Cedric turned slowly, forcing his expression and his tone to be gentle when everything inside him teetered towards violence. ‘Cora, what happened?’
She frowned. ‘A storm blew the roof right off. Didn’t you get my letters?’
He nodded. He had one, in fact, in his pocket. ‘I’m referring to the baby.’
Her cheeks pinked and her gaze slid away. ‘You’re uncomfortably observant, brother.’
He swallowed, doing his best to keep calm. ‘Were you forced?’
Her eyes widened as her gaze jumped to his. ‘What? No!’
He exhaled slowly. One fear dissolved. But there were so many more concerns pushing forwards. ‘Who was it? And where is he?’
‘So you can call him out? So you can—’
‘Cora,’ he interrupted. ‘I’m trying to help. And I’m sorry I wasn’t here earlier.’
She sighed as she looked back at him. ‘This is not your fault.’
No. It was his father’s fault for impoverishing the estate, for continuing to disregard his own daughters, for not being here to protect his own children. And yet, guilt still ate Cedric.
‘Who, Cora?’ he demanded.
‘Eric Wells,’ she said.
He frowned. Did he know that name? He certainly hadn’t gone to school with the man. Nor was he a local, as far as he could remember.
‘He’s the engineer I wrote to you about. The one I hired to look at the canal.’
Cedric thought back to the letter. ‘I thought Lilianna was interested in him.’
His sister shrugged. ‘Lilianna is interested in every eligible bachelor. But he liked me best.’
‘And so you… You and he…’ He couldn’t even say the words.
‘We’re engaged,’ she said, her expression lifting.
‘And where is he?’ Why wasn’t there a ring on his sister’s finger?
She sighed. ‘He’s in Yorkshire—’
‘Yorkshire!’
‘He got work there.’ She sighed. ‘He’s fixing a canal up there, and when he’s done, we’ll have enough money to marry.’
‘It doesn’t take money to marry!’ he snapped back.
She held up her hands to stop him. ‘He doesn’t know.’
‘What?’
‘He left before I realised. We were planning on marrying as soon as he got back, as soon as he was paid. We didn’t know…’ She dropped her hand onto her belly. ‘It’s not something I want to put in a letter.’
Cedric swallowed, panic clutching his throat. ‘How far along are you?’ He guessed maybe four or five months. But what did he know about pregnancies?
‘Six months. You’ll be an uncle this summer.’
The panic exploded in his brain, making his knees go weak. Good God, three months to get her a dowry. Three months to find this engineer and force him back here. Three months to fix the roof and get them a decent place to live.