Lord Crownway hosted the wedding breakfast. Marina would depart for her new home with her new husband later that afternoon.
It was impossible not to notice how different everything was from the day of Norman and Susan’s wedding. Norman recalled how beautiful he had found Susan and how his admiration of her had carried him through the ceremony, but there certainly hadn't been any reveling. This, though, was the opposite set of circumstances. Marina could hardly stay in her seat. She was full of boundless energy, so excited by the sheer fact of her marriage to her husband that she kept bouncing up on the premise of having something she needed to do. Every time a guest arrived, she sprang up to greet them. Everywhere she went, she danced.
Gilbert, meanwhile, watched her as if she was the most captivating thing he had ever seen. People spoke to him, and he gave simple answers, not truly engaging them in conversation. He seemed unable to focus on anything other than his wife. It was as if the wedding breakfast was nothing but a distraction.
Norman was quietly amazed. He had understood that these two genuinely cared for one another and that they really did want to be married, but seeing it play out was something different.I’m happy for them,he realized.I can see why Susan was so eager to help her sister get to this place. I just don’t know why she’s acting as if she regrets it today.
She really was acting like that. He had wondered whether Susan would at least put on a face of being happy for her sister once they reached the breakfast, but she hadn’t. Instead, she sat at the table, her eyes on her sister, a somber expression on her face, and Norman didn’t know what to make of it.
After the plates had been cleared, she got up quickly, even though everyone was still sitting and talking. She looked at Marina for a moment, then walked out of the dining room.
Marina must have understood that as a summons, for she got to her feet as well. “Will you excuse me for a moment?” she murmured to her husband and followed her sister from the room.
Norman looked at Lord Crownway. He didn’t even appear to have noticed what was happening. He was caught up in conversation with the gentleman sitting next to him, the two of them laughing heartily about something.
It must be a very good day for this gentleman, who has been so occupied with the idea of marrying off his daughters,he thought, feeling a strange bitterness toward the man.He hasgotten everything he wanted, and now he doesn’t have to think about them or their happiness anymore.
It was a strange sort of anger. Why shouldn’t Lord Crownway feel happy to have his youngest daughter wed?Shewas clearly happy about it.
He rose from the table without knowing exactly what he meant to do and left the dining room in the same direction Susan and Marina had gone.
He didn’t have to walk very far before he heard the sound of voices coming from a room off the foyer.
“Sue, I wish you would try to be happy.” That was Marina. “I’m happy, and so is Gilbert. And so is Father!”
“Father being happy is no kind of evidence that I should be happy,” Susan’s voice said. “He and I have almost never agreed on anything in our lives.”
“You agree that you want me to be happy,” Marina said.
Susan sighed. “He wants you to secure a respectable match, Marina. I wouldn’t give him too much credit for that. I don’t thinkhappinesshas anything to do with what Father wants for you. I’m sure he wouldn’t object to the knowledge that you’re happy, of course, but that’s not his priority at all.”
“Oh, Sue.”
“But itismine. And you know that.”
“I do know.”
“I just worry about you, Marina. That’s what this is. I’m worried.”
“Well, you can’t keep worrying about me all the time,” Marina said firmly. “You need to let go of those worries, Sue. For your own sake—and for mine. I can’t be preoccupied with this. I can’t reassure you all the time. I need you to accept that I’m happy.Let mebe happy. Stop worrying about me all the time. Please.”
“Marina…”
Marina’s voice became stern. “It isn’t fair to keep looking at me as if I might fall apart,” she said firmly. “It isn’t fair to act as though you’re waiting for my marriage to go sour. I know you have your doubts, but I want you to try to believe in the possibility that this could be good, because I believe it, and I deserve to have faith in it.”
There was silence.
Norman felt strongly that Marina was right. A part of him wanted to burst into the room where the sisters were talking and back her up, tell Susan that she ought to have faith that marriage could be a good thing.
And yet… how could he claim to have that opinion, when Susan knew perfectly well that he himself had not wanted to marry?
How could he be bothered by her opinion when it should have been the same as his own?
CHAPTER 19
“You really don’t think marriage is a good thing, do you?”
Susan looked at Norman. The two of them were in the carriage now, on their way home from Marina’s wedding breakfast, and the sun was high overhead. Susan had been enjoying the view, allowing the countryside to distract her from her worries about her sister, but now it seemed her husband was going to insist upon a conversation.
