Chapter Two
His sudden arrival left me devastated. We had sat with Hastings for over an hour, and he had gone on with the tireless and uninteresting story of how his roots had made their fortune. He said something about them being of Dutch and British heritage and that his family's shipping firm was one of the most influential in the Netherlands. I had been on the border of slumber the whole time he spoke, but the four ladies listened intently, my sister the most interested. Janet Haley von Briggson laughed at all Hastings Bonnet's yarns and gags, and commented and questioned when she got the chance to speak.
"Good God sees the truth! Why is this, Edmund?" I groaned anxiously, pacing back and forth atop the Persian carpet in the house library.
This dismayed me to a degree, and I had called upon a hopeless and disconcerting Edmund to follow me to library. I was painstakingly polite to ask if the two of us could be excused for several moments. I asked to be excused from a conversation in my own house!
He pressed his hand to his chin, as though pondering, "I wonder why your younger sister has taken such a quick liking to this man, Hastings Bonnet. I love her, but she doesn't care for me."
"Edmund Randolph Waldgrave, to hell with you! Instead of contemplating my inquiry, you are off somewhere considering lost love. It has become quite a nuisance to me lately!"
"I apologize, dear friend! But may I ask, how do you expect me to answer a question that cannot be answered?"
I asked of him another, again paining him with tedious thoughts as I inflated myself at his expense.
"Love you, love you not? What have you done to my sister to make her dislike you so greatly?"
Edmund gave me a hard stare, as he stood gallantly before me. He then changed the subject of our discourse.
"Samuel, how is it that you are in acquaintance with this mysterious Mister Bonnet?"
"I attended school with that ridiculous lout! He would vulgarly eye the female teachers at Cranbrook; Hastings would have these young working women, and then cast them out! He would complain, accusing these ladies of rape, and they would be ostracized by all school society. Bonnet was also a great fraud. He, like his good for nothing father before him, is a liar and a cheat! The young man made hundreds using people in any way that suit him!"
Edmund froze, with his mouth agape. "God! As you tell me, he seems to be an abomination! We must keep him from our women, lest he rob them of their purity. Aye, such a terrible thought that is to consider!"
A knocking came at the locked door. And the female voice belonging to who was called Carmen said, "Mister von Briggson, Mister Waldgrave, the young man sitting with Miss von Briggson asked where you two had disappeared to, and he wishes you to return soon."
"Blimey, we must return Samuel, or your favorite guest will grow more impatient."
"Quiet Waldgrave, you are my good colleague, but now and again I feel you deserve a good licking!"
"Once again, I offer up my most sincere apologies. I ask you please to spare bodily harm for I wish to stay handsome enough to find the right bride."
"Never mind that then. Come on, I mustn't be rude to my guests, and I am missing Caroline."
When we returned to the others seated on the porch, Edmund and I received a warm welcome and we seated ourselves where we had sat prior, I next to Caroline, who reattached herself to me in an instant, and Edmund to the spot he had been sitting with Janet. Now he sat alone. Poor fool, I pity him greatly.
