Chapter 20 #2
“Well, we are not in public, we are at the breakfast table,” Bridget replied ruthlessly. “And the duke has left, so Micah is the only man left, and he knows we were poor.”
“Still are,” Micah added cheerfully. Johanna sent him a dire look he completely ignored. “I do not know if the duke will be able to get the money Blash stole from us back. We are reliant on his generosity for now.”
“Johanna is his wife, so is it not her generosity?”
As usual, Bridget was asking questions Johanna did not know how to answer. She looked at Rose, then at Lady Stark.
“Not exactly,” Johanna said at the same time Rose spoke.
“I will take the dance lessons,” her cousin announced, obviously exasperated. “Even though I will never need them.”
“I still want to know why you will never need them.”
“Because I am illegitimate, Bridget,” Rose huffed, tilting her chin up as she sat back in her seat, crossing her arms over her chest.
Johanna’s heart ached, and she wished she was beside her cousin so she could hold Rose’s hand. It did not matter to her that Rose’s parents had not been married; it never had.
“My parents were not married, so even though I am your cousin, none of the noblemen will marry me because I am a bastard, and my grandparents were from Africa, not England. No nobleman will want to tie themselves to someone with my lineage. They want a young English woman who is part of the nobility and without any scandal to their heritage.”
For a long moment, silence reigned over the table, and it seemed that Bridget had been quelled by Rose’s blunt honestly. Then she frowned fiercely, shaking her head and slumping back with her arms crossed over her chest, looking remarkably like Rose despite the difference in their coloring.
“Well, then, they are all pinheads, and I do not want to marry any of them either.” She sniffed, tilting her nose up into the air. “Therefore, I do not need to learn to dance.”
“Oh yes, you do,” Rose replied grimly, in the tone of voice that let Bridget know she was serious.
When she sounded like that, Johanna already knew that she was going to get her way, and so did Bridget.
She scowled, but before she could start trying to argue with Rose, Charlotte put her hand atop Rose’s arm.
“I will marry you, Rose,” she said earnestly, if quietly.
Immediately, Rose melted. They all did. Charlotte’s moments of unexpected sweetness usually had that effect. Even Lady Stark’s expression softened as she looked at Charlotte with a kind of amazement—as this was likely her first time seeing this side of Charlotte.
“Thank you, darling,” Rose said, patting Charlotte’s hand. “That will not be necessary. I do plan to find a husband, just not among the nobility.”
“All right.” Charlotte smiled, then pulled her hand away, returning to her picking at her breakfast. Even with the abundance of food set before them, she barely ate.
Johanna did not know if it was because she truly was not hungry or perhaps just not used to eating or if there was some other kind of odd thought process happening inside her head.
She made a mental note to speak with Charlotte about it later.
There was no need to eat sparingly anymore.
“I think you should marry a duke,” Bridget said. “That way, we do not have to rely on Matthew alone to support us.”
“A duke would not want to marry me, were you not listening?” Rose shook her head in exasperation. “Perhaps you should marry a duke.”
“Are there any dukes who are not married that we did not meet at Johanna’s wedding?
” Bridget asked, looking at Lady Stark, who shook her head in amusement.
She did not seem scandalized by Bridget’s outrageousness, thankfully.
“Then they are all likely to be married by the time I am ready to wed one of them.”
“They are going to marry proper young ladies who befit their stations,” Rose told her firmly.
“Johanna is not a proper young lady who befits a duke’s station,” Bridget replied, undeterred.
“We are too poor, and she never had a debut. The Duchess of Hereford is also not a proper young lady who befitted a duke’s station.
I heard yesterday that the duke did not want to marry her because of a scandal around her family, but then he had to marry her because of a scandal with her.
Which makes no sense to me, but that is what her brother said. ”
There was another long silence. Johanna knew what Kalina’s brother meant, and now that she knew intimately something of the kind of scandal Hereford had with her before their marriage, she knew she was absolutely not going to explain it to Bridget.
Certainly not with Charlotte in the room, even if she wanted to make the attempt.
“It is time to get ready,” Lady Stark announced, cutting off the conversation with brisk efficiency, rather than letting Bridget continue to lead them where she wanted to go.
She got to her feet, putting Johanna in mind of a battleship, moving with determination and no intention of stopping.
“Johanna, come join us after you have seen to your mother. Come along, Rose.”
“I… yes, of course.” Rose shot Johanna a look, but she merely shrugged.
It was not the worst thing to put off talking to Rose about her wedding night since she still did not know exactly what she would say.
And she did not need Rose in order to check on her mother.
Besides, if her mother reacted badly to the fact that Johanna had married the duke yesterday, despite what she’d said, it was better if Rose was not there.