Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 145574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 728(@200wpm)___ 582(@250wpm)___ 485(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 728(@200wpm)___ 582(@250wpm)___ 485(@300wpm)
“Well, it won’t be to Henry Wadsworth.” Even the name tasted vile in her mouth.
“You have someone else in mind?” her father quipped sarcastically.
“I do.” She lifted her chin. Birthday be damned, this couldn’t wait. They could not continue to plan her life. “I’m in love with a pilot, an American, and if I choose to marry, it will be him. You will have to find your income infusion elsewhere.”
“A Yank?”
“Yes.”
“Absolutely not!” Dishes clanged as her father slammed his hands on the table, but Scarlett didn’t flinch.
Constance did.
“I will do as I please. I am a full-grown woman”—Scarlett stood—“and an officer in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. I am no longer a child for you to order about.”
“You would do this? Ruin us?” Her mother’s voice broke. “Generations of sacrifices have been made, but you will not?”
She knew exactly where to hit her daughters hardest, but Scarlett pushed the guilt aside. Marrying Henry would only delay the inevitable. The way of life her parents clung to was disintegrating. There was nothing she could do to stop that.
“If there is ruining to be done, I’m quite comfortable saying that I am not the cause.” She took a deep breath, hoping there was something she could salvage here, a way to make them see. “I love Jameson. He is a good man. An honorable man—”
“I’ll be damned if I see this title, this family’s legacy, given to the spawn of a bloody Yank!” her father shouted, coming to his feet.
Scarlett kept her head high and her shoulders square, thankful that she’d spent the last year working in the most stressful environment imaginable, perfecting the art of remaining calm during a tempest. “You make the mistake of assuming I want anything to do with your title. I do not aspire to wealth or politics. You cling to something I have no interest in.” Her voice was soft yet steel.
Her father’s face pinkened, then deepened to a purely red hue as his eyes bulged. “So help me God, Scarlett, if you marry without my permission, I will no longer acknowledge you as my daughter.”
“No,” her mother gasped.
“I mean it. You won’t inherit a thing.” He jabbed his finger toward her. “Not Ashby. Not this house. Nothing.”
Her heart didn’t break—that would have been too simple. It ripped, straining, then tearing at the fibers of her soul. She truly meant that little to him. “Then we agree,” she said softly. “I am free to do as I wish, as long as I willingly accept your consequence, which includes not inheriting the very things I do not want.”
“Scarlett!” her mother called out, but Scarlett didn’t lower her gaze or give an inch as her father attempted to stare her down.
“And if I have a son,” she continued, “he, too, will be free of this anchor of obligation you treasure more than your daughter’s happiness.”
Her father’s eyebrows shot up. The only thing he’d ever wanted was a son. She’d never give him hers.
“Scarlett, do not do this. You have to marry the Wadsworth boy,” he demanded. “Any sons that come from that union will be the next Baron Wright.”
He seemed to have forgotten that if Constance, too, had sons, it would not be so cut-and-dried.
“That sounds like an order.” Scarlett pushed in her chair and gripped the back.
“It is. It has to be.”
“I only take orders from my superior officers, and as I recall, you have elected not to serve in a war you have never approved of.” The ice in her veins permeated her tone.
“This visit is over.” He spoke through gritted teeth.
“I agree.” She kissed her mother’s cheek on the way out of the dining room. “Happy birthday, Mother. I’m so sorry I cannot give you what you want.”
Then she removed herself to her room, where she quickly changed into her uniform and packed her dress into her suitcase.
As she came down the stairs, she found Constance waiting for her at the threshold, dressed identically, suitcase in hand.
“Do not do this to us,” her mother begged, coming out of the drawing room.
“I will not marry Henry,” Scarlett repeated. “How can you ask me to? You would see me marry a man I loathe? A known abuser of women, all to keep what?” Scarlett asked, softening her voice.
“It’s what your father wants. What the family needs.” Her mother lifted her chin. “We’ve cut the staff. We’ve sold most of the land at Ashby. We’ve economized the last few years. We all make sacrifices.”
“But in this case, you’d like to sacrifice me, and I’ll not have it. Goodbye, Mother.” She walked out of the townhouse and sucked in a shaky breath.
Constance followed her, shutting the door behind her. “So I guess we’ll need to purchase new train tickets, seeing as ours were for tomorrow.”
She did not deserve her sister, but she hugged her anyway. “How do you feel about applying for a transfer?”