Page 92 of Pursued Beyond Treachery
“No, miss.”
That her cousin had come to see her this early in the morning intrigued her. “I will come.”
Carefully she shut the door behind her and followed the housekeeper to a small morning room. Inside she found Martha at a window, wringing her hands together. The young woman’s head whipped around the moment she entered.
“Miss Martha, what a surprise,” Susannah said.
She smiled at the greeting. “You can drop the miss, we are cousins after all.”
Susannah nodded and gestured to the sofa. “It is a bit early for tea, but I can ring for some if you wish.”
“No, thank you. I came this morning on a matter of urgent business. Is it true that you are to marry Lord Newhurst?”
“I… that is…” He had not declared himself to her, but he had told the ladies last evening to consider the matter settled. Then a second thought struck. Had Martha been sent to ruin her life further? She’d never seemed a party to her mother’s schemes before.
“If so, I am happy for you.”
Susannah relaxed.
“I never did like how my mother treated you or any of your family. Do you remember when we were eight and you came to stay with us for a time?”
An easy smile bloomed on her face. “I do. It was my last visit.”
Martha leaned forward. “Why was it your last visit?”
“Because your mother told us it would be better if our mother died.”
The horror that crossed Martha’s face had been exactly how Susannah had felt as a girl of eight.
“That’s terrible. I knew my mother disliked yours, but to wish her dead? To even tell her children such a thing.”
“But why did she hate my mother? I know my parents’ marriage was not conventional, but is connection really the only reason she refused to mend the break?”
Martha’s eyes widened. “You do not know?”
She shook her head.
“When your father declared his intention to marry your mother, my mother was on her sixth season. She was desperate to marry a man of means, as they had grown up comfortable but not with the affluence some of her friends had. Lord Upton had begun to court her that season and she was certain she’d finally get the title she’d always desired. But within days of your father’s announcement, Lord Upton stopped coming to visit and by the end of the season he had taken a wife. She believes he ceased his attentions because of your mother. Since then, she has not been able to stand the sight of your mother or the Harris family.”
That explained her firm dislike of Javenia. “But your mother married nearly a year before my parents.”
“Yes, because your father wanted to be certain he had the means to support a family without the use of your mother’s large dowry. It was quite romantic, if you ask me. I wish some man would go to such lengths to show he loved me and not my money.”
Susannah blinked at her. “Money?”
“Yes, your grandfather placed a large dowry in hopes of luring a gentleman into an arrangement. My mother claims he was disappointed when he only got your father, a country gentleman, and not a knight or a baronet. Either way, she thought the action quite vulgar.”
“To place a large dowry on my mother? But it is a standard practice in the gentry.”
“I never said it made sense.” Martha smiled. “Most of my mother’s anger makes little sense. Even so, it is how she views life and why it was so important to her to ruin yours.”
“Mine? What have I done to her?”
“Nothing. I believe she only wanted to get revenge on you because of your mother. You look like her, you know. You are both very pretty.”
Susannah cupped the curls near her face. “Thank you.”
Silence settled between them; the tick of a clock the only sound in the room.
