“Yes,” Arabella said. “Love. Which has to do with coupling.”
“Children,” Rebecca said. “Which also has to do with coupling.”
“Money,” said Juliana. “Land. Titles. Dresses. Jewels.”
“Are you marrying Sir Timothy for those things, Juliana?” Arabella was shocked.
“I am not marrying him yet! We are merely engaged to be engaged. But perhaps I am drawn to him for those reasons.” Juliana shrugged. “We are not all heiresses like you, Arabella.”
Lord Dalrymple had a lovely earldom but the lands were not extensive and sometimes, Arabella knew, the Dalrymple girls might not have every luxury they wanted. Also, with five daughters to be married, the funds for dowries would be stretched thin, and the girls would need to marry rich men who had no need of dowries.
“But don’t you want love?” Arabella asked.
“I do,” Rebecca said and slipped her hand into Arabella’s and gave a quick squeeze.
Juliana bit her lip. “I don’t know. It seems like love might give someone a desperate sway over you.”
“Yes,” said Arabella and smiled. “And you over him.”
Juliana narrowed her eyes. “Are you in love, Arabella?”
“I don’t know.” Arabella looked at her own hands.
Juliana leaned forward, intently. “You have some secret, I can tell.”
Arabella had held her thoughts of Alasdair so close for so many weeks—nay, for months now. She had never kept a secret so long. She had never had a secret so important. She longed to tell Juliana and Rebecca of her feelings.
She spoke slowly at the start. “I have met him only once. But I think,” she felt herself blush, “no, I know that I could be in love with him. Very easily. I want to ... Oh, so many things.”
Now Rebecca and Juliana both joined Arabella in sitting on the edge of the bed, each one flanking her.
“You must tell us,” Juliana said.
“Oh, please do, Arabella,” Rebecca breathed.
“His name is Alasdair.”
The Dalrymple girls were silent.
“I know of no Alasdair among our acquaintance in London,” Juliana said. “Is he inDebrett’s?”
“No, he is a physician and lives near Sommerleigh. My brother-in-law’s, the Earl Drake’s estate.”
“A physician?” Juliana frowned. “But your two sisters? I mean to say, one married a viscount, the other an earl, and now your mother is married to a duke. I would have thought you wouldn’t settle for anything less than a baron. Won’t your mother oppose your marriage to a mere physician?”
“No,” said Arabella stoutly, but she did tremble a bit inwardly since her mother had permitted her to have Seasons, starting when she was sixteen. What other purpose was there for a Season with thetonof London but to attract a lord as a husband? Her mother must want that for her.
“No, she won’t think it important,” Arabella went on. She must believe that. “My father was a cit and my mother loved him, and he loved her. And she came from farmers, you know.”
The Dalrymple girls did know, of course. They also knew that Catherine had been an actress before she married the banker Edward Lovelock. And now she had married a duke, seventeen years her junior, and was about to have his baby. Thetonhad talked of nothing else for the last two months of the Season.
“Tell us more about Alasdair, Arabella,” Rebecca said.
“He is from Scotland—”
The Dalrymple girls hooted at this. Arabella had gone to Scotland the August of the previous year, long before she had met Alasdair, and had come back enraptured. She had become fascinated by all things Scottish, and the Dalrymple girls knew that. Arabella had had several dresses made up in tartan and in fact was wearing a blue-and-green one right now. She had even tried a nip of her stepfather Middlewich’s illegal Scottish whisky last month and although it was not to her taste, she had vowed she would try it again.
“He is tall and has dark-red hair and green eyes and dimples.” The description seemed inadequate to Arabella. How could she put into words the feeling that had swept over her when she had spoken with him? That she had instantly known that he was all that was good and kind? And that he was devastatingly handsome? And that for the first time, she had really understood why men and women wanted to lie down together, naked?
