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“We are in an unusual relationship in the eyes of society, so why not have unusual rules?”
Caroline laughed. “I can’t argue with that. If it’s wooing you want, then it’s wooing you shall get.”
“You won’t do better than I did, though,” Arabella said. “You would have been proud of me. I made a list and everything.”
“Did you?”
Arabella explained her suitress plan as they finished disrobing.
“You went to such trouble,” Caroline said, touched. “All you had to do was be your sweet self, you know. I would have woken up eventually to see what was in front of me all along.”
Arabella curled up beside her in bed. “It was no trouble at all. It was simply love.”
Chapter Twenty-seven
Caroline gathered her brothers and sisters into the drawing room the next afternoon.
They were the same family they had always been. Through thick and thin, they were as strong as ever. She felt closer to them since their tumultuous summer had begun.
She poured tea and dispensed of petit fours and biscuits. When everyone was served, she cleared her throat.
“I owe you all an apology.”
George dropped his teacup. There were looks of astonishment on every face.
“Ever since Mama and Papa passed away, I have taken my responsibilities toward you very seriously. I promised to raise you the best that I could and to see each of you as well settled as could be in your adulthood. But ever since the start of this summer, I failed to take into consideration what you might want for yourselves, instead of what I thought was best.”
George brightened. “Does this mean I can order from the bakery again?”
She fixed him with a glare. “That was still wrong of you, George.”
He scowled and bit into another petit four.
“I pushed hard for Jacob, Susan, and Betsy to conform to what I thought was the best situation I could imagine for them—to join society and to marry as high as we could reach. But I put us in harm’s way by encouraging Mr. Taylor to accompany us everywhere, to guide us when we didn’t know the way, and to ultimately take advantage ofus at every turn. I should have tried to find out more about him instead of trusting my instincts.”
Jacob shifted. “You couldn’t have known,” he said gruffly. “And I don’t know if I would have listened if you had cautioned me away from his friendship. I thought the world of him until last night when we discovered his true nature.”
“He’s gone now,” Betsy said. “We are none the worse for wear, for all of last night’s excitement.”
“Jacob is still living with the harm that Mr. Taylor did to him.” Caroline shook her head. “I am sorrier for this than you can know, Jacob.”
He took a deep breath. “I have been in the doldrums for the past few weeks, cursing my own stupidity. But that’s what it was, Caro—I saw no evidence of foul play. None of my friends saw anything amiss either. The fact of the matter is that I had too much to drink and risked more than I had to lose. I hate that it was lost tohim. But it was lost squarely, and I must accept my own foolishness as the reason.”
“Are you still considering to marry an heiress?” Susan piped up.
He reddened. “That was not a plan thought up in my finest hour. I have nothing to offer a bride and cannot in good conscience take it upon myself to marry. No, I plan to travel to Somerset and see what can be done with the land and the holding. I am hoping I can make an honest living from the estate, as impoverished as it may be. It might not be much, but it is mine. I owe it to the tenants of my land to be as good a landlord as I can be to them.”
“I have never been prouder of you,” Caroline said, her heart full to bursting. “That is a commendable idea.”
“I learned from your example,” he said. “You were younger than I am now when you took on the responsibility of raising us. You weren’t prepared, but you did everything you could for us. You did the right thing, even though it was hard. Now it’s my turn. I have decided to mortgage the estate, and the money should be enough to keep us all afloat for now.”
Susan looked enthralled. “Please, could I come with you, Jacob? I hope that the town near your estate has need of a milliner or a draper. It has been a dream of mine to have my own shop, but for a small town Inverley has ever so many already because it’s so popularwith visitors. I would love to see if I could have a better opportunity somewhere else, but I wouldn’t like it above half if I didn’t know anyone there. I could bring the fine outfits that Betsy and I never even wore and sell them until I had money enough to buy my own inventory. It would be fun to discover somewhere new together, don’t you think?”
“Of course you can come with me, Susan.” He grinned. “We Reeves shall have the area looking dapper in no time.”
“I shall miss you, but you must make your own path in life,” Caroline said, humbled that it had taken her so long to realize it. “I should have asked you what you wanted sooner, Susan. I had no idea you harbored such dreams.”
“I would have told you eventually, I’m sure. I wasn’t very interested in any of the suitors here. I shouldn’t have liked a London Season. Perhaps someday I shall settle down with a respectable farmer.” Her tone turned dreamy.
