CHAPTER NINETEEN

Evie hated the idea of her father marrying Miss Schlegel. She wanted to somehow express her strong disagreement with her father, and, at one point, even thought about acting as though she and her fiancé had cancelled their wedding. But, in the end, she did just the opposite and had her wedding moved to an earlier month, August, for she wanted to get away from the Schlegel sisters as soon as possible.

Of course, Margaret's presence at the wedding was to be a rather important one. Henry looked forward to her being able to meet 'his kind of people.' However, she knew what 'kind' they were: the uninteresting and cold kind. And Henry's relationship with these people was not particularly strong. At any moment he could suddenly turn against them and no longer consider them 'his kind'.

The wedding was held at Oniton house. Henry had come to dislike the place, because it was so hard to get to and there was so little to do there. He planned to get rid of it as soon as he could. But Margaret had quite a different impression of the place. And she would never forget what she experienced there.

On the weekend of the wedding, Margaret traveled north to a small town, called Shrewsbury, with some of the wedding guests. She took the opportunity to have a look around the town while the others had tea. When she came back from her ride around she was taken from her car and pushed into another with all of the other women. Then they traveled the rest of the way to Oniton house. As the large home came into view the car suddenly stopped and all of the women were asked to get out. They did as they were told, but could not understand what was going on. It was not until they had all been placed into the other car (the men having been asked to get out) that Charles told them the other car had hit a dog.

"Oh, but let me out. I must see if he's okay!" cried Margaret.

But Charles ignored her and kept the car going. After many more requests for him to stop, Margaret finally opened the door and jumped out while the car was still moving. Everyone else in the car screamed and Charles quickly stopped the vehicle and came running to Margaret's side.

"Are you okay?" he asked, worried about what his father would have to say about this.

"What do you think?" she shouted back at him. "You should have stopped when I asked you to!" And then she walked away from him, back to where the dog had been struck. The men sent the servants to stop her, but she ignored them and kept walking. Eventually, the second car came around the corner and she stopped it and asked the men what had happened.

"Just a cat. Don't worry; the little girl will be paid for her loss."

At that moment, Margaret became aware of her dislike of everyone she had been traveling with. They did not seem to be a part of this world. They did not belong, because they only used the people and things around them, instead of living among them.

In the end, both Margaret and Charles explained the event to Henry. Seeing that Margaret, except for a cut to her hand, had not been injured very badly, her husband-to-be let the whole affair go, for there was much more to think about on that day.

Charles, however, could not let it go. He felt that it was the perfect example of just how dangerous Miss Schlegel was to his father's reputation. He knew that there would be many more embarrassments in the future. As he stood outside smoking a cigar, Margaret came out of a nearby door, but did not notice Charles. She walked about the yard and around the house. As she came back, he heard her talking to herself: "I'm so happy to be here, away from London. And I'll be so happy to live in this house!"

He understood this sentence to mean that she meant to grab as much of his father's money as she possibly could. And at the moment, she became an even greater enemy than before.

(end of section)