The Rake’s Hesitant Bride: Historical Regency Romance (Ladybirds of Birdwell Book 2)

by Ella Edon

  “Quite true,” Tereza agreed brightly. “In all the stories I’ve read, the gentleman is unable to think of anything but his lady love. I can’t wait for my coming out next year, but it does seem a rather daunting prospect to be the only thing someone can think of.”

  “I imagine that you will find the reality rather different than what you’ve seen described in silly novels,” Selina told her younger sister. “It’s quite lovely, actually.” Selina wasn’t boasting, Charlotte knew, she had been quite a success at the Season last year, and one young lord had come very close to dying for her attentions – not intentionally, he had simply been so distracted that he had walked in front of a coach and four.

  “Of what use is a gentleman if he cannot function well enough to attend his affairs and secure a fine living for the object of his affections?” Jerome protested with a smile. He didn’t seem offended by Louisa’s comment at all, but answered with the same indulgent air that he spoke of Charlotte’s reading habits. The fact that he didn’t consider Louisa’s opinion to carry enough weight to insult him seemed to infuriate her, and she barely concealed her look of distaste.

  “That’s very true,” Charlotte agreed, not sure why she felt the need to defend him to Louisa.

  “Really, a continued focus on business matters might be seen, by a discerning lady, as the height of affection as it is all done for her sake,” he pressed on with a meaningful look at Charlotte. “I must take my leave of you ladies, but I hope to see you again quite soon.”

  “That would be lovely,” Charlotte answered, not quite able to say the words in the flirtatious manner she had observed her sisters using when speaking to their suitors, but hoping that her meaning was clear enough all the same.

  “What was that?” Louisa demanded as soon as Jerome was well away.

  “It was thrilling!” exclaimed Tereza. “I’ve never heard Mr Cooper speak so, Charlotte, he only needed the smallest bit of encouragement from you. I think he is quite in love with you!”

  “In love with Charlotte or with her social standing?” asked Louisa, her derisive tone making Charlotte wince. “It would give him quite an advantage, would it not, to unite his name with the Earl of Warwick’s?”

  “I believe that is commonly understood to be my greatest appeal,” Charlotte answered mildly although she was stung.

  “That isn’t at all what I meant and you know it! Any man in the world would be fortunate to have you as his bride, Charlotte, and your appeal is far greater than you will admit. I simply see no reason why you are suddenly encouraging that hopeless bore, particularly when he doesn’t even appreciate your true worth or share any of your interests. Can you imagine a lifetime of being married to someone who can’t even be bothered to read a single book for the sake of a conversation?”

  “How can you say that? I thought he made a point of complimenting me quite nicely, and I’m sure that he is quite busy with his affairs.”

  “You are too intelligent to think that his condescending attitude was truly a compliment. He might as well have patted you on the head as he would a silly little child.”

  “Louisa, dear, you really must give up this independent foolishness,” Lady Warwick remonstrated, setting aside her correspondence. “Your father is terribly concerned about you, you know. It’s high time you were married yourself, yet here you are trying to keep your poor sisters as single as yourself. What harm could it possibly be if a husband does not see the full value of his wife’s interests? Mr Cooper would hardly keep Charlotte from reading as much as she pleased if they were married. You demand far too much, I fear, and are too delighted to find fault. It’s why you’ve chased off every suitor of your own, but I must draw the line at you chasing off Charlotte’s suitor.”

  “I don’t think he’s nearly good enough for her, that’s all,” Louisa answered sulkily. “I don’t believe he sees her true value, he only sees the business value of her family name and the fact that she hasn’t any other suitors to compete with.”

  “I’m sure you are right,” laughed her mother, surprising the sisters. “But then no man will ever be good enough for any of you girls, and not one man in a thousand can be said to truly value a woman as a person. Rather than look for the impossible, it would be far wiser to look for a man who will be suitable and kind. I am of the opinion that Mr Cooper will be both, and if Charlotte chooses to encourage him that is her own decision, Louisa, not yours. I suggest you start thinking seriously of your own affairs, dear, before your father despairs of you and makes a match for you himself.”

  “He wouldn’t, surely,” Charlotte leaped to champion her sister, who looked stricken at the thought.

  “I wouldn’t rule it out. I’ve tried to warn you many times, Louisa, but you have always been so determined to be independent that you wouldn’t hear me. You are twenty now, very nearly on the shelf, and your father wants you safely married before you can get into some sort of scandal.”

  “I’m far more likely to cause a scandal if Father tries to force me to marry some nitwit than I am if left to my own devices,” Louisa declared with a toss of her head. “But that’s beside the point. Charlotte, do you mean to encourage that idiot?”

  “I don’t think he’s an idiot, Louisa. Not everyone can complete with your lively wits, you know. And to answer your question, I’m not sure. I haven’t taken him very seriously, partly because you find him so distasteful, sister. But I started to wonder today, if maybe I would do well to consider him. I am unlikely to have another suitor, that’s nothing more than the truth, and I have found no real reason to object to Mr Cooper.”

  “I think that’s quite sensible, dear,” Lady Warwick said before taking up another letter. Selina and Tereza, catching Louisa’s fierce stare, busied themselves at the piano forte, leaving Louisa to move closer to Charlotte.

  “Does this have anything to do with Kenneth Blackmore?” she demanded in a low voice.

  “It might, I suppose,” Charlotte sighed, knowing that Louisa would be unlikely to drop the subject until she was satisfied that she fully understood her sister’s motivations and thoughts on the matter. “I’ve just been thinking, these past few days, that perhaps in spite of everything I have been clinging to some foolish idea that Kenneth might one day care for me as I -” she cut herself off with a wary glance towards their younger sisters, but they seemed to be fully occupied.

  “I mean to say, I think it’s more than time I laid aside that old childish fondness and considered my future more seriously.”

  “You certainly would have a serious future if you married Jerome Cooper. I predict that in twenty years’ time he will be the sort of crabbed old curmudgeon who is elderly before his time from being forever bent over his ledgers. You cannot think that he will consider it profitable to waste time charming and flattering a woman once she is properly married to him,” Louisa pointed out.

  “And in twenty years’ time I will most likely be all but blind from reading and nearsightedness, and shall irritably demand that someone read aloud to me every afternoon for hours on end. How much the better if I have children and grandchildren of my own to pester, rather than being a nuisance of a maiden aunt? I think Jerome and I have a good deal of mutual benefits to offer to one another, and I don’t see anything particularly terrible about that.”

  “But you can’t honestly tell me that you care for him, Charlotte!”

  “Not particularly,” Charlotte admitted, blushing a little. “But I can picture myself growing rather fond of him, I believe. It is as Mama said. We must be sensible.”

  “I don’t believe that is all that is in your mind or your heart, and I can’t believe that you mean to begin keeping secrets from me after all these years of perfect confidence,” said Louisa after studying her sister’s sweet face for a long moment.

  “Secrets! Dearest, you can hardly accuse me of keeping secrets if I fail to voice half-formed thoughts that I myself am not fully aware of.”

  “Very well, then allow me to help you form
these thoughts. Granted, the arrival of the Duke of Rutherford has reminded you of your old feelings for the man, and of the cruel way he cast you aside years ago, causing you to realize that you have never truly moved on or seriously considered a suitor,” said Louisa mercilessly. “What other ideas have been flitting through your busy mind?”

  “I suppose...I suppose it has occurred to me that if I encouraged Jerome’s suit, then it might be less painful to encounter Kenneth now that he has returned. That sounds quite dreadful, but Jerome has made it clear that he is interested in my hand, and I believe that all those years ago Kenneth must have somehow inferred my feelings for him and let the idea of them chase him away. If I were engaged to another, it would be an excellent safeguard against him continuing that notion and treating me unkindly again,” Charlotte concluded, her cheeks heating with embarrassment. Unflinching honesty was one thing, it was another altogether to have to discover aloud such motives in one’s secret heart.

  “Good,” said Louisa promptly.

  “Good?” Charlotte raised her voice slightly in amazement, but dropped it quickly once more as their mother glanced over at them. “How can you think it’s good that I’ve just realized I’m using poor Jerome?”

  “Because ‘poor Jerome’ is using my favorite sister to advance his position in society, and I shall feel far less angry over that fact if she is doing the same. There’s a certain balance and equality to it, I should think.”

  “And we all know how you value that,” Charlotte teased, jolted from her feelings of guilt. “Do you think that Father would really force you to marry someone, as Mama seems to think?”

  “I don’t believe it for an instant. Besides, even if he attempted such a thing, I feel quite confident in my abilities to encourage any gentleman to turn his attentions elsewhere, if it came to that,” Louisa stated with a wicked smile curving her lovely mouth, recalling, Charlotte was certain, several suitors whom she had similarly encouraged away.

  “Still, it might be a good idea to at least consider choosing someone yourself, you know. Just in case?”

  “If I ever come across someone worth choosing, I might take your advice. Until then, I shall enjoy being my own person.”

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