by Brianna York
Rob chuckled. “The wheels of law do move slowly,” he said, his voice flat. To think that the process of marriage and the nine months of waiting for the birth of a child might be more efficient than the legal processes of England was frankly a bit appalling.
“It is not a profession for the impatient,” Swinton said with a small smile.
“Very well,” Rob said with a sigh. “I shall release you to attend to other matters. I appreciate your efforts in this matter. Here is the agreed upon fee.” Swinton sketched a small, tidy bow to Rob then took the pound notes offered him and made himself scarce.
Rob sat for a while before the dead fire in the grate, his thoughts wandering aimlessly. He had so counted upon being able to part with the property in Kent. It was correctly situated to turn a nice profit for a new owner, being rich with untapped resources and situated convenient to trade routes that connected with the rest of the island easily. To now find out that the property could not even be developed as a means to generate income unless he was married and had a daughter was a terrible blow. His heart felt heavy in his chest, but he knew he could not hide from the truth any longer. He was going to have to marry. He was going to have to marry very soon.
Chapter Seven
“Rosy dear, you seem very distracted,” Alex said to the young woman sitting across from her in the sitting room. She had been forced to repeat herself more than once since she had arrived a quarter of an hour ago and Rosy still seemed not to be attending to their conversation.
“Oh, I am sorry, Alex,” Rosy said with a gusty sigh. “It has been a very trying morning.”
Alex slanted a look at the younger woman before taking another sip of her tea. “Did you not enjoy your ride with the Viscount?”
Rosy’s cheeks turned pink and she looked into her teacup. “Perhaps a bit too much. I fear I was indecorous.” She looked up with wide eyes then. “Oh, but you must not tell my mother. She will never let me out of the house again if she hears from someone that she trusts as much as yourself that I have been indecent.”
“How indecorous were you?” Alex asked in some surprise. She knew that Rosy was given to fits of improper behavior but they were usually fairly harmless gaffs and not worthy of much concern.
Rosy’s cheeks were positively flaming now. “Very,” she said succinctly. “Even worse, Rob witnessed my improper behavior and called me some very unpleasant names. I fear that he and I had quite a row about it before he rode away.” She looked miserable now and she set down her tea so that she might rub at her temples.
Alex took a moment to contemplate how best to handle this situation. “I shall not lecture you,” she said finally. “I had come here with the intention to warn you about the Viscount, but I see now that you already know why I was concerned.”
Rosy sighed and closed her eyes. “He is terribly distracting.”
Alex chuckled at that. “Some men are very good at being ‘distracting’ as you have put it. I imagine that you have survived this morning’s moment of poor judgement since it sounds as if Rob was the only witness. You know that he will not run about telling everyone what he saw.”
“I am sure he will not,” Rosy agreed, her lips pressed into a pout. “Although shouting at me on Rotten Row and calling me despicable names is not at all helpful either.”
“I cannot condone Rob’s behavior as he was clearly in the wrong as well,” Alex agreed, filing away contemplation on this turn of events for a bit later. It was extremely out of character for Rob to do anything at all in a fit of temper. She could only imagine that something very untoward had happened to drive him to such a reaction. “I should like to remind you,” Alex went on, “that unfair as it may be, we women are judged by society mostly by how we conduct ourselves when we are in public. I shall stand as witness to the fact that it only takes a single improper moment to change the course of a woman’s life forever.”
Rosy nodded, thinking about how Alex and her husband, Baron Tyndale had been forced to marry due to being caught in a moment of passion at a ball. Thankfully they had already been in love with one another and their relationship had survived the stress of being forced to marry within days of being discovered in each other’s arms in a public place. Rosy hated to think about what might have happened today if someone other than Rob had witnessed her kiss with the Viscount.
He is a rake and you are a fool. Rob’s words rang in her memory and she cringed at the truth in them. Her anger at Rob for not being in love with her need not drive her to behave improperly and force herself to make a mistake that would forever link her in marriage to a man she could not love. She would not deny that the Viscount was exciting but she would rather not be forced to marry him by accident. She would not be happy with a marriage brought about by an error in judgement.
“Sometimes I think that it would be much easier to be a spinster,” Rosy complained, reaching for a tea cake from the tray between herself and Alex. She picked at the edges of the cake thoughtfully. “I do wonder if I would be happier in that state than I would be as a married woman. It seems you lose so many of your freedoms when you are married. Men are such bothersome, bossy creatures.”
Alex laughed aloud. “Well you do have the accurate measure of how men sometimes can behave,” she replied between little chuckles of laughter. “I will point out that being an old spinster would not serve your needs in the long run since you cannot inherit your father’s properties and would eventually be replaced by whichever male heir was next in the family line. You would not like to have to hope that whomever inherits after your father would consider you when they took over the property.”
Rosy frowned at that. As far as she knew, the nearest male relative to her father was a distant cousin who was currently making a fortune in the Americas. She had never met the man herself and was not sure at all how he would feel about her coming along with the property when he finally did inherit. She knew that money was not all there was to happiness in life, but she surely could not live without it. As a woman of noble birth, she would find herself in the position of begging her friends and other family to allow her a place in their lives and homes if she did not get herself into some form of marriage before her father died. She would not be allowed to seek work as anything other than a governess, and schooling had never been her favorite part of her formative years. She doubted that she would much enjoy teaching children to read and do their sums.
“I just wish that I did not have to choose between hoping to meet the right man and hoping that the men I have met are the right men,” she said with a bit of sadness.
Alex cocked her head to the side. “That was a very elegant summation of the plight of women,” Alex commented, taking a sip of her tea. “It is not always easy to find one’s way to the right union as a woman. We are given so few chances to really meet people and to know what we would require to be truly happy.”
“You were allowed not to be pressured into marriage at a young age,” Rosy replied. “I wish that I would be allowed the time to find my own way first.”
“I was in the unique position of having my own property and annual pension granted to me by my father,” Alex answered her. “It afforded me some time to be patient. I would like to remind you though, that Matthew and I would welcome you into either of our households if you should not find yourself a husband to share your life with. We would not wish you to make a choice that could not make you happy simply because your hand was forced.”
Rosy smiled at her friend. “I do so appreciate your offer and I will keep it in mind.” She sighed again and set down her teacake. She had not been very hungry of late. She felt pulled in so many directions by the expectations of her parents combined with the state of her thoughts regarding Rob and the Viscount. She sometimes wished that she had never met either man and had never come of marrying age. Things had been simple when she was still considered too young to be of much notice and had been allowed to ride her pony and daydream each day.
“Well,” Alex said the
n, rising to her feet, “I shall be off. I have another call to pay this morning. Thank you for the tea.”
Rosy nodded and rose to her feet as well. She took Alex’s hand and squeezed it warmly. “Thank you for being my friend,” she said to the older woman.
Alex’s bright blue eyes glowed with affection for the younger woman. “You are most welcome,” she said. “You have a kind heart, Rosy. Please do not let others trespass on its goodness. I would like you to have every happiness in your life.”
Rosy smiled at Alex, warmed by the other woman’s sincerity. “I will try my best to make the right choices. Everything seems so cloudy to me right now, but I imagine that it will all become clear soon.”
After Alex had left the room, Rosy sat back down on the settee. She thought about the morning and could not decide how to feel about all the things that had taken place. She thought about the thrilling, heady kiss with the Viscount, followed by Rob’s terrible accusations and their heated exchange and now the balm of Alex’s affection for her. She felt as though the world was moving very quickly the past few days, and she was struggling to keep up with it.
She no longer knew how she felt about her relationship to Rob, despite knowing painfully well how she felt about the man himself. They had always been amiable friends over the years, but he had been older than her and she had been a child who admired a distant idol. When she came of age to be out in society she had hoped that he would no longer see her as a child and would notice that she had grown into an adult who was ready to be taken more seriously. She remembered their common love of novels and of chess and how he had always been willing to sit with her on the side of the room at a ball if she was feeling overwhelmed or shy. She realized now that those times of closeness were in the past. He apparently was no longer willing to share this part of their bond with her if she was old enough to be married. And yet, he was apparently also not willing to allow her to be courted by other men. Why would he be possessive of her if he did not want to have anything to do with her anymore? Why take it upon himself to lecture her about propriety when he seemed not to even want to give her the time of day any longer?
“Rubbish,” she muttered to herself, rising to her feet and leaving the sitting room. She climbed the stairs to her bedroom and rang for her abigail. She hoped that a hot bath would help her to feel more herself.
“A bath, My Lady?” Hester asked when she arrived in response to the bell.
“Please,” Rosy said. “I wish to have a bit of peace for the first time today.” She rubbed at her temples where a headache had been gathering since her fight with Rob.
“Of course. I shall be back in a trice with hot water,” Hester said before leaving the room.
Rosy flopped onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling. Her head ached and her heart swam with emotions. She thought about her mother’s upcoming ball and groaned aloud. She really did not want to be paraded about in front of society any longer and she had to admit that even the Viscount’s interest held little appeal at the moment. She willed herself to think of happier things. It would not do for her to worry herself into a lather over things she could not control. She leaned over to the bedside table and picked up a gothic novel that she had left there. If she could not resolve her own sorrows over love, she could at least be distracted by reading about the woeful struggles of fictional characters for a while. While she could not see in the future to know what might happen to her, at least she knew for sure that the woman in the novel would achieve a happy ending.
Chapter Eight
“I think that my hand is going to fall off,” Rosy complained quietly to her mother. She had stood in the receiving line for what felt like an eternity now, greeting female guests with a squeeze of the fingers and offering her hand delicately to the men.
“Isn’t it a wonderful crush?” the Duchess cooed, glancing over her shoulder at the mass of humanity that was gathered in their home.
Rosy, who had not entirely shed her dislike of balls despite finally being old enough to dance at them, cringed a bit at the noise of many voices raised in conversation. A crush was the pinnacle of achievement for a hostess. To have reached this level of attendance to a ball at the tail end of the Season was a rare feat indeed. While Rosy felt some pride that the station of her family and their reputation as amiable and excellent hosts had made her mother’s gathering so desirable, she also secretly wished she could be reading a book before the fire instead.
“Oh, hello Rosy dear!”
The voice was Alex’s and Rosy swung toward her eagerly. “Hello to you as well!” she greeted the other woman, clasping her hands affectionately.
“Good evening,” Matthew said from just behind his sister, sketching her a little bow before capturing her hand and pressing a brief kiss to the back of it. He winked at her saucily and she giggled. “You are certainly in looks tonight,” he praised her honestly, taking in Rosy’s high color and the new aura of confidence that surrounded her.
“You are just saying that to be nice,” Rosy protested, blushing a bit at the praise.
“Oh, indeed he is not,” Tess Hargreve said as she joined her husband before Rosy. She leaned in to press a kiss to first one and then the other of Rosy’s cheeks, her green eyes warm and fond. “You do look lovely tonight, my dear.”
“I am glad that I look acceptable,” she replied, fanning her face with her hands for a moment. “It is ever so hot in here and I am beginning to feel a bit frazzled from saying hello so many times.”
“Please do save us some dances,” Alex’s husband Forrest said, his quiet voice still somehow carrying in the noisy foyer. “None of us has spent much time with you lately and we have all missed you.”
Rosy grinned. Forrest truly hated to dance, so she knew that it was a compliment that he would even suggest such a thing. “I shall remember to do so,” she replied, throwing them a last wave before returning to her duties of greeting other guests. A small part of her mind worried over whether or not Rob would show up. He had been sent an invite, but she was not sure that he would ever wish to see her again after their row in the park. She ordered herself to ignore the feeling of sadness that washed over her at the thought of Rob staying away from her forever. It would not do at all to moon about over something that could not be changed now.
“Such a serious face! Shall I remind you that balls are happy events?” Viscount Longford’s word preceded him as he reached her in the receiving line.
Rosy felt the blush creeping into her cheeks and willed herself to remain in control of the situation. “Perhaps I should be a bit more carefree if my arm was not in danger of falling off from so much exertion,” she retorted, flexing her fingers a few times, then pretending that the arm had become paralyzed by her side. “You see? It shall never be the same again!”
Longford laughed aloud at this and Rosy felt the pleasure of having caused that reaction all the way to her toes. He leaned forward to collect her hand and brought it to his lips. He pressed a kiss into it that was chaste and proper, but his fingers busied themselves with naughty and suggestive motions on the palm of her hand. Rosy felt her pulse quicken dangerously as the delicious pressure of the Viscount’s fingers made her knees feel weak.
“Would that we were in different company,” he whispered to her. “I am sure I could bring that arm back to its former state of good health in no time at all.”
Rosy took a beat to steady herself, then said breathlessly, “Oh I have no doubts that you could do that and so much more, My Lord.” She knew it was daring but she never seemed to be able to stop her unruly tongue from saying what it should not when the Viscount was around.
Longford chuckled again at this reply. “You know me so well already, my Lady.”
“You are monopolizing the poor thing again, cousin dear!” Cecily Beaumont pushed up alongside her cousin and leaned in to give Rosy a small peck on the cheek. “You must allow others to have some of her time once in a while as well!”
Longford glanced at the
beautiful young woman by his side and then tossed a knowing smile at Rosy. “I see I have been routed by the familiarity of female companionship. I shall dance with you later, my Lady Rosalind,” he said and sketched her a very courtly and unnecessary bow. Both girls tittered at his bit of playacting before he made himself scarce.
“Rosalind, the line is quite short now,” Cecily said in a loud whisper. “Shall we sneak off a bit and have a quick chat?”
Rosy glanced at her mother who was engaged in a brief discussion with one of her friends who had just arrived. Mentally shrugging, she allowed the other girl to drag her toward the stairs.
“Have you remembered to speak with your father about the introduction to Lord Coulthurst?” Cecily whispered once they were a bit removed from the receiving line.
Rosy tried not to be annoyed. Certainly it was no fault of Cecily’s that Rob not only did not want to marry her, but he also no longer wanted to even see or speak to her. His words in the park rang again in her thoughts, You are a fool. It made her want to clap her hands over her ears and run upstairs to her bed where she could feel hurt and sad in peace.
“Whatever is the matter?” Cecily was asking. “You have the most fearful scowl on your face.”
Rosy shook herself a bit and focused on Cecily. “I am sorry, Cecily,” she said contritely. “I was woolgathering for a moment.”
Cecily regarded her skeptically. “You must have been gathering some very unpleasant wool given the look on your face.”
Rosy thought this description very apt for her recent encounter with Rob but did not say so. “Indeed. Perhaps I was. And in answer to your question, yes, I have mentioned to him that you would appreciate an introduction. He will be happy to accommodate. That is, if Lord Coulthurst chooses to attend.”