In the back of her mind, she knew that, of course it did. The man to whom she was being married off could be the difference between a lifetime of peace or a lifetime of pain, but one thing she knew for sure was that it was not a lifetime she had chosen for herself. Not for love or for passion or any path she wished to walk down on her own.
She had known that her parents were coming closer to forcing her to marry, butthis?
“Minnie?”
She whirled around at her father’s voice in the doorway. His eyes narrowed when he saw what was in her hand.
“Why are you snooping through my belongings?”
“Your belongings?” she bit out, shaking again, but this time with rage instead of concern. “From what I can see, everything before me hasmyname on it.”
“And everything that belongs to you, belongs to me.”
She threw the paper on the desk in disgust.
“You may own all of my possessions, but you do not ownme,” she said, her anger growing quickly. While she and her father had never been particularly close, she had always thought that, deep down, he had loved his daughters — would provide for them, protect them, as he was beholden to. “You cannot force me to marry anyone, no matter what rights you think you have.”
“Can I not?” he said, raising a brow. “Tell me, Minnie, what would you do without a husband or a father to provide for you?”
“I would make my own way in the world,” she said, holding her nose high in the air.
He let out a humorless bark of laughter. “With what skills?Needlepoint? Running around a football field with your friend? Yes, I know all about that.”
“Anything would be better than being married to a man who would pay for me and based on what? What I look like? Who are you even planning to marry me off to, anyway?”
“That is none of your concern.”
She choked out her own scoff of disbelief. “Not my concern? This is my life we are speaking about!”
“I will tell you in a few days’ time.”
“A few days,” she replied dully.
“Yes,” he said simply, standing there, staring at her, expecting her to obey.
“Is this what I am worth to you?” she asked as her rage faded, to be replaced by sadness, grief for the father she had known. “Ten thousand pounds?”
“It’s more than that,” he said, only a brief look of pain crossing his face. “It’s that, as well as the reputation of my company, which could be worth thousands more.”
Minnie took the marriage contract in her hands, holding it between her thumbs and fingers. Even though she knew that it would have no effect, that it would be easy enough to draw up another, she took pleasure in ripping it right down the middle, at least a symbolic gesture to her father. She held his gaze as she ripped it again and again, until she threw the pieces in the air, letting them rain down on his feet as she stalked past him and out of the room.
A few days.
That gave her a few days to plan, to determine how she was going to run away.
For she would not marry a man who would buy her hand.
Not now.
Not ever.
Minnie’s friends stared at her from their positions around the table.
“You have got to be jesting,” Emmaline said, her eyes wide, her jaw as open as Lily’s and Ada’s.
“I wish I were,” Minnie said grimly. “But I saw it sitting there, right there in front of me, and my father admitted to it.”
“So now what?” Lily asked. “You wait to see who he decides to marry you off to?”
