“Let them have him then,” she snapped, shoving her head back into the pillows.
Rose watched her sister cry for a moment. She looked at her, seeing how upset she was, how utterly shattered her world was. This was about more than what had happened today, and Rose knew well enough the reason.
While Rose had a plan to save her sister, before she enacted it, she needed to make sure it was worth the cost. Only then would she do as she promised.
“Who is he?” Rose asked gently.
“Wh—” Marianne lifted her head from the pillows. “Who? Who is who?”
Rose looked flatly at her sister. “The mystery man that you have been writing to for the last month. And do not lie to me, Marianne. Father might walk about with wool pulled over his eyes, but I do not.”
Marianne winced. “You—you knew?”
“I suspected.”
“It is not… I did not… I was not trying to hide him from you, Rose. I promise, I was not. I just… I was excited, that's all. And I did not want to risk ruining it.”
“So, there is someone else?”
“Does it even matter now?”
“It might,” Rose said. “But first, you must tell me everything.” She looked pointedly at her sister. “And then, if I can, I will help you.”
“But how?”
“Tell me about him,” Rose pressed.
Marianne sniffed back her tears and shuffled to her knees. There, Rose moved over and wrapped an arm around her so that she was holding her sister in comfort. She patted her hair, shestroked her face, and she showed Marianne that she was there for her.
“His name is Julian Ford,” Marianne began. “We met at the Carroway Ball last month, by accident, and I still cannot believe it happened. But it did happen, and from the moment I saw him…” She sniffed back tears, and a smile found her puffy face. “I knew, Rose. I knew then, like I have never known anything.”
“Ford?” Rose considered the name. “Who is his father?”
“The Baron of Westvale.”
Rose winced. “A baron, Marianne? No wonder you were so secretive.”
“That’s not why!” she cried. “I was secretive because I didn’t want to ruin it.”
“And because you knew father would not accept him,” Rose pointed out. “Father wants to match you above our station, and a baron is a step backwards, not forwards.”
“I don’t care what Father thinks! I love him.”
“And does he love you?”
“He does.” She looked at Rose with absolute certainty. “He loves me as I love him. And he will marry me, Rose. I know he will.He just needs more time. To make his fortune so that… so that Father…” She sniffed, and her chin began to wobble. “So that Father will say yes.”
“You believe that?”
Marianne buried her head in her knees. “It doesn’t matter now, does it? I am engaged and Julian… oh, what will I tell him, Rose? How will I explain it? My life is over!” The tears started to come again.
Rose knew already that her sister had found herself an admirer. What sort of sister would she be if she did not? What she had not known, however, was how serious it was.
Marianne had always been a romantic, and this was not the first time that she had become besotted by a man whom their father would rather have pulled off his own toenails than see Marianne wed. On most occasions, these little flings fizzled out, and Marianne was always quick to realize how silly she had been.
This time, Rose sensed a difference in her younger sister.
“And you are certain that this Julian Ford feels the same way about you as you do about him?” she asked.
