As they approached the house, Livia wrapped her arm around Charlotte’s shoulders. “What if everything Papa promised was only to mollify you temporarily? It gives me no pleasure to say this, but our father isn’t terribly farsighted—he’d be happy to postpone a problem for another day, let alone another eight years. What if when the time comes, he reneges on his word?”
“I don’t know. Not yet, in any case—I’ll have plenty of time to consider my response.” Charlotte took Livia’s hand in her own. “But if our father should prove a man of his word and sponsor the necessary education and training for me to earn a living, will you allow me to do the same for you in return?”
Livia squeezed Charlotte’s hand, suddenly close to tears. Charlotte seldom initiated physical contact—this was as solemn an offer as the queen could make standing in the middle of Westminster Abbey.
“Yes,” she said. “Yes, please do.”
She allowed herself to be briefly carried away by visions of this impossible future, two sisters, united in a most gratifying independence. Would they have a little cottage? Or a nice, spacious suite of rooms at the girls’ school that Charlotte would direct? She could see them sipping tea together on Sunday afternoons, Charlotte with a plate of her beloved plum cake in front of her, looking out to a small garden reserved for their private use.
It was a more appealing future than any she’d imagined yet.
But pessimist that she was, she couldn’t let the occasion pass without a word of caution. “Remember, Charlotte, Papa doesn’t like women. He’d feel a lot more hesitation breaking his word to a man—but you aren’t a man.”
“He had one fiancée who jilted him because of his character flaws. And the woman he married to spite the fiancée dislikes him because he used her with little regard for her feelings. What reason does he have to dislike all women? Does he disdain all men because his father was an ass and his solicitor made a soup of his affairs?”
“By your standards it isn’t rational, I know. But you can’t expect to be treated rationally when you are a woman, Charlotte. I can’t explain why—that’s just how it is. And you must learn to accept it.”
Charlotte was quiet. Livia thought that perhaps for once, she’d put some sense into her little sister’s head. But as they walked back into the house, Charlotte turned to her and said, “I will try to understand why. But I will not learn to accept it. Never.”
Livia had long suspected that Sir Henry would not hold to his promise. And yet when it happened, when he broke his pledge, she was far angrier than her sister.
“It’s unconscionable, what he did. To lie to you so baldly, to ask you to act in good faith when he hadn’t the slightest intention of upholding his end of the bargain—” She sputtered, unable to go on.
Charlotte sat at the edge of their bed, the slow tapping of her fingertips on the bedpost the only sign of her agitation.
After a long minute, Charlotte said, “My timing was less than ideal. I didn’t know it before I spoke to him, but Lady Amelia Drummond was found dead this morning. Papa was in a minor state.”
Livia’s hand came up to her throat. “Oh.”
Charlotte played with a bow on her skirt. “This isn’t to say that he would have kept his word otherwise. If he meant to keep his word, he would have, whether or not Lady Amelia still breathed. But had there been any vacillation on his part, any remote chance that he might have changed his mind at the last minute . . . as I said , my timing wasn’t ideal.”
“Will you ask him again?”
“Do you think that would be any use?”
“No.”
“Neither do I.”
“Then what are you going to do?” Livia was fuming again. “Please tell me you won’t swallow this appalling deceit. Papa will feel no remorse. He will only be endlessly smug that he got away with this kind of disgraceful chicanery.”
Charlotte wrapped her hands around the bedpost. If it were Livia, she’d be imagining the bedpost to be Sir Henry’s throat. But Charlotte retained her usual tranquility as she replied, “No, I won’t let it pass without a suitable response.”
“Good!” cried Livia. Then, a little less certainly, “But what kind of response would do the trick? How can you both punish him and still extract the necessary funds for your education?”
“I have an idea. I will think about it.”
“Can I be of help?”
“It’ll be best if I handle it myself.”
Livia was taken aback. “You aren’t going to—you aren’t going to put arsenic in his tea or anything like that, are you?”
“No, of course not. Besides, his death would offer no financial advantage to us at all. That’s when his creditors will pounce. Mamma will have to sell the house to satisfy them and I will not receive a penny for my education.”
“Then what?”
“I’ll tell you when it’s done.”
A chill ran down Livia’s spine: Her sister could be ruthless in her own way. “Will you at least tell me when you’ll implement this diabolical plan of yours?”
“Soon. Within weeks, I should think.”
Livia took Charlotte by the shoulders. “Don’t do anything you’ll regret.”
Charlotte’s lips stretched into a smile that did not reach her eyes. “Would that someone had given Papa that warning.”