“Not too much time. If you don’t resolve this soon, you’ll be standing at an altar with him.” The wedding was less than two weeks away, and that ticking clock felt ominous now.
“A day or two. I’ve received quite a lot of shocking information tonight. I need some time to think it all over.”
Fletcher nodded slowly. “All right.” He wanted to give her the time she needed, and he imagined that this entire conversation had been a bit of a shock for her. But at the same time, this felt unsatisfying and unresolved. “It’s just, I hear what you are saying, but I want…” But what did Fletcher want? A promise she wasn’t prepared to give him yet?
“Cheer up. It’s not ano. I need time.”
“All right. I hear you. Let us go back inside.”
Chapter Fourteen
The next afternoon, Louisa found her mother in the sitting room, working on her needlepoint.
“Mother, I must speak with you.”
“It’s nearly time for tea. Let us speak like civilized people.” She summoned a maid and requested tea be brought.
Louisa’s mother had long relied on protocol. She liked things to be done in an orderly manner, in accordance with tradition. Her daily schedule was rigid. So Louisa had to wait for tea to be served before she could speak. Luckily, it didn’t take long, possibly because Lady Petty had tea at the same precise time every day and the staff knew to anticipate it.
So Louisa bided her time while her mother poured tea and put a few biscuits on a plate for Louisa.
“What did you want to discuss, dear?”
She considered laying down her argument carefully, but what came out of her mouth was, “I need to call off my engagement.”
“What? Why?” Mother already looked scandalized, so this would be a battle.
Louisa tried to brace herself. “I’ve learned some things about Rotherfeld that make me think we do not suit.”
“What things?”
There was no way her mother—a sheltered, traditional woman who did not read much and had never been a gossip—would understand the truth, so Louisa said, “Well, for one thing, he’s very boring.”
“Louisa. That is hardly a reason to call off an engagement. He’s a husband, not a night at the opera. He’s stable. There’s no scandal attached to him.”
“I wouldn’t go that far. I think he may be…having an affair.” There. That should put Mother off Rotherfeld.
“What evidence do you have forthat?”
“I saw him talking to someone at the Atherton ball last night, and they seemed quite…intimate.”
“Louisa. You must stop this nonsense.”
“It’s not nonsense! My concerns about Rotherfeld are sincere. I am near certain he is having an affair.”
Mother shook her head. “You constantly do this.”
That took Louisa aback. “Do what?”
“You’ve always been a rebellious child. You’ve read a few books about women’s rights and now have decided you must bestrongandindependent.” Mother’s tone indicated these were negative traits. The disdain came across clearly. “You’ve been pushing off marriage since you came of age, and I know you are reluctant to do it, but you cannot push it off forever. Your father and I will not always be here, and the only way to set yourself up for the future is to marry. And in Rotherfeld, you’ve got a wealthy, powerful husband who will take care of you and your children.”
Was that what she thought? That Louisa had read Wollstonecraft—which she had, granted—and decided to eschew marriage entirely? “I am not against marriage, Mother. But whoever I marry is someone I will have to live with for the rest of my days, so I want to marry someone I actuallylike.”
“Women do not always have that luxury.”
“It would not matter to you if my husband were stepping out on me? If he couldn’t even find respect enough for me to be faithful during our engagement?”
“Men have affairs.”
