“And when I’m married, then what? I put on my glasses and my husband recoils in horror?”
“You will be married by then. There will be no going back,” Edward said.
Ignoring him she glared at her parents. Neither looked away, and she knew her fate was sealed.
“Very well.” She got to her feet then, and left without speaking another word. Reaching her room minutes later, she closed the door quietly behind her. Walking to the window, Liberty looked down at the street below.
Her parents were good people, and she’d thought as they’d not pressed her lately, that they’d come to the understanding she didn’t want to marry, but they’d not given up hope it seemed.
“My lady.”
“We are going for a walk, Helen.”
Ten minutes later, dressed in a pelisse, gloves, and a bonnet, she reached the front entrance.
“Where are you going, Liberty?”
Turning, she looked to the top of the stairs and found her mother there. She rarely questioned her actions. It seemed that was about to change too, and no doubt at her father’s orders.
“Out for a walk, mother. Do you wish to come?”
“No, but thank you for asking. Have a nice walk, ladies, and Liberty, you will not wear your eyeglasses, as someone may see you.”
She bit back the sigh. “Of course, but it will be all right if I fall and break a bone, I suppose?”
“Take them off please,” her mother said unmoved by her words.
Liberty removed her eyeglasses, and dropped them into her reticule.
Letting herself out the door, Liberty realized she would have to think long and hard about her next steps, because she had no wish to marry now, or ever.
Chapter Ten
Walking along thestreet, Liberty wandered for a while, not that she could see anything up close clearly. Distances were not too much of a problem, blurry, but mostly, she could navigate about the place easily, especially with Helen at her side.
Her mind whirled with the problem of how to stop her parents putting pressure on her to marry. Yes, she knew that a woman in society had one goal. To wed and wed well. There was no greater shame than being a spinster and living off your family. Liberty had understood this but as time went on, she’d thought her parents had accepted the fact she would not marry.
“I don’t want to wed just anyone, Helen.”
“As you shouldn’t,” her maid said. “But it’s your duty to do so.”
“Duty to whom?”
“Your family,” Helen said with no hesitation. “A little to the left, my lady, as there is a raised cobblestone.
“I am not completely blind, but thank you for the reminder,” Liberty said, walking left. “And I understand it is expected of me to wed, even if I have no wish to,” she muttered. Helen wisely chose not to comment further.
Liberty walked, looking in shop windows and at passersby, but not really seeing as she contemplated her problem.
“Good Lord,” Helen said suddenly.
“What?” Liberty looked at her maid. The woman had a shockedexpression on her face, and she was staring at a cart that was rolling away from them. “Helen, what is going on?”
“I’m sure Sydney was driving that cart.”
Helen and Liberty had known each other for years, as they’d both grown up close to Bidham. Helen was two years older, and far more responsible according to her parents, which is why she was chosen to accompany Liberty to London.
“Your brother Sydney? I thought he lived and worked a few miles out of Bidham?” Liberty squinted to focus on the cart, and then thought to hell with it, and took out her glasses.
