“What matters now is what you feel,” Catie told her. “Do you care for Westman? Do you think you could be happy married to him?”
Josie threw up her hands. “I don’t know. Not if he doesn’t love me.”
“We can work on that,” Ashley said. Josie gave her a narrow look, and she added, “Work on getting him to admit it, anyway.”
“But the larger problem is what’s happening downstairs,” Catie told her.
“My father and your mother are trying to ‘handle the crisis’,” Maddie interjected. She said the last in a deep voice that was a pretty good imitation of her father.
“Which means,” Ashley added, “they will decide to marry you off. My guess? Top of the list is old Lord Crutchkins.”
Josie sprang up. “Eew! Never!”
“You know your mother, Josie.”
Oh, Lord, she did, too. “But—but she can’t do that! I must agree, and I won’t! I won’t.”
“How can you not?” Maddie said quietly. “You have no money, nowhere to go. And the scandal—”
Josie flopped back down and rolled into a ball. “This is all just horrible. I’ve ruined everything. Drat! I should have left Westman and taken the treasure, then I’d be rich and independent.”
“Maybe you could go back for it,” Ashley suggested.
Josie saw Catie throw her a scowl and a don’t-give-her-ideas look.
“She’d still be ostracized,” Maddie added quickly.
“Maybe not,” Josie argued. “The ton can forgive anything if one has enough blunt.”
“Josie, don’t be so naive. You think because you want something, you can make it true. You’ve been compromised. The only way to salvage your relationship is to marry.”
Josie rolled her eyes.
“So, what if we could convince the family to marry you to Westman?”
At the thought, Josie’s heart sped up, despite the fact that she didn’t want it to. She didn’t want to feel this way for Stephen, especially when she knew he didn’t feel anything but obligation for her. She did know that, didn’t she?
“That would never work,” Maddie said, puncturing Josie’s little bubble. “The Hales and the Doubledays are enemies. Aunt Mavis would rather kill Josie and bury her in an unmarked grave than marry her to Westman.”
“Lovely analogy,” Ashley said. “Unfortunately, it’s accurate.”
Slowly Josie began to uncoil. “But what if we weren’t enemies? What if I could prove that my grandfather didn’t kill Westman’s?”
“You’ve been trying to do that for years,” Ashley said. “Do you have proof now?”
“Not proof exactly,” Josie said, “but I know who did do it.”
“And it wasn’t your grandfather?” Catie asked. “You know for certain.”
Josie nodded.
Maddie shook her head. “I don’t know if that will matter if you can’t prove it.”
“Well, we can’t allow them to marry her to some old man with only two teeth in his mouth. We must do something to help her and Westman,” Catie, the eldest and always the planner, said.
“We’ll stall the wedding preparations to Crutchkins,” Ashley said. “And in the meantime, we’ll pray Westman returns.”
“I can try and hinder the plans,” Catie offered.
