Page 54 of A Lady's Beloved Novelist
“Nothing.” Andrea quickly folded up the letter and placed it in one of the folds of her dress. Cecil was in the room, and she knew it had been a risk to read it in front of him. But those days she was feeling much bolder. Cecil was testing her patience with his rudeness, and Andrea was getting to a point where she was not sure how much longer she could take it.
“You were smiling whilst reading it, what was it?” Cecil asked, peering closer at her.
If he was really that concerned, he would have come over and seen for himself what was wrong. But he remained reclined in his seat, a book in his lap that he was pretending to read.
“It was just a letter from my cousin,” Andrea explained.
“Does she not only live down the road?” Cecil was laughing as he asked the question. “I must say, since our engagement, I have seen a lot less of her.”
That is because she does not like you, Andrea wanted to say. But she kept her smile sweet and simply shrugged her shoulders.
“I think she is just quite busy with her own household at the moment,” Andrea said finally. “She will surely be along to the house soon though.”
“The two of you will not have anything to catch up on if she keeps writing you letters,” Cecil murmured and shook his head.
It was not the first time that Andrea had used the excuse that it was Lily writing her letters. She wondered if Cecil suspected what was really going on at all. He did not seem interested enough, but she had known him long enough to know how unpredictable he could be.
“I have been thinking,” Cecil spoke up after a valued period of silence. Andrea felt herself wincing as he shattered through the quiet with his voice.
“Yes?”
“Well, I just think that it would be much nicer if we celebrated our wedding in the summer months instead of waiting for the autumn,” he suggested. He was trying to make his voice sound light, as though he had just come up with this idea. She turned back to the window and narrowed her eyes. He could not see her expression, but Andrea could still feel his gaze burning into the back of her.
“I am not too sure how I feel about that,” she said simply.
“I would very much like it, and I know that a lot of my friends would too,” Cecil continued. “It is just more guaranteed that we will have nice weather. What a shame it would be if we waited for the autumn only for it to be a rainy and dreary day.”
Andrea wanted to add that the weather would then match how she was feeling about the marriage overall, but she kept her mouth closed.
“Do not you want to have fond warm memories of your wedding? Imagine on a warm summer evening with all of our friends and family,” Cecil said. There was something in the tone of his voice that told her he was just trying to convince her. It reminded her of when she went into town on market day and the men there tried to sell their products to potential buyers.
“Not all of your family, though. You still do not want your parents at the ceremony?” Andrea turned the situation around on him.
“I do not think they are worthy of attending such an event,” Cecil said quickly. “I think it would be something that could sour our day.”
“But do you not think that people will talk and think how strange it is that your parents are I notn attendance?” Andrea tried once more. “I still have not even met them yet. What woman gets married without knowing her fiancé’s parents?”
“You do not want to meet them. They are selfish and stubborn people,” Cecil said in a much harsher voice.
Andrea winced at the tone he was using. They were, after all, the ones supplying him with an income. An income that he could plough through at an incredible pace. It was starting to make sense in her mind why he wanted the wedding to be pushed forward. He needed the money from her family.
Chapter 23
Andrea was still thinking about what Cecil had said to her long after she had left him alone to do whatever it was that he did all day. She imagined that as soon as she had left the room, he would turn his attention to the maids and try to woo them with his strange charm. Andrea felt defeated about it all, and she did not know what else she could do.
“Your aunt is here again for you,” her mother spoke up as she entered the drawing room. “Honestly, I have never seen her as much as I have over the last few weeks.”
Andrea did not say anything as her mother shook her head and left the room. She rose from her chair as her aunt entered in place of her mother.
“It is always a warm welcome when your mother is in,” Bella remarked sarcastically.
“I am sure she means nothing by her remarks,” Andrea tried to defend her, but she knew there was no point.
“I am not sure about that,” Bella scoffed. “Your mother has never thought much of me, only that I am the failure to the family because of a scandal that happened decades ago. That woman knows how to hold a grudge.”
It was an argument that Andrea felt was as old as time, however, she never felt as though she could weigh in on it. She did not want to defend her mother for how she acted in the time before she was born, it did not feel right to her.
“Well, she was at least a little more sympathetic to my situation than my father was,” Andrea sighed, she was slumped back in her chair.
