“Yes, mother,” Mary chimed, nodding at her mother and making for the door once more. She was smiling when she left the boarding house. For all her mother’s snooping she would only find what Alex had already asked the townspeople to say, and that heartened Mary some. There was nothing to worry over, she must simply keep her head and stick to their plan.
All would be well. She was sure of it.
* * *
“You shall never believewhat I heard today?” Sarah James entered her room with scarcely a knock. Mary sat up in her seat by the window, the needlepoint she had been working on clattering to the floor in surprise.
“Pardon?” she choked out, trying to calm her beating heart as her mother began to move about her room.
“Oh, Mary, do get your nerves under control. I have come with good tidings, my dear!” Her mother was practically skipping as she said this, and Mary knew Alex had done well in her advisement of the townspeople.
Her mother was not simply interested in the marriage advert, she was downright glowing. Ecstatic in her joy at the prospect of a wealthy savior.
“What good tidings might those be?” Mary asked, though she already knew.
“That your Mister Alex Pierce is a well and truly landed gentleman. He hails from New York, my dear. Old Money. Old money, indeed, and is even well connected enough to be in business with the Baptiste family.”
Mary blinked at that. In business with Julian Baptiste? She hadn’t known that, now had she?
“Oh, he is, is he?” she asked, and wondered why Alex had not told her. The connection was curious and for Mary served as a notable given Alex’s offer to help her.
Julian Baptiste and his wife Violet were kind people, and if they were doing business of any sort with Alex it was just one more example to recommend her character. Mary frowned and wrung her hands together. She was marrying a good person with a good heart and selfless intentions, and yet, here she was scrambling to save herself behind her mother’s back.
Selfish is how Mary felt, not selfless. However would they make their arrangement work when she was terrified of ruining it.
“Mary, where is your head at?” Her mother clapped her hands sharply, startling Mary from her thoughts. “Did you hear anything I said?”
She blushed and ducked her head. “No, mama. I’m sorry. I was, ah, it’s just that--”
“Your mind was abuzz with all the advantages of marrying this desperate Mister Pierce, wasn’t it?” Her mother tittered and wagged a finger at her with a wink. “You are your mother’s daughter after all. I know that keen look in your eyes as well as any. I can’t fault you for daydreaming, dear, but do keep on task with me, hmm?”
Mary swallowed and gave her mother a quick nod. “Yes, mama.”
Sarah James gave her a satisfied smirk. Mary pursed her lips at the sunny expression on her mother’s face. It was so unlike the cold and unfeeling smiles she was accustomed to, she had always reserved these warm expressions for her father, or really anyone she was of mind to use. The look gave Mary a nervous feeling and she looked away quickly.
“Now then, I have gone through the savings we have, and I estimate we will be able to purchase a wedding dress for you, but we must work quickly. It should be tasteful, yet simple. Nothing like the garment the Baptiste bride wore, but it will do, it will do,” her mother sniffed, looking put out at the thought of anyone wearing a dress finer than she could provide. “I think a nice simple, modestly cut dress trimmed in lace will suffice, don’t you?”
Mary nodded. She didn’t care if she had to wear burlap and denim to the chapel so long as she was able to marry Alex.
“Yes, understated, and ah, frugal. Mister Pierce seems to be a man inclined to value a frugal woman. It can be seen as an asset rather than a shortcoming,” Mary said, and her mother lit up with an excited clap of her hands.
“That is right! Too true, Mary, too true. Now you are thinking, and to think I lamented sending you to all the fine schools we could. It seems now you are earning back every penny of your tuition. We will make it seem as if it were a choice and not a matter of circumstance, because I do have another glad tiding to share with you, my dear.”
Mary fought against the flutter of panic in her chest. She hated it when her mother brought news to her, it was never pleasant, at least never for Mary. As Sarah James’s daughter she had never been in a position that her mother thought her useful or valuable, she had always been ordered to do this or that without niceties or pleasantries.
But now here wasthat smile.Mary shifted uncomfortably and forced her attention on her mother.
“What is it?” she asked. “What happy news do you have?”
Her mother shot her a coquettish smile. “You didn’t think this happy season was all about you, now did you? Your mother has her own bit of happiness to share as well.”
“No, I didn’t think it was--”
“Mister Rutherford has asked to marry me!” Her mother announced, throwing her arms out wide. She crossed the room to grasp her daughter’s hands excitedly. “We will announce a double wedding and the whole affair shall be quite fetching.”
“A double wedding?” Mary felt faint at the announcement. She turned away and looked back out the window. All of her happiness at escaping this, of getting out from under her mother’s thumb for her own life suddenly felt precarious. A double wedding meant that her wedding was not her own, it was her mother’s. Sarah James would not be out of her life or even a safe distance away, she would be right beside her and Mary could not take the thought.
“But why would we do such a thing?” she asked, her voice coming out higher than she anticipated. She winced and twisted her fingers in her skirts knowing that her mother would most assuredly catch the misstep.
