“I see things differently now,” she continued. “You’re the best match for Hannah.”
“I under— Wait, beg pardon?”
Mrs. Williams kept right on speaking, heedless of his surprise. “At first I thought that this might be some ruse she’d concocted. It wouldn’t be the first time she tried to lie her way out of a match. You should have heard the story she fed poor Mr. Brown about being a Chartist, when he was still trying to court her. But seeing the two of you together, especially after last night—”
“You…approveof the way I behaved last night?” He wasn’t sure which surprised him more: the fact that Mrs. Williams had been onto their game from the start, or the fact that her mind had been changed by the very conflict that had ended things.
“Don’t interrupt, please.” Her scolding, while familiar, was gentler than before. “I understand you better. I know I can trust you to treat Hannah properly, if you were that upset at how Mr. Williams treated me. It showed me that you’re a good man, Mr. Corbyn.”
The acknowledgment was so unexpected that Silas was speechless.
“No one has ever stood up to him before,” Mrs. Williams said softly. “No one has ever defendedmeeither.”
“My father was like your husband.” Silas found the words slipping out of him without conscious intention. What was he doing, spillinghis story to Mrs. Williams? This carriage ride felt like a strange dream. “Is, I should say. He’s still alive, though I don’t know that I’ll ever see him again. He made it clear that I stopped being his son the day I got myself discharged.”
Mrs. Williams looked at him with real regret. “I’m so sorry.”
“I don’t miss him,” Silas lied. He wished it were true, which made it almost not a lie at all. “But I do miss my mother. She doesn’t have the courage to go behind his back. If she were a little more like you, she might not have let him decide matters for the whole family.”
“It took me twenty-seven years to stand on my own,” Mrs. Williams acknowledged. “Maybe one day your mother will be able to do the same. But until then”—she reached across the carriage and took his hand into hers—“if you don’t think it’s too silly of me to say this, I’ll be your family once you marry Hannah. I know we didn’t get off to a good start, but I think I could do better now that I know what sort of man you really are.”
Itshouldhave seemed silly. He was twenty-four, long past the age of needing a mother at all. But he found her little speech strangely touching.
Except for the part about Hannah marrying him.
“It’s impossible now,” Silas pointed out. “You heard your husband. He’ll never consent to the match.”
“No need to worry about that. I can deal with Mr. Williams.”
“How?” He couldn’t let Mrs. Williams suffer for this favor, if it would mean putting herself in his crosshairs.
“I have my ways,” she replied. “Hannah’s dowry is settled on her under the terms of my marriage contract, so he can’t withhold it to punish her. And if it’s an objection you’re worried about, trust that I can apply a little pressure to prevent him from embarrassing you on the wedding day. There was a very shocking story in the papers just this morning about a viscountess who’s divorcing her husband.I might hint that I could do something similar if he proves too difficult. I won’t really, of course, but Mr. Williams doesn’t need to know that.”
She said it so matter-of-factly, it made Silas reassess the assumptions he’d made last night. Mr. Williams might be a petty tyrant, but his wife wasn’t broken.
But even her plotting wouldn’t be enough.They hadn’t addressed the most important thing.
“I’m grateful,” he said, truly meaning it, “but Hannah won’t have me now. She was insulted by my conduct last night. Nothing you do will change her mind.”
“How can you say that?” Mrs. Williams puffed up to something like her former self. Indignation was a powerful restorative. “If she was determined to marry you despite allmyprotests, she won’t be put off by a little scuffle with her father. You must have some faith, Mr. Corbyn. And besides that, you shall also have my help.”
Silas couldn’t stop himself; he began to laugh. What an absurd turn of fortune this was, to go from conspiring with Hannah to trick her mother, to conspiring with her mother to persuade Hannah.
“I don’t think it will be so easy. She’s headstrong.”
“No more of this!” Mrs. Williams used her fan to swat at him lightly. “I won’t hear any more complaints. I shall speak to Hannah today, and we shall keep to our original plans. You’ll be married as soon as the last banns are read this Sunday.”
But she doesn’t want to marry me. She doesn’t want to be married at all.
Hannah had never once expressed a change of heart. She might share an undeniable attraction to Silas, but if she’d wanted him for more than that, she would have come herself.
The sensible thing to do would be to refuse Mrs. Williams and send her on her way. Forget Hannah forever. Silas had learned bynow not to reach above his station, no matter how tempting it had been to believe that he could fit into her world.
But he couldn’t seem to do it. If there was a chance that Hannah could really be his, didn’t Silas owe it to himself to try? He’d never met anyone like her before. He’d never known a woman who had such an exceptional mix of determination and gentleness, who’d seen him for who he was instead of who others had judged him to be. He wasn’t ready to give up yet.
If he didn’t try, Silas would always look back at this moment and wonder how things might have been different.
“All right.” It wasn’t as though anyone wasforcingHannah to marry him. She could say yes or no as she liked, but he wasn’t slinking quietly off into the shadows. “Let’s plan a wedding.”
