Last Chance for the Charming Ladies: A Clean & Sweet Regency Historical Romance Collection

by Fanny Finch

  “Ah, but we cannot all be dukes.”

  “I can assure you, sir, she did not marry him for his title.”

  “I did not mean to imply such a thing, I apologize.”

  “No, I did not take offense, I did not mean it that way. I only wanted to let you know. I know that most marriages especially at such high levels are not done for love.”

  “Indeed they are not. I am glad to hear that your brother’s is based on mutual admiration.”

  “It is, the deepest of admiration. Although they were both quite slow on the uptake. They did not realize the other returned their feelings. But it is all happily sorted out now.

  “Still, I understand that most women marry for security and men marry for beauty or security of their own.”

  “Or out of loneliness, there is such a thing as that for us men as well.”

  Georgiana inclined her head. “That is true.”

  Conversing with Mr. Tomlinson was not so bad as she had feared. He was charming, yes. But he was not so glib with his words as she had expected that he would be.

  He seemed, instead, happy to discuss more serious subjects with her. That had been something she had appreciated in Captain Trentworth as well.

  No, she told herself. Stop it. She must not think of him.

  The dance ended, and she curtsied to Mr. Tomlinson. “Thank you for the dance, sir,” she told him.

  “The pleasure was all mine, Miss Reginald.” He smiled at her, but it was a smile with intent. She had not seen such a smile directed towards her in quite some time. It was the sort of smile that a man gave when he planned on making sure he saw a lady again, and frequently.

  Georgiana quickly set out to find Julia. Perhaps her friend had been right. Perhaps Mr. Tomlinson did intend to court her.

  She did not know how to even begin thinking about that.

  Chapter 10

  Robert entered the ballroom and his gaze was immediately drawn to her.

  Miss Reginald.

  She looked radiant in a lovely frock of pale green. All of the ladies were wearing pastels or else some shade of white. Many of them were also blonde, although none of them had hair as light as Miss Reginald’s.

  There was no reason that his eye should immediately go to her. As though it were being pulled on a string. After all of this time…

  There was no reason for it. And yet. She was the first, and truly the only, lady that he noticed.

  She looked stately. Compared to the other young ladies who fluttered about like butterflies. Not that they weren’t pretty enough. But oh, she was quietly radiant. Like the moon.

  Robert watched her as she spoke with Mr. Tomlinson. He felt a spike of heat inside of him, the angry kind of heat that he knew well: envy.

  There was no reason for him to feel such a thing. He knew that he could not, should not, want Miss Reginald. Not when she no longer wanted him.

  But he could not control his heart. And it seemed that it had remained faithful to her after all this time.

  Let not one more poem or novel speak of the inconsistency of men. His heart had remained true even while it starved from a lack of affection from her, from a lack of words or looks from her or of her.

  But she was as untouchable to him as if she were still across the vast ocean.

  Robert watched as Mr. Tomlinson evidently asked her to dance, for a moment later they were going out to join the other couples as the music changed.

  He realized then that he was standing in the doorway still, like an idiot, and stepped aside. He stood with his back to the wall, watching.

  He knew that he should be making friends. Finding the people that he knew. Socializing. But he could not bring himself to look away.

  Oh, she looked as beautiful as he had remembered. She moved about the dance floor with the same unconscious grace, as if she didn’t even have to think about it.

  She was doing that thing where she smiled politely, that small smile he’d seen her give so many times to so many people. Miss Reginald so rarely smiled good and proper. And only once or twice had he gotten her to laugh.

  It had felt like the greatest victory in the world, getting Miss Reginald to laugh. She was not a woman given over to melancholy. At least, not that he could recall. She might have changed since then.

  It was not that she did not feel amusement. More that it was quietly contained within her. She was a woman who was altogether composed, and it took quite a lot, either good or ill, to rattle that composure.

  Robert found himself hoping, selfishly, that Mr. Tomlinson would not be able to make her laugh.

  “Captain Trentworth!” It was Miss Perry. She was a sweet enough girl and she did look rather pretty in her muslin. She was a bit too flighty for him, generally.

  But she complimented him and seemed to admire him. It was, he could admit, a balm on his bruised soul.

  “I was beginning to fear that you would not come,” Miss Perry went on. “I said as much to Miss Everett, she will back me up on this.”

  Miss Everett was trailing behind. She curtsied when she had finished approaching. “It is true, sir, she has mentioned you.”

  “I am flattered to have been so sought after,” Robert replied.

  He had to admit that he liked Miss Everett quite a bit better than Miss Perry. Of course he would never say such a thing aloud to either lady. It would be terribly unfair of him.

  But both seemed eager for his attention. Although Miss Everett hid it better. It flattered him.

  After the rejection by Miss Reginald and now watching her dance with another man… he could not help but feel the pull towards these younger ladies.

  And they were ladies of good breeding and with lovely faces to gaze upon. Why should he not enjoy their company?

  He only needed to get used to being around Miss Reginald again. Then his traitorous heart would remember why it should not feel for her any longer. He would grow immune.

  As he spent more time with these other ladies—perhaps Miss Perry and Miss Everett, perhaps others—he would grow fonder for them as well.

  It was as it should be, truly. He only had to get practiced at it. Work his way up to it.

  “Nobody has such entertaining stories here as you do,” Miss Perry said. “Your tales of the high seas were the most fantastical thing I’ve ever heard, I must swear to it. You ought to write a novel.”

  “Any sailor could tell you the same stories,” Robert replied with an indulgent tone. “And I daresay they would tell them much better. I am no man of letters. You ought to see my correspondence, it is most dreadful.”

  He had not corresponded much with anyone. Not since Miss Reginald.

  The letters he had written to her then. How he had poured over them, agonizing over what to say. He had rewritten many of them, realizing that some were too passionate. The letters of a man to his wife, which Miss Reginald had not yet been.

  Now never would be.

  Those letters had been such a lifeline. He could still recall what he had written, and what she had written in return. He could even recall what he had written to her originally that he had then thrown out before starting again.

  Every letter he received from her he had held in his hand, imagining her own small hand folding the letter up carefully before handing it to the messenger. Her penmanship was remarkable and he could envision her sitting at her desk with the sunlight pouring through the windows, carefully crafting each word.

  He had been a foolish boy then. Every man had his moment of foolish, young love. That had been his.

  He had no intention of writing love letters again. Not even to his wife.

  “I’m certain that you will improve with practice,” Miss Perry said. There was no mistaking the flirtatious nature of her tone.

  Robert held in a sigh. He had nothing against ladies who flirted. But he was not entranced by such things. He did not enjoy playing the flirting game.

  First of all, it was a game for younger men. He was looking for a wife. He could
not find time to dawdle. Younger men who had many years to find a wife could flirt and take their time. They could play those games and enjoy the chase without really needing to actually catch the woman they were pursuing.

  Second of all, he was aware that he could not be the only man that Miss Perry spoke to in such a manner. She needed to marry. She was the only one left of her siblings still single.

  There must be immense pressure on her to get out of her parents’ house.

  He could understand it. Truly, he could. And although he did not think he was the man for her nor she the woman for him, his heart went out to her. She really was still a child in many ways.

  “I would have to find a reason to practice,” he said. “Luckily, given my advance in status, I should have plenty of letters of business I will need to send shortly. A few of those and I should be back in the swing of things, I presume.”

  Miss Everett gave him a conspiratorial smile, as if to say that she saw how he had neatly dodged that bullet.

  “Oh.” Miss Perry looked a little disappointed.

  He did feel bad for her. “Do you know many people here?” he asked.

  The ladies looked around. “Not terribly many,” Miss Perry admitted. “But I hope to get to know quite a few more. That is why they have public balls, isn’t it? To meet new people?”

  “I’m certain that’s why Miss Weston arranged this,” he assured her. “Perhaps you could let me have this next dance, then? And in the course of it, we might speak to some other people and make some new acquaintances.”

  Miss Everett gave him an amused look that clearly said it’s your funeral.

  But he did feel a bit protective of Miss Perry. In fact, as he led her out onto the dance floor he wondered…

  Well, she was from a good family. She was a sweet girl. She had a pretty face, although not nearly so lovely as Miss Reginald’s—although he shot that thought down immediately. It did him no good to compare other ladies to Miss Reginald.

  Feeling protective of a young lady was a good start to a relationship, was it not? Giving her a stable home in which to live. That would be nice.

  But would it be enough for him? Probably not. He needed someone that he was not merely protective of, or amused by. He needed someone that he could truly respect. Someone he considered to be an equal.

  As the dance began, however, he could feel himself warming in a brotherly way towards Miss Perry. All she truly wanted was a handsome man to pay attention to her.

  He suspected, from some of the remarks that she made, that she had been rather looked over compared to her other siblings. That must have been hard on her.

  Now it was her time to shine and she wanted to make the most of it, understandably so.

  To that end, he laughed at her jokes and made her laugh in turn. When the time came for the dance to end, he found some men that he had met through Mr. Norwich and introduced her to them and vice versa.

  Miss Perry seemed quite happy to be making the acquaintance of these new men. She was a likeable girl, really. A little too flirtatious for Robert’s taste but a sweet girl at heart. The other men quickly warmed to her and she was asked to dance by several of them.

  “Congratulations,” Miss Everett said, coming to stand next to him. She was watching Miss Perry be led out onto the dance floor for another turn. “You’ve managed to get her off your back.”

  “She is a sweet girl,” he replied. “Only not the sort of girl that I am looking for.”

  “Are you looking, then?” Miss Everett asked. “I did wonder. Some men are. Some are not. Some only want the sport of it.”

  “I hope I did not strike you as the sporting sort.”

  “No sir, indeed not. In fact, you struck me as the opposite. I wondered if you had any intention of marrying at all. Or even engaging in a flirtation.”

  “I’m afraid that I am a serious man. I take such things seriously.”

  “That is all well and good if you ask me. I have seen my cousins break their hearts repeatedly over men who were not worth their time. Men who did not take courtship as seriously as they ought to.

  “I do not think that men often realize how important such things are to women. How hard we take it when we learn that the man we have been dreaming about is not as devoted to us in his heart as we have been to him.”

  “If you were to ask for my honest opinion,” Robert began.

  “Oh, always,” Miss Everett assured him. “An honest opinion is the only kind that is worth having. I am not the sort of woman who prefers blissful ignorance. I find that it is not nearly so blissful as one would hope.”

  He chuckled. “Well, I would tell you then that I believe the reason many men do not take it so seriously is that they are not dependent upon it for their future.”

  “That is fair,” Miss Everett acknowledged. “But one would think that they would understand how it is for us ladies and show a little more courtesy.”

  “Careful, Miss Everett, that tone rings strongly of bitterness.”

  “I assure you, sir, there is no personal bitterness in it,” Miss Everett told him. “I am merely a woman of strong convictions.”

  Robert wished that Miss Reginald had such strong convictions and that she had stuck to them. If so, he might have been happily married by now.

  “I am glad to hear it,” he said. “There is nothing more frustrating to me than a woman—or a man, any person at all—who cannot hold to their true beliefs. Principle is of the utmost importance to me.”

  “Then we are in agreement, Captain Trentworth,” Miss Everett told him. “I grew up as the ward of my aunt and uncle. They had a great deal of money.

  “But their children—my cousins—were and are quite undisciplined. There is no moral that they tout that they will not then give up in pursuit of whatever pleasure they fancy. What they extoll one moment they will renounce the next if it will suit their needs better.

  “It was quite frustrating to deal with, growing up. That I can promise you. But it gave me the steely resolve that I fear makes me rather unlikeable to many that I meet. I simply must be myself. And I must hold true to what I believe and what I think. No matter what others may say about it.”

  “Then I believe we shall get on rather well, Miss Everett,” Robert told her.

  His eyes scanned the room almost unconsciously for Miss Reginald. When he did not see her, he forced himself to focus back in on Miss Everett. He would not waste time on Miss Reginald. Not anymore.

  “I am glad to hear it, Captain Trentworth,” Miss Everett replied, smiling. “Tell me, do you have any family?”

  “None to speak of, I am afraid,” Robert answered her. “My parents died a few years ago. I have no siblings. I do have some cousins but I am not close to them. My aunt was my only family and I had not seen her in years. It was quite a surprise to me that she left her fortune to me.”

  Robert gave a small laugh. “I suspect that it was because I am the only one of my cousins to have truly made something of myself. The others are quite lazy, you know.

  “But then they come from families with money. As do your cousins. Why should they understand the meaning of work and principle?”

  “Careful,” Miss Everett replied with a smile. “That rings strongly of bitterness, Captain.”

  He had not meant to sound bitter and he knew that she was only teasing him. But it was true. He was bitter. He was bitter against the late Lord Reginald, the duke, for his lack of understanding.

  He was bitter against all of the people who had looked down upon him and who now treated him as an equal without realizing the irony of it, the falsity of it. The hypocrisy.

  And most of all, he was bitter over Miss Reginald. The woman who, damn him, he still had feelings for.

  But Miss Everett… she had to rely upon the kindness of her family. She must marry, of course. Her uncle would not support her forever.

  However, she understood what it meant for him to raise himself up like this. She was a woman with wit, someone he
could consider an equal. She was someone with whom he could talk about serious things.

  She was lovely as well. Not… he must admit, not in the manner of Miss Reginald. But he did like her spirit. And she had her principles and convictions and she would hold to them. She was a woman with a strong spirit.

  He could do worse, could he not? He could keep looking, he supposed. He could be picky. Weigh his options. Consider for longer.

  But why do so when there was a woman right in front of him that seemed to fit all that he had told himself he wanted in a wife?