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“Never mind them,” Mr. Thrup said. “We’d only speculated, since Henry was gone for so long on business, if you two hadn’t met at a watering hole of some kind or another.”
“I’m pretty sure the term you used,” Oliver said, “was ‘whirlwind romance.’”
Dinah’s cheeks grew hot. She supposed it was a natural assumption. Henry returned after four months away on what they had been told was for business regarding one of his holdings and announced that he was getting married in a few days’ time.
Understandable though it was, the family’s assumption still pricked uncomfortably at Dinah, reminding her that there was no romance at all between her and Henry and he was set against there ever being any.
“No,” she said, her voice losing a bit of its strength. “Nothing so exciting as that.”
“And now,” Henry said, drawing the word out almost into a growl, “if you all have nothing else unseemly to say to Dinah, I believe it is nearly time for dinner to be—”
“Stanton!” A shrill, distinctly feminine voice cut through the room.
Dinah whirled about at the sound, as did Henry. There before them stood a woman of indeterminate years, attired in a very elegant traveling dress. A large bonnet framed her face, with several feathers stretching from it. Though wrinkles spread from her eyes and mouth, the expression thereon was one of a woman with as much fortitude now as she’d ever had before.
“I demand to know the meaning of this.” She marched forward, eying Dinah with open hostility.
“Aunt Beatrice,” Henry said, “this is Dinah, second daughter of Sir Seth Mulgrave. Dinah, this is my aunt, Miss Beatrice Thrup.”
“How do you do?” Dinah asked as she curtsied.
Henry’s aunt didn’t so much as acknowledge the introduction. “I have raised you,” she spoke directly to Henry, “since you were seven. I have been by your side, whether you were here or at one of your other holdings, for nearly every day since then. I have guided you. I have taught you. I have seen to your needs. And this is how you repay me?” She was nearly screaming. “I leave for a month to see an old friend and it is then, while I am away, that you getmarried?”
