Her Grace of Haverford was wondering why she had thought an afternoon at home with Matilda and Jessica to be a good idea. Her foster-daughters — as she thought of them, though by Haverford’s decree she referred to them as foster-nieces — had not taken kindly to Haverford’s edict that they no longer socialised or even spoke to their dearest friends, the Winderfield twins, and now Matilda was furious because Aldridge had run off yet another suitor.
“Lord Almsley is a baron, Aunt Eleanor.” Matilda in a temper was a glorious sight, colour high, perfect form bristling wit indignation. “Does Aldridge intend us all to be old maids? If he is not glowering at our shoulders scaring all the good gentlemen away, he’s hustling us inside off the terrace when we take a breath of fresh air, and now he has beaten poor Lord Almsley just for asking to wed me.”
“Or Jessica’s,” Eleanor commented. The man had hoped to connect himself to the Haverford family and pay his debts with the dowry Aldridge had settled on each of his half-sisters. According to Aldridge, the idiot preferred Matilda’s exotic beauty, but was prepared to take Jessica if Matilda was already spoken for. “I haven’t punched someone outside of the practice ring in years, Mama,” Aldridge had told her, “but I made an exception for the obnoxious scum who so disrespected my sisters.”
Eleanor’s comment stopped Matilda’s pacing. “Jessica?” She shook her head, setting her dark ringlets swinging. “What does Jessica have to do with it? He was courting me!”
Jessica opened her mouth and then closed it. Eleanor raised an interrogative eyebrow, waiting for her to comment. Matilda looked from Eleanor to Jessica and back. “He was. He was courting me,: she insisted.
“He was,” Eleanor confirmed. “Everyone saw it. However, unless I miss my guess, he was also secretly courting your sister.”
Matilda narrowed her eyes. “Jess?” Jess’s blush confirmed her guilt to both observers. “Jess! How could you! Aunt Eleanor, it isn’t fair!” Matilda insisted.
“Do you want a man who regards you as interchangeable with your sister?” Eleanor asked.
Matilda sat down with a flounce. “I want a husband and a home of my own. If Aldridge has his way, I shall molder into an old maid in the Haverford residences, staying out of the duke’s way and never having children to love.”
Eleanor sat, too, and waved Jessica into a chair. Aldridge had been unwilling to explain to Matilda exactly why he had turned Almsley away, but the girl deserved to know. “Matilda, Almsley’s willingness to take either of you is not the only reason Aldridge punched him. He had already decided to refuse the young man because of his gambling addiction and other personal habits, but when it was Almsley’s answer when Aldridge asked if he would be giving up his mistress that was the final straw.”
Matilda paled but said nothing. “Almsley has a mistress?” Jessica asked.
“One with whom he spends most of his time, and on whom he has lavished much of his personal wealth.” She had their full attention now. She had always thought the practice of keeping girls ignorant was a foolish one, but some truths were hard to hear. “Girls, Almsley told Aldridge that he would not be in need of an heiress were it not for his mistress, who is expensive but well worth it. He further suggested that, given the circumstances of your birth, you could not expect a better match, and would therefore be happy with his title and any pin money that Aldridge insisted on writing into the settlements. He assured Aldridge he would treat you with respect in public, and otherwise wouldn’t bother you.”
“The cur!” Jessica exclaimed, taking her sister’s hand.
“I hope Aldridge made him bleed,” Matilda agreed. “Oh, Aunt Eleanor, will we ever find anyone to marry?”
The girls are half-sisters, born six months apart, the natural daughters of the Duke of Haverford, taken into Eleanor’s nursery as babies. Watch for them in various of my books.