THE TWINS WERE WAITING for Vanessa in her room across the corridor, the door left open so they could see when she left Kathleen’s room. Such forbearance! She would have eavesdropped, but they probably didn’t even consider it, Kathleen had trained them so well.
But both girls were impatient and didn’t even wait until she was fully in the room before asking, “Why are you already affianced?”
“Did you know?”
“And didn’t mention it to us?”
“How could you agree?”
Vanessa almost laughed, having to glance back and forth between the twins. It so reminded her of their childhood. But she closed the door, then turned to give them a wry smile.
“It was—unexpected,” she said.
“Then why did you agree?” Emily asked.
“Wouldn’t you?”
“No, we were promised choices.”
“Ah, but I wasn’t here for that conversation,” Vanessa pointed out. “But in either case, why would I refuse before I even meet Lord Rathban? I’d be very annoyed with m’self if I end up liking him.”
“Then you will decline if you don’t like him?” Layla guessed.
She just shrugged. Of course she wouldn’t, but the less said, the better. Because on one issue she did agree with her mother—this most exciting year of the twins’ lives shouldn’t be ruined by the revelation of unsavory truths they were presently unaware of. So her real reason for wanting the match couldn’t be mentioned.
But Emily was still confounded by her easy compliance and wouldn’t let the subject go. “Why was such a marriage arranged at all? There’s always a particular reason for something that antiquated.”
Yes, a recalcitrant boy who didn’t consider it his duty to continue his family’s line, but Vanessa wasn’t about to tell the twins that or mention her other reasons for agreeing to the match. But she was still able to answer Emily’s question without revealing too much by making a logical guess based on something her father had told her about the Rathbans.
“The eldest Rathban is an earl,” she said. “But they have much higher ranks in their ancestry, including a duke. They are an old and very highly esteemed family, which is why Mother couldn’t refuse such an offer when it was made.”
“But what do they want if they are already so well-connected?” Emily asked. “Money?”
It was Layla who answered that. “Don’t be a goose, Em. Have you forgotten about grandfather’s title that’s still unclaimed? Nessa’s firstborn son will become the Marquis of Dawton, more’n enough reason for an earl, however rich and highly esteemed he already is, to suggest the match for one of his sons.” But then she gasped and stared wide-eyed at Vanessa. “It is with a son, yes? Not a doddering old earl?”
“Yes,” Vanessa said with a chuckle, then decided to change the subject by offering her sisters a treat. “Let’s go for a ride. I’ll find you some horses, even teach you how—”
Emily cut in. “We have our own horses.”
Vanessa was amazed. Other ladies rode, but not Kathleen’s daughters—except now they did? “How did that come about?”
“Mother was just waiting until we were old enough,” Layla said.
Emily added, “She was afraid that when we were children we wouldn’t be able to handle a horse that might get out of hand or spooked; she made us wait until our fifteenth birthday.”
“Why the devil couldn’t she just tell us that instead of always saying no?” Vanessa complained.
“Mother has never really explained herself, Nessa, surely you realize that by now,” Layla said. “She is a firm believer in the old ‘Because I said so!’ instead of explaining what she considers obvious, even when we were too young to find anything obvious.”
Considering how disappointed she’d been, year after year, that she couldn’t ride here at Dawton and didn’t think she would ever be able to, Vanessa grumbled, “I suppose.”
“And I’m pretty sure you weren’t bold enough back then to demand answers.”
That came from Emily with marked disapproval, which raised Vanessa’s brow. “Is there something about me that you object to, Em?”
Emily sighed. “I’m sorry, I’m disconcerted by how much you’ve changed.”
“She was with Father too long,” Layla pointed out. “We can’t expect him to have taught her any of the female virtues Mother taught us.”
“Mother taught me about those before I left,” Vanessa said. “I just missed the comportment lessons.”
“Then how did you become so bold?”
“I could ask the same of you, Em,” Vanessa countered with a stare. That made Emily blush, which had her amend, “I’m sorry, it’s simply that I’ve been away long enough to have forgotten how intimidating Mother can be, and since I’ll be married soon, I don’t feel a need to buckle under, as it were.”
It wasn’t the whole truth. Yes, six years of freedom from Kathleen’s motherly oppression and restrictions had indeed changed her. But it was more than that. Unlike the twins who wanted to please their mother, Vanessa didn’t. She used to, but anger and resentment had gotten in the way of that. And despite what Kathleen had told her about Henry Rathban’s despicable efforts to blackmail her and the scandal that would have ensued if she hadn’t given in, Vanessa couldn’t seem to shake off those feelings yet.