Chapter 3
‘It is very good news indeed,’ Bianca argued, not for the first time.
They were all together in Mrs Constantine’s small sitting room in Great Russell Street, and it was early the next morning.
‘Mama, you must now see that there is no point whatsoever in me – or Cecilia or Bea – embroiling ourselves further in the London Season this year. It would be nothing but a waste of time. If anyone were to want to marry us, we couldn’t accept them or we’d lose our inheritance.
A year is a long time. A year is practically forever. ’
‘Exactly,’ Beatrice put in. It was plain that her spirits had recovered wonderfully, now that she knew that the late Mrs Albery’s stipulation sought merely to prevent her from doing something she had not the least intention of doing anyway.
‘It seems quite likely that word of our windfall will get out – don’t such things always?
– and then we will, as Mrs Albery feared, be simply besieged by fortune hunters here in Town.
I have had few suitors in my many, many Seasons, and I do not at all look forward to being pursued now by men who would not so much as look at me before.
There would be a novelty to it, certainly, but I can’t imagine it would be at all enjoyable.
I’m sure you agree, Cecilia, don’t you? You’ve had four full Seasons already too. ’
‘I don’t think I could bear it,’ Cecilia replied frankly.
‘Gentlemen whose gaze passed over me last year as though I were a mere piece of furniture – and not a very appealing one at that – suddenly looking at me as though I were the loveliest sight in nature. Gentlemen who flirted briefly with me and then thought better of it coming back with new enthusiasm now I have money! I can’t undertake to behave well under such provocation.
And if they start making up to Bianca in particular because she is in her second Season only and might be supposed to be more impressionable by reason of her youth, I don’t know what I might do!
You know my deplorably hasty temper, or should by now. ’
Bea was frowning in concentration, attempting to formulate her thoughts.
‘The fact is, Mama, that marriage was only ever a means to an end for us. We have always understood that because of our financial circumstances, as Papa was able to leave us so little, we needed to marry well. Sabrina, Viola and Allegra have done so – Viola twice! But now we are happily in possession of fortunes in our own right. We don’t need to marry anybody to gain security.
We already have it, and so we can do as we please.
And therefore, the Season, with all its trouble, fatigue and expense, is entirely redundant, as far as we are concerned.
Of course, if you wish to spend your time in that manner, there is no reason why you should not—’
‘I have it!’ Cecilia exclaimed triumphantly.
She was more prone to daydream than the other sisters, and she hadn’t been paying a great deal of attention to Beatrice as she spoke, lost instead in her own new reveries of freedom and independence.
‘Here it is – tell me what you think. “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman in possession of a good fortune must not be in want of a husband.” I think that’s rather neat. ’
Her sisters did no more than smile faintly in acknowledgement of her cleverness, though naturally, they had all read the novel to which she alluded and might easily have responded to her clever quip with more enthusiasm.
She sniffed, momentarily annoyed, but could not be disconsolate for long. Life was suddenly too exciting.
‘I’ve been talking to our older sisters,’ Bianca was saying unexpectedly now.
‘I sent a note to Sabrina yesterday afternoon, since she’s the oldest, and by good fortune, Viola and Allegra were there visiting her when the boy delivered it, so they replied together.
They agree that we should all contribute to a generous annuity for you, Mama, so that you can be completely independent.
Laurence is going to look into it, if everyone is agreeable, and talk to Mr Cotwin, so that it can be set in hand almost immediately.
You know that we wish to go into Suffolk as soon as it may be arranged, and see the house, perhaps stay there if it is at all habitable.
Of course you are welcome to come with us, but do you want to?
We all know you don’t care for the country.
You’ve spent all these past years worrying about us and our sadly uncertain futures – if you were free to choose and could afford anything you might desire, what would you do next? ’
Leontina seemed almost taken aback, and for a wonder, she showed no immediate signs of wishing to argue the point.
‘That’s very generous…’ she said slowly.
‘Thank you. I don’t know. I suppose… if I were at liberty to do so, I might wish to travel to Italy.
It’s been almost fifty years since I left…
That may not be possible at present, of course, with Europe in uproar.
But you’re right – I have no great desire to immure myself in a crumbling house in Suffolk for several months, though I can see that you do.
For myself, I can’t imagine anything more tedious.
You can’t go alone, though – you need a proper chaperon: someone of sense and experience to accompany you.
An unmarried woman of six and twenty, Beatrice Constantine, is not adequate to function as such, even if you do affect a pair of spectacles and try to make yourself look older.
You will all be under scrutiny from everyone in the neighbourhood, I daresay.
Matters will go uncomfortably for you if you aren’t accepted as respectable from the outset by the best local families and the reputable tradespeople.
You can’t marry now, very well, but you may wish to later, you may all of you meet someone there, so I counsel you not to burn your boats. ’
‘Miss Macintyre could come with us,’ Bea responded quickly; plainly, she had anticipated this objection.
‘We could ask her if she would care to, for a while, and obviously, we would pay her for her time. She’s respectable enough for anybody, or looks as though she is. For heaven’s sake, she’s Scottish.’
Miss Macintyre was their former governess, and current friend.
She had said often enough that attempting to instil academic knowledge and ladylike deportment in a succession of the sisters had utterly broken her spirit, and so when Bianca had left the schoolroom and there were no more Constantines to torment her with their wilful ignorance, she had retired to a small cottage in a village north of London, subsisting comfortably though thriftily upon her life’s savings and a small pension.
But she loved to travel, and had spent a large part of the previous year on the Continent after Bonaparte’s temporary defeat.
It seemed quite likely that she would agree to anything proposed to her, if only for the sake of a change of scene.
A cottage in Middlesex could not long contain her.
She had grown up in Edinburgh, was fearsomely well educated, corresponded on intimate terms with a formidable range of her compatriots, including the celebrated poet Mr Walter Scott, and was nowhere near as conventional as she appeared. As a suggestion, it was genius.
‘You have an answer for everything, between you,’ Leontina said wryly now.
‘Of course we do,’ Cecilia replied, rising and embracing her.
‘We’re your daughters. Now, when are we going to set about buying the best mourning dress that London’s modistes can supply?
I understand that Allegra favours Madame Lisette, whose designs are always the very height of fashion.
We can afford them now! Do you think she would see us this afternoon? ’