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It is one thing for Mr Radcliffe to be teaching Daisy but quite another for the girl to lead him on as she is!Lady Balfour decided. Having known the girl since her childhood, Lady Balfour knew Daisy well enough to know that the girl had no intentions towards marriage. Though it would come to her whether she liked it or not, Lady Balfour knew that the sooner, the better. Her own daughter would be overlooked forever if she did not manage to get Daisy out of the way.
And so, feeling disgusted by what she had witnessed, Lady Balfour crept away from her hiding place and began to make her way around the house towards her husband's smaller study on the other side of the building. He would likely be entirely oblivious to what was going on in his library, but he would know soon enough as his wife would be certain to make him understand that matters were getting out of hand.
Glancing through the window, Lady Balfour found her husband right where she had expected him to be, perching over papers at his desk. His hands were moving remarkably fast for someone his age as he flicked through and signed all the documentation required for whatever his latest business venture was.
Lady Balfour was not trying to get in the way of that, knowing all too well that she was not a woman for business, just as no woman was. But what she did know was marriage and the importance of seeing their daughters set on the right path to secure their futures, no matter what might happen to her or her husband.
Sucking in a deep breath, the lady opened the back door to the hallway just outside her husband's study and delicately stepped inside. She paused outside the door and listened with her hand raised and ready to knock. All was quiet inside the room except for the swishing of paper, and so the lady sucked in another breath and knocked. The wood was hard and unforgiving beneath her knuckles, and she could only hope that her husband would not be the same.
"Enter!" came the response, and Lady Balfour swept her hands carefully down the front of her navy gown and brushed back a strand of her greying hair behind her ear before she entered the room. She offered her husband a kindly smile and a curtsey, standing in the doorway as she awaited him looking up from his paperwork.
She stood there for what felt like several minutes before he finally looked up and offered her a polite smile in return. "Forgive me, my darling; you know how distracted I get when it comes to business."
"Yes, husband," Lady Balfour said through gritted teeth. She would have liked to snap at him that his apologies meant little when he had so neglected his role as a father and had yet to have both their girls married or at least entered into engagements.
It would not do well to begin yelling as soon as she entered the room, so she continued to breathe calmly, keeping a tight smile on her face. Breathing deeply, she thought carefully about how to address the concerns. "Husband, I fear we have neglected our girls."
Lord Balfour looked up from the paper he had been about to sign, his mouth almost dropping open, "How so, my love?" Though his words were kind, his voice was clipped, and although Lady Balfour was certain he had once loved her, she was not so certain of it now.
She did not dwell long on the thought, knowing that love was not the reason for their union in the first place. Theirs was a marriage of convenience and necessity, not romance, and they had both been well aware of the fact when they had tied the knot.
"My Lord, we have always spoken plainly with each other, have we not?" she asked him, still thinking carefully, walking on eggshells to be sure that she would get the outcome that she longed for. When her husband gave a curt nod and a slight huff, she continued, "I fear we must move forward with plans for marriage. The longer we wait, the harder it shall be for them both."
Her husband sighed deeply and pressed his thumb and forefinger to the bridge of his nose, a gesture that had long since come to aggravate Lady Balfour, seeing it as the first sign that he was already shutting down to what she was saying.
"Agnes, you and I know very well that my daughter will not allow anyone to force her into anything she does not wish to do." He sighed and lifted his gaze to hers, an almost piteous expression upon his face.
Agnes had always loathed that look, feeling the urge to strike him as if he were a troublesome child whenever she saw it. Yet she had never allowed herself to do so, always deciding it was better to at least allow him to believe that he was the sole person in charge of all their affairs.
"My Lord, I merely wish to advise you. I fear that Daisy's looks will begin to fade before she turns her attention to marriage, and then her prospects shall be even fewer," Agnes insisted, holding in the anger building inside her. With every similar conversation they had, she grew more and more frustrated.
Every time she felt like she might actually be getting through to him, he would pull back again, and she would be back at square one.Not today, not after what I have witnessed,she determined silently, certain that she would not leave the room until she had got some confirmation that they were on their way to getting what she wanted for her own daughter.
Daisy has never been anything but a thorn in my side, and we will all be better rid of her!she thought, though to her husband, she said, "I am merely thinking in Daisy's best interests. Perhaps we ought to encourage that if she will entertain the idea of marriage as any bright young lady would, we will take her wishes for education more seriously and help her find a husband who would be willing to do the same."
She struggled to stop herself from scoffing at her own words, knowing deep down that it didn’t matter to her what kind of husband Daisy found just so long as it left her well out of the way of her own daughter's path.
"Bertha is stuck in your daughter's shadow," Agnes continued when her husband made no attempt to say anything. "How long must she wait like a wallflower, wilting in the shadows before you will agree that this is what is best for all involved?"
She watched the way her husband gritted his teeth, saw his jaw clench as though it was all he could do to stop himself from snapping angry words at her. Yet she held firm, holding her head up high and meeting his gaze with no fear.
The two stared silently at each other for several moments, both knowing the truth, though only one of them willing to admit it. Agnes braced herself, preparing for the moment when George tried to worm his way out of the situation.It is clear to see where your daughter has got her stubbornness from,Agnes thought not for the first time.
"I shall speak with Daisy," the lord promised after several moments of silence. Agnes instantly gritted her teeth so hard that it was almost painful. She was glad that she still remained a good distance from her husband, fearful that he might otherwise have heard it for himself.
"Why ever must you speak to her?" Agnes demanded, unable to hold her composure any longer, and before her husband could answer, she added, "You are the father, and she is the daughter. She must do as you bid her whether she likes it or not."
"My relationship with my daughter has never been that way," George insisted, and he leaned back in his large, cushioned chair with an even greater sigh than before. "I had hoped for it never to come to such things."
"Yes, well, in the end, every daughter must listen to her father," Agnes insisted, remembering her own father and how he had married her off to Bertha's father against her will. She had been a rebellious and stubborn girl in her youth and saw much of herself in Daisy, though she knew now looking back that everything had worked out.
"Without my own father's encouragement, I would not be where I am now," she pointed out to her husband.
"Are you saying that I ought to force my daughter into marriage in the hopes that her first husband shall perish before his time and she shall be free to marry whom she chooses?" George glowered at Agnes then and for a moment she feared that she had gone too far. Holding her breath, she carefully took a couple of steps forward, never allowing her gaze to leave her husband's even though she could feel his disgust burning into her.
"My love, you know very well what I am meaning," she insisted. She would not apologise for what she had said, nor would she take it back, knowing that if she did, it would only leave him room to change his mind on the matter.
"You and I both know that to survive in this world, we must make connections and rise with ambition. Love and romance and all other such nonsense do not always make for good circumstances, and if Daisy wishes to live any life full of education and learning, she will need a husband to support her if anything, God forbid, should happen to you."
