Page 57 of Snapdragons
When the late Mr. Cummings first argued in favor of granting you additional time before requiring you to marry, I was hesitant, fearing you might set your heart on someone unsuitable in the interim or miss an opportunity for a particularly good match. Never in my most vivid imaginings did I believe for a moment that you would take my generosity and burn it to ashes as you have done.
I took seriously my role in finding you a suitable match, even going so far as to find a lady who would bring property to a marriage so you would not be homeless and one whose interest in horses matched your own. I moved forward only once I felt hers was a disposition that could blend well with yours.
And this is how that effort is repaid.
Let us all pray Mr. Seymour and his mother do not bandy about the details of this fiasco. Our family name would be dealt a blow, and you, Niles, would find yourself with far fewer options moving forward.
—RG
He lowered the letter, thoughts spinning, his feet following the path of the garden without his mind paying the least heed. Grandfather had signed the letter with his initials, something Niles didn’t think he’d ever done in their previous correspondences.
“Is it as horrible as you feared?” Penelope asked softly, still walking beside him.
In some ways, it was worse. His family was disappointed, yes, but not exclusively in his decision not to return to Cornwall. They had gone above and beyond what even he had realized in an attempt to find a match for him that they felt would bring him the most happiness and contentment. It hadn’t been done out of convenience or a desire to be rid of him. Neither had the decision been made without giving consideration to his needs and wishes.
That he seemed not to appreciate that was what disappointed them.
And the fact that he hadn’t even realized all that they had done for him left him disappointed in himself.
“I suspect I have a great deal of mending to do when I return to Cornwall.”
“You are going back?”
“At some point, I have to.” But leaving now meant missing the tournament that might see him able to obtain his land. And leaving Yorkshire also meant abandoning these first whispers of affection, which he’d waited for and longed for all his life.
Delaying his reckoning in Cornwall would make things worse with his family, but he knew he couldn’t go now. He couldn’t simply walk away when he felt the way he did about Penelope. He couldn’t toss aside this unexpected possibility of love. He couldn’t.
Hewouldn’t.
Chapter Nineteen
“I need to speak withyou, Liam.” Penelope had been trying to have a private conversation with her brother all afternoon, but he had proven impossible to pull aside. She wanted to talk to him about her decision to remain in Yorkshire before he heard about it from the others.
It had been only that morning that he had told her of their impending departure. So much had happened. So much had changed.
Liam stepped into her guest chamber, she having come upon him in the corridor, and motioned for her to say what she wanted to say.
“I have given thought to your plans to return to Ireland in two days’ time,” she said, “and I’m choosing to remain in England.” Liam blinked a few times, his mouth turning downward. She pressed onward. “Fairfield is in England, and ’tis well past time I began establishing myself in this country.”
“There are arrangements that must be made before you can live and travel in a country without your brother’s presence to lend propriety to the situation.”
“I have taken that into consideration,” she said. “I am to act as Mrs. Barrington’s lady’s companion.”
Liam looked undeniably confused. “How is being a lady’s companion in another household meant to aid you in establishing yourself at Fairfield?”
His was a point well made, though she didn’t mean to let it deter her. “As you said, there are arrangements that must be made. While I am deciding how I mean to set up my household at Fairfield, I will have a pleasant and proper situation without having to make the return journey to Ireland.”
“Ireland is your home,” he objected.
“Fairfield was always meant to be my home. I can’t finish my preparations for living there from so far away.”
He didn’t appear the least convinced. “We have managed it thus far.”
“Receiving quarterly reports on the property is not at all the same as preparing it to become a home and a functioning estate.” She didn’t mention her plans to make it a profitable horse property. The one time she’d hinted at that intended venture had resulted in a somewhat heated argument between them. Now was not the time to revisit the topic.
“This is an inexcusably impulsive decision.” He moved as if to leave the room.
“We have always known I would make this move from Ireland to England,” Penelope said, blocking his departure. “Until Mr. Greenberry’s change of plans, I assumed the move would be made as part of the life adjustment of getting married. The order of things is simply being changed now.”
