Page 19 of Miss Determined
“A week at least. It’s a two-day jaunt back to Town if I’m to pamper my horse, and one doesn’t typically travel on the Sabbath, so I’m here until next week.” A voice in Trevor’s head that sounded unpleasantly like Sycamore Dorning noted that calling at Lark’s Nest would not take the better part of a week.
“We’ll trade horses, then,” Amaryllis said. “No lease, just a temporary trade to rest your gelding and put some manners on Roland. You are being kind, and I do appreciate it.”
On that less than effusive note, Miss DeWitt saw him out the side door and accompanied him to the stable, where she explained the arrangement to the groom.
“I must get back to the house, Mr. Dorning. Mama and Diana will be rowing, Grandmama will have retired to her room, and Caroline is probably off to marvel at the bats in the gatehouse.”
“Then you’d best return by way of the kitchen, Miss DeWitt.”
“Why the kitchen?”
“An army marches on its belly, according to some old generals. If you are to sort out the warring factions, you will need some sustenance first. You ate not a single tea cake and forgot to pour yourself so much as one cup of tea.”
Her displeasure was more evident this time. “Must you be so noticing?”
Apparently so, where she was concerned. “My apologies. Might we hack out again on Friday?”
She swished off across the stable yard. “Weather permitting, and assuming Mama hasn’t whisked me off to London. Good luck with Roland.”
Roland’s situation was a straightforward matter of patience and consistency. Miss DeWitt’s more complicated circumstances would assuredly have benefited from some luck.
ChapterFive
Lissa did not find her mother and sister squabbling. Diana was attempting a new sonatina, F major this time, and far from spiritoso.Her stumblings, fumblings, and repetitions were a worse trial to the nerves than even her party piece.
Lissa closed the door to the family parlor and prepared to be interrogated.
“How distant is Mr. Dorning from the titled branch of the family?” Mama asked, opening her workbasket. “Have you seen my gold thread?”
“I believe you gave the last of it to Grandmama.”
“I most assuredly did not. Your grandmother would claim I loaned her my best bonnet because it looked so much more fetching on her, of all the ridiculous notions.”
Lissa cast around for something innocuous to say, something placatory and cheerful, but that effort was beyond her. “I heard Grandmama ask for that spool and saw you pass it over to her.”
“Don’t be contrary, Amaryllis. Your failure to make yourself agreeable last spring is why we are facing such difficulties. If only you’d brought the Merriman boy up to scratch. He seemed quite keen on you.”
The Merriman boy—age eight-and-twenty—had been quite keen on Lissa’s settlements and even more keen to get under her skirts. “The less said about the Honorable Titus Merriman, the better.”
Lissa ought to help Caroline with her French. She ought to look in on Grandmama, anything to put off this discussion, though sooner or later, Mama would have her say.
“But you and Mr. Merriman seemed so well suited. Not as well suited as you and Mr. Brompton, of course, though that’s all water over the dam. What made Mr. Merriman change his mind?”
Lissa took the wing chair that had been Papa’s favorite, back when the cushion hadn’t been so lumpy. “Titus and I were not well suited. I was resigned to marrying him because, as you say, needs must. He changed his mind about courting me, and that is a gentleman’s prerogative.” At the time, Lissa had been relieved at his defection. A tittering husband would have made Diana’s sonatinas soothing by comparison.
Titus was also an inept kisser with clammy hands. Worse yet, he lived for gossip and wagering and thought the most childish puns the height of intellectual sophistication.The Prince ofWhales, don’t you know?Wink, wink.
“You could have changed his mind back,” Mama said, rummaging in her basket and producing an embroidery hoop. “A little friendliness always makes a courtship go more smoothly.”
“Shall I stand on street corners showing off my ankles this spring, Mama? Will that solve our difficulties?”
Mama blinked at her embroidery, freed the needle from the fabric, tried for a stitch, then gave up.
“I know you think I’m awful, Lissa. I think I’m awful, to be so grasping and determined, so fixed on seeing you well matched, but your father did so hope you could marryup,and you have the settlements necessary to make that happen.Diana cannot be presented for another year at least, and that’s assuming we have any funds to make the effort. She’s not like you. She isn’t stately, shrewd, or clever. She’s like those sonatinas—pretty, amiable, forgettable—and I know what it is to have only those bland attributes.”
Please, not the tears. Not today, not after such a lovely, impossible morning.
“You are not awful, Mama.” Overbearing, desperate, and gauche, yes. Not awful. Gavin’s disappearance was awful. The solicitors were heinous offenses against decency. “But dangling me before spares and fortune hunters is both awful and pointless. I was friendly to Titus, very friendly. He assured me he was talking to his solicitors about settlements, and I… Well, I would make different choices had I known that his handsome head could be turned so easily.”
