Well, that was true, Hyacinth had to acknowledge. To herself, of course. If she actually admitted as much out loud, her mother would take that as a carte blanche to pursue Mr. St. Clair until he ran screaming for the trees.
“Mother,” Hyacinth said, pausing for slightly longer than normal to steal a bit of time to organize her thoughts, “I am not going to chase after Mr. St. Clair. He’s not at all the right sort of man for me.”
“I’m not certain you’d know the right sort of man for you if he arrived on our doorstep riding an elephant.”
“I would think the elephant would be a fairly good indication that I ought to look elsewhere.”
“Hyacinth.”
“And besides that,” Hyacinth added, thinking about the way Mr. St. Clair always seemed to look at her in that vaguely condescending manner of his, “I don’t think he likes me very much.”
“Nonsense,” Violet said, with all the outrage of a mother hen. “Everyone likes you.”
Hyacinth thought about that for a moment. “No,” she said, “I don’t think everyone does.”
“Hyacinth, I am your mother, and I know—”
“Mother, you’re the last person anyone would tell if they didn’t like me.”
“Nevertheless—”
“Mother,” Hyacinth cut in, setting her teacup firmly in its saucer, “it is of no concern. I don’t mind that I am not universally adored. If I wanted everyone to like me, I’d have to be kind and charming and bland and boring all the time, and what would be the fun in that?”
“You sound like Lady Danbury,” Violet said.
“I like Lady Danbury.”
“I like her, too, but that doesn’t mean I want her as my daughter.”
“Mother—”
“You won’t set your cap for Mr. St. Clair because he scares you,” Violet said.
Hyacinth actually gasped. “That is not true.”
“Of course it is,” Violet returned, looking vastly pleased with herself. “I don’t know why it hasn’t occurred to me sooner. And he isn’t the only one.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Why have you not married yet?” Violet asked.
Hyacinth blinked at the abruptness of the question. “I beg your pardon.”
“Why have you not married?” Violet repeated. “Do you even want to?”
“Of course I do.” And she did. She wanted it more than she would ever admit, probably more than she’d ever realized until that very moment. She looked at her mother and she saw a matriarch, a woman who loved her family with a fierceness that brought tears to her eyes. And in that moment Hyacinth realized that she wanted to love with that fierceness. She wanted children. She wanted a family.
But that did not mean that she was willing to marry the first man who came along. Hyacinth was nothing if not pragmatic; she’d be happy to marry someone she didn’t love, provided he suited her in almost every other respect. But good heavens, was it so much to ask for a gentleman with some modicum of intelligence?
“Mother,” she said, softening her tone, since she knew that Violet meant well, “I do wish to marry. I swear to you that I do. And clearly I have been looking.”
Violet lifted her brows. “Clearly?”
“I have had six proposals,” Hyacinth said, perhaps a touch defensively. “It’s not my fault that none was suitable.”
“Indeed.”
Hyacinth felt her lips part with surprise at her mother’s tone. “What do you mean by that?”