Page 41 of The Baroness of Sin
“Then why were you so sad?” Amanda asked, and Miss Blake looked more flustered than ever.
James searched for the answer to her question, but it wasn’t an easy one. He didn’t wish to talk down to his daughter. She was such a bright young lady that it felt dishonest to her, but some things were out of a young girl’s scope.
“Sometimes, Lords and Ladies don’t know how to say the things they want to say, so it gets confusing. But we have sorted it all out now. In fact, can you keep a secret from Lady Carrington?”
“A secret?” Amanda asked with a combination of uncertainty and excitement.
“Mhm,” he said with a wink and a nod and leaned in close but did little to lower his voice since this was a secret for the sake of his daughter only. “When the lady is feeling better, I am going to ask her to marry me.”
The young Amanda’s eyes grew so bright that her father swore that they were lighting up the room. “You mean it?” she cried loudly in her excitement.
James, who was laughing and very amused at his daughter's excitement nodded. “I do.”
“I get to have a new mommy?” she practically shouted, this time loud enough to prompt a very gentle shushing from James.
“If she says yes,” James nodded, not in doubt but simply as a fact. He scooped up and spun his daughter around in his arms, both of them spinning in joy and excitement.
“Oh of course she will, Papa!” Amanda said, and they laughed and spun, much to the delight of the house and its servants.
Amanda and James were so busy celebrating, and so distracting to those around them, that no one noticed the one unhappy face amongst them, and thus they were unaware of the danger that lurked so closely by.
* * *
Emma chased her sister, first around her room, then through the manor house, shouting and trying to get the attention of anyone who would listen. Even in her injured state, the blue-stocking sister proved unable to get her sister back into bed where she belonged. Benjamin and Barbara emerged from the dining room downstairs, their breakfasts left sadly neglected, to see what the matter was.
“Benjamin, will you please help me talk some sense into her, so I can get her back into bed?!” Emma cried while her sister stiffly walked down the stairs, only the hint of a limp and a firm sling to indicate she was impaired at all.
“I will be happy to assist when someone informs me as to what is going on,” Benjamin used the tone that both sisters recognized from long ago, but not too long ago, when Benjamin first started to assert his authority in his teenage years.
“Why, dear brother, did you send Lord Barristen away!?” Martha demanded, somehow both angry and smiling with delight at the same time. “Especially if he was planning on proposing?!”
Benjamin’s cross look, which bore a striking resemblance to his normal resting face, turned towards Emma.
“Okay,” she admitted, “so I let it slip, but I thought it was obvious.”
Benjamin sighed and pinned the bridge of his nose again. “Whatever the circumstance, it wasn’t appropriate for him to stay. What does it matter whether he proposes today, tomorrow, or next Wednesday?”
Barbara tutted behind her nephew. “That was the wrong thing to say,” she commented quietly.
“What does it matter?” Martha looked at her brother in astonishment. “Do you hold such little value for both love and your sister? Have you grown so bitter?”
He held up his hands defensively. “I am not bitter; will you please be calm? You are getting yourself worked up, and you still need rest. This is exactly why he didn’t tell you of his intent to begin with.”
Martha did a double take at her brother but then immediately willed herself to relax.
“You’re right. We cannot possibly get married, if I do not have my health.” She felt deflated, and Emma and Benjamin immediately sympathized with her.
“Don’t worry,” Emma assured her. “He is going to want to ask you at the quickest opportunity. The gentleman is head over heels for you, truly.”
“He is, isn’t he?” Martha asked, her sunny disposition started to shine through again.
“Almost gratingly so,” Benjamin doubly assured her, “but it's important that you care for yourself above all else. I promise Lord Barristen will return. I doubt I could drive him off, no matter how I tried.”
Martha nodded, swaying a bit and grasping to support herself on her sister. “Oh my, I’m afraid I may have let the excitement get the best of me.”
Benjamin looked to Emma, who nodded to affirm she had a hold on her little sister. Emma gently escorted Martha upstairs and back to bed.
“Can you believe I did it?” Martha asked her sister wearily as she climbed back into bed.
