Page 5 of Persuasions of an Earl's Daughter

Was there something terribly wrong with one of them and Aunt Sarah wished for some time to explain so?

“What is it?” she managed to whisper.

“Well, we’re concerned about you that is all.”

Lilly released a rush of breath. “About me?”

“Indeed.”

“But you never need worry about me!”

“You are about the toughest young lady I know, that is true, but since your sisters have all married...”

“You do not think I am worried about not having a husband, do you?”

Her aunt chuckled. “Not at all. It was quite the surprise—and I’ll admit—a relief that your sisters settled so happily, but I never in many lifetimes anticipated as much for you.”

Lilly wasn’t certain why but the thought that even her aunt thought her entirely unmarriageable made her deflate a little. It wasn’t that she did not want to marry as such, it was just that she had never met a single man who interested her. Besides, she was still a scandalous Musgrave was she not? Despite her sisters marrying well, the taint of the Musgraves’ disasters that had seen them rousted from Society combined with the ‘new money’ status of her father left her rather on the edge of society.

But it was easier there. She had been too young to know much of London Society when they were sent out of it, and she enjoyed life in Bath. Even if it meant a slightly quieter social life than some.

“We are more worried that perhaps, well...” Aunt Sarah heaved out a hefty sigh and she imagined the talk her sisters might have given her, explaining precisely how carefully she ought to say things given her usual predilection for spilling the truth no matter what.

“Aunt Sarah, just say it,” she insisted. “We were never ones to mince words with one another.”

“Our fear is that you are lonely,” she said in a rush.

“Lonely?”

“With all of your sisters gone—especially Ivy—the house is quiet.”

“I see them quite regularly.”

“That is slightly different to having them living at home.” She gave a soft smile. “I have watched all my nieces fly and become busy with their lives and it was always expected. Your parents and I were prepared for such a time. But I doubt you ever had such thoughts.”

Lilly gnawed on the end of a thumbnail. The house was quiet without her sisters and things felt odd indeed now Ivy was gone too. That didn’t mean she was lonely, though. She met her sisters regularly and she had a few good friends not to mention her horses to keep her busy.

She wasn’t lonely. How could she be? She had a busy life.

Stretching a smile across her lips, she dropped her hand to her lap. “I am not lonely, Aunt. I do not have time to be lonely. My life is busy and that’s the way I like it.”

She fixed her with a look that told Lilly she didn’t quite believe her. She would have to do better to convince her. No one ever worried about the youngest Musgrave and that’s the way she liked it. They all had enough to think about without fretting for her. With Ivy pregnant and Clementine nursing a young baby and Violet being the highlight of Bath society again, they all had enough to think on.

“Sometimes a busy life is a way of escaping one’s worries.”

Lilly frowned. Her busy life was the way it was because she enjoyed it and she wasn’t sure she liked the idea of her parents and aunt monitoring her closely. As the youngest of four, she had always rather got away with doing whatever she wanted. She’d rather hoped that might continue.

“I am more than well.” She tapped a finger against the glass window and straightened. “And I am even better now. Look, we are here.”

∞∞∞

It had been a week of unexpected incidents.

First August hadn’t been able to persuade Lilly Musgrave to part with the horse she’d inherited fromhisuncle.

Now, he failed to capture anyone’s attention as he walked through his late-uncle’s house in search of his cousin.

Each room was a bustle of activity. Sheets were being thrown over furnishings while other pieces were being moved. He’d already spied several carts by the stables filled with everything from chairs to taxidermized birds to a perambulator that had to be decades old considering his cousin Percival was five-and-twenty.

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