Chapter 16
‘Are you quite sure you are not ill?’ Alice Elliot asked for the third time that morning.
‘Really, Mother,’ Margaret replied. ‘You know how she often finds it difficult to sleep during the full moon.’
Lucy chewed slowly on her mouthful of scone, unable to reply.
‘You never had such difficulties as a child, Lucy. As I recall you set your own bedtime at age eight.’
Lucy sipped her tea. ‘I have not been a child for some time, Mother. And Meg is quite right. Moonlight keeps me awake,’ she explained, technically truthful. Having risen late she was consuming a simple breakfast, which was now causing more contention than she had hoped.
‘Do you still intend to walk to town?’
Their mother’s question coincided with another mouthful of scone.
‘We do.’ Margaret noted. ‘We hope to see what is new in the shops and I think our odds are good that the market shall not close before noon on a spring day.’
‘I simply hope it is not something that becomes a habit for you both.’ Alice tutted. ‘Tardiness can influence impressions and have a strong impact on a young woman’s fortunes.’
‘Is there a particular gentleman to whom you might be alluding? If he falls short of Lucy’s precise conditions, I promise I shall offer him my full consideration.’
‘Captain Dashwood, of course.’ Her mother laughed lightly at the good-humoured offer.
Lucy resisted the reflex to splutter her tea.
‘There has been a good deal of speculation by the local ladies of late as to the eligibility of Captain Dashwood and whose daughter might best suit him,’ their mother went on. ‘Most likely that is what put the thought in my head.’
‘But not Mr Dashwood himself?’
‘It is a peculiar thing, Meg. The captain certainly comes from a good family, as Elsworth is one of several of their properties, making him likely heir to a good fortune. And yet we cannot be sure of this. Has he brothers? Is there an inheritance, or is he merely here in his father’s stead for now?
None of the local regiment have heard of him, so he must have been posted far afield.
Others are free to speculate and even court him if they are so bold, but there is a good deal more I wish to know about Captain Dashwood before I should contemplate his being a son-in-law. ’
‘There are times, Mother, though infrequent, where I can see where aspects of Lucy originated.’
Alice smiled at the notion then continued. ‘Now Mr St Martin, on the other hand – there is an eligible bachelor who might make a mother proud.’
Lucy helped herself to another scone. She was no longer hungry, but eating was proving an effective means of avoiding the conversation.
‘George? I think you mistake him, Mother. He’s a fine gentleman, but a simple one. Lucy’s sharp wits would be ill-suited to his shallowness, and his shallowness makes him ill-suited for me.’
‘You do yourself wrong, Margaret.’
‘If I am more pretty, it is only because there is more of me to be pretty. It is something a woman cannot disguise, Mother. With discipline she may hide her moods, with costume her proportions, with make-up her complexion, but height offers no such concealment. I do not begrudge how nature made me, but if I am to marry, it will be to a man who will meet me at my level no matter the difference in our stature.’
‘You do me proud, daughter. You both do. Frustrated on occasion, but proud. Unless of course Lucy partakes of yet another scone, at which point I shall have no choice but to disown her for gluttony.’
Margaret smiled. ‘A harsh decision, Mother, but most fair.’