Page 2 of A Counterfeit Engagement
There were certainly worse ways to spend an afternoon than taking tea with his Aunt Jennifer, Jonathan Haverly thought idly.
She was by far the better of his two aunts, being much less snobbish and much more sensible than his Aunt Phoebe.
More importantly, the visit meant company for his little sister, Sarah.
Time spent with Aunt Jennifer and her friend and companion Agatha Whimmerly, who was always one of the party, was surely as beneficial for an orphaned young woman as it was enjoyable.
There could be no dearer sister than Sarah, but he was all too aware of his own defects as a guardian.
Not much could be done about it. After both their parents were taken by the ague, he had simply done the best he could.
Grimly, Jonathan had to admit to himself that his father was not much of a loss, either to Sarah and himself or to the world at large.
But it was a terrible thing for a young girl to grow up without a loving mother.
Aunt Jennifer helped as much as possible.
Suddenly, Jonathan realised that the conversation had stalled, waiting for some response he was too abstracted to give. “Please excuse me, I was not attending properly,” he apologised. “Will you repeat the question?”
Aunt Jennifer cleared her throat and looked rather awkward. She picked up the teapot and unnecessarily refreshed their tea, as though stalling for time. Finally, she said, “I wondered, Jonathan, whether you will soon join your fiancé at Seaton?”
Jonathan merely blinked at her. “I beg your pardon, Aunt. I don’t understand the joke.”
Aunt Jennifer looked back at him in confusion. “I had not intended to make one. Surely there must be much to arrange, especially after so short an engagement.”
“I don’t understand,” Sarah said. “Jon, have you really finally met a lady? And proposed to her, too, without so much as introducing us?”
“I most certainly have not,” Jonathan said.
He tried to speak firmly, although he felt rather as though he had been blindfolded and spun around several times.
“Aunt, truly, I am not engaged. I should rather like to know why you thought I was. In the first place, I should certainly tell you directly, were that the case. In the second, I hear it is rather advised to first meet a lady that one wishes to marry.”
“It is an odd case,” Miss Whimmerly said.
“Indeed, one does not know what to think. Though we were surprised indeed to hear of your engagement in such a way, it did not occur to us to doubt it. One hears of it everywhere, so generally that the possibility of the report being false did not occur to us. Indeed, I wonder even now if there is something that you are choosing not to tell us. It is very bad of you if so, you know.”
Jonathan shook his head as though trying to shake the confusion out of it. “Perhaps you had better begin by telling me what this report actually is,” he suggested. “We can then attempt to figure out what it means and how it came to be in circulation.”
“That is reasonable enough,” Jennifer Haverly agreed. “Very well. I heard three different accounts of it, all more or less the same, at the private concert last evening. And I believe Agatha heard more than one report while walking in the park the same afternoon.”
“I did indeed,” Miss Whimmerly confirmed. “And I happened to afterward see your friend Viscount Jones walking there. I asked him about it, but he merely said that he had heard nothing from you directly and could not speculate.”
“But what is it you have heard?” Sarah said curiously. “I rather wonder that I have heard nothing of it.”
“You must have soon,” Aunt Jennifer said, “for it is many years since I have heard society so excited about anything. The story I heard is a rather simple one, Jonathan, but no less surprising for it. It is simply that you are engaged to Miss Sophia Anderson, and are soon to marry her. I heard nothing said as to how you met, or how it came about, or anything like that — or, to be precise, I heard three entirely different stories on the point, which came to less than nothing.”
“How odd,” Sarah said. “Sophia Anderson. I do not even know her name.”
“You would not,” Miss Whimmerly said soberly.
“That was all before your time, dear, but it is a rather sad story. Her father died suddenly, in the midst of the London Season, and her family lost everything. They are quite poor now. But worse still, she was engaged to Roger Webb at the time – I believe you have seen him at some of the assemblies – and he left her flat over the business.”
“No!” Sarah said in a low, horrified tone. “It’s like something out of a novel. The poor, tragic beauty, abandoned by her love…”
“Miss Sophia Anderson was not much like a tragic beauty, thankfully,” Aunt Jennifer said.
“I liked her. She was pleasant to talk to. A great reader, you know, and sensible. I rather thought she and Roger Webb did not entirely suit, although it never occurred to me he might use her so ill. But now, of course, she and her younger sister have no dowries at all. They live down at the seaside in a small cottage, and I believe her mother cannot keep more than one or two servants. No one in town has seen her in years. And so, to first hear of her again in reports that she is to wed you, Jon — well. No wonder everyone is talking incessantly of it.”
“No, indeed it is not surprising,” Jonathan said slowly.
He was trying to remember if he and Miss Sophia Anderson had ever met.
“I think I do only just remember her. Auburn hair, hazel eyes, and rather tall. Not a beauty, although certainly pretty enough. I never thought of her or spoke to her back then, not caring overmuch for the company of Mr Webb. Do you think she could be behind the reports?”
Aunt Jennifer shook her head. “I shouldn’t think so.
What could she gain from it? She could not expect you to marry her on the strength of a rumour.
And in any case, her acquaintance in town dropped her when her family lost their money.
I have not heard of her these five years together.
Besides, it will be most unpleasant for her. ”
“What do you mean, aunt? How will it be unpleasant for her?”
Aunt Jennifer looked at him with some surprise.
“The rest of your family, you know, dear. They undoubtedly will think it true, as I myself did. They will not take the matter lightly. For you to marry someone without means or connections? I would not be in the least surprised if my sister and nephew are already there, harassing the poor girl.”
“Surely they would not try to interfere, believing I had chosen a partner in life,” Jonathan said rather grimly. “It is my choice, after all.”
Aunt Jennifer looked unhappy. “You know what my sister and her son are for connections and social standing,” she said. “I am convinced that they would.”
The whole party fell silent for a moment, contemplating the image of a carriage rattling forth from London carrying the baronet Owen Ferrars and his mother, the widowed Lady Phoebe, towards a young woman utterly unconnected with their family and ignorant of the storm threatening her.
The idea of Lady Ferrars in high dudgeon was a most unpleasant one.
Finally, Jonathan broke the silence. “I am afraid that we will have to leave tea early. I’ll call at my aunt’s house and learn if they have been so precipitate. And if so…well, Sarah, I hope you are in spirits for a trip to the seaside.”