“When you were my age, you were already married to my mother.”
“It was an arranged match. You’re old enough for me to be candid about my feelings toward the woman. It was never love.”
I figured as much. “What is this really about, Father?”
“For your own good, Danica, break things off with this woman before you seriously cause some damage.”
Danica turned toward her father. The man sat with one leg over the other, eyeing a painting of a lily in water.
“What damage would I be causing?”
“Do you really need me to give you a lecture about what it means to be a Moreau? You’re lucky your mother and I didn’t betroth you from the moment you were born. Certainly wasn’t due to a lack of interest the moment you were announced female. There weremanyyoung sons in America, let alone Europe, who would have been happy to be adopted into the family. You could even keep your name.”
“Because it went so well for you.”
“Your mother and I had extenuating circumstances that made us the first in a long line of arranged marriages to divorce. Trust me. I did not take any pleasure in it. You’ll also notice that I’ve never remarried.”
Would cut into your lifestyle, I’m sure. Danica and her father did not share predilections. “I do not fall in love lightly, Father. I’m not even saying that I’m about to ask Alicia to marry me.” The thought may have entered her head once or twice, though. “I would like to at least cordially introduce her to you.”
Danica could not read her father’s expression.That’s never a good sign. “I know she’s very pretty. That I cannot deny.” Russell stood. “Yet, like you claim to not fall in love easily, I do not give out my advice on such matters as easily, either. Quite frankly, this Ms. Colbert isn’t good enough for you, Danica. Perhaps if we did not claim the status that we do. As it is, we need your future wife, if she must be such, to be a woman of upstanding character and breeding. We know nothing about this young woman.”
“I can assure you that she has an upstanding character.” Well, Alicia hadn’t tried to steal from her yet. She was already ahead of fifty percent of the women Danica dated.
“Does she have excellent breeding?”
“Unfortunately for you, I believe she’s of simple English and Irish peasant stock.”
“Then she isn’t good enough for you.” Russell sighed. “I don’t say this to upset you. I say this because I am your father, and I have to watch out for your future. One day, when you are a parent, you will understand.”
Would she, now? Danica was never sure about that.It’s hard enough to imagine myself as a mother, let alone what kind I would be.“What are you going to do to replace her? I fully expect a lineup of beautiful, well-bred women waiting for me when I get back from Chicago.”
“You jest, but if that’s what you want, I can employ the matchmaker they use in Europe to find you more suitable matches. It’s true. You are now at an age where we must start considering your marriage status. I won’t live forever. Would be nice to see some grandchildren before I pass on from this world. Particularly a grandson. Pick up where your mother left off.”
Danica pretended to inspect the luggage Mr. Clayborn packed on her behalf. “I don’t think a matchmaker would be necessary.” Bad enough her father was always inviting over other fathers to meet Danica… fathers with daughters.Well-bred daughters. Because nothing turned Danica on more than having lovers forced upon her.
Hilariously enough, that reallydidn’tturn her on. She preferred to find women on her own. Like Alicia. Danica had only been looking for her because she heard a new hostess was at her club. After that? Everything had been organic. The pursuit. The seduction. The never-ending thoughts as she tried to get back to her life after their first encounter. Alicia had come so willingly, too. Sure, lots of women did, but with the fervor and the lust for experimentation that Alicia had? Didn’t happen often.
There was still so much to expose her to. At first, Danica was content with having a new plaything that reminded her of thebeautiful woman she had been imagining for the past ten years. Then Alicia told her that she was a virgin when they first met.
Hadn’t the fortune teller said something about that?
“Let the girl go, Danica,” her father said. “It’ll be easier for both of you if you do it now. She doesn’t get her hopes up, and you don’t…”
Neither of them would say “get your heart broken.” The idea was silly.My father was far from heartbroken when he divorced my mother. Contrary to what the papers said, it had nothing to do with her beating him.
“I’ll think about it,” Danica said. She stepped away from the luggage and checked her phone. No messages from Alicia, but there were about five from Ms. Sarah Clayborn. “In the meantime, how about you let me be the adult we both know I can be?” Danica was ready to show herself out of her own chambers. “Your objection, however, has been noted.”
Russell said nothing. Not that Danica cared. She was an adult, wasn’t she? Of course she was. So was Alicia. Together, they were quite the pair of adults.
Danica pulled out the black box she had kept in her jacket pocket as soon as she was away from her father. The man would have feared it was a diamond ring. Not quite. More like her new pair of diamond cufflinks.
They had her name on them.
Soon, so would Alicia. Danica’s name on her body. Hearing her name in the back of her mind at all hours of the day. Physically. Emotionally. Psychologically.
Legally.
Soon, Alicia Colbert would no longer be known by that name. Danica didn’t care what her father thought about that. Danica respected her father, but she was not subservient to him. Life was too short to be betrothed to anyone but the woman of her dreams.
