Time & Tide - Original Wattpad Version

Chapter Twenty-Five: In Which Jessie Comes To A Realization

"And you, Miss Franklin? Are you here to net yourself a lord? Perhaps even a duke?"

"No," I said. "I... I'm content with what I have." I squeezed Margaret's elbow once.

"Well then! Are you engaged?" Miss Donaldson squealed. "Please, show me the ring, Miss Franklin! I'm ever so fond of looking at the rings!"

"I... er," I said, begging for help from Margaret with a pleading glance.

"What Miss Franklin means by content is that she is currently attached to our household, and not currently seeking to leave to take up her own," Margaret said tactfully. "There is no rush."

Miss Donaldson snorted somewhat rudely, and giggled again. "Then you have been spending too much time with Miss Margaret," she told me. "The woman behaves as if she is a spinster already, doomed to a life with no romance, when we all know she could have had Mr. Vaughn as easily as that." She snapped her fingers neatly in her gloves.

"Mr. Vaughn?" I echoed, startled.

"No one," Margaret assured me, patting my hand in return, her own reassuring gesture.

"No one Margaret was engaged to for a whole four months!" Miss Donaldson pressed with another laugh, utterly failing to clock the sour look on Margaret's face. Yeah, there was definitely a story there that I was going to ask for later, if Margaret was in the mood to share it. "Perhaps your mind will be turned to marriage soon enough though, Margaret - isn't your brother's wedding in July?"

Another jolt went through me. Right. Francis. Marrying Elizabeth. God, I hadn't thought of Francis in... weeks? At least, not like this. I probed my feelings about this and decided, no, I was good about Francis marrying Elizabeth still - excited for them even. Although, there was a small seed of jealousy there... or, no, wait, was it envy instead? Margaret had said that jealousy was about protecting what you already had, and evy was about wanting something that wasn't yours... but what could I possibly want that Francis and Elizabeth had, if I--

"It is," Margaret said, throwing my train of through off the rail. "We will be traveling to Goddersham in a fortnight."

"How lovely!" Miss Donaldson enthused. "How delightful - have you had a new dress made for the occasion? Oh Miss Margaret, you must!" She turned to me. "She always dresses like such a fudy-dudy."

Margaret curled her mouth in a way that looked like a smile and both of us knew very well was not.

"Oh, and did you hear!" Miss Donaldson went on, oblivious to the way both of us were biting our tongues. "Francis and Mr. Lewis had quite the falling out when your brother returned to London for his orders. 'A bloody great row in the square', is how my own brother tells it, fo he was with Francis when Mr. Lewis confronted him over 'that woman'! Goodness, do you know who he meant? Not a mistress surely, what a scandal that would be!"

"No scandal!" I cut in before Margaret could answer. Nothing that I was exactly ashamed that I had slept with Francis. But it wasn't really something that needed spreading around if someone did decide to believe Mr. Lewis, if that horrible human shitstain decide to start oversharing. "Mr. Lewis proposed marriage, I declined, and Mr. Lewis thinks the Captain has the power to persuade me because of my, er, friendship with his sisters. Rest assured, the Captain has been kind enough to agree to continue to dissuade Mr. Lewis on my behalf.

"Well!" Miss Donaldson, said, the wind clearly gone from her sails. "Marriage proposals all around," she said, then twiddled her fan and fought back what was clearly a very unhappy expression. "For all but me, it seems. Perhaps your Mr. Lewis could be persuaded--"

"No!" Margaret and I said almost exactly in unison.

Miss Donaldson pouted, and I felt sorry for her - marriage was a meaningful thing her, the only real way for a woman who had no independent means could secure a future. Clearly she was having trouble getting that security, and for that I pitied her.