She looked at him softly, considering him for a moment.
“You seem to think highly of the lady, though.”
“I do. There is nothing at all wrong with her, and yet I cannot help but notice that her mother has already disregarded her.”
“It could have been the surprise of it and nothing more. To be a lady that is expected to leave for a nunnery and then suddenly be on the arm of a duke is nothing short of a shock. Perhaps she only needs time?”
Nathaniel hoped that would be the case. He did not want to make Lady Margaret’s life more difficult, and if her mother was to be envious of her then he did not know quite how to stop it from happening.
“And what of her sisters? Are they happy for her, at least?”
“They do not know as yet. Lady Margaret is to tell them when they return from an outing. From what she has said of them, however, they will be pleased for her.”
“And so they should be. She is helping them all.”
“Eliza, you are a lady. You know how envious they can be, and if they have taken after their mother…”
“Then it is all the more reason for this to be more than a mere ruse. Why not rescue her altogether, and have a wife? Society expects it of you, after all.”
“And expect they will continue to do. I do not have the time, and you know precisely why that is. Once I know that you are taken care of, I will consider myself, but what do you expect me to do?”
“Please do not blame me. You told me from the start that you will not hold my condition against me.”
“And I do not, but you refused to meet the girl. If that is how you intend to be with every lady, then how am I to truly court any of them? They will ask how my sister is, and I could only lie for so long.”
Eliza sighed at that, her gaze drifting from him. She knew that she was difficult at times, and when she recognized it she tried to fix it, but there was nothing to be done if she did not trust Lady Margaret.
“Very well,” she nodded. “But I do not want you to forgo your happiness for my sake. You deserve to love, Nathaniel.”
“I do, and that will not happen if I am tormented by guilt. We will help you first, and then I will find a wife for myself.”
She accepted that, but Nathaniel did not know quite when that would be. They had planned for the baby to arrive, and for them to wait long enough that the age would be unclear. At that point, they would reveal that the child was fathered by her late husband, and that she had remained in their estate as she was unwell.
It was a plan that would have worked, if not for theton. They asked too many questions, thought too deeply, and they would pick their story apart in a matter of hours and Eliza would be ruined. They had to wait, to act at the perfect moment, and that left him very little opportunity to find a wife.
“Under different circumstances,” Eliza asked, taking a sweet and eating it while she spoke, “would Lady Margaret be a good wife?”
“She will make an excellent wife someday, I am certain. She is certainly kind, and selfless, and from asking some people in society, I have learned that she is intelligent too. That is no surprise to me, of course; she has taught both of her sisters, and so she had to have understood it all herself.”
“Then perhaps she might wait for you?”
“She cannot. If she waits much longer, then she will be considered an old maid. I cannot allow her to wait in the hopes that I will change my mind, because I will not. You are my priority, Eliza, and if you are not ready for my absence, then I cannot have a real match.”
“Very well,” she replied, though she did not quite seem convinced.
Nathaniel wondered if Lady Margaret’s sisters had returned, and what they were discussing. He hoped that they were excited for their sister, and that such enthusiasm could possibly encourage their mother to see it all differently too.
He looked at his sister, her gown plain and loose, and hoped that she might soon change her mind. It did not matter that he visited often; she was lonely in that household, and she needed more company than him alone. Her friends in society disappeared when they all married, and then the friends she made during her marriage disappeared after the death of her husband.
She was a lonely young lady, and one with child, which in and of itself made her feel isolated. He wished that he could help her, but there was only so much that he could do when she insisted on being closed off from the world.
“I am to see them all tomorrow evening,” he explained. “They are to come to dinner. I will know, then, how they all feel about it. Here is hoping that we are correct in our assumptions, and that Lady Fairleigh was overcome by the news.”
“Indeed. I cannot wait to hear of it all the day after.”
It was, in part, a reminder that she was alone.
Nathaniel thought of that as he returned home. He did not want his sister to be alone, but it was her own choice and so he could not pity her too greatly. He had been the one to warn her away from the man that made advances, reminding her that it had been mere weeks since the passing of her husband, but she did not want to listen. She deserved to be loved, she claimed, only for the man to disappear once something had come of their union.
