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“If you are disrespectful of my future wife, and object to anything regarding my impending marriage, I will absolutely do that. You got what you wanted, so you can’t argue on anything.” Stepping around his mother, Derrick headed towards the door. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m the earl, and I know what I’m doing.”
He walked out of the room, feeling more sure of himself than when he first came into the study. This felt right. He was going to do it, no matter what his mother said.
As far as Derrick was concerned, Ellie Drummond was his. It was just going to take a while for her to properly realise it.
#
“Ellie? Can we talk to you?”
Ellie looked up from her book. Regina and Dorothea were hovering in the doorway of the library, both looking rather nervous. Shifting up a little, Ellie closed her book and put it to one side.
“Of course you can. Is anything wrong?”
“Well…”
Regina hesitated and glanced at Dorothea, who gave her a nudge. They both shuffled into the room. Regina was the one who spoke first.
“We wanted to apologise for the way we treated you yesterday. About our dresses, I mean. We didn’t mean to sound so rude and entitled about getting new gowns.”
“It’s just when we’re around the other ladies at balls, they’re wearing new dresses and they look gorgeous,” Dorothea went on. “We just wanted something like that ourselves, otherwise we’re going to be seen as charity cases.”
Ellie was surprised and relieved that they were apologising. After scolding them the day before about their attitude and almost causing her to get into trouble, she had thought they weren’t going to feel any remorse about it. Although Dorothea had looked close to tears, while Regina had just looked sullen, at least they were coming to her now.
“You’re not going to be seen as charity cases, Dorothea,” she said gently. “There’s nothing wrong with your dresses, as long as you look after them. And they are of the latest fashion.”
“But fashion moves so quickly, and we wanted to keep up,” Regina protested.
“At my expense?”
Regina hung her head. “We do feel guilty about that. We apologise, Ellie.”
Ellie had been cross at them the day before, especially with the way her sisters had behaved once they returned from their trip to the museum like they hadn’t done anything wrong. But after letting it all out on them away from their aunt and sleeping on it, she was feeling calmer. A little disappointed that she had needed to do it in the first place, but she was glad she had done it.
Putting her book on the cushions, Ellie got up from the window seat. She held out her arms, and Dorothea responded almost immediately. She practically ran into her sister’s embrace, making a sound that could have been a sniffle. Regina followed a moment later, the three of them hugging each other. Ellie was the first to release herself, and she looked from one sister to the other.
“You know I will always forgive you. And I understand wanting to fit in and make sure people see you. But there are certain things I will put my foot down on, and that is treating me like a maid and demanding something you know we can’t afford. We have no money for a dressmaker, and I confirmed it when I asked that woman what she would charge.”
“We just—” Regina began, but Ellie cut her off.
“I know what you just wanted, but we have our limits. We barely have the money to look after ourselves for now, never mind anything to spare. Until we find a way to improve our financial situation, we have to be very careful.”
“It would be a lot easier if we could earn money ourselves,” Dorothea muttered. “But that would be impossible.”
“You never know, Dorothea. We might have to do that eventually.”
Regina flinched. “I don’t think I can cope with that.”
“Well, our options are to find someone to marry who can help with our financial problem, or we find jobs that our stations will allow us to have, like governesses.” Ellie held up a hand as Regina started to protest again. “It’s just a possibility, and that will only be if our options for marriage are not there. From the way things are going, I can see marriage happening for both of you.”
“But what about you?” Regina asked.
Ellie smiled. “Don’t worry about me. I’m sure I can figure something out for myself. Maybe if you two marry well then I won’t need to.”
Inwardly, though, Ellie was silently hoping that was the case. She couldn’t see marriage happening for her. She wasn’t as pretty or as popular as her sisters. They had better chances of finding a husband.
You have a very good chance of finding a husband already. He’s right in front of you if you want to look properly.
Ellie pushed that away. She was not going to think about North now. She needed to concentrate on her sisters.
