Parks shook his head. "I hope so too. But I don't think he will ever be able to forget killing his own wife."
Elizabeth gasped and fled from the doorway and down the hall. The front and back doors were full of guests milling about, the ballroom and dining room the same.
She fled up the back stairs to her room, almost blind with unshed tears.
The enormity of what she had heard was almost too much to bear. Will had been married before? And never thought to mention it?
Well, it was evident why not, if what Parks had just said was true. What sort of monster had she been tricked in to marrying?
Oh God, it was like Jane all over again. She had fallen prey to some foul fortune-hunting seducer. This would kill Thomas, she was sure of it. Unless….
Unless of course she could get away and ensure that the marriage was never consummated. She shook with terror, wringing her hands in despair.
Think, she had to think. Rationally. She had to get her emotions under control.
If she could get to Dublin, wait for her family there, they could go back to Somerset before anything worse befell her. They had money, power, connections. An annulment, or divorce would be easy for them to secure given the circumstances. Then she need never lay eyes on that foul swine Will Joyce again.
She dashed into her room, but too late realized that she had broken the lock on the door a couple of days before and neglected to have it repaired.
Oh Lord! She had told him she could not wait to be alone with him! She had been about to present him with her wedding gift, a set of fine gold cravat pins. He would be there at any moment.
She grabbed her small jewel box and checked her money, stuffing it into her reticule. Then she looked down.
Her wedding dress! It was so thin and flimsy, as were her slippers, that she paused. She snatched her boots off the floor of the wardrobe, and practically shredded her gown in her haste to change, yanking it over her head before jerking one of her day gowns off the hanger and shrugging into it.
It fastened with two simple ties either side, and she checked herself in the mirror to see that she was decent. In her haste to disrobe her hair tumbled down her back to her waist, so she grabbed a handful of ribbons, stuffed them into bosom of her gown, and opened the door to step out into the hallway and run for her life.
She froze as she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She fled to the open window, pulled the sash higher, and looked down.
The guests who had been congregating there had gone back inside and the door was now shut. The trellis and ivy looked old but sturdy.
As the footsteps came on inexorably, echoing omniously down the corridor, Elizabeth made her decision.
She threw her boots down from the window and then swung her long leg over the sill. She got her stockinged foot on one of the rungs of the trellis, and was just about to swing her other leg out and climb down to flee for her life when the door opened.
The groom's warm smile of love became a gape of surprise and horror.
"Good Lord! Elizabeth, for Heaven's sake! What are you doing?"
She tried not to panic. "I can't stay here. This has all been a huge mistake."
Will had heard of women who got the vapors before their wedding night, but never like this. He moved toward the window rapidly, ready to grab her hand.
She shrunk back, and the trellis gave an ominous creak.
"Please, Elizabeth, come inside so we can talk this over."
"There's nothing to talk over! I've made a mistake. You're a fiend!"
He shook his head. "No fiend, my dear, but the man who loves you. You're under some misapprehension, I'm sure. I know you must be frightened of me after everything your sister went through, but I'm certainly not a monster toward women. I love you. This can all be cleared up if you just tell me what has got you so upset-"
While he had been speaking to her in a reassuring tone, he had been moving closer and closer to her.
She could see his ploy now, and panicked. "Stay away from me!" she hissed. "Don't touch me!"
She leaned further out, and the trellis cracked again.
Will stepped back and stood in the center of the room with his hands raised, terrified at the danger she was placing herself in. "I'm not going to touch you, I promise. But surely you can see what you're doing is far too risky. I love you, want you to be safe and protected.
"Please, Elizabeth come back inside and we can talk about whatever it is that's happened between us. Whatever you think you now know about me that has made you try to flee our home, our marriage bed."
"Talk? As if that is going to make things better," she wept. "It's too late."
"No, darling. It's never too late if two people love each other. I can understand you being frightened. If it's that, it's a problem easily solved. I promise you that I won't ask you to do ever do anything against your will."