Arabella Read Free

ears.  Only a few threadbare rugs covered the worn boards of her father's house, any fine carpets having disappeared along with the silver and pictures to pay part of her father's debts. 
    She had half expected that her cousin's home would be in the same order and was excited by evidence of wealth.  If Lady Mary was pleased with her cousins, she might take them into the society of rich men, and they would be able to find husbands.  It was imperative that they did and quickly for Sir Edmund's sake, as the burden of his debts was fast becoming insupportable.
    As they entered Lady Mary's boudoir, Arabella caught the scent of a musky perfume more suited to a gentleman than a lady.  If she was not much mistaken her cousin had had a recent visitor!
    It was a pretty room, she thought as she glanced round, furnished in shades of cream and rose with painted furnishings and a tall dressing screen over which some of milady's petticoats had been flung.  Arabella's eyes dwelt on the screen for a moment until her attention was drawn to the lady herself.
    Lady Mary was clad in a wrapping gown of green striped linen and wore her own dark hair loosely about her shoulders.  She was an attractive woman, though past the first flush of her youth.
    She got up from her dressing table, where she had been sitting contemplating a new head that had been delivered to her earlier, and came to greet her cousins with a smile.
    'So, you are here at last,' she said and held out her hands to them.  'Welcome, my dears – Arabella and Nan.  You must introduce yourselves so that I know who you are.'
    'I am Arabella,' Miss Impatience said and laughed.  'But you will know that already, cousin, for I described us both in my letters.'
    'And you are both just as you wrote, except that you were too modest concerning your looks, Arabella.  You are beautiful, and we should have little trouble in finding you a husband.  Nan is pretty too, but not quite as eye catching.'  She smiled to take the sting from her words.  'You must forgive my plain speaking, Nan.  This business of getting husbands is a serious one, and not something to be approached lightly.'
    'I was not offended,' Nan assured her.  'I know that Arabella is beautiful, ma'am.  She might have married any of three gentlemen at home, but did not care for them.'
    'Is this so?'  Lady Mary's brows rose.  'Were they not gentlemen of sufficient fortune, Arabella?  Did Sir Edmund not approve their suit?
    'Squire Rowley had deep pockets so they say,' Arabella replied.  She had taken off her hat now, allowing her hair to escape.  It tumbled over her shoulders in a cascade of dark red curls that seemed almost to have a life of their own.  'But he was past forty and his breath stank.  I told Father I could not take him and he said I should not be forced to it.'
    'Such considerations should not weigh too heavily if the gentleman has rank and fortune,' Lady Mary said with a slight frown at her.  'Beggars cannot always be choosers, Arabella.  Neither of you has a fortune, which means that you must marry money.  Remember that wealth and position remain long after lust has faded – and a wife may often look elsewhere for a lover once she has provided her husband with his heir.'
    'Mama always said the same,' Nan agreed.  'She would have brought us to London herself this summer, cousin, but as you know she died suddenly.'
    'Yes, and I was sorry for it.  I met your mother when I was a child about to be married to a man I hardly knew.  I was but fifteen and frightened of all the duties I had been told I must perform for this man.  Your mother took me aside and explained that there was nothing to fear; she showed me how to make things easier for myself, and I have always been grateful to her.  It was for Beth's sake that I asked you both to come to me.  We shall see what can be done to help you.  Unfortunately, I am not a rich woman.  I cannot provide a dowry for either of you, but I can help with