Page 55 of Impetuous

“I am sure she will, Violet. Some people like to be busy.” Lady Neville cast a pointed look in her daughter-in-law’s direction.

Violet did not even notice Lady Neville’s barb, either too unaware or too used to her mother-in-law’s remarks to let it ruffle her composure. Cassandra had yet to see anything that did.

“Such a sad story,” Violet went on, shaking her head. “Her father died penniless.”

Beside her, Aunt Ardis sighed lugubriously. “She will never marry, then.” She did not have to look at her niece to see if her shaft had gone home. “A girl without face or fortune…”

“Miss Yorke is not unattractive,” Lady Neville said flatly. Cassandra had the feeling that the older woman had taken a thorough dislike to Aunt Ardis.

“But not a beauty, either. It takes a beauty to snare a man if one has no fortune.”

“Surely men fall in love for more than a pretty face,” Violet protested mildly. “Some do, anyway.”

“I am not speaking of falling in love, dear Lady Neville. I am speaking of marriage. Men’s fancy often wanders far afield from what they would consider for marriage.”

“She is right,” Lady Neville agreed grudgingly. “The younger generation makes too much of love. As if we could all choose as indiscriminately as peasants. Family, position and wealth, those are what family alliances are based upon.”

“A good family alliance is not necessarily a good marriage, though,” Cassandra felt compelled to say.

“Good in what sense?” Lady Neville’s eyes sparkled. There was nothing she loved so much as a rousing discussion, and she could rarely goad the placid Violet into arguing.

“In the sense of happiness, my lady. My own parents were very happy.”

“But poor as church mice,” Aunt Ardis added tartly.

“What good would it have been for them to have married wealth and been miserable all their lives?”

They passed the rest of the time until the luncheon was served in a lively discussion. Sir Philip returned, Joanna hanging on his arm, with the twins trailing behind them, tired, their trousers smeared with grass stains, and quite happy.

“What are you ladies talking about?” Sir Philip asked, smiling. “It sounded as if you were quite impassioned about the subject.”

His grandmother smiled at him. “Why, Miss Verrere was telling us her views upon love and marriage.”

“Indeed?” He turned to Cassandra, his brows rising lazily and a slow smile curving his lips. “I should be very interested indeed to hear them.”

Cassandra felt herself blushing annoyingly under his scrutiny. “I fear ’tis a subject we have hashed out enough, sir. Besides, I am sure that you would find it quite boring.”

“On the contrary. I am all ears.”

“I shall tell you in a nutshell,” Violet spoke up unexpectedly. “Miss Verrere and I believe in love and in a man’s ability to love a woman for more than just her looks. Lady Neville and Mrs. Moulton do not.”

Cassandra was grateful to Philip’s mother for aligning herself with Cassandra, although she suspected that a touch of an enduring rivalry between the lady and her mother-in-law had also inspired Violet. The elder Lady Neville looked a little miffed at being lumped with Aunt Ardis.

“Indeed.” Philip’s smiled deepened, and Cassandra felt her heart speed up in response. “I am grateful to you and Miss Verrere for believing that we males are able to think and feel on a higher plane.”

“Come now, Sir Philip,” Joanna said with a playful pout, “do not tell me that you do not value a pretty face.”

“Of course I value beauty,” he responded easily, “whether in a painting or music or a woman.”

He disengaged Joanna’s fingers from his arm and guided her to a seat on the grass. She arranged her skirts attractively around her, expecting him to sit down beside her, but he stepped nimbly away and sat between his mother and grandmother. Cassandra had to smother a smile at Joanna’s startled and decidedly irritated expression.

“However,” Philip continued, his gaze returning to Cassandra, “I believe that there is far more to a woman’s beauty than a nice arrangement of facial features.”

“Hah! I won’t argue that,” Lady Neville said, reaching down to poke his arm with her fan. “But do you intend to marry for love? That is the real question. Whether you fall in love for beauty or a clever mind, would you marry her if she hadn’t a cent? Or couldn’t trace her lineage past her grandparents? What then?”

“You are bound to get me in trouble with someone, aren’t you? I cannot speak for other men, but I can say that I do not believe that I could marry where I did not love. But what are we doing, talking of such serious things? We are here, are we not, for amusement?”

Joanna was quick to agree with him and proceeded to launch into a silly story that Cassandra had heard many times before. Cassandra ignored her burbling voice, her mind going back to Philip’s words. He had said he could not marry without love, but that was not exactly the same as marrying for love. He had not said that he would marry a woman he loved even if she had no money. Not that it mattered, anyway, she reminded herself, for she had no reason to think that Philip loved her or would ever contemplate marrying her. Firmly, she turned her attention to her food.