Page 100 of The Rake's Daughter
“Very well,” he said when they came together in a twirl, “the summerhouse tonight.”
***
What was all that about?” Clarissa asked Izzy shortly after the dance had finished. Lord Salcott had taken himself off somewhere, Izzy didn’t care where. “It looked like you poked him, actually poked him in the chest.”
Izzy sniffed. “He’s lucky I didn’t give him a smack on the nose.”
“Izzy!” Clarissa exclaimed, half-amused, half-shocked. She glanced around to see if they had an audience and lowered her voice. “What prompted that?”
Izzy was glad to be able to unburden herself to a sympathetic listener. “Can you believe it, Mr. Harvey called on him this morning and asked for permission to court me with a view to marriage, and Lord Salcott refused! He actually told Mr. Harvey he had no hope of marrying me. Isn’t that outrageous?”
Clarissa stared at her. “Did you want to marry Mr. Harvey? I had no idea.”
“No, of course I don’t want to marry Mr. Harvey. That’s not the point.”
“Then what is?”
Izzy regarded her sister in frustration. “He had no right.”
“Who, Mr. Harvey? But—”
“No, Lord Salcott. How dare he refuse my hand in marriage without consulting me.”
Clarissa considered it, then shook her head. “I actually don’t mind it.”
“You don’t?” Izzy blinked. “Do you mean he’s done it to you as well?”
Clarissa smiled. “Oh yes.”
“I had no idea you had a serious suitor,” Izzy exclaimed. Clarissa had never mentioned it. “Who was it?”
“Lord Frencham.”
Izzy tried to recall who Lord Frencham was. “He’s not the bandy-legged old fellow, is he? The one with snuff stains all around his nose?”
Clarissa shook her head. “I think that’s Lord Blandford, and anyway he’s more interested in you than me. No, I danced with Lord Frencham at the rout the other night—twice. He’s quite young—twenty-five or so—and is quite nice looking and very elegantly dressed.”
“And he proposed after what—a couple of dances? He sounds smitten.”
“Yes, with my fortune.” Clarissa wrinkled her nose. “According to Lord Salcott his estates are heavily encumbered and he’s hanging out for a rich wife. Hence the speedy proposal.”
“So what did you tell him?”
“Oh, I didn’t need to tell him anything. Lord Salcott had already refused on my behalf.”
Izzy bristled in her sister’s defense. “Without even consulting you? See, that’s what I mean—how dare he make decisions like that without even asking us!”
Clarissa shrugged. “I don’t mind, I wasn’t interested in Lord Frencham anyway. And I’d rather Lord Salcott deal with the fortune hunters and save me the trouble.”
Izzy could appreciate that. Clarissa was so softhearted, she would hate to disappoint even the most hardened fortune hunter.
Still, it was outrageous of Lord Salcott to think he could refuse their suitors without consulting them. And so Izzy would tell him in the summerhouse tonight. She would make it very clear to him that she was not as compliant as her sister, that she wouldn’t be told what to do. And that she would choose her own husband. Whatever he thought.
***
When Izzy and Clarissa got home from the ball, they found Betty waiting up for them. They’d told her before not to wait up, that they could help each other undress, but Betty had learned from the other servants at Lady Scattergood’s that a proper lady’s maid would wait up to helpher mistress disrobe, no matter how late the hour. And Betty was determined to be a proper lady’s maid.
Izzy let Betty help her out of her ball dress, but as soon as she’d been stripped down to her underclothes, she gently pushed Betty out the door, saying, “I can do the rest thank you, Betty dear. Go and help Clarissa. “
