Page 22 of The Indigo Heiress

21

Love does not dominate, it cultivates.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Tomorrow this townhouse will be full of guests and Father will wed.” Loveday sounded both glad and sorrowful as she and Juliet sewed in the parlor. “Though I wish him every happiness, I am still sad that Mama is not with us and he’s moved on without her.”

“I feel the same, but life continues apace.” Juliet looked up from her needlework. “And I’m much more concerned about you and your prospects here.”

“Which are blessed few.” Loveday looked distressed as she plied her own needle.

“All the more reason for you to widen your view beyond the colonies,” Juliet said gently. “I’ve been pondering what Zipporah told us about Mr. Buchanan’s reason for being here—seeking a colonial bride. If, by chance, you were to wed a Scotsman...”

Frowning, Loveday leaned back against the chintz cushions, her sewing in her lap. “Scotland seems a world away.”

“I shall come visit you, and you, me.” Juliet turned entreating. “Please, consider it.”

“All snobbery aside, I’ve never considered marrying a merchant. Besides, Mr. Buchanan is part and parcel of all we stand against.”

Juliet could not deny it, nor that she loathed it. “And are we not equally guilty with three plantations and nearly two hundred enslaved betwixt them?”

“We are doing what we can, even a small bit, to change that.” Lowering her voice, Loveday looked more distressed. “At great risk.”

“Aunt Damarus does far more.” Juliet examined a tiny flower in rose silk. “Perhaps as Mrs. Buchanan you might influence him, do as Nathaniel has done and change course. I pray Father follows suit.”

“But you know I’ve always, always wanted to marry for love.”

“We’ve both entertained that rather childish notion for some time.” Juliet hated to dash her sister’s dreams, but reality stared them starkly in the face. “Father and Mama married by arrangement. Their parents broached the match. Let that be our example. We’ll be femes covert, with few rights, and all that we have becomes our husband’s, remember. Marriage is a contract foremost. A business arrangement that has little to do with love.”

“Be that as it may, I don’t feel the slightest nudge toward Mr. Buchanan. And unless I’m reading him wrongly, he feels nothing toward me in turn.”

“ Feelings again, Loveday, not facts. Besides, you’ve only just met.”

“Is that why you bowed out of the Ravenals’ entertainment, claiming a headache?” A sad light shone in Loveday’s eyes. “So that I could be alone, as it were, with Mr. Buchanan?”

“Don’t make it sound so dreary.”

“He’s hardly what I’d call dreary, but I still have absolutely no designs on him, nor will I ever. Given that, don’t he and his children deserve more—a loving wife and mother?”

“Of course,” Juliet replied, feeling chastised. “I wish that foremost.”

Loveday looked relieved. “Then let us talk no more of such matters.”

Yet the future had never loomed with such magnitude. Perhaps because Leith Buchanan was in their very midst, opening the door to a very different sort of life. A life free of crops and crop failures, tobacco credit and enslavement, weather patterns and the market.

Or ... perchance he was a momentary distraction, a passing chapter. She and Loveday might stay on at Royal Vale. Continue the secret work their mother had begun. Become spinsters like Aunt Damarus. In all likelihood, Loveday would wed another colonial and leave, yet the very thought of living alone at Royal Vale left Juliet feeling bruised.

She, more than her sister, was deeply rooted to the land, the home of their family for generations. Selah and Alexander Renick’s legacy lived on through them. But only if one of them married and their children continued the line. Surely that would be Loveday.

Her beautiful, sparkling sister.