Beggars and Choosers Read Online Free

confusion.
    â€˜That man?’ Harriet nodded towards a tall dark man who was talking to a middle-aged matron on the other side of the room.
    â€˜Mr Evans, my father’s deputy manager in the colliery?’ Sali said, surprised. ‘Why on earth should he be dangerous?’
    â€˜My father says he’s working-class, has extreme political views and shouldn’t be allowed in polite society. Oh, quick, he’s coming this way, pretend we haven’t seen him.’ Harriet turned aside and feigned great interest in an oil painting of the old bridge hanging on the wall behind her as the band struck up a polka.
    â€˜Miss Watkin Jones, may I have this dance?’
    Sali barely glanced at Lloyd Evans, as Mansel stood in the doorway and beckoned to her. ‘I am sorry, Mr Evans, I am engaged –’
    â€˜With me,’ Mansel interrupted. He held out his arm to Sali. ‘Your father would like to speak to you, Miss Watkin Jones. He and your mother are in the study.’
    â€˜Miss Hopkins.’
    Harriet giggled nervously as Lloyd Evans switched his attention to her, and Sali saw her simpering and blushing as he led her out on to the dance floor.
    Sali gripped Mansel’s arm tightly as he led her from the room. When she had embarked on her teacher training at Swansea Training College two and a half years before, nothing had seemed more purposeful or worthwhile than shaping young lives at the very outset of their academic careers, but as she gazed at Mansel’s blond profile she couldn’t imagine anything more wonderful than marriage to the man she loved.
    â€˜Sali is very young,’ Gwyneth Watkins Jones drawled in her painfully languid voice.
    â€˜She is two years older than you were when you married Harry, Gwyneth,’ Edyth reminded her tartly.
    Harry looked across at his daughter. ‘You have already accepted Mansel?’
    â€˜I gave Mr James permission to speak to you, Father.’
    â€˜But you do want to marry him?’ he pressed.
    â€˜Yes.’ She gazed into Mansel’s eyes. ‘Yes, Father, I do,’ she said steadily.
    â€˜Then it appears to be a match made in heaven.’ Harry slapped Mansel soundly across the shoulders. ‘I can’t imagine a better husband for you, Sali, or a better friend for Geraint and Gareth. But,’ he frowned, ‘Sali has yet to finish her education. Are you prepared to wait until the summer to marry her, Mansel?’
    â€˜You give your consent, sir?’ Mansel could no more stop looking at Sali than she could at him.
    Harry took his daughter’s hand and placed it in Mansel’s. ‘Nothing would give me greater pleasure. However, there are conditions. Sali would not be allowed to continue in the college should the engagement become public knowledge. And, although I think it desirable that a married woman should be as well educated as her husband in these modern times, there are those who would disagree with me. So, why don’t we hold off announcing your engagement until after Sali has finished her finals and in the meantime go ahead with all the legal arrangements that have to be made. Like the marriage settlement.’
    Sali leapt to her feet and hugged her father.
    â€˜And no ring, not yet,’ Harry warned Mansel. ‘Sali isn’t allowed to wear anything other than a bracelet watch in college so it will have to wait. You can give her one when she comes home after she has sat her finals in June. We’ll hold a ball and make a formal announcement then. Until that time, the engagement will remain a secret between everyone here and my solicitor who will draw up the marriage settlement.’ Harry held out his hand. ‘I would say welcome to the family, Mansel, but you’ve been a part of it since the day you became Aunt Edyth’s ward.’
    â€˜Thank you, sir.’ Mansel shook Harry’s hand vigorously.
    â€˜I dislike long engagements, but I suppose it will