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“Sending a telegram to John and Leanna out at Rosemoral,” Geraldine answered, meaning her grandniece
and her recently-acquired husband. “Ask John where upper class girls go when they find
themselves with child.”
“With child?” Emma asked in confusion. John was an obstetrician, and before his marriage to Leanna
and subsequent move to her family’s country estate, he had planned to start a maternity clinic for the
poorest women in London. He would surely know every confinement home within the city, but Emma
wasn’t sure where Geraldine was headed with this line of inquiry.
“Yes, darling, and don’t look so surprised,” Geraldine said, popping a final piece of cherry tart into
her mouth before leaving the table. “Poor girls are not the only ones who sometimes find themselves
in a spot of trouble. We may be running down a blind alley, but somehow I doubt it. If LaRusse has
seduced a series of girls, the odds are that at least one of them might have found herself carrying a
child she could not claim. These unfortunates must go somewhere for their confinement and John
will know where.”
“Geraldine, you never fail to surprise me.”
“Thank you, darling. That’s one of the nicest things you’ve ever said to me.”
****
Emma sent her telegram, then walked a few blocks further for her midday shopping, picking up all of
Gage’s needs for dinner. She had just arrived home and was unpacking her purchases in the kitchen
when the doorbell rang. To her surprise, it was a telegram delivery boy, already bearing Leanna’s
swift response to her inquiry.
Darling, the telegram began, in the effusive manner so common to women of the Bainbridge family.
It sounds as if you have gotten yourself ensnared in another of Trevor’s wonderful mysteries. And a
romantic one involving starving artists and illegitimate children and abandoned castles. Tom is
beside himself with envy, and it is all we can do to contain him from returning to London at once.
John says an upper class girl in the family way will likely find herself at the Kirkland School in
Chelsea. Good luck, and I expect to hear all the exciting details when everyone comes for New
Year’s. Ever yours, Leanna
Emma sighed. Only someone as wealthy as Leanna would compose such a wordy and breathless sort
of telegram, which made it sound as if the two girls were gossiping over tea rather than trying to
convey information in a businesslike fashion. The mention of New Year’s, when the entire party was
expected to journey to Rosemoral for a ball, only served to remind Emma how few days were left
before the holiday week arrived. Despite everyone’s predictions to the contrary, she knew there was
a good chance Trevor and Rayley would not be back for Christmas brunch, and the thought hit her
with a pang. Furthermore, if she and Geraldine didn’t scramble, there was even a chance that the men
would still be at Hever Castle over New Year’s and thus unable to join them on the planned journey
to Rosemoral.
That would never do. Emma glanced at the clock. Nearly three, and there was truly no telling when
Geraldine would return from her gossipy pilgrimage through the streets of Mayfair. Kirkland School,