Beth nods slowly. “He wanted her to marry a fortune and title. My father—” She breaks off abruptly, tracking Lady Demeroven across the room.
“He gave her a title and a fortune,” Gwen completes, noticing her father eyeing Lady Demeroven as well from the other end of the wall. “So they couldn’t be together.”
“He used to mention Mother’s other suitor,” Beth says softly.
“Who?”
“My father. He’d tease her when she was writing letters,would ask if she was writing to her other suitor. Mother always played it off, but I think it made her sad.”
Gwen bites back the comment that wants to tear up her throat. How utterly callous. But Beth is upset enough. And here Gwen’s been thinking of this entirely for herself—that Father marrying would give her grace to forget the marriage market, at least for a while. Give her and Beth a chance to have some fun this season.
But now—now they must get them back together.
Because if their seasons were anything like Gwen’s have been, they deserve some resolution after all these years. She wants Father to be happy—to have someone. God forbid she does get married someday, what would he do all alone, rattling around their manor? He may enjoy politics, but even that can’t sustain a man forever. He deserves a chance at love too.
“We have to fix this,” Beth says firmly.
“Agreed.” Gwen loops her free arm through Beth’s. “We’ll just need to think of activities that require no coordination.”
Beth laughs and leans into her. “If you’d told me your plan, I could have told you Mother’s hopeless.”
“Yes, well, my being the only conspirator works in our favor. She won’t suspect you. Me, I’m going to have to be very cunning to get anything past Father now.”
“Hmm. We discussed Ascot,” Beth says slowly.
“That’s ages away though,” Gwen says, watching as Father moves about the room, conducting business but always oriented toward Lady Demeroven somehow. She’s never seen him like this before. It’s sweet, really.
“Riding?” Beth suggests.
“We could do that with other chaperones,” Gwen says. “Does your mother like to ride?”
“It’s our favorite thing to do at our country home,” Beth says, her voice a bit lighter at the thought. “She’s excellent. We could race?”
“Oh, I’d like to see you two try and beat us.”
“You think we can’t? We had nothing but time and land my whole childhood. I bet I could canter circles around you.”
“Father taught me to trick ride,” Gwen counters.
“That must have been fun,” Beth says, looking so genuine that Gwen can’t help but smile.
“It was. I could show you sometime. There are loads of tricks we could do together.” Beth’s eyes light up. “Maybe we convince our parents to supervise?”
Beth sighs. “I think Mother would have a heart attack if I did that in front of her.”
“So only secret trick riding lessons then?”
“Afraid so,” Beth says solemnly.
They both laugh.
“Maybe theater?” Beth suggests, pulling Gwen from thoughts of steadying Beth on the back of an enormous horse, of the two of them in breeches.
“Oh, that has promise,” Gwen agrees. “We’d have to make it seem like a coincidence though, have our seats together. I’m sure I can arrange something.”
“Excellent,” Beth says, grinning up at her, her cheeks a bit flushed. She’s had a lot of her wine already. “I love the theater, but we’ve rarely attended.”
Gwen’s about to suggest a few upcoming performances whenshe notices Lady Demeroven looking around wildly for them. She sees Montson and his mother descending the stairs.
