A Simple Deception

I

"The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed." Carl Gustav Jung

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I.

Mayfair, London

August 1810

Lady Susanna Beresford had been taught from a young age that her entire life and study would revolve around preparing her for marriage. It was all she had grown up hearing. One day she would be married, and so she needed to know how to play the pianoforte, entertain foreign dignitaries in their native tongues, impress others with her drawing and embroidery, and to never say anything that a man might perceive as too intelligent.

Susanna was, by all intents and purposes, very accomplished in the traditional sense, and were she to be married to an earl or a marquess, she would be seen as quite the perfect society wife.

However, Susanna had grown up watching her parents. Her mother, Cecily, had been raised exactly the same way as Susanna had, and she had made a society match. Her parents had loathed one another, perhaps up until the final days of her father's life. When her mother spoke to her about marriage, a younger Susanna could not have imagined anything worse than ending up a prisoner in a miserable union as her mother and father had been.

In contrast, Susanna had known the pleasure of watching her eldest brother, Adam, become entirely devoted to Grace Denham in childhood. Susanna had always liked Grace and treasured their friendship in adulthood. Seeing her brother's happiness in a marriage brought about by love made Susanna hope, as well as envy.

Similarly, she had watched her middle brother, Jack, find himself in a love match. Jack had been a very wayward soul before marrying Claire, and Susanna could hardly believe the changes that she saw in her brother every time they met.

Susanna had been determined since her debut to marry only for the deepest love. It was a sacrifice, Susanna decided, that she was unwilling to make. If her elder brothers could find their matches and live truly contented lives, then Susanna desired the same.

Though, at three and twenty, and an endless parade of suitors later, it was easy to begin believing that she may well be without a perfect match.

Susanna stood before her mirror in her bedroom at Ashwood Place, her family's London home. She stared at her white day dress and smoothed the skirt with her hands. Susanna then peered closer at her face and noticed the slight shadows under her eyes. She had not slept well the night before.

Susanna had never been without attention, and often felt quite embarrassed whenever the beauty in her face and figure were heralded just as much as her dowry was coveted. Susanna wondered if she would be considered so beautiful were her dowry not so large.

She supposed that was the reason why she had yet to form an attachment to anyone. Susanna couldn't trust that their intentions were genuine. It was a story that had been played out a thousand times amongst the elites of society. A gentleman married a lady for her money, left her in a country house, while he used her fortune to gamble, drink, and establish actresses in their own lavish London apartments. Susanna would rather set her thirty thousand pounds on fire then have a man abuse her so.

In fact, what she would give for a man to take her without a farthing to her name. For he would be a man whom she could truly love.

"Oh, Susanna," remarked Cecily as she entered Susanna's bedroom. Cecily was dressed elegantly in a pale green. "Don't you look lovely?" She clapped her hands together with pride.

Susanna pouted as Cecily pinched her cheeks. "Ow," she complained.

"Hush," replied Cecily. "You are quite pale. We wouldn't want anyone thinking you are sickly." Cecily then stood beside Susanna and looked upon their reflections in the mirror, before she sighed. "The season is almost over, Susanna," she remarked quietly. "You need to make a decision. Lord Bertram may not be a brilliant man, but he is decent and sensible and comes from good family."