“That will be agreed when the settlements are drawn up. You do not need to worry about that, my dear. Money is a matter for men to decide. I shall ensure you have enough for your furbelows and bonnets.”
“I am glad to hear it. Pray tell me something of life at Pentavon Castle, if it is to be my home. How often do you hold a ball there?”
“A ball? What a frivolous question!”
“Not to me,” she said firmly.
“We never hold balls there,” he said disdainfully. “We go to town for that sort of thing.”
“But that is only three months of the year,” she said sorrowfully. “How dreadful to have nine months of every year without the prospect of a ball. I shall be very miserable.”
“Oh, town is not for the married women,” he said. “My sisters go for their presentations, and to prance around a bit, but dancing is not for the matrons. They have too much to do at home and with the children to care about balls and such like.”
“Then that settles the matter,” Sophia said, withdrawing her hand from his, which had become uncomfortably clammy, andrising to her feet. “I thank you for your most obliging offer, Lord Daniel, but I cannot marry you. We should not suit at all.”
He jumped up, too, his face thunderous. “Because you want to make an exhibition of yourself by dancing?”
“I love to dance,” she said simply. “I have few pleasures in my life, sir, beyond my own family, but dancing is one of them. If you plan to deprive me not only of my family but of the joy of dancing, too, then I cannot possibly marry you. I would have to be greatly in love with you to make such sacrifices, and I am not. Nor do I think you have that attachment to me which would enable you to understand my character and bend to my wishes, even in so small a matter. I suspect, in fact, that you are looking for a wife who will be there when you require her company and will meekly disappear at other times to tend to domestic affairs, while you do as you please. That is not the sort of marriage I hope for.”
“You hope for the moon, then,” he muttered.
“No, only a man who loves me passionately and listens to my concerns and wants to share every part of his life with me, and not one who only sees me as a useful means of obtaining his own accommodation. Goodbye, Lord Daniel.”
She held out her hand, but he was too angry even to touch her. Without a word, he swept out of the room, leaving the door wide open.
For a moment, she stood immobile, savouring her triumph. Then, slowly, she began to laugh. She was still laughing when faces peeped round the door frame.
“Did you actually turn him down?” Charlotte said in awed tones.
“What went wrong?” Augusta said.
“Why did he look so angry?” Maria said.
Mama strode through the door, but she said nothing. Nor did she need to speak, for her dark countenance spoke eloquently enough.
“I could not marry a man who will not let me dance,” Sophia said briskly. “Even you, Mama, cannot expect me to give up every pleasure for the sake of a ring on my finger.”
“Oh, Sophia!” Mama said sadly. “The son of a marquess! You will never have an offer even half so good again, as you must be aware. You are not pining for Mr Payne, I hope,” she added sharply. “Your Mr Payne is never likely to be able to afford a wife, so put him out of your head at once.”
That was easier said than done! Sophia said carefully, “Mama, I know it was an excellent offer and I had no objection to Lord Daniel himself. I rather liked him, in fact. But liking is not quite enough. I have seen what a happy, loving marriage can be, both in you and Papa, and now in Richard and Rowena. You cannot blame me, surely, for hoping still for the same for myself.”
“Which is wonderful when it happens, but one must be practical.” She heaved a sigh. “Well, what is done is done. I must say, you are a great disappointment to me, Sophia. After all my efforts to encourage this match, you snap your fingers at it. Such an undutiful daughter! Well, I wash my hands of you, that is all I have to say on the matter.”
So saying, she swept regally out of the room, head high.
As soon as she had gone, her sisters crowded around her.
“He is back from Edlesborough…”
“…not an hour since…”
“… and when he heard you were with Lord Daniel…”
“…he looked so…”
“Heartbroken!” they ended in unison.
“Simon? Simon is here?”
