Page 7 of Falling for a Forsaken Marquess
“I wish to take a chance, but not on this card game,” the young woman said, her cheeks turning pink.
Agnes’ invisible ‘sister antennae’ began to move above her head, alerting her to the meaning between her sister’s words. Not everyone went to London for the London Season; some people spent the warmer months in Cheltenham to visit the spa wells and seek eligible young men and women.
Agnes and her family lived over twenty miles away from Cheltenham in Lydney, which lay between the Royal Forest of Dean and the west bank of the River Severn. It wasn’t uncommon for travellers to spend a week or two in their town to visit relatives while in Gloucestershire, and judging by the becoming blush on her sister’s cheeks, one of those travellers had made an impression on her.
“Will you not say anything?” Lavinia said, worry clouding her clear green eyes.
“I know that I am good at reading your mind,” Agnes replied, “but perhaps you should tell me a little more about this ... chance.”
Lavinia ducked her head, hiding the stain on the tops of her cheeks. “You know very well what I mean, Aggie. Will you embarrass me by making me explain my feelings for him?”
Agnes inwardly sighed. She had been worried about the attention Paul Walters was paying her sister and Lavinia’s reaction to the young man.
Lavinia was only seventeen, and while Agnes had been but two years older when she had fallen in love and deemed herself old enough to marry, she feared her sister was not mature enough for such a significant step in her life. Agnes had hoped her sister would marry at the more acceptable age of twenty-one, but the starry look in her sister’s eyes said differently.
“Aggie?”
“I know that you speak of Paul Walters, Livvy,” Agnes finally said. “He is due to leave soon, is he not?”
Lavinia excitedly shook her head. “He has agreed to stay with his grandparents until the end of November. Is that not wonderful?”
“Well, that depends on how you look at the situation.”
Lavinia frowned. “What do you mean?”
“What are his designs? Has he said anything that remotely sounds like a commitment to you?” Agnes asked.
Lavinia looked down at her lap as she twisted her fingers. “He declared his love to me when Mama and I went to the clothier this morning. We were only meant to deliver a letter, but some pretty cloth caught her eye in Mr Owen’s shop window. Paul was with his grandmother in the store.”
The young woman babbled so that anyone else listening to her would have failed to catch most of the words she said, but Agnes had heard them all.
“Oh, Livvy. Do not tell me that Paul took you aside in front of everyone?”
Lavinia shook her head in earnest. “Oh, not at all! Paul would never put me in such a predicament. He respects me and wishes only the best for me.”
Paul sounded just like Magnus with all his sweet words and promises of love. Agnes liked the man well enough and found him humorous, but experience had taught her that a man was not to be trusted until he could prove that money was not a deciding factor in his declaration of love or matrimony.
“How did he come to confess such feelings?” Agnes asked. “I do not think he would have said them so publicly. Mama would have said something.”
Lavinia raised her head, her entire face a blushing pink. “He helped me to our carriage after I stubbed my toe on the large stone Mr Owen uses to keep his door open. Mama and old Mrs Walters were behind us arguing with Mr Owen about keeping dangerous items in his store.”
“And I suppose he confessed his love while you cried over your stubbed toe?”
“You make it sound as though he said it just to quiet my tears,” Lavinia accused. “Paul loves me, Aggie; I know he does. I have never felt this way about a man before, and I doubt I ever will again. Paul is the one for me.”
“Is he aware of our financial situation?” Agnes enquired. “You do not have a large dowry, Livvy. That can deter a man quicker than a blazing fire.”
“I know that you are thinking about Magnus, but Paul is not like him,” Lavinia insisted. “Paul is aware that we do not have much money, and he does not care.”
“What of his parents? You must expect them to have a say in who their son marries.”
“Paul says he will speak to them once he returns to Northampton,” Lavinia told her. “I am confident he will convince them to accept me. Once they realise how much he loves and cherishes me, they will look fondly on our relationship and bless our union.”
Agnes stared at her cards instead of the look of first love in her sister’s eyes. This seemed to be her situation with Magnus all over again, which meant Lavinia would be hurt once Paul rejected her. She started when Lavinia placed a hand on her leg.
“I know what worries you,” the woman claimed, compassion wetting her eyes. “You’re afraid Paul will leave me just as Magnus did, but I assure you this is different.”
“You were only thirteen when Magnus left me,” said Agnes. “What can you recall of the situation?”
