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‘But you must wish for it sometimes?’
‘Not really. I am content with my life.’
‘Did you never have an offer?’
Jane smiled, but did not answer. There had been someone once, ten years before, but it had come to nothing. Her father had disapproved on the grounds that the young man had no title and no fortune, no family of any standing and no prospects. She could do better than that, he’d told her. But she never had and the only other man she had come to have feelings for had not reciprocated and her foolishness was a deeply held secret which she had never told a soul. She was not beautiful and, compared with her younger sisters, she was plain Jane.
How their parents had managed to produce three girls so different from each other, Jane could not fathom. Jane and Isabel were both dark haired, but there the similarity ended. Jane was taller than average; she had strong features, well-defined brows and a determined chin. Isabel, six years younger than Jane, was considered the beauty of the family. She was a little shorter and more curvaceous than Jane, and her face was rounder and very expressive; she was not one to hide her feelings. Tears and temper were often displayed, but she soon recovered and became her usual sunny self. Jane was more circumspect and kept her feelings to herself. As for Sophie, she was fair-haired and blue-eyed and, at seventeen, had not yet shed what her mother chose to call her puppy fat.
‘I am doing the right thing?’ Isabel asked suddenly, sinking on to her bed in her petticoat.
‘Whatever do you mean?’
‘Marrying Mark.’
‘You are surely not having doubts now, Issie?’
‘It’s such a big step. I keep wondering if I shall make him happy, or if I shall be content with him.’
‘But you have known him all your life. You know he is tall and handsome, that he is thoughtful and considerate, that he has deep pockets and likes nothing better than to indulge you. What more can you ask?’
‘That’s just it. Perhaps I know him too well. And perhaps I’ve missed someone else, someone for whom I could feel the grand passion.’
‘Isabel, you are talking nonsense, the grand passion is a myth, dreamed up by romantics. It’s much better to marry someone dependable, someone you know won’t let you down.’ Isabel’s sudden doubts were having a strange effect on Jane. It had taken all her resolve to wish her sister happy when the engagement had been announced and she had entered into the preparations for the wedding with as much whole-hearted enthusiasm as she could muster. Her sister’s doubts worried her.
‘Mark is dependable, that’s true,’ Isabel said. ‘But he is almost like another brother.’
‘Mark is nothing like a brother.’
‘No, of course not. I’m being silly. He’s not a bit like Teddy, is he?’
‘God forbid! One of Teddy is enough.’
They laughed at this and the tension eased. Jane helped her sister into her day dress and was just brushing her hair and tying it back with a ribbon when they heard the sound of someone arriving. Isabel jumped up and went to the window to see who it might be. ‘It’s Teddy,’ she said. ‘My goodness, where did he get that coat? He looks like a bumble bee.’
Jane joined her sister at the window. Their brother, three years younger than Jane and three years older than Isabel, had just descended from the gig he had hired at the Fox and Hounds, where the stage from London had no doubt deposited him not half an hour since. The coat Isabel had commented on was of yellow-and-brown stripes. It had a cutaway skirt and deep revers. His trousers were fawn and his waistcoat yellow with red spots. ‘Papa will have something to say about that,’ she said.
They were descending the stairs as a servant opened the door to admit him. He flourished a brown beaver topper at them both. ‘Jane, Isabel, I hope I find you both well.’
‘Very well,’ Jane said.
‘Where did you get that extraordinary coat?’ Isabel demanded.
‘Gieves, where else? Do you like it?’ He twirled to show it off. ‘Where is Papa? I need to talk to him. Is he in a good mood?’
‘Oh, Teddy, do not say you have come to wheedle money out of him?’ Jane said. ‘You know what he said the last time.’
‘Well, a fellow can’t live decent on what I earn at Halliday’s.’ Halliday and Son was an eminent firm of lawyers who had a practice in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Teddy had gone to them after leaving university at the behest of his father, who did not believe his son should pass his days in idleness. He was still very junior and could not command the large fees his mentors did.
