Let's Face the Music and Dance (The Unsuitable Brides Book 2) by Merry Farmer

Author:Merry Farmer [Farmer, Merry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-03-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

“So, am I to understand that my eldest daughter is engaged to be married to the cousin of Lord Dorrington?” Nan’s father asked that evening, as Nan sat at the kitchen table with her mother and father after her younger siblings had gone to bed.

Nan’s mouth opened to answer, but she paused to consider before she spoke. She supposed that was true. Dean must have been the cousin of the current Earl of Dorrington, Lady Dorrington’s son. Realizing that brought the vast difference between her and Dean’s social standings into greater focus.

“Yes, Papa,” she answered at last, a little stunned herself. “That is true.”

“Has he interfered with you?” Her father leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “Is that why he’s marrying you?”

“Richard,” Nan’s mother hissed. “You should not speak of such things with your own daughter.” She squirmed a bit, then continued with, “Men of Mr. Rathborne-Paxton’s class have no need to marry a girl when they’ve…you know.” She nodded to Nan.

Deep embarrassment of the sort that could only come through discussing one’s love life with one’s parents washed over Nan. “No, Mr. Rathborne-Paxton has not interfered with me,” she told her parents, crossing her arms and, admittedly, behaving with the sort of petulance she would have had a decade before. “He has only ever kissed me.” Although he would have done quite a bit more the night of the closing night party, if Montrose hadn’t derailed things.

Her father snorted as though he wasn’t convinced. “But he wants to marry you,” he said. “He actually wants to.”

“And what is so very wrong with that?” Nan asked, tilting her chin up defiantly. “I have made quite a name for myself, Papa. I live in a luxurious flat in a sought-after neighborhood in London. My image graces many a product, and I have reaped the financial benefit of those endorsements.”

“Yes, I know,” her father said, raising his voice. “I am forever running into my daughter’s face when I peer through the shop windows of everyplace in Shrewsbury. It’s indecent, it is.”

“Richard,” her mother scolded again. “Nan is the reason we were able to send Albert away to university. You’ve not said no to the money she sends home.”

“Aye, and I’ve not kept a cent of it for myself,” her father went on. “It’s all gone to the children.” He looked at Nan again. “But what if you do marry this cousin of an earl? Will any of us be welcomed in your house? Will we be welcomed at Dorrington Hall if you take up residence there?”

Nan caught the gist of the problem immediately. Her father was worried about more than whether Nan’s imagined purity had been spoiled. She could see in the stubborn line of his jaw and the spark of hurt in his eyes that he was afraid Nan would be out of their grasp forever. The chasm between their place and the place she would have if she married Dean was wide indeed.

Nan stood and leaned over the corner of the table to kiss her father’s cheek.

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