Chapter 1
Cora marched down the upstairs corridor of Thornton Manor, barging in on her brother Harry as he went over the family’s finances with their solicitor Thomas Stonebrook.
“Harry, we must speak at once!”
Harry blinked at her, looking surprised and more than a little bewildered, as though she had suddenly materialized from thin air wearing a brace of parrots for a hat.
“Sister, we live under the same roof. Whatever the matter at hand might be, surely there is no great sense of urgency to it, as you have relatively unfettered access to me on a constant basis?”
“This cannot wait any longer!” she insisted. “Thomas, you are excused! You may wait in the library until my brother is ready to resume his conference with you!”
Thomas—who, in every respect that mattered, worked for Harry, not his sister—looked to his employer for confirmation that he should indeed follow these instructions.
Harry sighed and nodded, and Thomas took his leave.
From the harried look on his face, it seemed that Cora had interrupted a discussion about matters of some pressing importance.
However, she did not happen to care. As she saw it, her own issues were far more pressing, and as such, demanded more immediate attention.
“Now, then,” Harry said (in the most agreeable tone he could summon, despite his obvious annoyance). “What seems to be the problem, dear sister?”
“The problem,” she huffed, “is that I have made it extremely clear to you on numerous occasions that I have no interest whatsoever in having a season, yet I have learned today that you still expect me to participate in this nonsense! Harry, I have a mind and will of my own, and I will not have you making these sorts of decisions for me! I am a grown woman, for heaven’s sake, and I shall not be pressured into engaging in activities I have no genuine interest in! ”
He rolled his eyes good-naturedly. “You have never in your life made anything easy, have you? I hardly see what the problem is. All young ladies of means and nobility have a season, and now it is your turn. It’s as simple as that.”
“But it’s a lot of nonsense!” she insisted hotly.
“Ladies preening and swanning about, making idiotic small talk…trading gossip and fawning over a pack of silly aristocratic twits! And all amid the most ghastly and tasteless excess imaginable when there are people begging on the streets of London! What in the world makes you think I would wish to be involved in such a thoroughly gaudy pageant?”
“Why? Because it’s a new and exciting opportunity for us, that’s why!” he replied excitedly.
Clearly, he hoped that his enthusiasm would be infectious, though Cora, implacable, seemed to be thoroughly resistant to it.
“In the past,” he continued, “our family has lacked the wealth and status to engage in such societal rituals. However, now that I have married Matilda—”
“Married her money, you mean,” Cora grumbled.
Harry put his hands on his hips, exasperated.
“That’s hardly fair. You know I am quite enamored with Matilda.
Yes, our family needed to bolster our rapidly-declining finances…
and yes, I had initially sought out a bride with that in mind.
But surely that does not preclude the notion that I care for her a great deal! ”
Cora raised an eyebrow. “Tell yourself—and her—whatever you wish to make yourself feel better. It matters not to me. She does seem like a good and decent woman, and I am pleased to have her as my sister-in-law. That does not change the fact that your motives were rather reprehensible, in my estimation. Just as mine would be if I were to go simpering around the drawing rooms of polite society searching for a husband of convenience. That is not who I am and not how I choose to act.”
“It is simply the way of the world, Cora!” he laughed airily.
“It was not the way of our world before we became wealthy,” she countered, “and the ways of that world suited me just fine.”
“What absolute tosh! When we had no money or status, we were utterly valueless. No one knew we existed, and none of the opportunities that are presented to high society were available to us. Now we are poised to take full advantage of all the wealth life has to offer! It will be better for everyone, Sister, including you. Think of the rich and dashing young men who will be lined up to court you! You will be able to select whomever you please from their number!”
“Will I?” She folded her arms obstinately. “Or will you insist upon making that decision for me as well when we reach that stage in the process? You seem utterly intent on robbing me of my agency in my own life, down to the smallest particular!”
“Dear sister, has anyone ever remarked upon the fact that you have a tremendous penchant for overstatement? No one is holding a pistol to your temple and forcing you to act against your own interests, for heaven’s sake! This is a gift! You should treat it as such!”
“If it is indeed to be considered a gift,” she sniffed, “then I would just as soon return it and be done with it.”
“Will you at least consider it?” he pleaded.
“I have considered it, and my answer is no.”
“Consider it more closely, then,” he urged. “For me, your loving brother, who has only ever wanted what was best for you?”
“You have ‘only ever wanted’ what will bring us the most money for the least amount of toil,” she retorted accusingly.
He shrugged. “And is that, in itself, so wrong? Do you not remember what our father said?”
“As a matter of fact, I do. ‘Cora, you are a good woman, and you have a fine head on your shoulders. Do not allow your older brother to dictate the terms of your existence, for he will surely do so if given the chance.’”
Harry’s mouth twisted into a frown. “He did not say that.”
“Well, perhaps not in so many words,” she allowed, “but if he had, it would have been sound advice, and so I mean to take it to heart just the same.”
He took hold of her wrist, gently but firmly, and looked into her eyes intently. As he did, she caught a glimpse behind the curtain of his laughing and devil-may-care demeanor. There was anxiety there and more than a touch of desperation.
“What Father used to say,” he went on, “is that money is options. That’s all it is.
He wanted us to be able to have every option in life that we could, and now that he is no longer with us, that is what I want for us as well.
More than anything in the world. Now, all I ask is that you make the most of these new doors which have been opened to our family.
Beyond that, no one is going to force you to marry anyone you don’t want to.
On that, you have my word…as your brother, as a gentleman, and as Viscount Thornton. ”
Cora was uncertain of how to respond. All she knew for certain was that she was unwilling to commit to agreeing to that, and so she simply left the room without another word, leaving him to wonder about the meaning of it.
Yes, their father had said those words, and on more than one occasion.
Their family had never been destitute—or at least, not in any way that might be considered dire by reasonable people in a city like London, where the streets were always filled with unwashed beggars. Even so, their means had been relatively modest for most of Cora’s life.
Their father had been a solicitor (which made it strange to Cora that they could now afford to hire a solicitor of their own, in the form of Thomas).
He had furnished them with a life that was not hardscrabble but still more plain and simple than he would have liked for them.
And so, he always encouraged them to seize any opportunity that presented itself in order to elevate their status in society.
He had wanted more for them than he’d had himself, which was the wish of any good parent.
In these regards, then, she knew in her heart that their father would have agreed wholeheartedly with Harry and that he would have strongly advised her to take advantage of the season that was being offered to her.
Cora briefly wondered where the fear in Harry’s eyes was coming from, though.
He’d married into opulence. They wanted for nothing.
Indeed, they currently enjoyed far greater luxury than they’d ever had before in their lives.
They had some small measure of importance among London’s wealthier denizens as well, thanks to Harry’s new title.
Was it simply that the more Harry accumulated, the more frightened he became that it somehow wasn’t enough? Knowing his character as she did, that seemed to be the answer.
Supposing she did decide to comply, what would happen next?
In assuring her that she would not be pressured to marry anyone she did not wish to, Harry had given her his word as her brother, as a gentleman, and as a viscount.
Well, he hadn’t been viscount for very long at all, so that part of it carried little weight.
When it came to being a gentleman, that title seemed a bit of a stretch at times, given his frequently loutish behavior when it came to women and money.
(He wasn’t a bad person, and she was sure he didn’t mean any harm.
It was only that he was lacking in maturity and circumspection.)
And as her brother?
After their parents had died, he’d had a long history of pushing her to do things she didn’t want to do.
She knew this was not done out of any sort of deliberate bullying or malice.
Quite the opposite, really; it was only that he was convinced he knew what was best for her and that he felt in prodding her thus, he was honoring their parents’ memory.
She’d tried to make him see otherwise time and again, but there was simply no swaying him in that regard.
“You are, I trust, weighing the relative merits of standing up to Harry?” an amused voice spoke up behind her. “Of telling him, once and for all, that you refuse to be pushed into a course of action you do not prefer?”
It was a welcome voice, and Cora turned to smile at Matilda. “Yes, something like that.”
Although it was clear to anyone who might be paying even the smallest bit of attention that Harry had largely wed Matilda for her money—and for the additional rungs of the social ladder that she represented—Matilda and Cora had gotten on famously from the very beginning.
She was a cheerful and somewhat impish woman who tended to disdain the trappings and expectations of high society herself.
Indeed, Cora remained flummoxed by the fact that such a levelheaded woman had chosen to marry Harry, of all people.
“Believe me,” Matilda went on, “I understand precisely how you feel about it. I was the same way when my own season was presented to me. It seemed an unconscionable waste of my time, not to mention somewhat demeaning to be paraded around in front of a group of men who would then debate my relative merits among each other as though I were a horse being sold at market.”
“Then why on earth did you agree to go through with it?” Cora asked.
“My sister, who had already been through the ordeal of it, convinced me that I had been thinking of the whole thing in entirely the wrong light,” she explained with a mischievous grin.
“If a woman were to enter into it with a different mindset, why, then really, all you are agreeing to is to attend a series of marvelous parties and events over the course of several months! With plenty of dancing, wonderful food, and chances to meet a first-class collection of privileged idiots so that you can mock them privately.”
Cora could not help but laugh at that. “Is that really all there is to it?”
“It is, yes, if that is what you choose for yourself!” Matilda confirmed.
“You may take full advantage of the entire affair, and once it’s over, if you choose not to marry any of the simpletons who have courted you, well, no one can force you to walk down the aisle!
You will have enjoyed yourself thoroughly at the expense of others, both monetarily and otherwise.
When it’s put to you that way, dear sister-in-law, doesn’t that sound like a smashing bit of fun? ”
“I suppose it does,” she replied uncertainly. “But…if that is so, then why did you end up marrying Harry?”
Matilda shrugged simply. “Because I’m a bit of a simpleton myself, I suppose. I happen to love the poor fool, despite the flaws in his character.”
“He is fortunate indeed to have someone like you who sees the good in him.”
“I like to think so.” Matilda looked at Cora earnestly. “Please agree to the season, knowing that I will be with you every step of the way. It will make Harry ever so happy, and it will give the two of us a chance to enjoy each other’s company!”
“Very well,” Cora relented. “I suppose, when you put it that way, there is no harm in it.”
If only Cora had known where those words would lead her…