Free To Catch A Spinster (The Reluctant Bride Collection) by Megan Bryce

stubborn refusal to admit the truth and the dashed hopes of seeing all her daughters happily married.
    Olivia squeezed her hands. “I respect Mr. Jenkins far too much to saddle him with me for a wife.”
    “Perhaps you do not respect him enough to let him decide what he wants in a wife.”
    Olivia stood, stowing her paints and brushes quickly. “He shouldn’t want me. I should never have accosted him. He is a good man, a decent man, an honorable man! And I, dear mother, am an idiot. I should have seen this.”
    “Seen what? That a good, decent man would want to marry you? Of course he would! You have many good qualities to offer a husband.”
    “Oh, yes? Do you think he would want me to take over the books for him? I shall certainly offer my services, but that does not mean he should marry me. I am what I am, Mother. A spinster extraordinaire.”
    “Olivia Blakesley! Do not use that foul word in this household!”
    “It is not a foul word. And just because you attack anyone who utters it doesn’t change the fact. Can you not see what I am, who I am? Nothing! Nobody! Five daughters married is enough! I am happy! I want nothing more! I do not want Mr. Nathaniel Jenkins!”

Nine
     
    N athaniel was unsurprised when his sister burst into his library. He’d expected her much earlier.
    “Nathaniel.”
    “Diana. How are you?”
    “Good. Hold him, won’t you?” She thrust Nathaniel’s latest nephew into his arms. “He will not be put down and insists on crying in my ear.”
    Nathaniel held his nephew expertly, jiggling the boy and making faces until he stopped his wailing. “What a mean mama you have, Jacob. Doesn’t she know that crying is simply your way of saying you want a biscuit?”
    “Oh, Mama knows it. His fondness for biscuits is why my arms are about ready to fall off.” She eyed him. “It looks like children are in your future after all, hmm?”
    “If Mother has anything to say about it.”
    “She always does. She approves of the girl, at least. Not the usual shrinking violet and not a gold-digger.”
    “No. Olivia is quite unique.”
    “And older? I always thought an older girl would do better for you.”
    “Yes, amazing how everyone comes to that conclusion after I’ve already found her, isn’t it?”
    “Oh, shush. When am I to meet her?”
    Nathaniel gratefully accepted a biscuit from his butler, offering it to a suddenly alert Jacob.
    “That’s better, hmm little one?”
    “Only if you’re not the one who has to carry him all day.”
    “Where’s the nanny?”
    “Left. He’s gone through four already. I’ve started offering three days off with pay to keep them a little longer. You didn’t answer my question.”
    He grinned at her. “No? Well, I expect Mother has already told you.”
    “That she won’t marry you? Have you mentioned your sizable fortune?”
    “Thank you, Diana. I’m sure that will solve everything.”
    She shrugged. “If the girl is over twenty-five, I don’t see what she is waiting for. Perhaps she is simply worried about the business end of marriage.”
    “I’m not sure what she’s worried about.”
    “Mother says she cried when she refused you.”
    “Nearly cried. Was there anything Mother didn’t tell you?”
    “She didn’t tell me when I could meet her.”
    “I believe she is going to the Mayes affair tonight.”
    “Oh, really? What extraordinary good luck.”
    “Don’t scare her off, Diana.”
    She gave a ladylike snort. “I assume you have not met her sisters. She has five, did you know? They can all hold their own quite well. The eldest came out the same year as I. I had thought her quite the original but each sister seems to surpass the others one way or another. I doubt Miss Olivia Blakesley would even blink at anything I said.”
    “Nevertheless, I want her to join the family, not run screaming from it.”
    Diana smiled. “She’s not met Mother, then? Perhaps Miss Blakesley is refusing because she is unsure of your sincerity.