Page 1 of The Best of Friends
Chapter One
Yorkshire, spring 1819
Daria Mullins had always knownshe was unremarkable, but she felt certain even extremely ordinary people were entitled to dream of extraordinary things. However, her dreams had changed over the years, growing more reasonable. And of late, even the most ordinary dreams felt out of reach.
“Three Seasons without a match. Don’t you think that is enough embarrassment?” Mother had made that argument more than once already during the family’s discussion of their plans for the Season. “It is important to know when to set new goals. You can decide on a few while your father, brother, and I are in London.”
To which Daria had responded, “I do have goals, and all of them are based in London.”
But no matter how ardently she had insisted that she ought to make the journey to Town and that she wouldn’t be an embarrassment, her parents had yet to be swayed. Mother and Father had spoken more of Great-Aunt Theodosia’s loneliness in Anglesey than they had about Daria’s anticipated isolation at the family home in Yorkshire.
This was, unfortunately, not unfamiliar footing for Daria. Her parents were often dismissive of her. At times, they were unkind. She didn’t enjoy it, but she was too accustomed to it to be surprised any longer. And arguing with them had never helped in the past.
Daria was making a third circuit of the knot garden with her brother, Tobias, walking beside her, recounting her frustrations with the situation. The sky was particularly gloomy, which she thought terribly fitting.
“We could tell them that going to London would be good for your health,” he suggested.
“Going to London is not good for anyone’shealth,” she countered with a smile.
“Remind me again why we’re working so hard to convince our parents to let you go to this place of illness and misery.” Tobias liked to tease her, but he never did so unkindly. He was a prince among brothers. He deserved a sister who didn’t cause him as much trouble as she did.
“Regardless of the lack of health benefits, London is where I see my friends. It is where I get to see and do so many lovely things. The theater and soirees and musical evenings.” She swallowed the all-too-familiar lump of anticipated sorrow that rose in her throat. “If I can’t ever return to London, when will I do any of those things again? Or see my friends?”
“I do think they would make certain you weren’t entirely abandoned.” He picked a poppy and set it in her hand. He’d done that since they were children, ever since she’d told him she thought poppies were pretty.
“But you have said you won’t go to London if Father and Mother don’t allowmeto.” She brushed the poppy petals against her cheek, another holdover from childhood. “In London, you can spend time with the gentlemen you knew in school. You see no one when you’re here.”
“I seeyou.” He bumped her with his shoulder.
“I don’t count, you absurd man,” she said with a laugh.
“I’mabsurd? You’re the one who cannot count.”
“Idon’tcount. Notcannotcount.”
“Ah.” The laugh he didn’t quite keep out of his eyes undermined his attempt at a very serious demeanor. How he lightened her heart. She couldn’t bear to be the reason he didn’t go to London.
“We could tell Father and Mother that a wealthy, well-connected young gentleman has developed an interest in me and nothing will come of it if I do not journey to London. It is my matrimonial failures that sit at the heart of their objections, after all.”
But Tobias looked as unconvinced as ever. “They would insist on knowing who this gentleman is, and we’d not have an answer.”
“I hadn’t thought of that.” Heat stole over her face. She knew she was not the cleverest person, but heavens, it was embarrassing how often that was obvious.
He put an arm around her and gave her a brotherly squeeze. “That you are not a dab hand at deception is a testament to your good character, Daria. No need to be embarrassed about that.”
“Only a truly wonderful brother would find a means of explaining his sister’s lack of intelligence as a mark of her good character.”
“There are many ways of being intelligent,” Tobias said. “No matter that our father does not acknowledge as much, it is, nonetheless, true.”
“When you stumble upon the type of cleverness I can lay claim to, do let me know.” She spoke with both dryness and a bit of a laugh. She’d always been one for keeping her chin up and finding means of being happy even in great difficulty, though that had grown more difficult of late.
“You rescued Mother’s soiree last Season when her plans proved insufficient,” Tobias said.
She shook her head. “Planning gatherings does not require intelligence.”
“It does though. Ifanyonecould do it, theneveryonewould.”
Daria linked her arm through his as they continued walking. “You are kind to be impressed by that. Heaven knows our parents aren’t.”
