Page 24 of A Marriage is Arranged
The butler led them into the dining room, where the huge table had been re-set for the two of them. Multiple candles had been lit in all the wall alcoves and a many-branched candelabrum stood at each end of the table. Though a number of the leaves had been removed, this was still at least twelve feet long. Though the room was well lit, seated at one end, Louise felt her husband very distant indeed.
The meal was long and complicated. Louise thought Mrs. Bootle must have been planning it for weeks, coming as it did on top of the wedding breakfast. But now she was very hungry and ate with good appetite. After the soup, there were scallop fritters and smoked cod’s roe with lemon. These were removed with roast beef, duck with cherries and cutlets of pork. There were pickled cucumbers, apple compote and a mess of leeks in cream. It was all delicious, and because she took very small servings, she was able to do justice to it all.
Once the first pangs of hunger had been assuaged, she looked down the long table and said, “How rude of me to be gobbling down my dinner and making no attempt to pursue our conversation.”
“Not at all,” answered her husband politely, “I’m glad you are enjoying it.” In fact, he liked to see a woman with a good appetite. Most of them seemed to exist on air, eating hardly anything of what was placed before them .
“I asked before about the frequency with which you attend debates in the House,” continued Louise. “Forgive me if I seem nosy, but it must be fascinating to be at the center of power like that.”
Her husband gave a snort of laughter. “Then you will be surprised to hear that a good deal of the business before the House could hardly be described as pertaining to the center of power. Last week there was a discussion of the problem of people bathing in the Thames, whereby one poor Member declared himself forced to witness public nakedness. The week before we had to vote on the erection of yet another statue in honor of a Major-General who fell in action. I’m sorry for the poor fellow, but if we continue to clutter the metropolis with statues of dead Generals there will soon be no room for living people. Then there are interminable adjournments while different factions get together, or waiting around for the Prince Regent to put in an appearance, which, as likely as not, he fails to do. I try to avoid days when nothing of particular importance appears on the calendar.”
“Did you go there this afternoon?”
The question startled him and his eyebrows drew together.
“It’s just that you seemed in a bad mood when you returned.”
The Earl decided he might as well tell her half the truth. “No. As a matter of fact, I went to see a young boxer perform. I like the sport and encourage youngsters when I can.”
“And you were disappointed?”
He realized he had painted himself into a corner. Drat the woman! Was he going to have to explain himself like this every day?
“Not exactly, I, er… I usually practice there in the mornings and I missed it today.” That was at least true.
“Oh. You like to engage in the sport yourself, not just watch it?”
“Yes, I seem to have a knack for it. I’m an indifferent fencer and a poor shot, so it’s a natural choice.”
“So part of the routine you talked about is going to this boxing establishment?”
“Yes, Jackson’s.”
“How lucky to be able to do something one is actually good at! We women are forced to learn to do things for which we have no aptitude whatsoever. I can’t sing and I’m a dreadful pianist but oh, the scales I have been made to practice, and the songs I have had to caterwaul! I’m also hopeless at sewing of any sort, and do not even ask me to cover a screen! The only thing I succeed in covering is myself, in glue!”
In spite of his lingering bad mood, her husband was forced to laugh. “But why are you made to do these things?”
“To capture a husband, of course! Our whole education has but one goal, and that is it!”
“I see.” The Earl was silent for a moment. “But does it work? Do women capture husbands, as you call it, by such means?”
“But surely,” she hesitated, then forced herself to say his name, “Gareth, you are better able to answer that than I! Has any young lady entranced you with her expertise on the pianoforte or delighted you with the elegance of a reticule she fashioned out of pasteboard and lace?”
He laughed again. “No, evidently not, for I never married one of them, and you have just told me you can do none of those things.”
“There! It’s just as I told my mother. The whole relationship between men and women is based on a tissue of falsehoods! We are told you appreciate abilities that obviously you do not, and you are led to believe we are all naturally talented when in fact we have been subjected to forced labor to achieve even a modicum of excellence!”
They were both smiling when Lisle came back into the dining room and said, “My lady, my lord, the staff would be gratified if you would step into the foyer so that we may add our congratulations to those of your guests earlier. I have taken the liberty of pouring champagne.”
In the wide foyer the whole staff was arranged in a semicircle. The women were on one side, from the scullery maid in her blue mob cap and pinafore, to the kitchen and upstairs maids with their white aprons and lace-edged caps. Rose was in her high-throated dress and the housekeeper in her black gown. The men were on the other side, from the leather-aproned boot boy and the grooms from the stables to the liveried footmen and Johnson, his lordship’s valet, and Lisle himself in his sober attire. There must have been twenty of them altogether. They all looked at their new mistress and had the same thought. She didn’t look like any Lady. Her hair was falling down, her gown was ill-fitting and she was frankly plain. But she was smiling.