Page 36 of A Perfect Stranger

G eorge Wickham returned to Mrs. Younge’s boarding house in a fury. He kicked the front door of the house open, stomped in and then kicked it closed.

Mrs. Younge rushed to meet him and then, seeing him in a temper, paused. “George?” she asked, cautiously.

“She has gone!”

“Gone?”

“Yes! Gone! Run off! Flown the coop! Do you understand now, Evelina? Or do I need to continue finding other ways of saying it?”

“How could she be gone?”

“Simply enough – she left Madame DuBois out the back door. I returned to fetch her from work, as I told her I would; upon being told that she had escaped, I ran to Grosvenor Square. And there she was, searching for Matlock House. The idiot girl did not even know where her relatives lived!”

“Her aunt and uncle?”

“Yes, damn it. She found the house, I ran to snatch her away, and almost had her! But the bitch got inside and the butler slammed and locked the door behind her.”

George’s true wife tried to soothe him. “It does not matter, George. As long as we can say that she is married to you, no one can keep her from you for long. Unless – “ And an odd expression crossed her face.

“Yes?”

“Wait a moment.”

It did not take long for Evelina Younge Wickham to discover that her marriage lines, long hidden in her bottom drawer, were missing. White-faced, she returned to George to confess the theft.

“How could Georgiana have known to look there?” George thundered.

One glance at his wife’s face told him that she had more to confess. “Tell me, Evelina,” he said, advancing on her threateningly.

“I told her never to poke her nose into my drawers,” Evelina said, her voice shaking.

“And you did not think that would give her the idea that there was something to find there?” George grabbed her arm hard enough to leave bruises.

“I did not think her that clever” Mrs. Younge protested.

“Well, she is evidently a good deal cleverer than you, Evelina,” was the spiteful response.

Mrs. Younge thought, but did not say, that Georgiana was evidently a good deal cleverer than George Wickham, as well.