Page 26 of Loving a Noble Gentleman
A blissful expression came across Mary’s face which really cheered Daisy up. Thathadto be a good sign. She found her fingers gripping onto the bed sheet below her while she waited for Mary to answer.
“We have been spending a lot of time together,” Mary told Daisy with happiness lilting her tone. “And the more I get to know him, the more I like him.”
Daisy forced herself to pause for a second so that she did not sound too keen. She did not want to be seen as selfish, only concerned with keeping her place of work. That was a large part of it; Daisy could not deny that she did not want to lose the amazing position that she held with the Roberts family, but it was also about Mary and her happiness.
The Lady was sweet; she deserved true happiness.
“You think you might want to marry him? You think your father was correct?”
As Mary turned to look at Daisy, her heart froze in her chest. Maybe her keenness had shone through without her intending it to. But then the Lady’s face shone like the sunshine was pouring out of it, and she relaxed.
“I think my father did a much better job than I gave him credit for. I think Edmund might well be the one that I marry. I believe that we might even be happy together. He is kind, and he also makes me laugh which is something that I never expected. I did not know that business-focused men also liked to have some fun ... maybe that was just me being naïve.”
Daisy clapped her hands together gleefully before she leapt forward to embrace her friend. She did so with much more ease than Mary could ever manage, which Mary assumed had to be down to the class that she was born into. She held onto her and celebrated internally. Thiswasincredible news and needed to be treated as such.
“I am so happy for you,” Daisy murmured into her hair. “You deserve to have such a wonderful life.”
“Thank you so much; that is very kind of you.”
Mary was touched; she could not believe how lucky she was. Daisy sounded genuinely happy for her, and while she was aware that a part of that would be to do with her job, she could also tell that some of it was real.
As Daisy pulled back, Mary was still smiling, but as the maid got back to work and eventually left her bedroom so she could rise from the bed in her own time, that happiness fell away. It did not matter to Mary how wonderful things were going for her, she could not get over her sister’s sadness. That was always there, playing in the back of her mind.
Mary forced herself to stand, and she padded across the bedroom to the window where she stared out over the land that surrounded her family home. Her brain wrestled inside her head. One part of her wanted to return to the dream about Edmund; she wanted to get back to that imagined kiss and the wonderful declarations of love to see where they might lead, but the other side of her, the more powerful part of her brain could only think about Charlotte.
That sadness in her eyes, that true fear ... she is going through a very terrible time.
Mary tried to think back to when Charlotte got married; she tried to recall whether her sister was looking forward to the day or not, but she could not remember anything. She was young at the time, and a lot had happened since such as their father’s passing. It was just not something she could remember the details of. She wished that she could, and she felt like it was something that could help her right now, but her brain would not let her do it.
If only there were something that she could do. If only she could sneak to Charlotte’s home in the middle of the night to steal her away and keep her safe. Maybe she had not mentioned it, but Mary had not forgotten about the bruises that she saw on her sister’s body. Lord Jones never seemed like the sort of man to be violent, but she could never tell what went on behind closed doors. Injuries like that did not come from nowhere.
What should I do?She glanced up at the sky as if someone was going to somehow give her an answer to her desperate plea.How should I help Charlotte and her unborn child? No one wants a child to grow up in such a toxic situation. There has to be something that I can do; I cannot just do nothing while she suffers in silence. But what can I do?
Of course, Mary did not get any answers. She was left more helpless than before. The only real solution she kept coming back to was the same one as before. She needed to marry the Duke to ensure that she inherited the house. She needed the house; she needed that security. She needed to give Charlotte somewhere to go if that was what she wanted, and marriage was the perfect solution to that.
It was just lucky that now it was something that she actually liked the idea of.
As she thought of that idea, Mary was not considering what Lord Jones would do if he found his young wife missing. She did not consider how society would take the news of her running away but remaining in London. All that she cared about was getting her sister far away fromhim. She did not want her to be in a place where he could ever put his hands on her again. Charlotte did not deserve that.
All that Mary could do was persevere and hope that one day a proposal would come in one way or another. She did not know how it would work; as far as she was concerned, it was rather uncommon for parents to make such requests from beyond the grave, but it had to occur somehow. She felt certain that it would now.
If Edmund felt anything like she did right now, he would be keen for things to progress just as much as she was. He would be looking forward to their wedding day and everything that came afterwards.
Mary wrapped her arms tightly around herself and held onto that warmth deep in her chest. She had never felt so much love swimming around in her before, and it left her with what felt like a lot of pent-up energy that she did not know what to do with. She wanted to skip and jump and run ... she wanted to fill her day with something incredible while she waited for Edmund to come back for her, just as he promised that he would.
But first, before she did anything, she needed to get dressed. She could not stand around in her nightwear all day long; it simply would not do.
