A hard question to answer honestly, so he made no attempt to do so.
“There you are, you see?” his mother said triumphantly. “We shall leave tomorrow.”
“You must go if it pleases you, Mama, but I have commitments to keep me here, and Lizzie and Lucy may stay with me, if they wish.”
“Certainly not!” his mother said with hauteur. “The daughters of an earl stay on as guests in a house with no suitable chaperon in residence? I think not, and no, Kiltarlity, you arenota suitable chaperon. If Mr Marsden’s wife were here… but she is not. Stay on here for your own pleasure if you must, for I am sure we will struggle through the journey somehow without your escort, but the girls go where I go. That is the proper way of doing things.”
So saying, she rose and swept out of the room.
Robert looked ruefully at his sisters. “I am sorry your enjoyment will be cut short.”
“It is no matter,” Lizzie said. “Mama is right. With two incomparable beauties in the immediate neighbourhood, not to mention Lady Euphemia and her fifty thousand pounds—”
“Fifty!”
“Yes, an uncle took a fancy to her and promptly died. I wish I had a rich, sickly uncle to leave me such a sum. But you must admit, Robert, no one is going to look at two old maids like us when there are such treasures to be had.”
“Not that there is anyone one would want,” Lucy said.
“Except the marquess!” Lizzie said, laughing. “But we spoilt our chances there. Rushed our fences and no mistake.”
“It is not every day one encounters a future duke who is not hideous in some way or other. We could never get near him in London, but when we suddenly found ourselves under the same roof as him—”
“It went to our heads, rather,” Lizzie said. “So that possibility is gone, Lord Grayling is far too astute to be drawn intomatrimony, and there is no one else here except younger sons — dilatory clergymen and unambitious army officers and ne’er-do-wells, the lot of them.”
Lucy nodded. “Not a one has the wherewithal to marry.”
“Well… not in a style we would enjoy,” Lizzie added, chuckling. “We must just resign ourselves to eternal spinsterhood, sister.”
Robert shook his head at them. “Nonsense! Everything has been a bit topsy-turvy the last two or three years, but I promise you, I mean to open up the London house for the season — even the ballroom! So few houses in town can boast of one, so we might as well make use of it. I shall throw a ball or two for you, and you will be sure to find someone to your liking.”
“Yes, but will we find anyone who likes us?” Lucy said with a sigh.
He sipped his coffee thoughtfully, wondering how much he ought to probe. But these were his own dear sisters, and he wanted above all to see them comfortably settled. This talk of eternal spinsterhood and desperate grasping at every eligible man who came into view was not helpful. And they were alone, so perhaps they would speak freely.
“You have both of you managed before to find men who liked you… who liked you very well. Lizzie, you would have been the wife of a fine naval officer — a captain! — if Father had not caught up with you on the road north and dragged you back to town. Why did you not wait until we next went to Strathinver? Being in Scotland already makes for a far more convenient elopement, I should have thought.”
Lizzie reddened, but she answered composedly, “That was foolish of us, to try to elope from town, but Mark was due to be ordered to sail in a matter of days, and we simply wanted it settled. I was to stay with his parents until he next had leave. But Papa was too clever for us.”
“But why did he never return for you? He has not been at sea for all these years, I am sure.”
“Papa knew people at the Admiralty,” she said, with a resigned shrug of one shoulder. “He could have destroyed Mark’s career, and I never wanted that. Better never to marry than to be the means of ruining a good man, Robert.”
He nodded, and then turned to Lucy.
“Do not look at me like that,” Lucy said. “I know I had offers… several very eligible offers, but— Oh, it was so difficult! You cannot imagine, brother, what it is like to be a woman and have to wait for a man to size you up, like… like aracehorse, and decide whether you are worth the wager. And then the offer is made, and how does anyone decide? Should I take this one, who is rich but sniffs constantly, or hold out for the one who is heir to a title but so, so ugly? Why is it that the handsome, charming ones are all fortune hunters and rakes? And if I turn this one down, will that one come up to scratch or leave me dangling? And all the while, the lovely, shy,perfectone is nowhere to be seen. It is all too difficult!”
“Was there one who was perfect?” he said gently.
“There was. His name was Archie… Archibald Whitwell, the heir to a barony. He was there in the background for two whole seasons, Robert — two years! And he was just the sort of man I should love to marry, not arrogant or bumptious or rakish or a gambler, but sweetly solicitous. But we quarrelled over the most trivial thing — I asked him to fetch me a lobster patty at a ball supper and he brought me a strawberry tart instead, and then he claimed it was because I had asked him for it and I had not, Robert, I swear it! I asked him for a lobster patty, I know I did. But we fell out over it and he left the ball and never came back. I never saw him again, and no one else would ever suit me so well. So you see, it does not matter whether I marry or not, for my life is ruined, quite ruined.”
She sobbed piteously, and even the combined handkerchiefs of the three of them were not enough to mop up the tears. The two sisters left, Lizzie with her arm round Lucy, for the solace of their room and the dispiriting prospect of packing for the journey north.
***
Olivia was excited at the prospect of a day at Grayling Hall. Unlike most of the hunting boxes of Leicestershire, which were small and cramped, with stables considerably bigger than the house, Grayling Hall was a venerable old manor house dating back to Tudor times. Having only glimpsed it in the distance, she was keen to have a closer look and explore the many highly decorated chambers of which Lord Grayling boasted.
Effie was excited, too.
