If only she could think of a way.
Regina distantly heard the sound of the front door. She checked the clock. Her sisters were back earlier than expected.
There was the sound of thumping feet and then the door to her bedroom flew open.
It was Elizabeth, her green eyes all but glowing and her chest heaving.
“Regina!” She snapped. “Care to inform me why Mr. Denny just proposed to me?”
Oh dear.
Chapter 5
The sisters all met in Bridget’s room.
Louisa sat quietly on the bed, propped up with pillows. Elizabeth paced back and forth. Natalie was curled up on the windowsill. Bridget was on the edge of the bed next to Louisa.
Regina stood in the middle. It felt a little like she was on stage.
“Spare nothing,” Bridget told her.
As simply as she could she told them what had happened. Elizabeth uttered many words that a lady shouldn’t know. Natalie clapped a hand over her mouth. And Louisa burst into tears.
Bridget merely stayed silent.
When Regina had finished she looked to her sister for guidance. Before Bridget said anything, however, Louisa cut in.
“Charles can never marry me now,” she whispered through her tears.
“There, now,” Bridget said, patting Louisa’s knee soothingly. “Mr. Fairchild will not hesitate to wed you. I should say this gives him more reason to.”
“If only his aunt would hurry up and die,” Elizabeth said with an eye roll. When the other four looked at her, she shrugged. “Don’t look so scandalized. You’re all thinking it.”
“You must accept Mr. Denny,” Natalie said.
“I am not accepting a man I hardly know,” Elizabeth replied.
“He has an income of ten thousand a year and that’s all you need know!” Natalie hissed. “I should think you’d put up with half that a year if the man was fool enough to put up with you.”
“Squabbling will get us nowhere,” Bridget said. “Elizabeth, please consider Mr. Denny’s proposal. He is a good man and has been watching you for some time.”
“Watching is not half as good as speaking. If he has been watching me as you say then why not ask me to dance?”
“Because you are a harpy that does nothing but insult the man fool enough to ask you.”
“Natalie, enough!” Bridget commanded.
Natalie fell silent.
Bridget drew herself up. “You could do well to improve yourself, Natalie. You cannot treat men as playthings. Pick one, and pick now. The time for indecision is over.”
Natalie huffed but said nothing.
“And what of me?” Regina asked.
Bridget looked over at her. Her green eyes warmed and she almost smiled. “Don’t fret for anything, darling.”
“There’s no need to play favorites,” Elizabeth said. “She’s eighteen, that’s old enough to marry.”
“And how will it look if all of us marry at once?” Bridget replied. “And if the youngest marries before her elders?” She gestured at Louisa.
Elizabeth had nothing to say to that. What Bridget said was true. Two of them getting married at once would raise eyebrows but not too many. Three or four of them? Everyone would know the real reason they had tied the knot. The gossip would never cease.
As for age, it was commonly accepted—although by no means a rule—that the elder daughters married first. For Regina to marry before Louisa would provoke spinster comments about Louisa. Comments that her sweet sister did not deserve.
“And what of you, Bridget?” Natalie asked. “Surely you have suitors.”
“I have. And I shall think on who would best suit me. I shall have to be married first, if Louisa is not. But there is nothing stopping either you or Elizabeth from entering an engagement.”
“Let us face the truth, Bridget,” Louisa said. Regina was surprised that she had spoken up. She sounded incredibly tired.
“We must face it. Marriage will save us financially. But it will not—nothing can save our reputations. Especially Father’s. It will be years before people will stop whispering about it. Any man who marries us will have to take that on.”
“The whispers will die down as soon as the next scandal comes,” Bridget replied.
“Our lives will never be the same,” Louisa countered. “We shall be indebted to our husbands as most women never are. Our wedding days will be covered in clouds. Father might never be welcomed back into society.”
“This is how our lives are now,” Bridget said. “Perfect marriages they might not be. But they are all we have. Let us be thankful that we have suitors willing to marry us. Not every woman is so lucky.”
Again, Regina wished that there was a way to fix this. If only they could win back their land. That would stick it to Lord Pettifer. Then this cloud wouldn’t be over her sisters’ marriages. Father could hold his head high again.
If only…
“Then prove it to us,” Elizabeth said. “Find yourself a husband.”
Bridget thought for a moment. “I shall choose my husband the night of Lord and Lady Morrison’s annual masquerade ball. It is in a month’s time. Is that acceptable?”
The other three women nodded. Regina didn’t. She couldn’t. A thought had hit her like a lightning bolt. Her skin tingled and her stomach flipped.
Lord and Lady Morrison’s masquerade ball.
There was a way to win their land and money back. There was a way to fix all of this.
She had figured it out.
Chapter 6
The girls retired for the night to their bedrooms. Louisa stayed in Bridget’s room. They all had their own rooms but Regina suspected that Louisa needed a bit of extra comfort that night.
Regina went back to her bedroom and lay in darkness until she was certain the others were asleep.
When she had waited until she could hardly bear it anymore, she rose. She slid on her robe again and opened her bedroom door.
There was no sound throughout the house.
She didn’t get a candle. Someone could see it and investigate. Instead she crept down the hall in darkness. The stairs were tricky. Luckily she had the banister to hold onto.
When she reached the main floor she felt her way using the wall. She had never been in such darkness before. The moonlight slid through the curtains here and there. It created little pockets of silver-white light and tinged the edges of the dark blue. But in between those patches was nothing but deep shadow.
It was a little frightening. Regina found herself holding her breath now and again. Each time she shook herself. She had been reading far too many Gothic novels recently. This was not The Castle of Otranto or The Mysteries of Udolpho. She was not in a lonely castle on the moors. There was nothing to frighten her here.
Still, she couldn’t deny that the house seemed different in the darkness. She moved slowly, carefully. It made everything seem longer. Distance and time were strange and unknowable.
When she finally reached her father’s study she let out a sigh of relief. And, thank heaven, it was unlocked.