“If that is your view of marriage, it seems to me that you should not marry at all,” Mary shot back. “Certainly, I have no interest in being locked into such a marriage.”
“Come, Mary, I would not have taken you for a romantic miss.”
“No, clearly you take me for a woman who is so desperate for a husband that she will accept even the most spiritless and insulting of proposals. I am sorry to disappoint you, but I am not in so bad a case. What I gave you yesterday I gave freely, out of my own desire, not to blackmail you into wedlock. I have no interest in marrying a man for his income or because I like his house! Even less would I do it because some hardheaded, hard-hearted old man whom I never met would have wanted me to. I am a practical woman, but that doesn’t mean I am bloodless. I saw my parents, and however little they had and however ‘poor’ a marriage they made, they were happy . They loved each other. I could not settle for anything less. When I say yes, it will be to a man who cannot live without me—not one who has to talk himself into it. Least of all one who proposes simply because he is a ‘gentleman.’”
Mary whirled and strode back to the house, leaving Royce staring after her.
Mary charged up the stairs, fueled by the heat of her fury. She could not join her sisters in their daily deportment lesson feeling the way she did now. She could scarcely talk or even breathe, she was so filled with anger; one idiotic rule from Miss Dalrymple would probably make her erupt.
As she passed the small sitting room, however, she saw that Rose was there alone, sitting before one of the trunks they had hauled in. The trunk was open, with a few things piled in front, and Rose was bent over a book. She looked up and smiled when she heard Mary at the door.#p#分页标题#e#
“Good! There you are. Miss Dalrymple gave us the morning off since you were walking with Sir Royce—it is amazing how much more amenable she is now that Cousin Charlotte is here. Charlotte just suggested to her that we take the lessons another time, and Miss Dalrymple smiled and agreed, as though she were the most reasonable woman in the world.”
“You are going through Mama’s things?” Mary asked as she walked over to her sister. She was surprised at how calm her voice sounded.
“Shh. Don’t tell the others. I said I’d wait. Camellia and Lily are still downstairs at breakfast with Cousin Charlotte. Charlotte is a late riser, and you know how Lily loves to dawdle over her coffee. But I couldn’t resist taking a peek. Look, it is Mama’s diary.” She showed a small leather-bound book. “Nothing very remarkable—she was only ten, I think, according to the date on it. Just things that she ate or walks with her sisters or her studies. Imagine—her governess was already making her walk with a book on her head, just as Miss Dalrymple does with us.” Rose chuckled. “She hated it. Camellia will be happy to hear that.”
“How nice.” Mary tried to swallow her agitation as she knelt beside her sister. She took the small book and smoothed her hand across the old leather cover.
Rose frowned and reached out to touch Mary’s hand. “Sweetheart … what’s the matter? You seem upset.”
“Do I?” Mary tried to smile, but the effort was feeble.
“Yes. What happened? Miss Dalrymple said she saw you walking into the garden with Sir Royce. Was he lecturing you again? Did he make you unhappy?”
Mary jumped to her feet, hardly noticing that the diary tumbled from her hands onto the floor. “Oh, Rose! He asked me to marry him!”
Her sister gaped at her. “He—he what?”
“He asked me to marry him. I have never been so astonished in my life.”
“What did you say?” Rose asked in a weak voice.
“I told him no, of course.”
“You did?”
“Did he really think that I was so plain, so dowdy, so utterly unattractive that I would leap at the chance to marry anyone?” Mary demanded, spreading her arms wide.
“No! Mary, he never said that!”
“Well, no, he did not. But only a person in those straits would have accepted his proposal. He said that we ‘would deal well together.’”
“Oh my.”
“Exactly. He pointed out that he had a ‘pleasant income’ and that I liked his house. Can you imagine? As if I would marry him because I enjoyed Iverley Hall! He also assured me that we could get a house in London because he’s ‘generous.’ Of course, for him the advantage would be doing something that would please the old earl. And being connected to the Talbots.”
“Mary, how awful!” Rose jumped to her feet and put her arms around Mary.