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‘Would you go back to her if you could?’
‘Isabel,’ Jane remonstrated, ‘you should not quiz Mr Ashton in that fashion.’
‘Oh, I do not mind it,’ he said. ‘To answer your question, Miss Isabel, I thought I would. I thought that if we met again and she saw how prosperous I had become, she and her papa might think differently and I would win her. But I have thought better of it since.’
‘Why not? Is she not as beautiful as you remembered?’
‘Oh, more so. It is not that—’
‘Issie, did you notice how strained Mark was looking today?’ Jane interrupted the conversation, which was becoming too embarrassing to be borne. ‘It is hardly to be wondered at, but I hope he manages to sleep tonight. He will need his strength in the next few weeks.’
‘There will be no wedding,’ Isabel said, ignoring Jane’s attempt to divert her. ‘Did you know that, Mr Ashton?’
‘I knew it had been postponed, but it will take place later, will it not?’
Isabel sighed. ‘I am no longer sure of anything.’
‘Isabel, what are you saying?’ Jane exclaimed. ‘Surely you have not changed your mind about marrying Mark?’
‘I don’t know. I am so confused. Watching how everyone behaved today, especially Lady Wyndham, I thought I shall be expected to be like her, to direct that huge household and remain calm whatever the crisis and I do not think I can manage it.’
‘It has been a trying day,’ Jane said, wishing her sister had not voiced her doubts in front of Drew. ‘You will think differently when you have had a night’s sleep and are more yourself.’
‘It’s not just today. I have been worried about it for ages.’
‘Oh, Issie, I am losing patience with you. This is all because of the ink spilled on your gown and that ill-considered remark of Sophie’s.’
‘What remark was that?’ Drew asked.
‘It was nothing,’ Jane said. ‘A silly superstition our sister picked up from somewhere.’
‘Postponed marriages never happen,’ Isabel told him.
They had been walking side by side, but now he turned to Isabel. ‘I am inclined to agree with Miss Cavenhurst. It is silly.’
‘Oh, I would not mind it if I had not already been having doubts,’ she said.
‘Now is hardly the time to express them, Issie,’ Jane remonstrated. ‘Think of poor Mark. He has enough to contend with without that.’
‘He knows how I feel.’
‘And what did he say?’
‘That I would have the mourning period to get used to the idea.’
‘There you are, then.’
‘Jane, I wish you would not try to be a second mother to me. You are always telling me what I should and should not do and I am tired of it. You can know nothing of how I feel. I do not believe you have a heart.’
Jane was hurt as she was often hurt by her sister’s thoughtlessness, but she would not show it, certainly not in front of Drew. ‘Issie, you knew that if you accepted Mark one day you would be Lady Wyndham and mistress of Broadacres. It is not something new.’
‘I didn’t think it would be for years and years when we had grown quite old. And now it has happened.’
‘But if you truly love Mark, that would not matter in the least. Now, let us speak no more of it. I am sure Mr Ashton does not want to hear it.’
They continued in silence. Jane was appalled at what Isabel had said and in front of Andrew Ashton, too. Did Mark really know how Isabel was feeling? It must have added to his sadness over the loss of his father. The bride he had chosen did not want to become the sort of wife a man in his position needed. Was he expecting Isabel to become used to the idea or was he really worried about it? The pity of it was, that she, the unmarried sister, could not speak to him on such a private matter. What could she say if she did? Nothing. Her own feelings, locked away in the heart Isabel declared she did not have, could never be brought into the open.
She stole a sideways glance at Drew, wondering if he would pass on what he had heard. He looked sombre as if debating the issue within himself. He turned his head towards her and caught her looking at him. ‘Do not worry,’ he murmured. ‘Your secret is safe with me.’
She looked away in confusion. What secret? Isabel had said Mark knew how she felt, so that was no secret. That she and Isabel had been arguing about it? That was hardly a secret either. Surely he had not guessed how she felt about Mark? That would be too mortifying.
