'd never
felt this way about anyone.. .." She sobbed miserably, but her father
did not approach her. "He said they were getting divorced, that it was a
loveless marriage, and he was going to leave her, and marry me.

" So the girl who hadn't wanted to marry had wanted to after all. For
all her brave, new ideas, she was a complete child, and a romantic.

"And you believed him? " He looked horrified, and she nodded.

"What were you doing alone with him in the first place? " That appalled
him too and made him realize that he had to monitor them both much more
closely, though Olivia certainly never went anywhere, or did anything
she wasn't supposed to.

"I thought we'd just meet for the afternoon. I never intended .

.

. I never thought .. . I wouldn't have .. . oh Father .. .

" It was a hideous wail, not so much even for the grief she had caused
him, but for the horror of realizing that Toby had betrayed her. He had
told John Watson that it was nothing more than a casual affair, and that
she had seduced him .. . not that he had told her he loved her more than
life itself and promised to marry her. She could hardly believe how
incredibly stupid she had been, and how totally he had betrayed her.

He was every bit as bad as people said he was, and worse. He had lied to
her from beginning to end, and she had believed him.

With a look of total despair, her father asked her one final question.

"I don't suppose you'll tell me the truth about this, but I'm going to
ask you anyway. Did your sister know about this, Victoria? Has she been
aware of what you were doing? " Victoria was almost unable to speak by
then, but she shook her head and looked him squarely in the eye. "No,
she didn't, " she whispered.

"She saw us dance at the Astors', at their ball, and we had a terrible
argument. She said everything I should have known myself .. .

but I didn't believe her. I never told her what was happening. I think
she knew I had seen him once or twice, but not .. . not the rest ..

." She was so ashamed now that he knew, she could barely face him.

And soon the entire town would know, if Toby made a laughingstock of
her. She was glad suddenly that they were going back to Croton. She
never wanted to see New York again, or any of the people in it. The
story they were going to tell was that one of the twins had fallen ill,
and they had had to return to Croton at once. It was in fact going to
become a very long bout of influenza. In fact, like his daughter, Edward
had absolutely no desire whatsoever to return to New York now.

Nothing good ever happened to them there. His wife had died there, the
girls' first presentation to society had been little more than a circus
act for them, and this second go-around had led to complete disaster.

Edward Henderson doubted very much that he would ever bring them down
again from Croton. But as he looked at Victoria, he / knew that for her,
despite what she said, it was not yet over.

And he knew he had to address her on the subject.

"I forbid you to ever see him again, Victoria, is that clear?

The man doesn't care about you. He denied you, he ridiculed you, he
betrayed you.

If he had told John that you were the love of his life and he didn't
know what to do now, it would have been a different story. I don't think
it would have ended any differently, but you could have gone to your
grave fifty years from now, hopefully, knowing that the man truly loved
you.

You could have clung to that in your darkest hours. You have nothing to
cling to now except your own disgrace, the shreds of the reputation
you've destroyed that can never be repaired again, and the fact that you
were used by a complete cad who thought nothing of you. I want you to
remember that. Perhaps there will be some way to redeem you one day. I
want to think about that. But in the meantime, have no illusions about
this man. And remember, " he boomed at her and she trembled as she
listened, "I forbid you to see him. Do you understand me? "

"Yes, sir." She nodded and blew her nose again, trying to stifle fresh
sobs, but she just couldn't. He had said it all far too clearly.

And there was no hiding from it now. It was a total nightmare.

"Now go to your room and stay there until we leave in the morning." She
slipped out of the library as quickly as she could, and ran straight
upstairs, grateful that there was no one in the hallway.