“You and me both,” Mary announced. “I have not slept since you told me you were marrying Ernest Barrington. And it is not good for the baby.”
“No,” Rose agreed. “You must sleep.”
“Look at me, Rose,” Mary demanded, and she did. “I have been waiting for you to come to your senses, but I have realized I will be a grandmother before you do. So, Jacob and I have had a discussion, and we have decided he will go to Will and demand that he marry you.”
“Mary—”
Rose tried to cut her off, but Mary wasn’t having it. “Enough is enough,” she barreled on. “If you are both too blind to see the solution, we are not. He will take care of you, and maybe the two of you will fall back in love again.”
“Mary—" Rose tried again, but her sister put out her hand.
“No. I am not listening to any objections. Jacob is going to London tomorrow. He is going to sort it out.”
She reached forward then and took both of Rose’s hands in hers.
“I don’t know why you embarked on this journey of self-destruction in the first place. I have sat by and watched you be so unhappy for nearly ten years, and I can’t do it any longer. It’s breaking me, so lord knows what it is doing to you. Ambrose’s death was a gift.”
“Mary!” Rose looked appalled.
“I don’t care,” Mary shook her hands. “It was! He was a philanderer. You are twenty-nine. There is still time to have a happy marriage, a family, and everything Jacob and I have, but it is not going to be with Ernest Barrington. That will happen over my dead body. Even if I have to drag you down the aisle to Will Browning myself, I will do it.”
Rose's emotions welled up just looking at Mary's concerned face and listening to what she thought was a simple practical solution. Two large tears rolled down her cheeks, and even though she wiped them away, more followed. It was impossible to stop their flow, as it had been since she sat in Will's carriage. Her chest was constantly tight with unspoken emotion. She lowered her head again, hoping Mary wouldn't notice her tears, but it was too late.
Her sister sprang to her side.
“Oh, Rose,” she wrapped both arms around her. “I knew there was no way you were handling this as well as you insisted. It’s alright. We will take care of it, just as you have taken care of everything for us.”
She rocked Rose gently in her arms.
“Jacob will talk to Will and then he will come back here. I can’t imagine for one second that he will say no.”
“There is no point in it.” Rose spoke through her tears.
“You just wait and see.”
Rose pulled away from Mary’s embrace and looked at her sister, swiping at her tears with the back of her hand. “We already had the conversation.”
“What?” Mary looked confused.
“There is no point in Jacob making the journey.”
“You already asked Will to marry you?” Mary was wide-eyed now.
“No. He asked me.”
“When?”
“When I was in London for my dress.”
Mary threw up her hands in a victorious motion.
“I turned him down.”
Rose had got her tears back under control as she watched her sister’s expression change from relief to totally perplexed. She leaned back to stare at her.
“Why on earth would you do that?”
“He hates me.”