Page 75 of You Only Live Once
‘Is that what you told your parents?’
‘Yes. Looking back on it now, I probably should have been a little bit more circumspect with my choice of wording. Their marriage had effectively been an arranged one and I called it superficial. I might not agree with some beliefs they hold, but I didn’t want to hurt them.’
I laid my hand briefly over his as it lay on the cool leather seat.
‘I know you didn’t mean to hurt them and I’m sure they do too. Sometimes we say things in the heat of the moment and it comes out all wrong. I’m sure, in their own way, they only want the best for you.’
‘So long as that best includes Lady Cecily Fullington-Beck, I’m sure they do.’
‘Who’s that?’
‘A very beautiful woman from the social circle they deem acceptable for me to have my pick from.’
‘Not your type?’
‘She’s nice enough. We’ve known each other since we were kids. Our parents had plans back then to hook us up, but Cecily rather put a dent in that plan by marrying someone else.’
‘Oh, I see! Seems like you weren’t the only one who was against the plan?’
‘She was pretty happy to go along with it for a while, until she met an extremely wealthy businessman at one of the myriad parties she loves to attend. She’s quite the social butterfly is our Cecily.’
‘So I assume she’s divorced now if they’re trying to make it work between you two again?’
‘No. Cecily is now one very rich, very merry widow. Her husband was at least three decades older than her and, from what I understand, enjoyed a lot of red meat and a lot of red wine. Cecily will be the first one to tell you that it took longer than she thought.’
‘That seems a rather cold approach to a marriage.’
‘Like I said, it’s more of a business arrangement in certain circles. He had money and apparently quite fancied the idea of being a part of the whole aristocracy circus, whereas she had a title but there wasn’t a lot of money behind it, which is quite often the case. Not that that stopped her parents turning their noses up first at the man she was planning to marry because he wasn’t from an old family and had made his own money commercially.’
‘Surely you can’t be serious,’ I said, laughing a little. ‘That sounds like something out of Jane Austen or Charles Dickens.’
‘You’d have thought, wouldn’t you? But not in this case. Not really good enough in their eyes, despite the fact that guy had billions. The money brought them round in the end.’
‘I bet it did. Do you think she loved him?’
‘Cared for him, yes, but loved, no. She told me as much on her wedding day.’
‘Noooo, really?’
Jack gave a shrug. ‘She sent for me and then asked me if I thought she was doing the right thing.’
‘And what did you say?’
‘I asked her if she loved him. She told me she had feelings for him but no, she didn’t love him, but that she didn’t feel that was an impediment to her marriage.’
‘What was she asking your opinion about then?’
‘I think she was concerned she might be snubbed because she wasn’t marrying a title.’
‘Did you think that?’
‘No, I didn’t. That outdated opinion of people in “trade” can still permeate society even today, but money is now far more influential and opens far more doors.’
‘So then she was satisfied?’
He shifted in the seat and looked momentarily out of the window.
‘Something else happened, didn’t it?’
