Page 100 of May I Have the Pleasure
“Colonel… Charlotte… I asked you here for a particular purpose. I would like to ask you to undertake a task together, though the request is far more than a touch officious, and it will take some time and considerable efforts, but I hope you might find it rewarding.”
“I am all curiosity. What do you have in mind?”
“I wish the two of you to marry and take possession of Sweetwater.”
~~~
“You wish us to marry!”
“Yes, Charlotte.”
“Marry?”
“Yes.”
“Holy wedlock?”
“Synonyms.”
“Ah… Ahhhh… What do you mean bypossession?”
“I mean to give it to you, but only if you marry.”
“Just like that?”
“Yes, just like that!Charlotte—you have always said you wish to know as little of your future husband as you could, and you just want a lovely home with an honourable man. You have now been in close contact with the colonel for the last month, so you know more than you thought you needed—and to be honest, far more than most couples on their wedding day. Colonel—your character is vouchsafed by two of your cousins and your aunt whom I trust implicitly, so you may well be the only unmarried man I am willing to trust with my oldest friend. I believe being an estate owner and married to Charlotte will be an improvement over crawlingthrough the rain and mud just to be shot at, would you not agree?”
“Just like that?”
“You must say something else, colonel. Charlotte and I have thoroughly canvassed that topic.”
“Married!”
“Yes! Married!”
“How married?”
“Ideally, heart and soul, but I will leave that to you to work that out amongst yourselves. If you choose a marriage of convenience, it will suffice.”
“Owner of Sweetwater?”
“Yes.”
~~~
“I apologise for my apparent lack of skill in understanding simple English sentences… but I am all agog, Lady Mawbry.”
“I expected such. Take your time, colonel.”
“Very well! Tell mewhy.”
“Why what? Can you be more specific.”
“Why,all of it?”
“Because, in the very distorted and somewhat mad concept of familial relationships in my mind—you are sort of a cousin I like very much, and Charlotte is my oldest friend and closer than any of my sisters. I believe you two will suit, but if I leave it to you to come to the point, I may die of old age waiting, which would inconvenience me greatly.”
“That sounds like teasing, a prevarication, or a half-answer, Lizzy.What are you not saying?”
