Letter from Marianne Durand
Rosemont
Lydia darling,
I miss you more than you will ever know. But I am writing this letter in haste, so forgive me if I do not tell you what is happening here at Rosemont or ask how you do.
I heard from Louisa today. Her Season does not go well. She says there are heiresses she cannot compete with. Mama is telling her to encourage the advances of some odious man with FOUR children. He is a marquess who wears spectacles and reads books. Louisa is very upset. But this is not what I wanted to tell you.
Louisa says that Mama has arranged a marriage for you with a farmer from some distant village up north. Oh, Lydia, you mustn’t! Please do not! Louisa said many things that scared me, and I fear this man may be neither decent nor honest.
I have heard that he
