Chapter Eight #2
“I think if you get to know him, you would be sure to get to like him,” Miranda said, aware that she sounded a little desperate.
“That is how falling in love comes about.” Only it hadn’t in her case, had it?
She’d been fond of Geoffrey, yes, but never in love.
Did she not want better than that for her children?
Of course she did. And she would get it.
Lissy’s expression hardened into rebellion. “I’m very sorry, Mama, I but don’t think I will. I’ve seen him close up now and nothing stirs in my breast. Nothing at all.”
Miranda shook her head, determined to give her idea its best chance of success.
“You cannot unequivocally say no to this, Melissa. We will call on Cousin Harry tomorrow, to politely return his call, and further our acquaintance with him. You and I alone, not Mims and Megs. As you are the oldest, you are Miss Madeley and it is for you to accompany me when we go calling. You must at least get to know him, and then, if you are still of the same mind, we will rethink.”
Mims’ and Megs’ faces mirrored one another’s in open indignation.
“But he’s my friend,” Megs said. “Surely I should come too?”
Miranda shook her head. “You are twelve and not old enough to go calling on gentlemen. It’s not a thing a child should do.”
Mims sighed with the air of a martyr. “Very well. Megs and I will stay at home and do chores with Betsey, won’t we Megs?”
Miranda had an uncomfortable feeling that this was not quite true.
Lissy, Mims, and Megs reconvened in the stables.
In reality, this was more of a cowshed with stalls for the departed cattle, which Archie and Joe Miller had tried to render as much like the lavish stables at the manor as possible.
An area had been set aside as a tack and feed room at one end, with saddle racks purloined from the manor, of course, and the loft above had been filled with the first load of hay from Mr. Charlton.
The girls climbed up the ladder to the hay loft for their meeting.
“I absolutely refuse to be sacrificed upon the altar of saving this family from ruin,” Lissy began with. “You all know we’ve vowed to stay together and just ride horses for the rest of our lives.” She was determined nothing should undermine their trinity.
Mims was peering out of the door in the gable, which was the way the hay had got in there.
Did she suspect Mama of spying on them? Or sending Betsey to do so?
After all, there was no one else. “I don’t know,” Mims said.
“Mightn’t it be a good idea if you were to be living in the manor?
That way we could keep our horses back in the stables.
They’d be much more comfortable there in proper stables. ”
Lissy sat back on her heels and huffed. “See what I mean? You’re only seeing this as a way to get back to our old house.
And you’re putting the horses before me.
Your sister. You think if I lived there, you two could too.
And Mama. You think everything would go back to being the same as it was when Papa was alive. ”
“Well it would, wouldn’t it?” Megs was chewing a piece of hay. “I think it might be quite the perfect solution.”
Mims nodded. “Agreed.”
Ridiculous, and selfish, too. Lissy scowled at them both. “For you two maybe, but not for me. It most definitely wouldn’t be going back to how it used to be for me.”
“Think of the good points about it,” Mims, ever the sensible one, said.
“You’d have access to all the money Papa had.
You’d live in the manor for ever and ever, even if he died.
You could get more horses. You could start the stud you’ve always dreamed of.
Breed a horse to run in the Derby even. Think how good that would be. ”
Lissy only deepened her scowl. “You’re forgetting a few vitally important points about being married.”
“Like what?” Megs asked, curious.
Lissy hesitated, unsure whether to keep going. Megs was only twelve, after all. However, she had grown up in the country and she knew all about what dogs did, for a start. She’d been in and out of Home Farm all her life so she must know how animals mated.
However… “Things,” she said, a little vaguely.
“Things a husband and wife have to do.” Not that she was entirely sure of much about this herself.
After all, animals didn’t seem to do it very often.
Once a year for a cow, for example. Would that be so bad?
Once a year, for the sake of horses, she might be able to manage.
Then a vivid image of Buzz and Dash, the two cocker spaniels, locked together for what had seemed like forever before Dash’s puppies could be born nine weeks later. Maybe not…
“She means mating,” Mims said.
Megs’ mouth made a round O of surprise. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“I’m jolly glad you hadn’t,” Lissy snapped.
“Girls your age shouldn’t know anything about such things.
” But her cheeks had fired up with heat.
No, she could never do anything so intimate with anyone, still less with Cousin Harry, even though he was very handsome in a rather faded kind of a way.
As if he needed some care and attention, like Nero, their pointer had done when they’d found him abandoned on the lane.
She huffed again. She had no intention of being the one to give Cousin Harry that kind of care and attention.
Megs slid down the biggest pile of hay a couple of times while her sisters were cogitating their next move. “I’m going to get Arthur to come up and play with me here. He’d love a hay slide.”
“If Betsey catches you doing that she’ll box your ears. Yours and his,” Mims said as she left the gable and sat down on the hay beside Lissy. “Forget playing on the hay. Come and listen. I’ve just had absolutely the best idea ever.”
Lissy raised her brows in expectation. Mims might be younger by nearly two years, but she was always the one who could formulate a good idea. Megs stopped sliding and came and sat at their feet, cross legged on the plank floor.
“Go on,” Lissy said. “I’m all ears.” Anything to prevent the plan Mama had hatched.
“Me too,” Megs added, wiggling her own ears with her fingers in illustration.
Mims leaned forwards and lowered her voice as though worried an eavesdropper might be about, which was silly, as their mother and Betsey were both doing indoor chores. “You don’t want to marry Cousin Harry, do you?”
Lissy scowled. “I thought I’d made that abundantly clear already.”
“Just checking.”
“Get on with it. What’s your idea?”
Mims glanced to left and right and lowered her voice still further. The other two leaned in closer. “You won’t need to. We have someone else who could marry him.”
Megs sat back. “We do? I know I said I would but I am only twelve. Do we need to wait six years?”
Mims shook her head with vehemence. “Not you, silly. Someone much better. Mama.”
A shocked silence fell.
“But Mama’s old,” Megs said, finally breaking the silence. “Isn’t she too old to get married again?”
Mims shook her head. “No she’s not. She was married at Lissy’s age and then she had Lissy, so I worked out she can’t be any more than thirty-seven.”
“But thirty-seven is old,” Megs said.
Mims scowled at her. “Honestly, you’re such a child. Thirty-seven isn’t old at all. For getting married, I mean.” She heaved a deep sigh. “It’s a good thing one of us is good at reckoning. You said he told you he was thirty-two. So she’s only five years older than he is.”
Lissy nodded slowly, delight creeping over her.
Delight and relief. “Of course. You’re absolutely right.
It’s Mama who must marry him. That would be a much better outcome altogether.
She’s already been married, so she won’t be bothered about the once-a-year mating bit of it.
And that way she’d get the house back, which would be for us, too, and we could all live there with our horses and never have to get married.
And that awful Sir Julian would have to stop pestering her and we’d never see him again. ”
Megs frowned. “That does sound like quite a good idea…especially the bit about none of us having to see Sir Julian again. He gives me the shivers. But how do we persuade her to do it? After all, she seems to have made up her mind that you should marry him, Lissy. It could be awkward.”
Mims nodded. “It could indeed. We’re going to have to be subtle and clever and cunning, which I’m sure we all can be. Plus he’s bound to prefer Mama to Lissy.”
Lissy scowled, but held her tongue, not wanting to deflect from Mims’ good idea.
Mims nodded. “It’s helped by Mama being so pretty though.
” A rather wicked smile slid over her face.
“I think you’re going to have to make yourself as unattractive as possible to him, Lissy, because Mama can’t do that to save her life.
She’s nice to everyone. You will just have to convince him he doesn’t want to marry a girl as horrid as you. ”
Lissy scowled. “But I’m not horrid.”
“You are sometimes,” Megs said. “So it shouldn’t be too hard to be like it all the time when you’re with Cousin Harry. You’ll just have to try harder.”
“I wouldn’t even know where to start being horrid to a man. And I’m not sure I want him to think that about me.”
Mims sighed. “Yes you do, or he might fall in love with you by mistake instead of Mama, and you don’t want that, do you?”
Lissy slowly shook her head. “No. I don’t. But what is horrid like when it’s to do with a man?”
“Pick your nose,” Megs said, not very helpfully. “Betsey told me ladies should never do that.”
Lissy wrinkled her own dainty nose. “Good heavens, were you picking your nose in front of Betsey?”
Megs gave a shrug. “It was a long time ago.”
Mims shook her head. “Definitely don’t pick your nose. Although I think that would be enough to put any man off. We want him to like our family not think we’re devoid of good manners. He might think Mama had allowed us to do that if you did it in front of him.”
Lissy gave a shudder. “Don’t worry. I have no intention of picking my nose in front of anyone at all, still less Cousin Harry.”
Megs opened her mouth to make another suggestion, but as it was likely to be equal to or more abhorrent than her first, Mims interrupted her.
“I know. Be demanding. Tell him you don’t like things.
Be bossy. Act spoiled. I’m sure that will come easily to you.
Make a big fuss about everything. In other words, be like you are with us. That should put him off nicely.”
Lissy bristled. “I’m not like that with you at all.”
“Yes, you are,” Mims and Megs sang together.
“I don’t mean to be,” Lissy muttered, flushing with embarrassment that her sisters saw her in such an unflattering light. “But I am the oldest and you should do as I tell you.”
Mims shrugged. “This time you’re going to need to do what I tell you if you don’t want to end up a married lady at eighteen.”
Lissy nodded, mindful of the yearly chore she imagined all women had to endure. “Very well. I’ll have a think about what I can do to make him be sure to not like me.” She frowned. “But it might be hard.”
Megs burst out laughing. “You can add being horribly big-headed to your list of things that will put him off. What makes you think it’ll be hard to stop him liking you?”
Mims giggled. “You have to admit, Megs, that our dear sister is quite pretty. Pretty enough for a man to fall in love with.”
Megs wrinkled her nose. “I suppose she’s passable.
Archie the stable boy seems to think so.
I’ve seen him go beetroot red every time he sees her.
But she’s not nearly as beautiful as Mama.
And you seem to have forgotten that if we try to make Lissy unattractive, we’re also going to have to make Mama more attractive and push her into Cousin Harry’s way.
” She beamed. “However, I think I’d much rather he became our stepfather than our brother-in-law. ”
“Me too,” Lissy said, a trifle gloomily. “Me too.”
Megs, ever ebullient, scrambled to her feet. “And now I’ve had enough of matchmaking. Let’s all go for a ride.” She ran to the ladder and was down it in a trice.
Her sisters followed behind more sedately.