*Rapunzel*
"Your fiancé," my father says, with icy precision, "initially agreed to a five-month betrothal, but now he wishes to reduce that period. As I believe I mentioned to you, he has recently come into guardianship of an orphaned sister, a very young child. I gather he is worried that she will remain motherless during the interval, though he expressed no pressing concern when he asked for your hand in marriage."
We had returned to London directly after the wedding, and Horace has gone back to Brighton to talk to those bankers. I am secretly counting the days until the conference of bankers concludes. Tomorrow, I think, or even tonight.
"I would be pleased to agree," I say, shaping my tone to docile compliance. The last thing I want is to spur my father to a fit of righteous rage by
