A Friend Indeed (Sweet Treat Novellas)

Chapter One

Poverty had prevented Caroline Downy from spending the Season in London.

Her innate good sense had prevented her from crying about it.

She was betrothed, after all, which bordered on the absolutely miraculous for a young lady without a dowry and nothing but her family’s respectable standing to recommend her.

The match was an arranged one, which took all of the heart-pounding excitement out of the experience.

A lady wished to be loved rather than settled for.

But, she wasn’t marrying a complete stranger, something for which she was unspeakably grateful.

George Carlton and her brother Thomas had been the very best of friends since their days at Eton.

George had spent most of his school holidays at Downy House, in fact.

Caroline knew him and liked him very much.

She simply didn’t love him, and he didn’t love her.

Feeling true enthusiasm for such a loveless arrangement was difficult, to say the least.

“Is that what you intend to wear?” Mother eyed Caroline from across the sitting room. “You present a rather uninspiring picture, my dear.”

The observation was not made in a spirit of criticism but of concern.

“I would love to don a new dress and slippers for the arrival of my intended, Mother, but I haven’t had either in years. This is the best I was able to manage.”

“Oh, Caroline.” Mother sat next to her on the sofa and took her hands. “I loathe the necessity of this. A girl ought to be courted and treasured, not auctioned off.”

“Was I actually auctioned off?” She sincerely hoped the arrangements had been undertaken in a less humiliating manner.

“Well, no, but this is hardly better. George is the very best sort of gentleman, but he wasn’t of your choosing.” Mother’s eyes took on a far-off and weary look. “I wanted so much more for you.”

“And I expected so much worse.” She squeezed her mother’s hands.

“Our financial situation was never a secret. I have known for as long as I can remember that my chances of marrying were slim and that, if I did somehow manage the thing, I would likely find myself attached to a cold and heartless man. George is a decided step above that possibility.”

Mother nodded, though her agreement was clearly hesitant. “We haven’t seen him in more than a year. There is every possibility that he has undergone a fundamental change.”

“Let us choose to be optimistic.” As difficult as that choice sometimes was.

Over the course of her twenty years, she had resigned herself to never being truly loved by her future husband, had even convinced herself that she could find satisfaction in simply being treated with kindness and respect.

But in the month since word had arrived that George Carlton was her intended, she had struggled to feel content with what she’d always expected.

Indifference from a stranger could be endured.

Disinterest from a gentleman she counted as a dear friend would, she felt certain, eat away at her.

***

“It’s deucedly good of you to do this, George, but marrying a chap’s sister to save his family from destitution is taking friendship a touch too far.”

George reined in his mount. This misunderstanding needed to be cleared up before Thomas convinced Caroline of it. “For the last time, Tom, I didn’t ask for your sister’s hand as a favor to you.”

Tom looked at him as though he were a loon. “With the depth of your coffers, you could marry anyone you wished.”

“And I am marrying exactly who I wish.” George speared him with a look. “So you can simply clear your brainbox of the absurd notion that my actions are the result of pity or charity or anything of that sort.”

They both dismounted and handed their reins to waiting grooms before making their way up to the house.

Some of George’s happiest memories were connected with Downy House.

His own father had spent George’s entire childhood amassing his fortune, while George’s mother had relentlessly pursued the elusive standing in Society she coveted.

Only at Downy House had George not felt alone.

The early years of happy camaraderie with Tom and his brother, Edward, had paled in later years to Caroline’s companionship.

They’d not been thrown together as often as had he and the male members of her family.

Nevertheless, she, and she alone, was the reason he had continued to return after completing his years at Eton and his abbreviated time at Oxford and despite having a country home of his own.

She was the part of Downy House he’d missed most acutely over the past fourteen months.

“But why Caro?” Tom had been harping on this same topic for weeks, ever since he’d been told of the betrothal. “She’s not what most would consider a beauty.”

“That is the assessment of a brother,” George replied. “Your sister happens to be a very lovely and fine-looking lady. More important than that, she is intelligent, possesses a witty sense of humor, is accomplished, an excellent conversationalist—”

“Enough.” Tom held up his hands in surrender. “If you promise to quit making my bumbling baby sister sound like the Toast of the Town, I’ll promise to stop quizzing you about your choice of fiancées.”

“I will accept that offer, my friend.”

They even shook on it. George’s past had been far from picturesque, but his future only grew brighter.

Mr. Downy had accepted his offer. Edward, the oldest brother, had seemed enthusiastic at the prospect of George marrying his sister.

Tom didn’t mean to make things awkward. And Caroline, his darling, beloved Caroline, had agreed to the match.

His future was bright, indeed.