“I appreciate the offer, but I do not think such lessons are necessary for someone like me,” Rose said, although she did not sound very sorry about it.
“What’s wrong with you?”Bridget asked, narrowing her eyes at Rose.“Why would I need to learn to dance, and you do not?”Charlotte was frowning too, and she’d sat up straight, her pale eyes focused on Rose, waiting to hear her answer.Although she had not protested taking the lessons, it was very possible that both girls would stage a rebellion if they thought they were unnecessary.
They did not truly understand how much they owed Lady Stark and the duke—and Johanna hoped they never really did.A little inkling might have been helpful right now, though.
Both Johanna and Rose glanced at each other.They’d all been apart from Society, unable to accept any invitations until now.Neither Bridget nor Charlotte truly understood how Rose would be viewed by Society; in their household, she hadalwaysbeen treated as their family because she was.They did not understand that, because she was illegitimate, not everyone would view her that way.
Lady Stark had gone rigid, looking as though she was biting her tongue, but she gave them a sharp look as if to sayexplain this, or I will.
“I… you are going to be a young lady of theton,” Rose said after a moment.“Young ladies of thetondance.”
“Are you not a young lady of theton?”Bridget was like a dog with a bone.“I know Johanna did not have a debut, but that was because we were poor.Now we are not.”
“Bridget, you cannot just say things like that!”Johanna was aghast, and she shot an apologetic look at Lady Stark.
“At least not in public,” Lady Stark agreed.“Young ladies are not so blunt with their words, and it is not polite to talk about finances in mixed company.”
“Well, we are not in public, we are at the breakfast table,” Bridget replied ruthlessly.“And the duke has left, so Micah is the only man left, and he knows we were poor.”
“Still are,” Micah added cheerfully.Johanna sent him a dire look he completely ignored.“I do not know if the duke will be able to get the money Blash stole from us back.We are reliant on his generosity for now.”
“Johanna is his wife, so is it not her generosity?”
As usual, Bridget was asking questions Johanna did not know how to answer.She looked at Rose, then at Lady Stark.
“Not exactly,” Johanna said at the same time Rose spoke.
“I will take the dance lessons,” her cousin announced, obviously exasperated.“Even though I will never need them.”
“I still want to know why you will never need them.”
“Because I am illegitimate, Bridget,” Rose huffed, tilting her chin up as she sat back in her seat, crossing her arms over her chest.
Johanna’s heart ached, and she wished she was beside her cousin so she could hold Rose’s hand.It did not matter to her that Rose’s parents had not been married; it never had.
“My parents were not married, so even though I am your cousin, none of the noblemen will marry me because I am a bastard, and my grandparents were from Africa, not England.No nobleman will want to tie themselves to someone with my lineage.They want a young English woman who is part of the nobility and without any scandal to their heritage.”
For a long moment, silence reigned over the table, and it seemed that Bridget had been quelled by Rose’s blunt honestly.Then she frowned fiercely, shaking her head and slumping back with her arms crossed over her chest, looking remarkably like Rose despite the difference in their coloring.
“Well, then, they are all pinheads, and I do not want to marry any of them either.”She sniffed, tilting her nose up into the air.“Therefore, I do not need to learn to dance.”
“Oh yes, you do,” Rose replied grimly, in the tone of voice that let Bridget know she was serious.When she sounded like that, Johanna already knew that she was going to get her way, and so did Bridget.She scowled, but before she could start trying to argue with Rose, Charlotte put her hand atop Rose’s arm.
“I will marry you, Rose,” she said earnestly, if quietly.
Immediately, Rose melted.They all did.Charlotte’s moments of unexpected sweetness usually had that effect.Even Lady Stark’s expression softened as she looked at Charlotte with a kind of amazement—as this was likely her first time seeing this side of Charlotte.
“Thank you, darling,” Rose said, patting Charlotte’s hand.“That will not be necessary.I do plan to find a husband, just not among the nobility.”
“All right.”Charlotte smiled, then pulled her hand away, returning to her picking at her breakfast.Even with the abundance of food set before them, she barely ate.Johanna did not know if it was because she truly was not hungry or perhaps just not used to eating or if there was some other kind of odd thought process happening inside her head.She made a mental note to speak with Charlotte about it later.There was no need to eat sparingly anymore.
“I think you should marry a duke,” Bridget said.“That way, we do not have to rely on Matthew alone to support us.”
“A duke would not want to marry me, were you not listening?”Rose shook her head in exasperation.“Perhapsyoushould marry a duke.”
“Are there any dukes who are not married that we did not meet at Johanna’s wedding?”Bridget asked, looking at Lady Stark, who shook her head in amusement.She did not seem scandalized by Bridget’s outrageousness, thankfully.“Then they are all likely to be married by the time I am ready to wed one of them.”
“They are going to marry proper young ladies who befit their stations,” Rose told her firmly.
