“I know what he did, love, and I’m sure you’ve had a good cry over it, so buck up now. No more tears, if you please.”
Katherine didn’t mean to sound so heartless. She really did wish she could understand. She supposed she was too pragmatic, and being realistic to boot didn’t help either. She firmly believed that if you couldn’t win after all your resources were depleted, you gave up and looked on the bright side. No one would catch her beating her head against a wall.
Beth swung around on her little velvet stool, and two fat tears did indeed trickle down the creamy expanse of her cheeks. “That’s easy for you to say, Kit. It wasn’t your fiancé that Father refused and showed the door to.”
“Fiancé?”
“Well, of course. William asked me before he came for Father’s blessing and I said yes.”
“I see.”
“Oh, please don’t take that tone with me!” Beth cried. “Don’t treat me like one of the servants who’s displeased you!”
Katherine was taken aback by this heated attack. Good Lord, was she really that condescending?
“I’m sorry, Beth,” she said sincerely. “I know I’ve never been in this sort of situation myself, so it’s not easy for me to comprehend—”
“Weren’t you ever even a little bit in love, just once?” Beth asked hopefully. Katherine was the only one who could persuade her Father to change his mind, but if she didn’t realize how important it was…
“Honestly, Beth, you know I don’t believe in… What I mean is…”
That pleading expression on her young sister’s face was making this very difficult. The maid arriving with a breakfast tray saved her from saying the truth, that she felt herself immensely fortunate to be one of the few women of her day who could look at love in a practical manner. It was a silly and useless emotion. It produced highs and lows of feeling that had no business cluttering up one’s life. Look what it was doing to sweet Beth. But Beth didn’t want to hear that what she was feeling at this moment was ridiculous. She needed sympathy, not ridicule.
Katherine took the steaming cup of coffee the maid handed her and moved over to the window. She waited until she heard the door close on the servant before she turned to face her sister, who hadn’t moved toward her breakfast tray.
“There was one young man I thought would do,” Katherine offered lamely.
“Did he love you?”
“He never even knew I was alive,” Katherine said, remembering the young lord she had thought so handsome. “We saw each other the whole season, but each time we spoke, he always seemed to look right through me, as if I wasn’t even there. It was the prettier young ladies he danced attendance on.”
“Then youhavebeen hurt?”
“No, I—I’m sorry, love, but you see I was realistic even then. My young man was much too handsome to be interested in me, even though he wasn’t that well off and I am quite a catch, financially, that is. I knew I didn’t have a chance to snag him, so it didn’t bother me that I didn’t.”
“Then you didn’t really love him,” Beth sighed.
Katherine hesitated, but finally shook her head. “Love. Beth, it is the one emotion fated to come and go with remarkable regularity. Look at your friend Marie. How many times has she been in love since you’ve known her? A half-dozen times at least.”
“That’s not love but infatuation. Marie isn’t old enough to experience real love.”
“And you are, at eighteen?”
“Yes!” Beth said emphatically. “Oh, Kit, why can’t you understand? I love William!”
It was time for the hard truth to be thrust home once again. Obviously Beth had not taken her father’s lecture to heart.
“Lord Seymour is a fortune hunter. He gambled away his inheritance, mortgaged his estates, and now needs to marry for money, andyou, Elisabeth, are money.”
“I don’t believe it! I’ll never believe it!”
“Father wouldn’t lie about something like this, and if Lord Seymour tells you differently, it’s he who will be lying.”
“I don’t care. I’ll marry him anyway.”
“I can’t let you do that, love,” Katherine said firmly. “Father meant what he said. He’d cut you off without a shilling. You and William would both be beggars then. I won’t see you ruin your life over this scoundrel.”
“Oh, why did I ever think you might help?” Beth cried. “You don’t understand. How could you? You’re nothing but a dried-up old prune!” They both gasped together. “Oh, God, Kit, I didn’t mean that!”
