Marrying Season

The Marrying Season One
Genevieve Stafford watched, smiling, as her brother led his new bride onto the floor for their first dance. "I've never seen Alec look so happy."Her grandmother let out a small, ladylike snort. "One would think Alec could have waited a few months at least. A hasty marriage is always cause for gossip, and when it is to a nobody, people are bound to talk.""People would talk no matter who Alec married or how long they waited," Genevieve reminded her."I suppose it is inevitable when one is the Earl of Rawdon. Still, there's no need poking a beehive with a stick. I had hoped Rawdon would choose a more appropriate bride, given the scandal his first engagement provoked.""One can hardly blame Alec for Lady Jocelyn's behavior." Genevieve quickly came to her brother's defense." 'Tis a logical consequence of Alec's considering only how a woman looks, instead of her birth or family or character.""Alec does love beauty," Genevieve admitted. "But there is more to Damaris than that."The countess cast her a sideways glance. "Taking up the cudgels for Alec's wife now, too? As I remember, you wanted him to marry Damaris no more than I did."Genevieve felt a flush rising in her cheeks under her grandmother's scrutiny. The countess had a way of making her feel as if she were five years old with a stain on her skirt. "I did not want him to be hurt again. I feared Damaris was an adventuress who would leave him once she'd gotten what she wanted. He would have been devastated." Her grandmother would never know how close Alec had come to that state when he thought Damaris had left him. The countess had been carefully shielded from the tumultuous events at Castle Cleyre. Genevieve went on carefully, "I-I came to see that I had been wrong about her. The important thing is, Damaris adores Alec, and he loves her.""Pfft. Love." The countess waved away the notion. "Alec has a regrettable tendency toward poetic notions." She frowned at the thought of this shortcoming in