“She hasn’t yet come down, ma’am.”
That’s right. Hannah was a ma’am now, not a miss. It felt strange.
“I’ll see her in her room. I’m sure she won’t mind.” Hannah had walked the path to the guest bedrooms a hundred times since they’d arrived in London. She still felt like a guest, not a visitor. “And could you please bring me up something to eat?”
Mama still had her hair tied in curls beneath her breakfast cap. When she saw Hannah, she sat up straight in her bed, nearly upsetting the tray of food. “What are you doing here? Has something happened?”
“I’m perfectly well,” Hannah assured her. “I just wanted to talk to you.”
“You should be with Mr. Corbyn now,” her mother scolded. “You’re newlyweds. Did you have a quarrel already?”
“No!” Having one’s husband confess his love certainly didn’t qualify as a quarrel, even if it had put Hannah all of a dither. “I need to tell you something, that’s all.”
Molly came in with some hot rolls and marmalade for Hannah, who took a few bites and waited for the servant to leave the room before she continued. “He isn’t going to buy a commission. He never was. He only went along with your suggestion because I asked him to try to impress you.”
Mama’s eyes betrayed her shock first, while her mouth took a little longer to catch up. “Not buy a commission? But he must! You agreed to marry an officer, poppet, not a nobody.”
“He isn’t a nobody,” Hannah protested. “Don’t talk about him that way.”
Mama’s tone softened slightly. “I’ve come to like Mr. Corbyn. Truly. But he has an obligation to provide you with the best life he’s able, and a commission in the army is the only thing that would restore some respectability to his reputation. Unless he plans to use the money to buy a living instead? Does he wish to join the Church?” Her face fell a moment later. “No, I don’t suppose his education would allow it.”
“He’s going to Burton upon Trent to start a brewery with his family,” Hannah explained.
“A brewery? Oh, poppet, really, you must make him see reason. Tell him that he owes it to you to find a respectable station. Or if you won’t tell him, then I will.”
“You will do no such thing.” The image of Mama descending on their lodgings in Southwark to complain in front of Corbyn’s brother and cousin filled Hannah with dread. “The matter is already settled; I agreed to it before we married. I only came to tell you so that you wouldn’t be surprised.”
Mama looked hurt. “Why would you keep something like that from me?”
“Because I knew you wouldn’t approve.” Oh dear. Now she was sounding like Corbyn had this morning. “You can be very hard to please, you know. But none of the respectable men that you wanted me to marry cared one whit for me! Mr. Corbyn may not be wealthy or well-to-do, but he—”
He loves me.Hannah stopped before she said the words aloud.
Mama didn’t seem to have noticed the abrupt end to her speech.“But Staffordshire is sofar. You always said you wanted to stay close to home. Somewhere in the south.”
“I will be in the south,” Hannah said numbly. “I’ve decided to stay in London and help at Jane’s club while he goes north with his family.”
She was hardly listening to her own words. Corbyn really loved her. The when and why of it didn’t matter if the feelings were true. And she’d been cross with him simply because he hadn’t wanted to be separated.
“Why should you want to do that? You’re his wife. Your place is by his side.” If Mama had been angered by the revelation that her new son-in-law would never be an officer, this new information seemed only to have perplexed her.
Of all people!
“There’s nothing strange about it. You don’t live with Papa,” Hannah pointed out.
“Poppet…” Mama drew a shaky breath. “That’s entirely different. You and Mr. Corbyn will fare better than your father and I.”
“How do you know that?” How could anyone know that? No one expected when they exchanged their vows that they would be miserable together, but it happened all the same, and then where would Hannah be?
Mama’s voice had grown far softer than it had been a minute ago. She spoke each word as if taking care that it should reach Hannah’s ears gently. “Because Mr. Corbyn is a different sort of man than your father. He loves you, and you love him.”
“Didn’t you love Papa once?”
Mama dropped her gaze, nudging her food absently around her plate. “You know I don’t like to talk about this sort of thing with you children, but if you insist on asking, then I suppose I thought I did. People grow apart sometimes. I didn’t know him very well whenI accepted his offer, and our differences became more noticeable with time.”
“What if I don’t know Mr. Corbyn very well yet either?” Hannah insisted. “What if we grow apart? How can you expect me to trust my future to a man who might come to dislike me in a few years?”
Mama was silent for a long time. Her dark-brown eyes were pleading. “Hannah, I wish I knew how to reassure you. I tried to keep the peace with your father for a long time before I removed to town, but I simply couldn’t manage it anymore. That doesn’t mean thatyourmarriage can’t be a happy one. Is this why you tried so hard to discourage all your suitors? Because of your father and me?”
