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“Nothing,” Marcella replied. “But then, I haven’t explicitly asked him why he vanished so long ago. I have a feeling that it was hardly under the best of circumstances, and it seems cruel to pry the tale from him when I’ve every intention of displeasing him very soon.”
Adeline glanced around, as if she suspected they might be overheard. “Then, you still intend to ruin the engagement?”
Marcella nodded. “Of course I do. I’m quite sure, if nothing else, that I can make myself so undesirable that Lord Reginald will break the engagement at once. His father will doubtlessly force him to be polite and proper about the matter, but the result will be the same.”
“So why don’t you become Lord Reginald’s friend and give him a chance? You may learn that you like him, and it will be your choice”
“That sounds, Adeline, like I’ll be doing precisely as my father and stepmother desire. And it still won’t allow me the option of remaining unwed, which is what I want above all else.”
Adeline gave her a sort of noncommittal smile. “This plan of yours is unlike anything I’ve ever heard before.”
“Yes. I’ll have much time to prepare, though. My intended is in London, hoping to have his title restored to him. Once Lord Reginald returns to the countryside, I’ve no doubt he’ll come to call, and I’ll be prepared for him.”
A bit guiltily, Marcella had the thought that Lord Reginald might not receive the title Marquess of Hurrow, and then, the entire courtship would likely fall though. She doubted that the matter would be resolved so easily, however. The barristers and solicitors, most of them from well-born families themselves, would surely be eager to return the title to Lord Reginald.
“At least, the visits won’t be boring,” Adeline pointed out. “That’s something.”
“Yes, I suppose.”
Marcella wrinkled her nose. Boring or not, the idea of entertaining a gentleman with such clear motivations for enjoying her company was far from her idea of enjoyable. It sounded exhausting.
“But how is your own courtship progressing?” Marcella asked.
A flush spread like a fire across Adeline’s fair face. Her eyes shone with excitement. “Ah, well. I think it’s too early to call it acourtship, but I daresay that I’ve gained Lord Brookshire’s attention. As we parted last night, he mentioned that he and some acquaintances were hoping to plan an outing together. He implied that I might join him.”
“That’s wonderful, indeed,” Marcella replied.
Adeline nodded, and her face took on a dreamy, distant sort of expression. “I hope he wasn’t just being polite, though. It’s so difficult to tell with gentlemen sometimes.”
Marcella’s thoughts wandered unbidden back to that garden meeting with Lord Reginald and his thoughts on decorum. It was strange to hear the same sentiments which he’d expressed coming from Adeline. It was stranger still to think that the two of them had something in common.
“It is hard to tell sometimes,” Marcella admitted. “I’m quite sure that Lord Brookshire was sincere. I don’t know him well, but I’ve heard that he’s a man of refined taste if nothing else. Only a man utterly lacking in taste would inviteyouto an outing merely as a polite gesture.”
“I do hope so,” Adeline replied.
“Well, Iknowso.”
Adeline grinned. “Sometimes, I envy how confident you are in yourself.”
“My stepmother calls it pig-headedness rather than confidence.”
Adeline gasped. “Does she truly?”
Marcella nodded, and a smile tugged at her lips. “It’s quite…she takes such efforts to try and mold me into a proper lady, and I wonder if my own mother were still alive, if she’d be doing the same thing.”
“She was said to be quite spirited herself, your mother,” Adeline said.
“She was,” Marcella replied, “from what I recall. My stepmother isn’t…I don’t know. I’ve tried very hard to like her, but I always have felt as though she’d rather I wasn’t around. Sometimes, I feel like she thinks of me as a burden which ought to be disposed of, but I’m never sure if that’s how she truly feels or if I just feel like that sometimes.”
“You aren’t a burden,” Adeline said kindly.
“Oh, I know that! But I must seem like a ghost to her, lingering around the country estate, a constant reminder that my father loved another woman before her. It must be so difficult for her, especially with her being a commoner.”
Adeline pursed her lips together. She adjusted her position in her chair and resumed her embroidery. Marcella watched her friend, so utterly lady-like in every way. Life did seem as though it was easier for her.
“That’s something which you and Lord Reginald have in common,” Adeline said. “You’ve both lost your mothers.”
“So we have,” Marcella replied. “I’ll confess that I’ve never thought of that much. Perhaps that’s why neither of us really grew into conventional people. How many years do you think it takes one to truly be unaffected by the death of one’s mother?”
