LITMIR.BIZ

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laughed. ‘How many proposals have you had?’

      ‘Well, there was Mr Richard Fanshawe, who is as ill mannered as anyone could possibly be and stormed off in a huff when I rejected him. Then Sir Reginald Swayle, who affects to be a dandy but only succeeds in looking ridiculous, and Lord Gorange, who is positively ancient and has two motherless children. I wonder at Papa even allowing him to speak to me. I can’t marry anyone like that, can I?’

      ‘I can see your point. What did Papa say about a Season?’ Jane had finished putting on her shoes and was looking in the mirror to tie the ribbons of her bonnet, and her remarks came to Sophie through her reflection.

      ‘He said no.’

      They left the room and went downstairs to where the nursemaid waited with Harry, who was sitting in his carriage beaming at everyone. ‘He will soon be walking,’ Jane said as she wheeled him out of doors and down a path that led into the surrounding park and gardens. ‘He can already pull himself up on the furniture. And I heard him say papa the other day when Mark came into the nursery. Mark is a doting father, you know.’

      ‘Yes, I do know, and you are a doting mama. I declare that nursemaid has too little to do.’

      ‘I love being with my son, Sophie, and would be with him all day, but I do have duties which require me to be from him, and then Tilly has plenty to do.’

      Sophie knew one of her sister’s abiding passions beside her husband, child and home was the orphanage she had set up in nearby Witherington. She often spent time there herself, helping with the children. ‘You would not leave him to come to London for a while?’

      ‘No, Sophie, I would not. Is that the reason you are here today—to persuade me to take you?’

      ‘I guessed you would not. Teddy would take me, but Papa says he is not up to the responsibility.’

      ‘Papa has a point.’

      ‘I don’t know why you are all so against Teddy. Since he came back from India, he has been the model of decorum.’

      Jane laughed. ‘Hardly that. He seems to have dissipated most of the money he had left after he saved Greystone.’

      ‘At any rate, he has done nothing untoward, and if we stayed with Aunt Emmeline...’

      ‘You have worked it all out, haven’t you? What do you want me to do?’

      ‘Persuade Papa that Teddy can be trusted to look after me. Mama said she will do what she can, but if you spoke to Papa, too, it would help.’

      ‘Why this sudden urge to go to London?’

      ‘It is not sudden. I have been thinking of it ever since you and Issie first went, but there were always reasons why I could not. First there was that business over Lord Bolsover, and then the court was in mourning for Princess Charlotte and her baby, and last year old Queen Charlotte died, but I cannot see why I shouldn’t go this year. I have never been to London. You have been several times and Issie has been all over the world. It just is not fair. I shall end up an old maid.’

      ‘Oh, Sophie, that is highly unlikely,’ Jane said, laughing. ‘There are not many young ladies can boast of having turned down three offers at your age.’

      ‘But not from the right man.’

      ‘So, tell me, what would the right man be like? Bear in mind perfection is unattainable.’

      ‘I don’t want to him be perfect, that would be boring, but he must love me and I must love him, just as you and Mark love each other.’

      ‘That goes without saying, but what will make you love him, do you think?’

      ‘He must be tall and handsome and have a fine figure...’

      ‘That, too, goes without saying.’

      Sophie was well aware that her sister was teasing her, but carried on. ‘He must be kind and generous and dependable.’

      ‘Admirable traits. I commend your good sense.’

      ‘But on the other hand, I should like him to be exciting, to make my heart beat faster, to take me by surprise sometimes...’

      ‘Surprises can sometimes not be pleasurable.’

      ‘I meant pleasant surprises, of course. You are not taking me seriously, Jane.’

      ‘I am, indeed I am. But you might well find that when you do fall in love, he will be none of those things or perhaps only some of them. Falling in love is not something you can order, like a new bonnet or a new pair of shoes, it just happens.’

      ‘I know that, but it is never going to happen in Hadlea, is it?’

      ‘It did to me.’

      ‘Yes, but there is only one Mark.’

      ‘I know that.’ Jane smiled. ‘You are quite set on this, I can see. I will ask Mark’s opinion and if he says he can see no harm in it, then I will speak to Papa.’

      ‘Oh, you are the best of sisters. Thank you, thank you.’

      Confident of success, Sophie turned to other subjects: gossip and clothes, Harry’s newly acquired accomplishments, the latest doings of the children at the Hadlea Home and speculation on where Isabel might be and how long before they would see her again.

      ‘The last letter I had from her was written in India, but she and Drew were about to leave for Singapore,’ Jane said. ‘Have you heard anything more recent?’

      ‘No, Mama received a similar letter. According to Teddy, Drew has his eye on trade with the Orient and will very likely buy another ship. If he and Issie were to come home by the time the Season begins, they might sponsor me.’ A statement that proved her come-out was never very far from her thoughts. ‘But I cannot depend upon it.’

      ‘No, better not.’

      They turned back the way they had come, Harry was returned to his nursemaid and Jane ordered tea to be brought to the drawing room. ‘Mark has gone to Norwich,’ she said to explain the absence of her husband. ‘I had hoped he would be back by now, but his business must be taking longer than he thought. I will speak to him, Sophie, I promise you, but do not expect miracles.’

      Half an hour later Sophie set off for home with a light step.

      * * *

      Two days later, Mark and Jane brought Harry to visit his grandparents. There was nothing unusual in this; they were frequent visitors, but Sophie immediately assumed they had come on her behalf and joined them in the drawing room. ‘I am so glad to see you,’ she said, taking Harry from his mother and sitting down with him.

      ‘Naturally, we all are,’ her mother said. ‘But I suspect your enthusiasm has something to do with this idea for having a Season. Am I right?’

      ‘I thought Jane might help.’

      Lady Cavenhurst turned to her eldest daughter. ‘Were you planning to go to London for the Season, Jane?’

      ‘No, Mama, I would not leave Harry or the Hadlea Home for so long, but I gather Teddy has agreed to escort Sophie.’

      ‘I don’t know how she managed to talk him into it,’ her ladyship said. ‘It is not something I would have expected of him.’

      ‘Why not?’ Sophie asked.

      ‘He might find the responsibility tedious. Besides, he is too young. You need someone mature enough to be aware of how a young lady should behave in society and to look out for all the pitfalls that might attend her, of being unknowingly lured into a situation that might reflect badly on her reputation, for instance.’

      ‘I know that and can look out for myself,’ Sophie insisted. ‘And I am sure Teddy knows it, too. Besides, Aunt Emmeline will chaperone me and see I meet the right people, won’t she?’

      ‘What

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