An Eccentric Engagement by Donna Lea Simpson

Author:Donna Lea Simpson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: jane austen, family secrets, marriage proposal, traditional regency romance, british historical fiction, historical romance 1800s, fiction 1800s
Publisher: Beyond the Page Publishing

Chapter 7

Bertram had expected a miserable few days. He had expected disaster. He had expected every minute of every day that his father would say some horrible thing to disgust, disturb or dismay the Marchands or their guests. But none of it had come to pass, and this moment, on a brilliant June day sitting in the garden on a stone bench, surreptitiously holding hands with Sorrow while his father walked with Mrs. Liston, Bert felt an absurd fount of happiness well up in his heart.

“Billy’s dragon is taking wing,” he said, pointing with their jointly clasped hands at young Billy tending to his topiary.

Sorrow rubbed shoulders with him and smiled. She laid her cheek against his arm. “Bert, what would you do . . . I mean, if our child was born like Billy, what would you do?”

His stomach clutched. Was this some kind of test? He knew the story now, that Billy’s mother, disgusted by her child’s condition, had sent him away, though his father wanted to keep him home. There was money enough in the family to take care of him, it was just that his mother could not look at him without crying and she was afraid what their neighbors and relatives would think if they kept him at home. The Marchands hoped, eventually, that the family would take him back.

Examining his own heart, Bert wondered if, before meeting the Marchands and listening to his future father-in-law, he would immediately have answered that he would expect to send Billy to some family to care for him. It was what society considered correct behavior, certainly. But did it serve? Billy’s family was missing out on the company of a wonderful, intelligent, bright young lad because they could not bear the fact that he was born with no legs. Who lost most by such behavior?

“Bert?” Sorrow said, gazing up at him.

“I would hold him close and never let him go,” Bert said, not recognizing his own voice, it was so clogged and quivering with emotion. There was silence from Sorrow, but when he met her gaze it was to see her eyes shining with tears.

“Sorrow?”

“Oh, Bert, I . . . I love you!”

Like an arrow, his heart was pierced as surely as any legendary Cupid could have shot. He wished they were alone. He fervently wished they were already married, and he couldn’t believe that a state he had only wished for to gain independence of wealth he now looked forward to for much deeper reasons. He trembled. He wanted to take Sorrow into his arms, but they were in the garden, and it would shock many, mostly his father.

However . . . he pulled her into his arms anyway and kissed her on the mouth. Let his father be shocked. This perfect moment would never come again, and he would spend it as he wished.

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