Page 25 of The Reckless Love of an Heir
‘Indeed,’ their father snorted.
‘It is the most direct he has been, is it not?’ Susan tried to instil a sense of progression.
‘It is, and we agreed I might go to town for the season. He suggested it. May we go, Papa?’
Their father nodded. ‘Well, that is at least something.’ His fingers twisted the end of his curled moustache, as they always did when he was mulling over some thought.
‘The season is only a few weeks away,’ Susan’s mother responded. ‘We will have to prepare. I shall send word to the housekeeper to remove the dust sheets in the town house. Wemust hold a ball. You must have a presentation to gather introductions. You will not be invited anywhere without introductions.’
Neither Alethea nor Susan had been brought out into London society; it had seemed unnecessary because Alethea had an agreement with Henry, and Susan had never requested to go because she did not want to search for a husband. But if her family were to go to London then she supposed she must go, and therefore also face introductions.
When Susan and Alethea were alone later, lying in bed beside one another, whispering through the darkness, Alethea told Susan more of the conversation she had shared with Henry. ‘You were right, though, it is the most direct he has been with me, and yet I feel as though he manipulates me. I told him I would not play his game any more. He said it is all to do with his feelings.’
‘I have always said he is selfish.’
‘I know, and I told him you have convinced me of it.’
‘What did he say?’
‘That you have always had very little tolerance for him and I should not allow your opinion to sway mine. But it is not your opinion that is changing mine, it is him. I have told him I will go to town, but if another man courts me I will let him. I have not promised to wait a year.’
Susan smiled into the darkness. ‘Was he suitably sent into a terror at the thought of losing you?’
‘I am not sure he even cares. He asked me if I love him, but he did not say he loves me.’
‘What is the level of Alethea’s attachment to me?’ He had asked Susan that too. ‘Did you say you loved him?’
‘No. That would have been utter folly when he is dangling me like this.’
‘Do you love him?’
‘I do not know. I admire him greatly, he is very handsome, and I like his manner, but I am not sure how deep being in love feels… I am not sure if I would even know. How do people know?’
Susan had no answer.
When the girls and his mother retired, his father asked Henry to sit with him in the library. Henry knew immediately what would come next. As soon as the library door closed, Henry’s father asked, ‘What did you say to Alethea outside?’
He was too old for this. ‘Is it any of your business, Papa?’
‘I am hoping it might be. Would you like a glass of brandy?’
‘Yes.’ If he must endure this.
His father turned to pour it. Henry leaned on the back of a leather chair, gripping its top with his good hand.
‘So what did you say? When is this proposal coming? It was clear tonight, that Casper had expected it today. I think he is becoming as impatient with you as I am. Is Alethea?’
His father turned, holding two full glasses, walked over and handed one to Henry.
‘Thank you.’
‘Well?’ His father looked him in the eye, and his eyebrows lifted, in the way he had of reprimanding while smiling. His father was hard to read at times.
He waited for Henry to speak.
Henry was not inclined to, yet his father continued to wait. Henry had borne numerous interviews such as this over his years both at Eton, and then Oxford. He had regularly been in trouble as a boy, and then as a young man. His father’s way had never been to shout but merely to unnerve Henry, to make him feelguilty and accept the responsibility for his actions – it usually worked well enough. Until he had returned to Eton or Oxford and then the interview and the guilt slipped from Henry’s mind.
Self-centred.
