Expectations of Happiness by Rebecca Ann Collins Read Free Book Online

friend—they found they had many interests in common, and on returning to England, they shared accommodation in a small country cottage they leased, within walking distance from the seminary, where Margaret began her employment as a teacher, while Miss Jones obtained work reading proofs for an academic publisher in Oxford. It was a situation that suited both young women well, providing each with as much congenial company or solitude as they desired.
    ***
    It was to the cottage and her friend Claire Jones that Margaret returned following her visit to Barton Park. Still feeling disconsolate that she had upset her sister Elinor by not attending Lady Middleton’s funeral, nor providing her with a logical explanation for not doing so, Margaret found a sympathetic listener in Miss Jones, who had toasted muffins and a large pot of tea ready before the fire, when Margaret, having changed out of her travelling clothes, came downstairs.
    â€œI can see that you are not happy, Margaret,” Claire began. “It cannot have been as bad as that. I had not thought that Lady Middleton was such a favourite of yours.”
    The lightness of her tone implied that she did not expect to be taken seriously, which was probably why Margaret was at first reluctant to reveal the reason for her discomposure. She tried at first to respond lightly, denying that she would miss Lady Middleton at all, although she had the grace to add, “No doubt her children will miss her; she was devoted to them and inclined to spoil them. As for Sir John, he certainly seemed very shocked by her sudden demise, but I doubt that his grief will last beyond the next shooting season. I gathered that his stewards were already planning for their next shoot.”
    Claire smiled and nodded. “And yet I see you looking particularly downcast; was the funeral a dreary one? Country parsons have a reputation for droning on…”
    Margaret interrupted her to say briefly, “I did not attend the funeral, Claire; I never intended to. I went to Barton Park to please my mother and sister and to demonstrate my gratitude for the hospitality Sir John had extended to us when Papa died and Fanny took over Norland Park, leaving us practically homeless. But I did not wish to attend the funeral.”
    â€œWhy ever not?” asked Claire, puzzled at this admission; her friend had said not a word of this before departing for Dorsetshire.
    Margaret accepted a cup of tea and a muffin and settled herself into a corner of the deep sofa, tucking her bare feet under her skirts, before saying quietly, “There was someone I did not wish to meet, who was certain to be there. I decided, well before I reached Barton Park, that I would not attend the funeral; it would be simpler than trying to avoid him amidst all the relatives and friends.”
    Her friend’s curiosity knew no bounds. There was no way in which Margaret, having tossed in such a lure, could avoid further explanation. Claire insisted, and as she pressed and persuaded, the story had to be told.
    As Margaret told it, she made light of the circumstances, trying not to add more gravity to the tale than it deserved, but Claire was not fooled. Determined to discover what had so troubled her friend that she, having travelled to Dorset, had merely called on the family at Barton Park and left the following day in order to avoid a meeting with someone, Claire would not be denied. And Margaret soon realised that she could not avoid providing an explanation for her unusual behaviour.
    Which is how the story came to be told of a gentleman named Andrew Barton, a cousin of Sir John Middleton, whom she had met at the London residence of the Middletons two years ago. The second son of a titled family, with an income of over five thousand a year and houses in both London and Bath, he had been touted as an eminently eligible suitor for her, promoted as such by both Sir John and his indomitable mother-in-law, Mrs