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She did not want Amelia to be like that heiress.
“Baron Hancock of Ireland is due to arrive next week, and I think you will find him delightful. He’s an equestrian!”
The princess shrugged.
“Your Royal Highness—”
“Amelia! Honestly, even the honorific sounds insincere here.”
“Amelia, then. What is really troubling you?”
Amelia looked heavenward, as if she’d explained this time and again. “I am the problem child everyone wants to see married as soon as possible so they may go about their business, aren’t I? But I’m not a child, Lila. I know what I want. My family would be grateful for anyone that met the most basic of criteria, but I can’t agree. And in the meantime, I am entirely useless. Blythe doesn’t want my help. Gentlemen don’t want me to do any more than look pretty. The only person who seems to value me for something other than my title is Mr. Roberts. I can hardly marry him.”
“But we can find someone like Mr. Roberts.”
Amelia’s face darkened. “Where, Lila? In your leather book, with all the names and bits of paper stuck here and there? You realize, don’t you, that it’s the expectations we create that cause our disappointment?” She began to stride up the terrace steps.
Lila hurried to keep up with her. “I have an idea. Let’s start fresh! Clearly, you’ve not seen the one who would spark your interest, so let’s go over it all again. What you like, what you don’t like—”
“Nothing has changed! What have I not said to you? I want someone who surprises me, someone who is not what is expected. Someone who is surprised byme.”
It was hard to fathom that the poor woman didn’t realize she was describing Marley. In that moment, Lila knew what she had to do. But if Marley was too intractable—and Lila feared that could very well be so, as he was both hauntedandstubborn—she had to have another plan. “What if we went to London in a few weeks?”
That drew the princess up. She turned to look at Lila. “London?”
Lila nodded. “I’ll need to speak to Beck, of course, but...there are some gentlemen in town I think you might like to meet before everyone leaves for the summer.” She smiled. She expected the princess’s face to light, for her to gasp with excitement. When Amelia had visited England a few years ago, she’d found every way she could to be in London society, in London shops, in London drawing rooms.
But she did not gasp with delight. The idea actually seemed to deflate her. “Je,” she said. “Of course. Why not.” And then she carried on inside the house.
Lila stood at the top of the steps, watching as she disappeared inside. The situation was becoming dire, wasn’t it? She couldn’t imagine anything worse than sending the problematic princess back to Wesloria without a match. She knew what would happen if she did—a twenty-six-year-old princess who had not found a successful match in Wesloria or England? Word would spread quickly through all royal and noble households. Lila was certain that notwithstanding her title and wealth, all the wealthy, titled men worthy of her hand would not want someone they would naturally assume was problematic.
She wished Valentin was here to help her think her way out of this impending disaster.
To the Iddesleigh School for Too Many Girls,
I have heard in the village that the number of girls to be educated will be expanded to include more ages. My good man, have you lost your mind? Have you any idea what that will do to our little spot of England? A larger school should be situated in a larger community such as Plymouth or Exeter, but not here in Iddesleigh, if you please.
I beg you do not misunderstand me—you are to be commended on the success of your school. Education in all its forms for all students is important to the health of our nation. But I must urge you to think through your plans. How will all this traffic be accommodated? We hardly have the roads necessary for all the coming and going. Your decision is simply incompatible with our quiet countryside, and as such, I must assume you’ve allowed your emotions to guide you without considering the larger consequences of your decision. You bring to mind a man who makes a decision to marry without knowing how compatible he truly is with his intended or considering the full range of consequences of his decision. That is the way of marriage, I suppose—we are naturally inclined to attach ourselves to someone based on emotion rather than fact.
You, sir, need someone to stop you from making hasty decisions on the basis of emotion rather than fact.
A Concerned Resident of Devonshire
To A Resident of Devonshire, Concerned,
Thank you for your support for the Iddesleigh School for Exceptional Girls. We are pleased to announce that we do indeed seek to expand our student population so that more girls will be properly educated. You may rest assured that will not happen until we have adequate space to accommodate them all. Our girls are practically standing on each other’s shoulders as it is.
We find your notion of marriage quite interesting. We note with curiosity that you fail to mention love as the true reason for marriage. “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,” wrote the bard, Shakespeare. He was very much an observer of love.
What is your opinion if one can’t find a like-minded person to attach to in the state of happy matrimony? Does one retreat into books and carry on alone, making decisions without anyone to remind us to consider the consequences? It seems so desperately lonely, does it not? Then again, one cannot imagine a worse tragedy than marrying someone only to find you are not the least compatible in thought and mien after all. The quandary of it all!
Recently, we had to say farewell to a pair of young sisters relocating with their mother to the north. It was a terrible circumstance in which the parents experienced an infidelity so great that one banished the other. In this particular case, one can reasonably assume that love looked with the eye and not the mind, and perhaps found it wasn’t love at all. Lust is deceitful. Let it be a reminder to us all that the dangers of marriage are fraught. Unless, of course, one can determine compatibility before marriage, in which case, surely the rewards of marriage must be great.
With kindest regards,
The Iddesleigh School for Exceptional Girls
To the Iddesleigh School for Absent Girls,
