Chapter Eight
After the new baronet had left, Miranda sat for a few moments in silence, her brow furrowed in thought.
For some reason she was feeling more than a little flustered, and she wasn’t sure why.
Surely it could not be because of his flattery, or because she’d noted how handsome he was?
What nonsense. She’d met handsome young men before and none had exerted this effect on her.
And besides, he was far too young to warrant her interest. But, on the other hand, he had disclosed that he was single, and she did have three daughters, at least one of whom was now of marriageable age.
Three daughters and a problem with no dowries for any of them.
She began to see some useful possibilities lying ahead.
She was not allowed to sit in peace on her own for long though.
The girls must have heard the front door open, or spied on him as he departed, because the kitchen door now flew open with something approaching violence and all three of them came tumbling into the parlor like a bunch of unruly puppies.
As if to reinforce this impression, all six dogs came bouncing in with them, even old Tippo.
Miranda sighed. When did her girls ever come through a door in anything approaching a ladylike fashion?
Not even Lissy, this time, who should know better at her age.
An age at which she needed to be groomed to at least appear to be the sort of young lady in whom a handsome young baronet might be persuaded to show an interest. Unfortunately, looking at Lissy only made Miranda more aware of her failings as a mother to produce demure, marriageable girls instead of a horde of tomboys.
The girls threw themselves down on the rug in front of the fire with the dogs, only reinforcing her conviction that no one in their right mind would want to marry any of them, and surrounded her chair, thus preventing any escape.
“Well?” Lissy said. “What is he like?” She tossed a disparaging glance at Megs.
“We could get nothing out of Megs but the fact that he has a bad leg and told her he likes horses. Most unsatisfactory.”
Of course. Questions like that would have been at the forefront of her youngest daughter’s mind. When were horses not?
“And that I can call him Harry,” Megs put in. “And that we’re friends now I’m no longer going to shoot him.” She frowned. “For alas, shooting wouldn’t work as it would be one of his sister’s children who would then get our house and money, not us. I know because I asked him.”
Miranda had to gasp at this. “Megs! You didn’t!”
Megs nodded. “I had to check.”
“Incorrigible child!”
Mims scowled at her unrepentant sister. “You do know he was only being condescending and humoring you, don’t you? When he said you were friends. He didn’t mean any of that.”
Megs’ expression suggested she was ready to do battle over this insult.
Exasperated, Miranda held up an admonishing hand. “Do stop talking all at once for a moment and listen to what I have to say.”
They fell silent, but it was obvious from their expressions that they didn’t want to. If only she’d been stricter with them, but she’d never had the heart to be, and Geoffrey had not been the kind of father who’d taken much interest in his children as long as they didn’t bother him.
She gathered her thoughts. “I must say that I’m pleasantly surprised. Sir Henry seems a nice polite young man.”
“Harry,” Megs said, flashing a smug smile at her sisters.
Lissy poked her. “Do be quiet and listen to Mama.”
Miranda nodded. “Thank you, Lissy. That will do. Now, you will be pleased to hear that I’ve discovered something interesting. Sir Henry…” She caught Megs’ expression. “Cousin Harry, in that case, is unmarried.”
“I knew that already,” Megs said, and received another poke in the ribs for her trouble.
“Ssshh!” Mims hissed.
“So?” Lissy said.
Mims bounced up and down in a further display of inappropriate and far too juvenile behavior for a young lady of sixteen. “That means he needs a wife, silly.”
“Exactly,” Miranda said. “And I have a daughter of marriageable age.”
“You do?” Lissy said, clearly not realizing she was the one being spoken of.
Miranda nodded, fixing her gaze on her oldest child.
Mims burst out laughing. “You, of course, you ninny. Mama means you.”
Lissy’s mouth fell open. “Me? But I don’t want to get married.” Her eyes flicked from side to side furtively, as though seeking a means of rapid escape. “And besides, I’m not even old enough. I’m only just eighteen.”
Miranda shook her head with determination. Now she’d thought of this, she didn’t want obstacles thrown in the way. “Nonsense. You’re the same age as I was when I married your dear papa.”
The girls exchanged glances.
Megs frowned, her lower lip beginning to jut. “I don’t think Lissy should marry Harry.”
Mims crowed with delight, possibly at the discomfiture of her sister. “If she marries him, I can have her bedroom, can’t I?”
Lissy rounded on her. “No, you can’t, because I’m never marrying anyone. Especially not him. Besides which, he’s so skinny and pale he looks like he’s about to breathe his last. Then I’d be a widow.”
“A rich widow,” Mims said, with an air of satisfaction. “Because you’d inherit everything he’s just inherited from our papa. I know all about inheritance law. I read a book in papa’s library.”
“You do? I would?” Lissy was still scowling. “Well, anyway, I don’t care. I’m never marrying anyone. Ever. Especially not someone who might die. That would be awful.”
This was so blatantly just an excuse, that Miranda had difficulty preventing herself from chuckling.
“He most certainly does not look as though he’s about to expire, Lissy.
He’s just a young man who’s been injured and is in the process of recovery.
That can take time. No doubt he will recover his full health now he’s away from soldiering and here in our beautiful countryside.
Mrs. Barnes will want to take the trouble to fatten him up, I’m sure.
You have no need to worry about suddenly becoming a widow. ”
“I’m not going to worry about becoming a widow,” Lissy snapped, “because I have no intention of marrying him. And anyway, he may not even want to marry me. Have any of you thought of that with all your matchmaking?”
Miranda sighed. Perhaps she should have raised this subject when she was alone with Lissy. It might have been best not to have told Mims and Megs. Too late now though.
Mims gave an unladylike snort. “I don’t know why you’re making such a fuss. It’s not as if he were ugly.”
Which he wasn’t. Despite being so thin, he was quite disturbingly handsome, the dark circles beneath his eyes bringing out every instinct Miranda had to look after him. No. She would definitely not think about that. Not one bit.
Megs nodded, although not all that enthusiastically, as perhaps she was considering how the loss of her new friend was required for this plan to come to fruition.
“If I were old enough, I’d marry him. He’s far nicer than that awful Sir Julian who keeps calling round to see you since Papa died.
And at least he’s not barmy, which Sir Julian so obviously is. I think he wants to marry you, Mama.”
Miranda frowned at the change of subject.
She didn’t like to think of Sir Julian, whom she’d known through Geoffrey but whose visits had indeed become far more frequent in the last three and a half months, and who probably wasn’t quite right in the head.
At least he wasn’t sniffing after Lissy, though.
That would have been intolerable. She was quite capable of defending her virtue, but Lissy was not.
Not that the man had as yet said anything, as Miranda had made sure she was always wearing her black armband when he called and insisted on talking about Geoffrey as though she were still actually mourning him.
And not that she would have considered saying yes had he asked, for that would have meant taking her three daughters to live at Thornby Grange.
She most definitely didn’t like the look in his eyes when he called.
And she wasn’t so stupid as to think a man like Sir Julian would be able to keep his hands off girls as pretty as they were once they were living under his roof.
Oh, the perils of being a mother to three growing girls. The very thought of that dreadful man made her shiver.
With determination, Miranda returned her attention to Lissy.
“I know you’ll change your mind about being married when you fall in love, as I hope you will.
” She paused as heat rose to her cheeks, but plowed on anyway.
“And as Mims so kindly pointed out, Cousin Harry is not at all ugly. Quite the opposite in fact. Most handsome.”
Megs and Mims nodded with the enthusiasm not having to marry him could have engendered. “Very,” Mims said. “Or he will be when he gets a bit fatter.”
Lissy frowned. “I very much doubt that I’ll ever fall in love. I love my horse far more than I could ever love a man.”
“Me too,” Mims said, and Megs nodded. Perhaps it had been a bad idea to encourage the three of them in that direction, just because she herself derived so much pleasure from her own horse.
Riding had been a way of escape when she’d first been married to a man she’d not been in love with, and who hadn’t loved her himself.
Hers had been very much an arranged marriage to a man who’d only wanted a young woman who could give him an heir to replace the one who’d died.
And all she’d given him were these three girls. The lights of her life, but not of his.
Was she guilty of wanting to do the same to Lissy? Perhaps. But if Lissy could be brought to loving him…? That would work.