A Marriage for Three by Ellie Thomas

Author:Ellie Thomas [Thomas, Ellie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JMS Books LLC
Published: 2021-08-20T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Charlotte felt that the two months had flown since the announcement of her engagement. With a few weeks to go before the wedding, there was still so much to do. Anthony drew up the plans with his usual clinical efficiency, so there was no opportunity to reflect on her destiny.

After Anthony had left the cottage on the day of his proposal, Charlotte had gone to sit at her mother’s bedside and broken the news. Although a surprise, the reception had been joyous. Her mother declared herself so delighted that she felt recovered and tried to insist on getting up there and then. From that point, everything had fallen into place.

Her mama had agreed to all Anthony’s notions without a qualm, “Why, now he is to be my son by marriage, no one can judge us for accepting his aid,” she asserted.

Anthony prepared everything in terms of leases, documents, and funds before going home, promising to return to Marlborough as soon as any eager suitor. The Grenvilles adjusted to an easier existence, helped by additional servants, again insisted upon by Anthony. No part of their life seemed to escape his meticulous attention. He had arranged the younger boys’ schooling for the autumn while the girls would share a governess with a nearby family.

When their social standing was enhanced by their change of address, morning callers began to appear as though their mother had not been absent from society for some years. Charlotte could only be glad for her mama to be included in the social round again, especially as Charlotte would soon be absent.

Understandably, as her mother had been recuperating, the practical side of moving residence had fallen to Charlotte, occasionally helped by Mary and Frances. Packing up their belongings and then unpacking them in more spacious surroundings seemed to have taken up the past eight weeks.

Everyone seemed delighted about Charlotte’s anticipated rise in status. The children unquestioningly accepted a closer relationship with Anthony, and Charlotte’s sudden eligibility would do the older girls’ prospects no harm. However, she could not help but feel inwardly uncomfortable about her impending life change.

Both she and Anthony had written to Matthew, who would, no doubt, reply between naval battles. Rather than a sensitive understanding of her situation, Charlotte resigned herself that, in his bluff way, Matthew would wrongly and ignorantly assume that Anthony had simply changed his preferences with maturity to comply with convention.

Fabian had been too young to notice Matthew’s indiscreet gossip and near idolised both Simon and Anthony, which Charlotte did not wish to disrupt. Her engagement had spurred her mother to confide about her own long and happy marriage, as though Charlotte was about to share such a blessing. This made Charlotte feel even more uneasy about the pretence, not helped by Anthony’s complete avoidance of any intimate conversation.

When he and Simon visited, Charlotte caught the odd concerned and sympathetic glance from Simon as though he was the only person who perceived her disquiet.

During one such visit, when Anthony had remained in Mr.

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