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‘Come, Jane, I am soon to be family and would help if I could. I will not repeat what you tell me.’
‘Whether Papa can or cannot is not to the point, Mark. He simply refuses.’
‘Oh, dear, does he know how deep in Teddy is?’
‘I do not know, Teddy may have told him, but if matters are as bad as you say, Papa would have a struggle to settle, I think. Like everyone he has been badly hit by taxes and poor harvests. I shall do what I can for Teddy with my own money and that may hold his lordship off for a time.’
‘Jane, you cannot do that. Your money is your dowry.’
She gave him a crooked grin. ‘I am never likely to marry, Mark, and we all know it.’
‘Nonsense. You would make someone a splendid wife and I know that you love children. I have seen you with them in the village.’ He laughed suddenly. ‘If I were not already taken, I might offer myself.’
She could not help it, the tears spilled from her eyes. It was so unlike the down-to-earth Jane, he became alarmed. He put his arm about her and pulled her to him, so that her head nestled on his shoulder. ‘I didn’t think that would make you cry, Jane. I beg forgiveness.’
Angry with herself, she pulled away from him. ‘Oh, it wasn’t that. It was...’ She gulped. ‘It was the thought of Teddy’s debts bringing us so low.’ She dried her eyes and managed a laugh. ‘I could cheerfully beat him.’
‘So could I.’
‘Isabel knows nothing of it, so please do not say anything. We mustn’t spoil her wedding. I have no doubt we will come about.’
‘I will escort you home.’
‘No, please don’t. I shall be fine. Go back to Mr Ashton; he is obviously waiting for you.’ She nodded towards Drew, who was idling on the other side of the green.
* * *
It was typical of Jane, to be so unselfish, Mark thought as he rejoined Drew. She always thought of others before herself and that blinkered family of hers took her for granted. Even Isabel, while singing her praises, took advantage of her. As for their brother, he was a scapegrace without an ounce of conscience or good sense and to apply to his sister whenever he was in trouble was the outside of enough. He could pay the debt for them, but he was quite sure Sir Edward would be too proud to accept it, though he did not doubt Teddy would take it eagerly and then go on as before. It would be like throwing money into a bottomless pit. Teddy needed to be taught a salutary lesson. But what and how? It needed some thought and he would do nothing until after the wedding.
‘If I did not know you better, I would think you were a little too fond of your future sister-in-law,’ Drew said as they turned to walk back to Broadacres.
‘Nonsense. I am afraid I unintentionally upset her.’
‘Didn’t look like that to me.’
‘Looks can be deceptive and it is none of your business anyway, Drew.’
‘True, and neither is it true of those old biddies standing by that garden gate, but I have no doubt they will make it so.’
Mark glanced in the direction of Drew’s nod. Mrs Stangate and her crony, Mrs Finch, were standing at the former’s garden gate, watching them. ‘Oh, no, the two biggest gossips in the village. They will add two and two and make five.’
‘Whatever did you say to her? It must have been something very telling for you to abandon your usual sense of propriety.’
‘I expressed the wish to beat her brother.’
Drew laughed. ‘Oh, I assume you told her of our meeting with Lord Bolsover.’
‘Yes, but she already knew some of what Teddy had been up to but, I suspect, not the whole. It makes me angry the way everyone in that family leans on Jane and expects her to fetch them out of whatever bumblebath they have tumbled into.’
‘Is that so?’
‘Yes. She has given up everything for them and is now proposing to use her own money to pay off Teddy’s debt.’
‘Does she know how much that is?’
‘I don’t think so. Nor do I think she has enough. According to Isabel, their grandmother left each of the girls a little money for a dowry. Isabel has already spent hers on her trousseau, so it cannot have been a great amount.’
‘Tell me,’ Drew said thoughtfully. ‘Why did you choose Isabel over Jane, when you so clearly have a high regard for her?’
Mark hesitated before replying, trying to find a satisfactory answer. ‘A high regard is not love, is it? Jane has much to commend her, but I did not think of her in that way. Everyone, and that includes me, simply accepted that she was not going to marry and it became easy to think of her as Isabel’s unmarried sister. Unfair, perhaps, but that is the way of it.’ How unfair he was only now beginning to realise.
