A Simple Deception

V

"According to whom?" Susanna protested. "Mother, we have come to these same ballrooms every year, and we engage with the same banal, horrid people, and yet I am supposed to be flattered that a gentleman, one whom only warrants the name because of who his father is, happens to find my dowry tempting?"

Cecily remained quiet for a few moments.

"Every gentleman I have been introduced to this summer had known exactly who I am, and exactly how much I am worth. Do you understand how humiliating that feels, to be seen as nothing more than a transaction? I am a person, Mother, with thoughts and feelings of my own! I won't marry any of those men, and I know Adam won't force me."

It was an additional humiliation to know that her brother held the power in approving a husband for Susanna, but it was a blessing, as well, to know that Adam would never pressure her into marrying one of Cecily's suitors.

Cecily sighed. "Where have I heard that before?" she muttered under her breath. "My dear, I do not want them to talk about you the way they talk about Grace, and even Claire. These people would not dare utter anything in front of me, but I know what is said behind my back. The last thing I want is for your name to be tainted."

"Mama, Grace does not care," insisted Susanna. Or if she did, she did not show it. Grace did not like to attend these sorts of functions, but when she did, she did so on Adam's proud arm, and paid no attention to anyone else. Claire, Susanna was a little less certain about, but she, too, was blessed with a devoted husband to share in any of those worries. "And neither do I."

Susanna was determined for her world not to solely exist of this place and these people. Lord Bertram, and people like him, might have been content in their unworldliness, but Susanna certainly was not.

"You remind me so much of someone I used to know, Susanna," murmured Cecily, almost sadly. "I am going up to rest a while before dinner. Do let me know if there are any callers."

***

There were no callers for the remainder of the day, and their dinner party consisted of Jack, Claire, and Peter, whose company Susanna much preferred to Cecily's usual crowd.

As the hours ticked on, Susanna felt herself growing more and more excited for that evening. When really all she was doing was going to see a horse, she felt as though it was the first time in her life that she had made a decision for herself.

She was also terribly excited to speak with Mr Whitfield again. He was, quite definitively, the most interesting man that she had ever encountered, and that seemed to be because Susanna could not assume a single thing about him.

After pulling out an atlas from the library and locating Saint-Domingue on one of the maps that afternoon, she knew from whence he hailed, but everything else was a complete mystery. And she found that utterly intriguing.

It was very easy to summarise gentlemen in London.

Only today she had described Lord Bertram as a chicken grapefruit. And she had certainly met some pig pears this last summer.

"How goes the husband hunt?" Peter asked Susanna quietly. They were seated beside each other. "Or do I dare not speak of it?"

Susanna smirked, and enjoyed Peter's own amused grin. She had enjoyed knowing Peter Denham better this summer now that he and Jack were in business together. It seemed wrong, really, seeing as he was her brother-in-law, that she had not made more of an effort to know him. He had become something of a younger brother to her, and she had never had a younger sibling before.

"Do you know, when you and Jack are extraordinary successes, Mama will subject you to this. She will find you a wife to be sure."

Peter shook his head with a chuckle. "I would drown in your world, Susanna."