“I am in love with another.”
“Another? There cannot be another. Of whom are you speaking?”
“Why, Mr. Hodge.”
“The gardener’s son?” Louisa laughed. “Caroline, you cannot be serious!”
“Whyever not? He is to be a clergyman. And I am not without a dowry. We would certainly not be rich, but we would be well-off. There is no earthly reason why I should not marry him. He has already asked me to.”
“There is every reason! It is lunacy to throw away a proposal from a titled lord with a vast fortune. And for what? To live on a few hundred pounds a year, in a little rectory, visiting the poor and attending church on Sundays. Is this your desire?”
“It is.”
“You have lost your senses, Caroline, and I will not allow it. Now, march back over to Lord Connally this instant, and tell him you have changed your mind.”
“I will not. Too long I have lived under your thumb, Louisa. Too long have I let your wishes dictate my own. I once thought as you did, that a wealthy man with connections to the peerage would make me happy. Now I see that the only life which could make me happy is one lived with the man I love.” Caroline ripped her arm away from her sister’s grasp.
“You’re a fool,” Louisa sneered, turning and walking away from her.
With no other obstacles to meet her path, Caroline hurried to find her love.
S
“There be yer lady, coming this way m’lord,” Mr. Hodge said to Theo.
He turned from the vegetables he was selling and saw Miss Bingley’s head of red curls first as she made her way through the crowds coming towards them.
“Can you manage the stall without me?” He asked Mr. Hodge.
“O’ course! Get on with ye, then, and enjoy the fair!” Mr. Hodge teasingly waved him off.
Theo left the stall and met Miss Bingley before she reached it. Taking her hands, he led her to the area behind all the stalls, where they could have some privacy.
“I told him,” she said eagerly. “I told him that I will not marry him. I braved my sister too. She was livid when I told her that I wanted to marry you instead.”
“My darling!” Theo gushed. He pulled her closer and kissed her.
She pulled back, her cheeks blushing the most becoming shade. “Not here! We are in public. My sister would murder us if someone were to see.”
“What would it matter? We are engaged.”
“Not officially. You shall have to write to my brother to get his blessing, as he is the head of my family. But I know he will give it freely. Come, let us enjoy the fair. I hear the musicians playingScarborough Fair.”
“There is something I wanted to say first,” Theo tried to tell her, but she had already dragged him away from their secluded spot and into the throng. He followed her to the white tent, still holding her hand.
“Dance with me,” she commanded. They joined the circle of people who were performing a familiar folk dance to the song. As they moved through the steps, he spotted Oliver, dancing with Miss Greenbough. He gave them a grin, which they returned.
Theo looked back to his beloved’s face. She seemed happier than he had ever seen her, a jubilant smile from ear to ear adorning her loveliness. She had chosen to wear a white gown with a pale spring-green Spencer which complimented the richness of her red hair and brought out the color of her eyes.
“Now, what was it you wanted to tell me?” she asked.
Theo opened his mouth to tell her, and then in his peripheral vision, he saw someone he had not seen in a long time.
No, not her! Anyone but her!
A lady, dressed in fine silks, came towards him. Theo stopped in his tracks, nearly tripping a nearby dancer.
“Lord Connally?” Her voice was raised in question but she clearly recognized him. “It is you! My goodness, but I have not seen you, these five years! I suppose it is true then, that you have returned from Ireland.”
