Henrietta exhaled. Catherine could see her relief relax her delicate features.
“Six months after our mother ran away, she came back to give birth. And I heard what happened. It’s not something I would ever forget. It was…rather loud. The next morning, she was dead. And there you were.”
“So I’m really Father’s?”
“Yes. I promise.”
“It’s just a vicious rumor,” Catherine supplied. “You will learn, Henrietta, that society is full of gossips who like to embellish tales that are already sad.”
“Why? Who would be so awful?”
Catherine turned to John. They exchanged a look full of mutual knowledge. She knew that she could better explain than him.
“You are about to be a young lady in society,” Catherine began, “and it can be quite competitive. Vicious, even. The main focus of the season for most young ladies is to find a husband. In these marriages, a great deal of money and status changes hands. Parents want the best for their offspring—and their own prospects. Rumors, gossip, scandal—these are all things, among others, that are used to compete for the best matches.”
“So no one will want me? Because of the scandal?”
“No,” Catherine said, “there will be many whodowant you. You are young and beautiful and the sister of a duke.”
“And you’ll have a dowry of sixty thousand pounds,” John broke in.Well, hopefully,Catherine added to herself. Once they found her aunt.
Henrietta wrinkled her nose. “I don’t want to be loved for mymoney.”
“You won’t be,” Catherine said, shooting a look of warning at John, willing him to be more sensitive to Henrietta’s reasonable vanity. “You should feel lucky, though, to have such a large dowry, because it will make marrying the man of your choosing much easier. There are few things worse than falling hopelessly in love and having the match be impossible for reasons beyond your control. A pain many young ladies have endured.”
“Why would a match be impossible?” Henrietta said, her voice a rapt whisper.
Catherine hesitated. “A man may love a lady but his relations might object to her lack of fortune. Or he may have concerns and responsibilities that desperately need funds, and so, out of duty, he cannot commit himself to her. The dowry smooths the way. You must be grateful for it.”
“I see,” Henrietta said. “It is as much an aid to love as it is an enticement for it.”
“It can be,” Catherine said, “and this is part of what we will continue to discuss in your lessons. You must be able to judge if a man cares foryouand not your dowry. That is the disadvantage of a large dowry. You will receive certain suitors who are not sincere. The one consolation of penniless girls is that their attractions are all their own.”
Catherine felt John’s eyes on her. When she turned to look at him, she could tell, by the set of his mouth, that he was impressed by her words to Henrietta.
“Do you have any other questions, Retta?” John asked.
She shook her head.
“You will need to learn how to meet whispers,” Catherine said, “but that’s why you have me.”
“Thank God for that,” John said.
Catherine and Henrietta spent the rest of the day together, discussing her future. Rather than ignoring them as he had done, John joined them for lunch and supper. He teased Henrietta on her high expectations for her season. And he gave Catherine glances that made her shudder with desire. Catherine couldn’t remember a time that she had laughed so much as with Henrietta and John. She had, of course, had laughter with Lady Wethersby and Ariel in the past three years, but it was the survivalist kind, as they skidded from scrap to scrap. In Edington Hall, with Henrietta and John, it was a different kind of laughter. The laughter of safety. They could joke and caper without having to think of their next ploy for survival.
Now Catherine was in her bedchamber, having slipped into her night rail. She hoped that, once the house settled, John would come to her.
Just as she had that thought, she did hear a knock. She smiled. It was a little earlier than she expected but she was glad nonetheless.
She opened the door. “Mrs. Morrison?”
The older woman stood there with a grave expression.
“Is everyone well? Is Lady Henrietta ill?”
“Everyone is alive and well, Miss Aster. I wanted to speak with you. Alone.”
“Of course,” she said, letting her in and closing the door behind her.
