Page 98 of Never a Bride
“Then speak your mind, girl, but be to the point.”
“Very well, then,” she said, straightening her back with defiance. She took a deep breath. “I am in love with Sir Alexander Thornton, and I wish to marry him.”
Her father didn’t move, and the room was so quiet she could hear the last embers crackling in the hearth.
“Did you hear me, Father? I am in love with—”
“I heard you.” He gave her a piercing stare she couldn’t read, and sat back with his hands linked across his stomach. “You’ve done it again, Emmeline. You’ve chosen a man who is not possibly suited to your station.”
“I disagree. His brother is a viscount, his father was well respected. Sir Alexander has estates in the north to keep us in sufficient wealth.”
“You are the daughter of a marquess,” he said, his voice only slightly louder. “You could marry a duke!”
“But a duke doesn’t want me, and a knight does.”
“Then why isn’t he here begging for your hand?”
“Because he doesn’t think you’d accept him,” she said, hoping she wasn’t lying.
“Then he was right; I won’t.” He gave her a patronizing smile, as if everything would be fine just because he’d said so. “Now put aside this foolishness, Emmeline. There will be other men.”
“For Blythe, perhaps, Father, but not for me,” she said, her desperation rising. “I am in love with Alex, and I want to marry him.”
“I forbid it.”
Without thinking her words through, she said, “I might be carrying his child.”
Her father slammed his fists on his desk as he vaulted to his feet. “He attacked you!”
Emmeline stood as well, facing him with her chin high. “He did not attack me! I love him! Now, do you want a scandal that will shake all of England, or will you quietly allow me to marry him?”
He wiped a hand down his face. “Emmeline, how could you risk such a thing? We have a good life here. You take care of your sister—surely you love her. And you practically have your own households to manage.”
“They’reyourhouseholds,” she answered, a sick suspicion permeating her mind. Perhaps he had deliberately kept her with him so he wouldn’t have to take care of Blythe. Did she run his households so well that he only used her as a glorified steward? Had hedeliberatelygiven only Blythe’s suitors encouragement?
“How could you do this, Emmeline?” he asked, his voice still cajoling. “I have given you a man’s education; I have given you every freedom you could want.”
“Except the freedom to marry, to choose my own husband,” she said coldly.
“But how will we manage without you? You are the very image of your mother, and it does me such good to look upon you.”
The image of her mother?
All her guilt vanished as if it had never existed, replaced by pity for her father and her own stupidity. In a sad way, she was grateful he had stopped her from marrying Clifford Roswald, but he wouldn’t succeed this time. She saw now that her father’s manipulations, his subtle implications that she would never make a desirable wife, were all a selfish means to keep her with him as a servant. And she had responded by living through her sister—but no more…it was time to make her own dreams come true.
“Father, if you refuse to give me your blessing to marry—and I don’t need your permission—I will bring a scandal down upon this family such as you’ve never seen.”
“You would do that to your sister?” he asked in a cold voice.
“My sister wants me to be happy, and she approves of Alex.”
“Then you give me no choice. Has he asked you to marry him?”
“Not yet.”
“Then he will be made to. I will demand an audience at Thornton Manor first thing in the morning. Thornton will marry you immediately.”
Emmeline saw all her plans coming to fruition, even as her relationship with her father died of disillusionment. His disappointment was obviously so great he could hardly look at her.
