“I’m sure we don’t want boring,” Emily put in.
“But if it’s just a matter of shyness, won’t that change after marriage?” Layla added.
Vanessa smiled at Layla’s logic, but the fact was, the excuse she’d given didn’t really explain Monty’s remark, and she intended to find out what would.
She went in search of her mother after tea, but was frustrated to learn Kathleen had gone to Dawton town after lunch and wasn’t back yet. She considered riding to the town her grandfather had founded, well, the marquis had founded the village of Dawton, which had since grown into a township, but she ended up breaking propriety and knocking on Monty’s bedroom door instead. But that just increased her frustration because he wasn’t in it—or wasn’t answering.
She began to wonder if he hadn’t meant to say what he’d said and was now embarrassed by it. He’d been angry with Charley, after all, and her engagement had been mentioned immediately after, so his condolences remark could have just been a churlish remnant of that anger—or from his surprise at hearing she was so suddenly engaged. Or he simply didn’t want to be cornered to explain because he had no intention of explaining.
She stood at the top of the stairs, debating whether to look for him further, when Mrs. Edwards suddenly approached from the east wing with a wide smile and tears glistening in her eyes. “Welcome home, Lady Nessa! You have been sorely missed by the staff, you and the earl both. We look forward to his return very soon, too.”
Vanessa was surprised by the housekeeper’s warm greeting, but the mention of her father just made her miss him all the more and strengthened her conviction that she was doing the right thing in accepting the arranged marriage to end his exile—boring groom or no.
She gave up on her search for more answers and ended up taking a long bath before dinner. And then the maid arrived to do her hair, sent by the twins. When the girl was finished, Vanessa barely recognized herself. The hoyden was definitely gone. She’d never once tried to coif her hair in Scotland. She probably could have, but she was too active there to want to be bothered by slipping pins and unraveling locks, so she’d simply worn her hair clubbed, braided, or loose—one of the little freedoms she now had to give up.
She did find her mother before dinner, catching Kathleen’s maid leaving her room and slipping inside before the door closed. Kathleen was still sitting at her vanity. “A private word, Mother?”
Kathleen turned, then smiled brilliantly. “Don’t you look lovely tonight, darling. I knew you would once you shed the . . . boy.”
Vanessa rolled her eyes. “You might not want to remind me that I’m giving up my preferred attire just to please you, Mother.”
“Forgive me. I have so much on my mind that I am thoughtlessly blundering repeatedly, which you might remember, I never do. But I’m still upset that I was sharp with one of the twins the other night at dinner—in front of our guests.”
Having eavesdropped on that dinner, Vanessa didn’t need to ask about that and got right to the point of her intrusion. “Is there a reason someone might offer condolences for the match you arranged for me?”
“Who would dare be so, so—”
“Accurate?” she cut in, then sighed. “Just tell me what you’ve failed to mention about Daniel Rathban.”
“I told you I don’t know much about him except that he’s quiet and perhaps a little dull.”
“You must know something,” Vanessa persisted.
“Lord Albert mentioned those five potential brides that his boy refused to court to stress his dilemma to me. I gathered that the refusal had nothing to do with the brides, that the boy just won’t marry, though I suppose it could be simply because his father picked those girls.”
“Yet Lord Albert has picked me, too. So if the son is that determined not to marry, what made Lord Albert think a wedding to me would change his mind?”
“It won’t ifhesuggests it to his son. He stated clearly that it would have to be his boy’s idea, which puts the onus entirely on your shoulders, I’m afraid.”
That was unexpected. “You’re saying I will need to woo Daniel Rathban?”
“To the point of a proposal, yes. But again, let me repeat, it may be too late. As I said, I haven’t heard back from Lord Rathban about whether he even needs the match to go forward now. And besides, it may be an impossible task to win a man who rejects the very idea of marriage. Some men do go through life as confirmed bachelors, you know.”
“How old is Daniel now?”
“I’m not sure how old he was when I met him. Possibly midtwenties now, or at least younger than thirty.”
“And you never saw him again on your many trips to London?” Vanessa asked.
Kathleen sighed before admitting, “I stopped going to London after that first year I went to let it be known your father was away from England on business. I miss it terribly, but I found it too tedious after that, always being asked if he’d returned yet—and why not. You’ll probably find it ironic that I agreed to Henry’s despicable terms to avoid a scandal and being shunned by society, then I ended up unable to participate in society anyway.”
Vanessa found it just deserts but didn’t say so. She was going to try, very hard, to keep peace with Kathleen while they both had the same goal of getting William home. “You must miss your friends.”
“I do. Only a couple of them ever came to visit me here in Cheshire, though they all write. I’ve heard that the speculation now is that William likes the warm weather too much to want to come home. And his friend Peter has squashed the other rumor that he stays away because of another woman.”
Vanessa rolled her eyes. “No, there has been no other woman.”
“I didn’t think so, not when you were with him. But speculation tends to run its course of all possibilities when the protagonists aren’t around to say otherwise. I must say how happy I am that we’ll be in London soon and my isolation from society will end.”
