Helena was finally able to arrange a meeting with George for tea at her Aunt Rosemary’s. It had been two days since she had had her tête-à-tête with Thomas, and she was bursting to discuss the latest developments.

She arrived early at her aunt’s, and George had not yet arrived. She was ushered into the drawing room where Aunt Rosemary was seated smoking a pipe with her feet up on an ottoman.

Rosemary had lived in Morocco for many years when she was married to Sebastian Broadbent, the Deputy Counsel for the British Ambassador to the Moroccan Kingdom.

“Helena, your Georgie has not yet arrived,” Aunt shouted out as she was a little hard of hearing, though she would not admit to such a fact.

“Auntie, I know I am early, but I have been in such a tizzy ever since my meeting with His Grace.”

“How is the old Duke?” Rosemary asked.

“Aunt, you know the old Duke has been dead these past seven or eight years. I am talking about Thomas, the new Duke.”

“Ah, yes, I believe you told me that before. But I liked the old man. He had a wicked sense of humor and he was rather free with the ladies, if you get my meaning.”

Helena adored her dotty aunt. “Yes, I do. And you should be ashamed of yourself for bringing the subject up. It is disrespectful.”

“Well, it was only a brief dalliance. I never cared for his rather fishy breath. Put me off, and I never got over it. And, do you know, he had a webbed foot.” She seemed reluctant to go into the details. “But it made him a great swimmer, I understand.”

“And what did your husband say about that?”

“Oh, Sebastian was long gone before that. And, in any case, he had a rather selective palate for Moroccan street urchins. Kept him amused and allowed me to pursue my own interests.”

Helena had heard Aunt’s stories before, and she sighed and removed her gloves, anxious for George to arrive.

“Glass of sherry?” Aunt offered.

“No thank you. Need to keep a clear head. George and I have some serious issues to discuss.”

At that moment a carriage arrived at the entrance, and Helena went over to the window. “Oh, good, it is him.”

“Shall I ring for the tea now?” Aunt asked.

“If you please.”

Aunt got out of her chair and paused at the door. “I shall leave the two of you alone this afternoon. I know you will behave yourselves, and I want you to have some privacy.”

“Thank you, Aunt.”

George came in just as Aunt Rosemary was exiting.

“Oh, Helena, I got your note and am so anxious to speak with you.” He went over and embraced her.

“Darling, come sit with me. Tea shall be here shortly, and Aunt has agreed to leave us alone so that we may talk privately.”

“How very kind of her.”

Helena suddenly felt a little shy and did not speak up immediately.

George opened with, “You said in your note you had something important to tell me, but you did not say what it was.”

“Yes, I know. I wanted to tell you in person.”

George became nervous. “Has something happened?”

Helena hung her head and softly said, “I ended up telling Thomas about us.”

“But I thought…”

She put her hand on his. “But everything is fine. He understands the situation and has promised not to let it slip. It is unlikely that Father will find out.”

“But…”

“No, and there is more. Thomas has agreed to allow us to tell Father that he is engaged.”

“Oh… To whom?”

Helena smiled. “He says we can tell Father it is a secret engagement.”

“Is he engaged?”

“No, silly. He is just trying to help us.”

At that moment the tea was brought in and served, and they were both silent.

After the butler left, George asked, “Then what does that mean for us? Is there going to be a public announcement of his engagement?”

“No, that is why it is supposed to be secret. But you and I can tell him the Duke is to be married and it takes the pressure off for me to marry him.”

George did not seem relieved. “It sounds very tenuous to me. Do you think this will satisfy your father? What is to keep him from insisting you marry another nobleman?”

“I had hoped to have more time, but I think I can persuade him to let us marry.”

George was lost in thought for a moment, barely touching his tea.

“Then what do you propose we do now? Do you want us to announce our engagement to him?”

“Not yet. Let me prepare him for the announcement. I know how to get on his good side, and hopefully, he will come around before we tell him.”

George sat back in his chair and sighed. “I think I am happy you told Thomas. I can speak to him about us now. It was very frustrating not being able to tell him of our love. But…”

“But what?” Helena asked. She got up from her chair, and came behind George, and placed her hands on his shoulders.

He turned to look up at her. “Since we have been constrained by your father’s insistence on you marrying Thomas, we have never talked about what we want.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, first, I am still living at home. My father is quite healthy, and I see no immediate possibility of inheriting the estate. I have no job. I have no house of my own. How can we marry now in any event?”

Helena had not thought about those things. She had just gone along with the lovely idea of being married without considering how they would get there.

“Oh…”

“I suppose I could find us a cottage. My living is small at this point, but I suppose I could ask Father for a larger yearly allowance.”

Helena did not warm to the idea of cottage living. She moved to the window and played with the drapery tassel. “We might wait,” she mused. “And it would give me more time to work on Father. And in the meantime, perhaps you could get some sort of job.”

“A job!” George exclaimed a little bit louder than he had meant to. He became flustered.

“Many men do,” Helena said still musing.

“But… but…” He was having a difficult time finding the words he wanted to use. “You mean commerce?”

She turned to him. “Well, something like that. Maybe you could buy a ship or something. Cargo brings a good profit, does it not?”

“But you need a lot of capital to buy a ship, Helena.”

“What about railroads? I understand they have become quite the thing for investors.”

“But all that sort of enterprise requires money. Money I do not have.”

“Might your father help you out?”

“His wealth is in land, Helena. He does not have capital. He would need to sell land to raise money and that would defeat our purpose. We want to inherit the land and its living, not sell it off before we can benefit from it.”

Helena thought for a moment, then said, “Well there is my money once we marry. Might we not use some of that?”

“You cannot touch that until we are married, and we cannot get married until we have a place to establish our life.”

“Then what good is any of this?” she asked exasperated and went to the window. “I thought I was going to make everything better, and instead, I have made it worse.” And she burst into tears.

George stood, went to the window, put his arm around her, and said, “Everything is going to be just fine. You will see.”

Aunt Rosemary came back into the room after knocking. “Have you two talked everything out? I thought it best if I came to check on you.” She made her way to her chair and sat down again and picked up her pipe, knocked out the dottle and refilled the bowl with fresh tobacco.

“Mr. George, when are you going to make my niece a happy woman?” Aunt asked.

George seemed not to know quite how to answer that. The question was fraught with ambiguity. “I ah… well, we have been discussing the timing of our engagement. But it is not an easy path forward. You see…”

“Young man if you want her—ask her. Beating around the bush never got anyone anywhere.”

“But you see…” he stammered.

“Nonsense. Is it your papa who worries you?” Aunt asked Helena. “If so tell him from me he needs to remember what it was like to be young. He has become more ossified than the barnacled bottom of a boat. If you want, I can come over and take my stick to him—set him straight for you.”

Helena could not help giggling. “Aunt, I thank you, but I hardly think that is the best way to accomplish our goal.”

Aunt waved her hand. “Whatever you wish. Makes no difference to me. But if you ask me, young people today have no spines. In my day we went for what we wanted. Take your uncle. If I had not taken a switch to him he would still be languishing in some miserable Foreign Office basement in a dead-end job. Still, if we had not gone to Morocco, he might still be alive. But we went there to live!” She waved her pipe in the air, struck a match, and lit it.

George and Helena held hands, faced each other, and looked forlorn.

“What do you suggest we do now?” Helena asked turning to George.

“Let me speak to my father and see what he can suggest,” George said. “But for the moment it seems nothing has changed for us.”