“I do not wish for someone who needs me to make all decisions for her.”
“But you want to offer guidance. I do not think you would do well with an independent wife.”
“Biddable,” he answered.
“I assume you also require a virgin,” she said quietly.
“No.”
His response took her by surprise.
“I would not marry a woman who might share a reputation such as mine, as I would worry that any child born is not mine,” he explained. “However, women have fallen in love, or believed themselves to be and unfortunately found themselves ruined instead of wed. That should not make them unmarriageable.”
“Those women are no longer in London,” she reminded him.
“Then, if I do not find her here, perhaps I might revisit old gossip and learn the names of those who had to leave.”
She nodded and her respect for Angelo grew.
“There are also misses who may have been betrothed and before she sent her love off to war, allowed shared moments of intimacy. Many of those men did not return. Should she be unmarriageable because she loved and lost before she wed?”
“No,” Octavia answered as sadness swept through her. So many lives were lost to war.
“Do you have a preference for hair, eyes, endowments?”
“She only needs be someone I will desire in face and form. I do not have a preference.” He pulled a piece of paper from inside his suitcoat. “This is a list of the names that still remain.”
Octavia took it from him and read each, all known to her. “Then we shall greet the misses and ladies in whom you may have an interest.”
Lavinia approached, lips firm. “Please, do not be long. I have an appointment to meet with Mr. Valentine to review contracts.”
“If you need to leave to meet with the solicitor, Lavinia, I will watch over our sisters,” Octavia finally said as Lavinia was being far from pleasant.
Her sister glanced at Angelo. “I will remain since your attention is being occupied elsewhere.”
Did her sister suspect…Of course she did. Octavia had confided in Lavinia at the beginning of the Season, though her sister had been shocked and did not understand. However, now it appeared that she did not approve.
Perhaps she didn’t, but Octavia also was confident that her sister would hold her secrets because the last thing that Lavinia wanted was another scandal linked to the family.
“If you need to watch over your sisters, you can make introductions another day.”
“Go on,” Lavinia insisted, then relaxed. “I apologize for being short. I simply wished to be somewhere else.”
“We will try not to be long,” Octavia promised then allowed Angelo to lead her away.
“Are you certain?” he asked.
“Lavinia has not enjoyed London,” Octavia confided quietly. “She would rather be in consultation with Mr. Valentine, our solicitor, or with Leopold acting as the house and estate manager, than in Society.”
“Those are not areas in which most women have an interest.”
“Lavinia has always wished she could pursue the law and has had a passion for it since she was a child, but being a female, it was prohibited. Before she married, she was a bluestocking and a wallflower. Then father married her off to a gentleman that he deemed worthy, and Lavinia was miserable, given there was no love between them.” Octavia glanced over her shoulder to study Lavinia, who looked out over the throng, a sadness in her eyes. “I worry about her.”
“Perhaps she needs a lover,” Angelo whispered.
“Lavinia sees no reason for such,” Octavia answered quietly. “She views intimacy as a necessary means and only for procreation.”
“Is this a moral view or…”
