Chapter 41
Chapter forty-one
The walk back to Longbourn was the longest it had ever been. The fields went by slowly, nothing about them catching her eye. Valeraine’s mind was too busy replaying every part of the conversation.
Her heart echoed, “Valeraine!”
It began to snow, and the wind picked up. It bit at her skin, antagonistic. She wished she had a scarf. A scarf! As if she had been considering any of those mortal concerns when she ran off to confront her nemesis.
By the time she made it back to Longbourn house, her boots were wet and cold. Her toes were numb. She went to her bedroom, and asked a servant to build a fire. She laid on her bed, slowly warming up.
Pemberley.
“This is fully unsuitable to my station. Your family is so lowly, not a proper house.”
Valeraine clenched her fists. She should have slapped him for that. Or challenged him to a duel. Or she’d get Kesley to challenge him to a duel, in January.
“I first tried to reason with Nethenabbi on the unsuitability of the match.”
He had seen his friend in love and decided to put a stop to it, underhanded and heartless.
Should she tell Alyce? She had been healing away from Nethenabbi, the wound of his leaving closing, and perhaps bringing it up again would be cruel. But if Nethenabbi came calling again, Alyce would have to confront the man soon.
Alyce deserved the truth. Valeraine would tell her everything.
What did Valeraine deserve?
Pemberley. He had been absolutely ill-mannered in his proposal. The gall! And to think she would ever accept him after such a display. And yet, he hadn’t even considered that she would reject him. He had assumed his victory from the first.
She deserved better than Pemberley. Valeraine deserved, at an absolute minimum, a husband who would consider her opinions worth worrying about.
But Pemberley hadn’t been untruthful in his assessments. Her house was lowly. She would be a wholly unsuitable wife. If society learned of her derby racing, whatever house she was attached to would be ruined in the scandal.
But he had been abominably wrong and rude in saying that Longbourn wasn’t a dragon house. They were, and she would ensure they continued.
She was of a lower status. She had been rude to him. She was a wily, insubordinate thing.
She didn’t regret any of it.
If Mamma found out, she would be furious with Valeraine. She could imagine her mother now, “Thirty-one dragons, Val! You mistress of all of them. And the connections for your sisters!”
Pemberley hadn’t even asked for a dowry. He might have just taken her, with no loss to Longbourn.
“I have toiled for months now, against my feelings.”
Those were the words of a desperate man. If anything, she could have negotiated with him to pay Longbourn for her hand.
But Valeraine would have been lost to her house.
She could not have borne it, being parted from her dragon.
She would happily marry, if it was someone whom she loved, and if — most importantly — it would not take her away from Lelantos.
Someone like Kesley. She could never abandon the house, to wither and disappear in the next generation.
Longbourn would be stronger because of her, and Pemberley would look at it one day and take back his words.
She never could have been happy with Pemberley. He was the most arrogant, hypocritical man she had ever known. No amount of dragons or concessions could make up for that shortcoming.
Someone delicately knocked on her door. It was Alyce. She entered and perched on the bed next to Valeraine, a bird that might startle away, wary of terrible news. “How did it go?” She had known of Valeraine’s plan to confront Pemberley.
“I have found out why Nethenabbi never replied to your letters.”
This wasn’t what Alyce had expected, and it was not altogether welcome news. Alyce had worked hard to not care about what Nethenabbi was doing. She didn’t want to undo that by showing interest. She also could not bear to leave this information unturned. “Oh?”
“Mr. Pemberley hid your letters from him, and stopped his letters from posting.”
“That devilish man,” Alyce murmured in her sweet way.
Valeraine sat up. She needed to look in Alyce’s face, confirm it was really her kind, angelic sister who was saying this. “Alyce!”
“He has been nothing but terrible to you, and now to me as well. What an underhanded thing. Did he do it because of you racing?”
Of course it had been because of her racing. Valeraine didn’t want to admit it. There was more important news, anyway. Valeraine laid back down. She could not bear to look Alyce in the eyes when she unfolded this. “He proposed to me.”
“Proposed... marriage?”
“Yes.”
“After he blackmailed you, and reported on you to Papa, and held my letters?”
“And directly after he insulted me and Longbourn house very thoroughly. That’s when he said, ‘When you are my wife.’”
“I didn’t think he could get any worse.” A terrible thought occurred to Alyce: “What did you say? Did you accept him?”
“No. No, I rejected him soundly, with many insults and with blackmail. I don’t think he will attempt a proposal again.”
“That’s likely for the best. You seem to attract proposals to you,” Alyce mused.
“All unsuitable ones. I could never leave Longbourn.”
“You have such loyalty to our family, but I hope…” Alyce trailed off.
“What?”
“I hope your loyalty does not chain you to this place. I want you to be happy — and I know Lelantos makes you happy. But you deserve a chance to fly free as well.”
Valeraine scoffed. “Fly free to Pemberley? Or Rosings? No thank you, my place is here, building the future.”
Alyce conceded, “You would’ve been marvelously unhappy with Mr. Pemberley.”
They sat in companionable silence, sharing their hatred for Mr. Bennington Pemberley, the worst man in the world.
Who had also just proposed to Valeraine.
Every time she thought of his proposal, her rage flamed anew.
“Do you think I should call on Mr. Nethenabbi?” Alyce asked shyly.
“Let him call on you first,” Valeraine reassured. “You’ve done more than enough chasing.”
“But what if he needs some more encouragement?”
“Your beauty and grace is enticement enough. He’ll come.”
“All this time, I’ve thought that Nethenabbi was apathetic and ignoring me. What if he’s been thinking the same of me, in the absence of my letters?”
“If he isn’t willing to truly court you, then he doesn’t deserve you.” Valeraine said.
“Oh Val, don’t say that. It isn’t his fault our letters were stopped. He’s such a kind man. A man like that doesn’t come around often, and I don’t want to lose my chance at true love.”
Valeraine’s immediate reaction was to question the notion of true love. But she blunted it for Alyce’s sake. “A true love is strong through thick and thin, isn’t it? Wait and see if Nethenabbi makes it through this thin season.”
“You’re right, of course. Perhaps I’ll call on him next week, if he hasn’t come around yet. By then you’ll have gotten a few more proposals to decline, I’m sure.”
“I won’t always turn them down. Just the ones from arrogant lords who assume there is nothing of value tethering me to Longbourn.”
There was one proposal, in particular, that she would accept.
If it ever came. She didn’t want a dragon house to be handed to her with a marriage contract.
She wanted to earn it, to save her home.
She wanted, when someone looked at her, not to see a weak woman from a dying house, but the woman who built a house, who was strong beyond imagining.