A Christmas Scandal by Jane Goodger Page B

face.
    “It was quite apparent you were not going to cry until I was perfectly awful.” Her mother gave her another tight hug. “You do know that nothing I said was true. Don’t you?”
    “I suppose.”
    “I am not convinced. Truly, I’m shocked that I was able to spout such venom.”
    “No more than I,” Maggie said, still reeling from her mother’s words and not completely convinced she hadn’t meant a great deal of it.
    “Oh, darling, forgive me. Please? It worked. You look positively dreadful. What do you say we head back to the common sitting room and make our announcement before your face recovers? I do wish you could manage a few more tears in front of everyone.”
    “A lady does not show emotion in public,” Maggie ground out, trying, and failing, to completely forgive her mother.
    “Yes, but it would add a ring of authenticity, don’t you think?”
    Maggie followed behind her mother thinking that she was stepping a bit too lightly for a woman who’d just heard the terrible news that her daughter had been jilted. One more lie and then all the lies would be over. She wouldn’t think about the poor man she would someday dupe into marrying her. She didn’t want to think about her wedding night, the fear she knew she’d feel that her unsuspecting husband would somehow discover her secret. Virginity, unless lost to one’s fiancé in a moment of passion, was expected…and demanded. She’d read that some members of the royalty had to prove their virginity before marrying. She had no idea how one went about such proof. That was a nightmare she could do without, thank you very much. For now, she wouldn’t think about the fact she was a soiled dove. She wouldn’t think about how she was duping her best friend, the man she loved, and her future husband, whoever that might be.
    She would only think about strangling her overly joyful mother.
     
    Edward watched Maggie enter the room and immediately knew something was wrong. Clearly, she’d been crying, and he curbed the urge to go to her. A quick look to her mother showed that she’d been crying as well. He wasn’t the only one who noticed.
    “What has happened?” Her Grace said, rising awkwardly from her place by the fire.
    “The most terrible news,” Mrs. Pierce said loudly. “Terrible. Horrible news.”
    “Oh, dear, has someone died?” Elizabeth said, grasping the older woman’s hands.
    “Worse,” Mrs. Pierce said, and Edward could have sworn Maggie was trying not to smile. How odd.
    “Mr. Wright has broken it off,” Mrs. Pierce announced, then promptly collapsed into a nearby chair. For some reason, Mrs. Pierce had taken the news far more badly than Miss Pierce—at least that was how it appeared at the moment. Then again, it was obvious Miss Pierce had been crying; the evidence of those tears was quite apparent. Her skin was blotchy, her eyes red-rimmed and slightly swollen, and he could actually see some tell-tale tearstains on her bodice. She’d been crying and by the looks of it, quite a lot.
    “No, he couldn’t have,” Elizabeth said, immediately going to her friend. “In a letter? That scoundrel.”
    “That’s awful,” Amelia said, standing up as if she were ready for fisticuffs with the gentleman. “How dare he? I’ll tell you, it’s a lucky thing he lives across the ocean. Right, Edward?”
    Edward, who’d been studying Maggie’s face, and wondering why she appeared more irritated than heartbroken, realized abruptly that his sister was talking to him. “Right what?”
    “It’s a good thing Mr. Wright lives across the ocean.”
    “I hardly think it is your brother’s concern,” Mrs. Pierce said, and for some reason, Edward found that statement rather distressing, for it meant he had no claim on the Pierces, no right to protect Maggie’s honor. He was merely an acquaintance, someone certainly not expected to call someone out.
    “But surely someone must take him to task,” Amelia insisted.
    “Mr. Pierce will