Page 11 of A Study in Scarlet Women
“I—” Livia decided she had better shut up before she blurted out that she could scarcely have wondered whether Charlotte was kissing boys when she had half suspected Charlotte had been sent from Mars to investigate the cultural observances of Earthlings. “How did it happen? Did it take you by surprise?”
“Not at all. I set it in motion.”
“Charlotte! Were you in love?”
“No, I wanted to know what it felt like.”
“But how did you pick the boy? Surely you didn’t draw a name out of a hat.” Livia gasped. “Ordidyou?”
“I didn’t do that. But I can’t reveal the circumstances that led me to choose him, since that would also give clues to his identity.”
Livia tried a few more times, but Charlotte remained amiably tight-lipped. Livia gave up. “Look at you. You had a ‘very nice’ kiss—andyou’ve got a plan of action for your life. That makes me feel completely aimless.”
“Usually one feels aimless because one isn’t sure yet what one wants—until one does, a proper strategy can’t be formulated.” Charlotte studied Livia a moment. “But in your case, it’s possible you know exactly what you want, but you’re afraid to want it, let alone pursue it.”
Livia swallowed. She didn’t ask Charlotte what or how she knew; she didn’t say anything at all. They walked in silence the rest of the way.
As they approached the house, Livia wrapped her arm around Charlotte’s shoulders. “What if everything Papa promised was only to mollify you temporarily? It gives me no pleasure to say this, but our father isn’t terribly farsighted—he’d be happy to postpone a problem for another day, let alone another eight years. What if when the time comes, he reneges on his word?”
“I don’t know. Not yet, in any case—I’ll have plenty of time to consider my response.” Charlotte took Livia’s hand in her own. “But if our father should prove a man of his word and sponsor the necessary education and training for me to earn a living, will you allow me to do the same for you in return?”
Livia squeezed Charlotte’s hand, suddenly close to tears. Charlotte seldom initiated physical contact—this was as solemn an offer as the queen could make standing in the middle of Westminster Abbey.
“Yes,” she said. “Yes, please do.”
She allowed herself to be briefly carried away by visions of this impossible future, two sisters, united in a most gratifying independence.Would they have a little cottage? Or a nice, spacious suite of rooms at the girls’ school that Charlotte would direct? She could see them sipping tea together on Sunday afternoons, Charlotte with a plate of her beloved plum cake in front of her, looking out to a small garden reserved for their private use.
It was a more appealing future than any she’d imagined yet.
But pessimist that she was, she couldn’t let the occasion pass without a word of caution. “Remember, Charlotte, Papa doesn’t like women. He’d feel a lot more hesitation breaking his word to a man—but you aren’t a man.”
“He had one fiancée who jilted him because of his character flaws. And the woman he married to spite the fiancée dislikes him because he used her with little regard for her feelings. What reason does he have to dislike all women? Does he disdain all men because his father was an ass and his solicitor made a soup of his affairs?”
“By your standards it isn’t rational, I know. But you can’t expect to be treated rationally when you are a woman, Charlotte. I can’t explain why—that’s just how it is. And you must learn to accept it.”
Charlotte was quiet. Livia thought that perhaps for once, she’d put some sense into her little sister’s head. But as they walked back into the house, Charlotte turned to her and said, “I will try to understand why. But I will not learn to accept it. Never.”
Livia had long suspected that Sir Henry would not hold to his promise. And yet when it happened, when he broke his pledge, she was far angrier than her sister.
“It’s unconscionable, what he did. To lie to you so baldly, to ask you to act in good faith when he hadn’t the slightest intention of upholding his end of the bargain—” She sputtered, unable to go on.
Charlotte sat at the edge of their bed, the slow tapping of her fingertips on the bedpost the only sign of her agitation.
After a long minute, Charlotte said, “My timing was less than ideal. I didn’t know it before I spoke to him, but Lady Amelia Drummond was found dead this morning. Papa was in a minor state.”
Livia’s hand came up to her throat. “Oh.”
Charlotte played with a bow on her skirt. “This isn’t to say that he would have kept his word otherwise. If he meant to keep his word, he would have, whether or not Lady Amelia still breathed. But had there been any vacillation on his part, any remote chance that he might have changed his mind at the last minute... as I said , my timing wasn’t ideal.”
“Will you ask him again?”
“Do you think that would be any use?”
“No.”
“Neither do I.”
“Then what are you going to do?” Livia was fuming again. “Please tell me you won’t swallow this appalling deceit. Papa will feel no remorse. He will only be endlessly smug that he got away with this kind of disgraceful chicanery.”
