him drily. “The matter of the scandal sheets and all that followed will be nothing compared to what will happen when her father disowns her for marrying a man of a different class.” Her voice lowered. “And he will, Captain. He will disown her. I believe in your heart of hearts you know this to be true. Think how hard her father pressured her to give up Penelope, and that was a commitment she had already agreed to before he knew of it. He will never willingly allow her to marry you, a servant who grew up in his employ.”
“I am not a servant now.”
Lady Hayton-Smythe tipped her head to the side, her gaze gentle and pitying. “You say that, and perhaps you have some qualities in society that have been gained during your time in service, but you must see that you are still not considered worthy of a woman like Margaret. Society has not accepted you as upper class, and they never will.”
Nigel’s feelings, so high moments before he’d seen Lady Hayton-Smythe, came crashing down. “I understand what you are saying, my lady,” he said quietly. “But I cannot agree to give her up.” He had been trapped into a moment of vulnerability, and he gave in to it. “You do not know how long I have waited for her.”
“I know more than you suspect,” the lady said. “Margaret and I have been friends for some time. Also since we were children. You and I did not have the opportunity of meeting, for of course I was not as lenient with my social circles as Margaret insisted upon being. But I heard about you these past years. She talked about your friendship. And though I could see she saw you as a friend only, I could also hear your heart in the background of her stories. I thought to myself, this poor lad, he loves her, and yet I said nothing in the hope that you would go away to war and sort it all out on your own without dragging her into it. But you came back,” she said sadly, “and you wooed her.”
“I did not try –”
“Perhaps you were innocent of open attempts, but you wooed her nonetheless with your kindness and your infernal nearness, and I believe that her heart is dangerously close to falling for you.” Lady Hayton-Smythe sighed. “I fear that if you do not agree to give her up you are choosing the selfish option, not what is best for her. Allow me to paint a picture for you that you have not yet considered. If Margaret is disowned she will no longer be able to stay in this county. Your ties will be severed with your father just as hers were with her own father. She will keep the child, of course, but you will have to live in some faraway cottage where your names are not well-known, and you will have to be careful to conceal your histories. She is a fine young lady, but she is not made for hard work or difficulty. She will grow to resent everything, and one day you will wake up and realise that you chose what was right for you, not for her, and because you love her you will hate yourself for your selfishness.”
Nigel could offer no retort. Everything he would have argued centred around his belief that Margaret loved him, confirmed by her friend’s words, but now he was realising that love might not be enough. He thought of how much she had already sacrificed for Penelope and could not begin to imagine how much more she would have to sacrifice for him.
He felt a great desperation growing inside him but had not the luxury to show that to the woman in the carriage. He only nodded and took a step back from the window. “I understand your meaning perfectly,” he said.
“What I do is not out of cruelty,” the lady said quietly. “I say this all because I want Margaret to have the best possible life, and you cannot offer her that. I speak to you in this difficult way because I know that you, above everyone else, love her enough to do the right thing. Captain Bateson, I respect you enough to tell you that for Margaret’s good, you must end this before it begins.”
She then bid him good day and, sitting back in the carriage, commanded it to carry on. Nigel remained behind in the dust of the