“Affluent,” Sara stuck in.
“Sara!” Lisa was shocked. “That does not weigh with me.”
“Ah, you think me calculating, and I suppose I am. What choice does a woman have in this world of men? We must marry well or suffer the consequences.”
Lisa frowned. “No, a worthy character is far more important…and he adores children. He shows so much patience when my young sisters and brothers clamor around him.” Lisa sighed. “He is a good man, with a good heart.”
“Hmmm,” Sara returned thoughtfully, and marveled that he had the patience to allow her siblings to pester him when he visited Lisa. When she visited with Lisa, she couldn’t abide the little brats.
After that evening, Sara learned all she could about Godwin of Ravensbury and made it her purpose to ensnare him for herself.
She watched him with Lisa and decided his feelings while engaged by Lisa, had not yet developed deeply. He seemed as though he admired and liked Lisa, and Sara thought, in time he could love her, for he certainly was attracted to Lisa, though why…she could not tell.
Her job, Sara decided, was to nudge him while he was still vacillating with the notion of Lisa as his bride. Her job was to provide reason enough that he would be disillusioned with Lisa and thus turn to her.
Indeed, she was just the person to win Godwin of Ravensbury, and so she made up her mind to do just that. Her friendship with Lisa? Ah, she would perhaps miss that, but she would be a lady of leisure and make new and notable friends.
And so it began!
~ One ~
THE VERY MORNING AFTER SARA set her sights on Godwin, she visited with her second cousin, Oscar Welby. He was three years her senior and just home from Cambridge for the summer. She knew he was infatuated with her.
“Sara!” He bent low over her hand. “I could scarcely believe my eyes when I read your note asking me to come ‘round.”
She laughed and flirted with her eyes. “La, but how could I not? I have missed you, Oscar, and was surprised when you did not immediately call on me. You naughty boy. You have been home two days!”
Her mother, with Lisa’s arm linked with hers, made an appearance just at that moment, and Sara was pleased to look up and find Lisa looking quite pretty in her little riding habit of dark blue. Indeed, she had timed this all so very well.
Introductions were made and though a flicker of jealousy shadowed Sara’s mindset as she watched Oscar’s face show great and immediate interest in Lisa, she was well pleased. Here was the beginning of her plans taking fruition.
Oscar was obviously taken with Lisa.
This fact, though most annoying, was welcome. She watched and saw Oscar, who had been infatuated with her for most of their youth, suddenly drawn to another. Though that was exactly what she had hoped for, it rankled.
She frowned darkly but managed to keep her irritation in check. She told herself she was being absurd and perverse. She could not help but wonder, however, what it could be about her plump friend that so turned men’s heads? Godwin, and now Oscar. It was most agitating. She wanted to pinch Lisa ‘til she cried.
She controlled herself, and Oscar and Lisa’s first meeting went just as she had hoped it would. After the two’s initial meeting, it was an easy thing to arrange more encounters as a threesome. She, escorted by a very willing Oscar, called on Lisa, went riding with Lisa and he became, Sara noted, quickly very amiable towards Lisa.
It also piqued her to see that Lisa could make Oscar laugh so easily and that the two got on so well. She had never made Oscar laugh, and in fact remembered that as children he often scolded her not to do this or that.
Oddly enough, when the time came for her to inaugurate the next step in her plan, she again felt a moment’s regret. Lisa had always been a good friend. In fact, Lisa had taken her part in school once when another girl had said some hurtful things.
Her plan would end all that, and Lisa would never smile at her again when this was over. A sure and sudden sadness hit her flush in her heart before she brushed it off. She simply had no choice.
At every opportunity, Sara made herself disagreeable to Oscar. She allowed him to draw mental contrasts between herself and the sweet Lisa. She was, after all, simply being herself, so it was an easy task. She rarely allowed anyone to hear her true opinions. No one really knew just who she was inside. Even her mother, who had guided her towards finding a wealthy and titled husband, did not know to what lengths her daughter would go to achieve that goal.
Sara had always felt impatient with Oscar and really didn’t give a fig about him. For years she did the polite, only in the event that she did not find a wealthy lord to marry—there would be Oscar, who did not have a title but was certainly well off. She had kept him infatuated with her, kept him in the wings, just in case. If her plan now did not work, she would lose not only Lisa, but Oscar as well. Therefore, her plan must work!
As it chanced, whenever Godwin was shown into Lisa’s sitting room, she seemed to be in a lively conversation with Oscar, and Sara was privy to the irritation that flickered over Godwin’s face.
Sara knew that Lisa and Oscar were in the early stages. They had not progressed beyond an easy friendship…yet. She wasn’t sure what love was, but she rather fancied they might find it in one another. As to that, she didn’t care, if only she could get Godwin to believe that Lisa and Oscar were falling in love.
On one occasion, Godwin stood uncertain as he watched Lisa and Oscar laughing over some anecdote he had told her. He frowned and looked ready to leave.
Sara hurried to take his arm and said, “Ah, Godwin, they do get on so well, don’t they? I had long thought Oscar devoted to me, but alas, my best friend seems to be stealing his affections.”
Godwin’s countenance took on a troubled expression, which was just what Sara wanted. Indeed, she needed to make him believe that Lisa was deliberately trying to take Oscar from her.