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The next morning, Marcella joined Claudia, her stepmother, for a walk through the grounds. The outing had been phrased as if it was a kind request, but Marcella knew a command when she heard one. Claudia always managed to make things go her way. “You seem to be under the impression that you’ve a choice regarding this marriage,” her stepmother said, as she and Marcella walked along the stone-covered path.
Marcella tore her eyes from the delicate raindrops, which clung to the grass. Rain made her thoughts turn to Lord Reginald, which caused color to rise to her cheeks. “I don’t see why I shouldn’t have one. Nor do I understand why you and my father are both conspiring against me. Have I wronged you in some way, my dear stepmother?”
Claudia was quiet for a long moment, and when Marcella dared a glance at her stepmother, she found that the woman’s eyes were narrowed in contemplation. “You are so insistent on the idea of achoice.”
“You had one.”
“I did,” her stepmother replied. “And I’ll give you some advice, although I know it will only set you against me. You care so much about having achoicethat it has blinded you to having good sense.”
“Good sense?” Marcella asked indignantly. “Where is the sense in being so eager to wed a man whom you do not know?”
“The good sense is in security,” Claudia said. “Without marriage, a young lady simply cannot survive on her own. It is helpful to love the man to whom you are betrothed, but not everyone has such good fortune as to find love and wealth in the same lord.”
“You did.”
Claudia’s lips twitched into a smile, and her face seemed to soften just a little. “I am not most women. I am unlike anyone in theton.I do love your father with all my heart, but I also married him knowing that I’d be taken care of. If you cannot have both love and wealth, you must choose the latter over the former.”
How strange that her philosophy was precisely the opposite of the one Lord Reginald held so dear! But then, Lord Reginald was hardly following the philosophy he claimed to believe in so ardently. Was he not already planning their marriage? Anticipating the moment when they were wed?
“If you’d not loved my father, would you have married him anyway?” Marcella asked.
“Of course,” Claudia replied. “That would be the practical choice to make.”
Marcella shook her head. Claudia’s words were logical, Marcella wouldn’t deny that. Her stepmother presented such a bleak outlook on life, and everything in Marcella, every conviction and belief, fought against it. There simply had to be more in the world for her. For women.
“You, especially, would be smart to marry Lord Reginald, which you will,” Claudia said, making it clear that there would be no objections. “You have most unusual aspirations.”
“Which I know you take great offense to,” Marcella replied.
“For good reason,” Claudia replied. “It is difficult enough for a man to survive as a man of letters and infinitely more so for a woman writing silly novels.”
Marcella bit the inside of her cheek. They were hardlysillynovels in her opinion, but she knew that any protestations to the contrary would fall upon unsympathetic ears.
“Lord Reginald might be willing to indulge you in that particular pursuit,” Claudia continued. “If he is, you’ll have a husband who allows you some measure of enjoyment and who takes care of you, who ensures that you live your life in comfort the way that a lady of your breeding ought to live. And I know you’ll say that I’m wrong, but you’re young. You’ve also never witnessed what it is to live outside theton,in a world without money.”
For a long moment, Marcella said nothing. She even considered that her stepmother was correct. Marcellahadnever lived outside theton, and she really knew only a little about the world. Since meeting Lord Reginald, she felt as if she knew even less.
“When is it to happen?” Marcella asked.
“In a week,” Claudia replied. “The paperwork is already completed, and all that’s left to do is for it to be signed. Then, you’ll be wed.”
“And what of the ceremony?” Marcella asked.
“Intimate,” Claudia replied. “Considering the circumstances, we thought it best to proceed quickly.”
“We?”
Claudia blinked a few times, looking taken aback. “Your father and I, as well as the Duke of Mavis.”
Why was everyone so insistent on having this marriage so quickly? Marcella supposed that she could understand why her father and stepmother would be so eager. They’d made it quite clear for years that she was quickly approaching spinsterhood. Marcella could also understand why the poor, quickly aging Duke of Mavis would be so eager to see his son wed and the engagement fulfilled. The title Marquess of Hurrow was hinging on Marcella’s marriage to Lord Reginald.
It wasn’t, though, as if the title would be taken away if the marriage was delayed by months or even years, as far as she knew. Certainly, there was no discernable reason to arrange the wedding so suddenly that a proper ceremony could not even be made. Marcella felt as though she was missing some crucial piece to a puzzle, but she couldn’t for the life of her figure out what that piece might be.
