Did she even want anything from him? Every time she tried to keep herself from him, she was drawn back again and again, and he had disappointed her every single time.
It was confounding.
The upstairs landing had been rather quiet this morning, she noted as she reached the bottom of the stairs, where servants were bustling to and fro, carrying flower arrangements and furniture. Was her mother hosting some kind of party? Ada hoped not. She did her best to avoid most parties her parents wanted to attend, and it was difficult to make excuses when they were at her home.
“Mother?” she calledout.
“In here!” came her mother’s voice, filled with excitement and, if Ada was correct, a bit of trepidation.
Ada pushed open the dining room door, coming to an abrupt halt when she saw who was within the room.
The first person she saw was a rather ill-at-ease David. Next to him was his mother, his father on her other side. They stood when Ada entered, her parents looking at her with expressions she assumed were meant to warn her not to do what every instinct inside her was telling her to do – flee.
“Good morning,” she said cautiously.
“Good morning, Ada,” David said, stepping forward, although Ada was fairly certain she had seen his mother poke him in the side first.
“What a surprise to have you visit so early in the morning,” she said, taking her own place between her parents, feeling rather trapped with one of them on each side of her. She lifted the cup of tea that had been placed before her to her lips.
“Today is a special occasion,” her mother said with a smile that appeared to be rather forced. “We have some news.”
“You will be married today,” her father said abruptly, causing Ada to spit out her tea.
“Ada!” her mother chastised, but Ada didn’t care about her lapse in manners, intentional or not.
“I will bewhat?”
“I know it is rather unconventional,” her mother said with a slight wince, “but it is not as though we haven’t known that this was coming for some time. Now would be a very prudent time to marry, and with the Carters’ agreement, your father secured a common license so we do not have to wait for the banns. You are to be married in a few hours, so eat quickly as we need to get you dressed.”
Ada looked across the table at David incredulously, ignoring their parents for a moment.
“Do you want this?” she asked him, causing her mother to suck in a breath.
“Of course,” he said, looking even queasier, if that were possible.
“David,” Ada said, leaning forward, “we both know that neither of us wants to marry the other. Why are we doing as they tell us to do?”
“Now, that is quite enough,” David’s father said, but Ada didn’t let up her insistent stare, even though David refused to meet her eyes.
Finally, he sighed, looking to his parents before he turned to her. “There is no point in keeping up this pretense. It is true that Ada and I have no wish to marry one another. But Ada, it doesn’t matter. For both establishments to be successful, we need each other. We need your family’s connections, and your family needs our legitimacy.”
“Many a company has successfully partnered without marriage,” she said through gritted teeth.
David’s father cleared his throat.
“We decided that the marriage would show a united front. Some of our customers have had doubts about our ability to work together, given past volatility in our relationship. This would show that we have mended any previous concerns between us.”
Ada looked from her mother to her father, to David’s parents. All of them were truly willing to sacrifice their children’s wants so that the business would do well?
“It also secures the succession of our company,” her father continued. “I have no sons of my own, so this will ensure that I have someone to help me with it in the future.”
Ada nodded quickly. That had always been her parents’ greatest concern. That they didn’t have a son. She should have been that boy, but here she was. A pawn.
“Well,” she said, placing her hands on the table, standing. “I appreciate all of this collusion without my agreement, but I decline. Unfortunately for you, you cannot force me to marry against my will.”
Her father placed his head in his hands while Mr. Carter stared at her grimly.
“I’m afraid that I cannot allow you todecline.”
