Banished Love by Ramona Flightner Read Free Book Online

through the windows as we entered the Russell family sitting room, where tea had been prepared for us.
    “Does Aunt Matilda ever see you like this?” I asked on a laugh as I sank onto an overstuffed, uncomfortable settee.
    “Rarely. She would frown and remind me of the need for propriety at all times,” she said as she mimicked her mother before she burst out laughing.
    “Then why am I to model my behavior on yours?” I asked.
    “Because I can act the part. I know their rules are ridiculous, and so do you. But you have to play along if you want to join their group,” she said, resting against the cushions.
    “So you say,” I said thinking of Jonas Montgomery, her fiancé.
    “Don’t you want to marry, have children? That was always our favorite topic as children.” We shared a long look as we both reminisced. “We’d have little girls, months apart, and they’d grow up close, like sisters.”
    “Like us,” I said.
    “Yes, like us,” she said with a wistful sigh.
    “I may have a sister in a few months’ time,” I murmured.
    “You mean she’s…expecting?” Savannah sputtered, then bent forward to pour us some tea.
    “Yes, a ‘blessed event.’ That’s what Mrs. Smythe calls it.” I shook my head as I imagined having another sibling.
    “What bothers you, Rissa?”
    “The idea that I may be looked upon to care for the child if I am still at home.”
    “Yes, the spinsterly older sister,” Savannah said with a theatrical sigh.
    I glared at her, fighting resentment at the reference to spinsterhood.
    “I imagine your stepmother would consider it your duty.”
    “I’m not that old. And, yes, she most assuredly would.”
    “Old enough. And if we are to have daughters who are more or less the same age, you need to find an acceptable man.”
    “Well, seeing as I haven’t met an eligible man in years, that may prove a challenge,” I said with a frown.
    “Mr. Montgomery and I might need to move to New York City after the wedding,” Savannah said, some of her vivaciousness dimming as she spoke of her fiancé.
    “What? You are to stay here. Or is this part of the bargain for him to marry—”
    “There is no bargain,” Savannah snapped. “You know I want to marry him, and he wants to marry me. I want to be a part of his important world. I’m simply fortunate the family approves.”
    I stared at her, for once at a loss for words as I thought about Jonas, who exuded power and self-confidence. Whereas he thought he appeared upper class and debonair, I found him stuffy and pompous. Colin would argue that those words were synonymous for the truly rich. In any case, I believed Jonas’s personal convictions were dangerous misconceptions to have about oneself and feared for Savannah’s future happiness.
    Jonas stood at about my height with brown hair and topaz eyes that appeared deceptively dull. However, they hid a rapier sharp mind, waiting to detect the smallest weakness in an opponent to expose him or her to public ridicule. I sensed that his greatest joy came in detecting when someone was not thoroughly engaged in a debate, or did not know all of their facts, and having them look a fool in front of a crowd. He lived to debate and prove his prowess with the spoken word, preening as he showed his superior verbal skills. He believed it showed a nobility of mind to expose the weaknesses of others. I disagreed. I believed it showed a poverty of spirit to relish the humiliation of others only for personal pleasure.
    “I think you will find that Jonas is very caring when you know him better,” Savannah said as she broke into my thoughts.
    “Does he know of our interest in the suffragettes?” I asked.
    Savannah choked on her sip of tea before gasping out a response. “Never mention any interest that I might have had. I am recovered from such foolish notions.”
    “Such as wanting to have the same rights as men or to be able to vote? To have some say on our own lives when we marry?”
    “Hush,