Page 71 of A Lady in Name

Stefan took his seat, setting down his plate with an air of decision which put Lucy on immediate guard. “Well said, Mama.”

He then looked across at Lucy and she realised instantly her instincts had not led her astray. The message of his eyes was unmistakable and might be read by anyone in the room.

“Which is why,” he pursued, before she could think how to avert certain disaster, “I want you and Dion to know that I have every intention of marrying Lucy.”

A strangled “No!” was all Lucy could manage. With horrified eyes, she glanced from Dion’s stunned expression to Mrs Ankerville’s face of blank incomprehension.

Dion was the first to recover. She gaped at her brother, and then brought her astounded gaze to bear on Lucy, who rushed into speech.

“Don’t look at me. I told him I would not marry him. I told him how impossible it is.” She turned desperate eyes on Stefan. “How could you? I thought you understood.”

He was wearing the bland face she knew of old, and his voice was coolness itself. “I understood it was useless to argue with you, my —” To her relief, he cut off the endearment she guessed he had been about to utter, and rephrased it. “— my dear Lucy. But that does not mean I am prepared to accept your reading of the matter.”

“What reading?” asked Dion, finding her voice at last.

“That Stefan cannot possibly marry a woman who has no name to call her own,” Lucy said brutally.

Mrs Ankerville entered the lists, her tone as matter of fact as if she were discussing the weather. “At least one of you has a sense of what is due to your position, Stefanus.”

“But do you want to marry him, Lucy?”

Lucy looked at Dion, withholding herself from meeting Stefan’s gaze. “What I want has nothing to do with the case.”

“Oh, well evaded, Lucy.”

“Do be quiet, Stefan,” said Dion crossly. Her eyes returned to Lucy. “I can think of nothing I should like more than to have you for my sister, but —”

“And you shall!”

“— but,” reiterated Dion, turning her shoulder on her brother, “I can imagine just how horrid it will be. For you, Lucy, as much as anyone else.”

“It is out of the question,” stated Mrs Ankerville. She added kindly, “Not that I do not echo Dionisia, my dear child, because I think you perfectly well suited and I like you. But tradition will not bow to one’s wishes. You must not fret about it, you know, for our ancestors had frequently to abandon their true loves for —”

“Oh, Mama, pray don’t start quoting medieval love poems,” begged Dion. “Gracious, can you never think of anything but your abominable Middle Ages? This is real.”

“Abominable?” Outraged, Mrs Ankerville rose to her feet. “I will not stay to listen to insults!”

Before she could flounce from the room, Stefan intervened. “Mama, I beg you will remain for but a moment longer.”

His mother glared down the table. “For what, may I ask? For my daughter to pour scorn upon my life’s work? For my son to declare himself a lunatic? I thank you, Stefanus, I prefer to retire to browse among my books.”

But Stefan was up and moving to intercept her. “I am not done yet, Corisande. Please sit down.”

Mrs Ankerville looked so taken aback at being addressed by her given name that she did as he asked. Stefan returned to his seat, and Lucy waited, in some trepidation, for what he might say next.

“I am taking Lucy to the Dower House.”

“What, to stay with Great-Aunt Dorothea?” Dion looked at Lucy with pity. “She is ancient and quite dotty, you must know. And she will drive you demented.”

“Why?” asked Mrs Ankerville, ignoring this intervention. “Why is Lucy to go there?”

“Because she wishes to remove from here, and I prefer her to be out of the house while Paulina is in it and Sarclet liable to bounce in at any moment.”

Dion considered this, her head on one side. “There is that.”

Lucy cut in swiftly. “Stefan has not told you all. It was to his great-aunt he intended to send me as a solution to my embarrassing presence here. I am to work for her and receive a wage.” She looked at Stefan. “Was that not what you said?”

He smiled at her in a way which made her heart sink hopelessly into a pool inside her chest. “That night, yes. But all is now changed. I will not have you made uncomfortable, and I grant you there are shoals ahead, but we are going to be married, come what may.”