Page 1 of Miss Hawthorne’s Unlikely Husband (The Troublemakers Trilogy #3)

Miss Pollitt’s School for Young Ladies

T hey had stolen the boat again. In Elodia’s opinion, ‘stolen’ was too strong a word, even if it was the one most commonly used when she and her friends wanted to spend time on the lake. After all, the boat in question never left the premises and they always returned it.

There was nothing Elodia loved more than open water.

She loved visiting any beach and swimming in the ocean.

She had even enjoyed the months long journey from Trinidad to England via France she’d taken last year.

If she had been home, her father would have taken her out on his sailboat.

As it was, she had to make do with dangling her bare feet in the cool but murky lake waters on the grounds of Miss Pollitt’s.

It was early summer, soon they would all return to their family homes for the summer break and then again, for the autumn break in September.

Maybe she would be able to persuade Ada and Regina to spend time with her over the break at her father’s estate.

She didn’t want to have to return to being alone.

For Elodia, despite her status as the daughter of a viscount, finding companionship had still been an issue.

She loved her father but she had never felt out of place as his daughter or lonely until he’d moved them to England.

It was a strange existence, knowing that her social status was higher than most and yet her acceptance in the ton was always an unspoken question with no real answer so far.

At Miss Pollitt’s, she at least had people who liked her as she was, and didn’t see her nature as something to be fixed or endured.

“Ellie, are you engaged already?” Regina asked. All three of them were laying on their backs in the small rowboat, staring up at the sky, counting clouds, or dreading prospective marriage arrangements.

Marriage was the furthest thing from Elodia’s mind. She wanted to be a fine lady, like her Aunt Theo was, for her own sake, not to attract some milksop gentleman to accuse her of his own inadequacies. “No, are you?” Was that strange? Should she be?

“Since I was fourteen. I’m only here as part of my preparation for it.”

Elodia wasn’t certain she’d like Regina’s parents at all. What on earth were they thinking contracting her into a marriage at such a young age? “Do you know who he is?”

“I know I am to be the Baroness Starkley. Other than that, I know nothing.”

“Is that usual?”

“I think so,” Ada said. “Engagements can happen at any time, honestly. It’s the wedding that usually happens later.”

“The later the better, I say,” Regina grumbled.

Elodia heartily agreed. “Are you engaged, Ada?”

Ada shook her head. “My brother hasn’t mentioned it to me either. If I was, I think he’d let me know. But your father is a viscount, Ellie,” Ada continued. “How soon do you think you’ll have to marry once you are out?”

Elodia hardly knew the answer to that question.

By most measures she was accomplished enough.

True, she had been raised in the British colony of Trinidad, but her education had been no less thorough.

She already knew her languages and played the piano to perfection.

She knew all the popular and expected dances, sketched, rode and could match anyone in needlework.

Well, that may have been an exaggeration.

Her needlework could be better, and her watercolors were recognizable at best.

What had reportedly worried her father the most was her lack of socialization.

Perhaps she didn’t need to rely on accomplishments as much as others had claimed.

She had made two new friends so far, and neither had required any knowledge of social graces.

All she had used was what her parents had modeled and instilled in her since birth.

Integrity, uncompromising moral courage and a touch of violence.

It hadn’t mattered to her earlier that year, what the Chinese girl she’d defended from bullies did afterwards, or if she would be in trouble for using violence.

All that had mattered to Elodia in the moment was ensuring the blonde witch understood that she, Elodia Hawthorne, wouldn’t tolerate her behavior.

The more she thought about it, the more the idea of the marriage mart filled Elodia with anxiety.

From what she had been told, marriage would be tricky if she wasn’t seen as capable of blending in or partaking in society, and at sixteen, the social niceties were still beyond her.

She still didn’t understand why they would be so important in finding a husband.

Surely marriage was based on more important things than musical ability, politesse and linguistics.

But all of that was nothing compared to what she saw as her worst feature.

Elodia knew she was pretty enough from the neck up.

She had been blessed with high cheekbones, wide, beautifully shaped eyes, long lashes, and a well-formed if overly full mouth.

But that was where the blessings had ended because her figure was nonexistent.

A flat chest, and a shape like a loaf of bread according to her nanny.

Nothing to entice or draw the eye of anyone.

She didn’t know who was to blame, her mother, her father or the good Lord Almighty, but either way, she had complaints about it.

As a child her nurse had called it a blessing, a way to avoid unwanted attention from lusty men who preyed on young girls, especially young black ones like her.

But now she was approaching the age where she’d need to attract interest, it was a point of concern, most particularly because it meant that the man she married, more than likely wouldn’t be attracted to her.

“I don’t think he wants me to marry too soon. He doesn’t really speak of it to me at all.”

“Do you think he wants to marry?” Regina asked.

“I imagine he’ll have to at some point. He needs an heir after all.” Although truth be told, she didn’t know what she would do when that happened. Her mother died trying to give him one.

She blinked back hot tears and took a deep breath, trying to push past the painful ache that always sprung up whenever she thought of her mother.

Giselle Hawthorne, Elodia’s late mother, had been dead for two years, but the pain had barely subsided.

Her death had been swift and unexpected.

Elodia’s nanny had taken her to church to pray for her mother’s safety and then to the beach while her mother gave birth to what would have been Elodia’s little brother and her father’s heir.

In the morning, Ellie was expecting a new sibling, and by nightfall, her mother was gone along with her baby brother.

Elodia still remembered her mother clearly from her wide smile and gentle voice, to her favorite earrings and her scent of lilies and cloves.

She still missed her terribly, especially on sunny days like this one, missed the way she always hugged her a little too tightly whenever they swam in the ocean, her sweet voice whenever she sang to herself, and her steely insistence whenever she encouraged Elodia to ask questions.

She couldn’t imagine her father with a woman who wasn’t her mother.

Her father had defied convention and every social expectation when he’d married her mother, a freed slave.

They’d kept the particulars from her, but there were two things Elodia knew for sure.

Their courtship and married life had come with extreme adversity and her parents had loved each other enormously.

Would Elodia be so lucky? She doubted it.

But she was lucky enough that while her wish was to marry a good man and have a family, her happiness and livelihood wouldn’t depend on it.

A hefty dowry and inheritance made certain of that.

Perhaps she could stay a merry spinster and spend her life pleasing herself and traveling the world.

“You’re so lucky to have your father, Ellie. You hear such horror stories of fathers not caring about their daughters when their mothers pass on.”

“He’s a good egg.” She wondered if it had ever occurred to him to send her away after her mother had passed so unexpectedly in childbirth.

In response, Elodia’s father had chosen instead to pull her even closer, electing to stay with her at their home until his father died, finally forcing him to return to his homeland.

Elodia had never met her grandfather, but from what she’d heard, she was glad he had stayed a stranger.

Her father had been determined to keep him as far away from Elodia and her mother as long as possible.

Her father had never really spoken warmly of England, but when he’d announced his intention to return, there had been no hesitation.

He would not spend months away from his child; Elodia was coming with him.

She wasn’t sure she could thank him for that.

She was sure England had its advantages but she hadn’t seen them so far.

Left to her own devices, she would much rather have stayed in Trinidad, with its beaches, delicious food, ready sunshine and warm people.

“Do you think we should bring the boat back now?” Regina asked. “Based on the position of the sun, it’s nearly two in the afternoon.”

Elodia glanced at her in bewilderment, the ache in her throat finally subsiding. “How do you do that?”

Regina was full of surprises. True, they hadn’t been friends very long, but the sheer range of her abilities from dance and military tactics to tracking and navigation was uncanny.

Regina merely shrugged. “It’s like a sundial,” she replied.

Elodia glanced at Ada who was also staring at her with wide, mystified eyes.

Regina rolled her eyes. “My father taught me. It’s not always exact but I can manage a decent approximation.”

Elodia shook her head, “Just take an oar and row.”