Page 33 of Lady Willa's Divinely Wicked Vicar
Chapter 7
April 27, 1816
De Courcy Manor
Hampshire
Wills cast another glance at theBrighton Gazetteupon the table. The announcement of Esme’s wedding in that newspaper stirred her blood.
BRIGHTON GAZETTE, Friday 27 April 1816
A special license has been obtained for the marriage of Miss Esme Harvey to the
Marquess of Northington, which is to take place next week.
Lord and Lady Courtland happily welcome a large party of relatives and friends to their annual May Day Frolic to commence Tuesday, April 30, at their home Courtland Hall, Wiltshire. Festivities begin with the Courtlands’ annual May Pole Frolic, May 1, their May Day Ball to follow that evening. The next morning they present their only daughter, Miss Esme Harvey in marriage to her intended, the Marquess of Northington in the chapel of St. Andrew’s.
Nine o’clock. Rev. Charles Compton, Vicar, presiding.
As this day is also that of the joyous celebration of the wedding of our gracious lady, Her Royal Highness, the Princess Charlotte of Wales to Leopold, Prince of Saxe-Cobourg, Lord and Lady Courtland present a wedding breakfast in the house for their guests consisting of every delicacy, and a general Cold Collation, Tea, Coffee, Ices, and Etc.
Those in the parish are welcome. Public service will be laid on the lawn at eleven o’clock.
Wills wanted to go. Badly. News of Charlie sad and in despair drove her desire to attend to frenzy. She crushed Esme’s letter and tucked it into her skirt pocket. What was she to do? Go? See Charlie again? Stir the sorrow once more? What choice did she have, given what she’d committed herself to do in the interim?
Since Charlie had called here three weeks ago, her life had changed dramatically. Her relationship with her father had frozen into a tundra of icy disdain. Her mother attempted to thaw them but at each turn had failed. Her papa had not apologized to her, nor had he written to the Reverend Compton to ask the man’s pardon.
“I will not lower myself!” he’d yelled at her that afternoon when she confronted him minutes after Charlie had climbed into the Courtlands’ traveling coach.
“And I, sir, am ashamed of you!”
“What gall, you have, girl! I will bend you to my will. You will not see him. You will not wed him. But you will most certainly wed one man before the New Year!”
“Over my dead body!” She trembled when it came home to her what she uttered. Wasshethe one to die now over a failed proposal?
“You will wed or I will cut you off without a penny!”
“Do it!” She’d swung round to leave him where he stood.
Never had she been so appalled by her father. Never had she seen him so hateful toward others and toward her.
During the following weeks, she’d barely spoken to him. Instead she made plans for her escape and the means she would use to effect it. That began with her announcement that she would attend the Courtlands’ annual frolic and, too, Esme Harvey’s wedding on May second. The trip was a ruse, a camouflage, but the best she had to conceal her new endeavor.
When she finished stating her plans to leave for the party, her father virtually shook with exasperation as he pointed to the letter from Esme that Wills held in her hand.
“Gatherings like that?” her father blustered, his cheeks red with anger. “No! It’s meant for the riffraff to mingle with the toffs. Better to cultivate a refined set than tarnish one’s image with the ordinary.”
Of course, he knew that the man who had asked for her hand would not only attend this year’s house party, but also that the Reverend Charles Compton was the man who would officiate at Willa’s friend’s wedding.
“Why must you always attend this ridiculous party?” Her father continued his argument. “I see no point in it. You and I must finish charting the tenth generation of the de Courcy family before we return to Amboise in June. No use courting him! I will never approve of you with Southbourne’s son. A lady should marry well.”
Ah, yes. One of Papa’s Rules. Marry for position and money. A useful rule for most gels.Not this one.
“Bark, dearest.” Her mother removed her pince nez, yet pinned him to his spot with her sharp eyes. “A lady who marries the man her father wants for her gets what he wants for her. Not what she deserves.”
Her papa, a tall brusque fellow, wrapped himself in his rectitude. His imperious stance—long practiced and used successfully on many—was intended to sway his opponent to his cause. “And a lady who marries the man her mother wants for her gets a mama who visits too often.”
Unimpressed, her mother sniffed. “The man I want for our girl is oneshewants.”
