“And I am to be your family,” the girl said, laughing. “I am to be your sister, Kate. And I will be able to live with you and Jasper until I marry. You will be able to bring me out next year, and I will not have to worry about Aunt Prunella ever again.”
“No, you will not.” Katherine squeezed her hands.
“I am happy for myself,” Charlotte said, biting her lip. “How selfish of me. But I am even happier for Jasper and for you. I have known for ages that you love each other. I have seen it in your faces. I know you are going to be happy forever.”
Katherine merely smiled.
Charlotte released her hands and turned to look about at everyone else in the room.
“We are all going to be family,” she said. “Is it not wonderful? I had to come immediately as soon as Jasper came home to tell me, though Miss Daniels did not think it was quite the proper time to make a call. You will forgive me, will you not? I am almost family already, after all. Next month I will be.”
“There is absolutely nothing to forgive, Miss Wrayburn,” Stephen said. “Do please have a seat, Miss Daniels.”
“We will consider you a part of our family from this moment on,” Vanessa said, getting to her feet to hug the girl. “May I call you Charlotte too?”
“And yes,” Margaret said, “it is indeed wonderful.”
“I am almost glad Clarence has been such a beast,” Charlotte said as she took a seat between Margaret and Vanessa. “Jasper might not have come to the point before the end of the Season, and we might all have had to wait another year before he did. By that time I would have been with Aunt Prunella. Even so, Clarence is a beast, and I apologize to all of you for the fact that he is my cousin. I heartily wish he weren’t. But no matter. Soon I am to have a whole new family.”
Had they all been so young and innocent once upon a time?
Katherine sat down and continued to smile.
Someone was happy, anyway.
At least someone was.
Jasper also had a visitor late in the afternoon-a mere quarter of an hour after Charlotte had gone dashing off to Merton House like a kitten with two tails, in fact. He had not stopped her. This was a strange day for all of them, and if she was filled to the brim with exuberance, then why stop it from spilling over? She would surely be forgiven at Merton House.
He was sitting at his desk in the library, though there was nothing on its surface except pens and ink and a large blotter. He had one elbow propped on the desktop and his thumb and forefinger pinching the bridge of his nose.
He was trying his hardest not to think. There was no point in thought. It was a useless effort, of course.
It will not be so bad if we choose not to let it be. The expectations of society and our concern for the well-being of our family may force us into marrying, Miss Huxtable, but they cannot force us into being miserable forever after. Only we can do that. Let us not do it. Let us make each other happy instead.
Lord! He ought to hire himself out as a three-handkerchief speech writer. He would have the whole nation awash in sentimental tears.
But the trouble was that he must act upon those words, like it or not. His salad days were over. His wild oats had all been sown. He was going to be that dullest of dull fellows-a married man.
Such gloomy thoughts were interrupted when Horton scratched discreetly on the door, opened it quietly, and was then swept aside by the very visitor he had obviously come to announce.
Con Huxtable strode into the room, obviously in a black humor, looking like grim Greek thunder, and Jasper got to his feet and strolled about the desk.
Con did not stop until his face was an inch away from Jasper’s.
“Do come in, Con,” Jasper said. “No need to wait to be announced.”
Con grabbed him by the neckcloth with one hand and hoisted upward. His face moved half an inch closer so that they were almost nose-to-nose.
Ah. This again.
Jasper did not allow his heels to leave the floor, but his breathing was somewhat restricted. He did nothing to free himself though he might have done so with some justification, since Con was neither her brother nor her brother-in-law. Or her guardian.
“I suppose,” Con said, “you have offered her marriage.”
“I have,” Jasper said.
“And has she accepted?”
“She has.”
Con backed him against the desk until the top of it, which overhung the side, dug painfully into his back. He still did not resist. A man must be allowed to defend his female relatives even if they were only second cousins.
“If I should hear one word,” Con said through his teeth, “one word about you mistreating her or making her miserable or dishonoring her by continuing with your raking, I’ll… I’ll…”
Jasper raised his eyebrows. The main physical difference between Con Huxtable and Moreland, he realized for the first time, was the color of their eyes. They could easily pass for brothers, almost twins, but Con’s eyes matched his dark Greek coloring. They were such a dark brown at the moment that they might easily be mistaken for black. Moreland’s were a surprising blue.
“So help me, Montford,” Con said, still between his teeth, “I’ll put your lights out.”
“Fortunately for me-or for you, Con,” Jasper said, “since I daresay you would not enjoy an appointment with the hangman, you will never be called upon to put your threat into effect. Tell me, did you always know about that wager?”
Con released him suddenly and took one step back. His nostrils flared.
“I knew,” he said curtly. “You would have been a dead man if you had won it.”
“And yet,” Jasper said, “it is only now that you choose to demonstrate your righteous indignation? Three years after the fact?”
“Some things are best not spoken of,” Con said. “Sometimes it is best not to stir up gossip, especially when it will swallow up an innocent-as it has now.”
“Courtesy of Forester,” Jasper said. “Do have a seat, Con, or pour yourself a drink, or pace the carpet. I find my eyes having a hard time focusing at such close range.”
“Merton has a powerful arm,” Con said, stepping back. “He almost certainly broke Forester’s nose. Both his eyes are black today from the impact.”
“You have seen him?” Jasper said, crossing to the brandy decanter in order to pour them both a drink.
“One of the servants left behind obviously felt no need to be loyal or closemouthed,” Con said. “I suspect he had not been paid.”
“That will teach him to take employment with someone of Forester’s ilk,” Jasper said, turning with both glasses in his hand. “Katherine Huxtable is to be my bride in one month’s time-as soon as the banns have been read. Banns have been judged more proper than a special license under the circumstances. The nuptials are to be celebrated at St. George’s, of course. You will be my best man if you will, Con.”
14
KATHERINE’S prediction proved quite correct. Although by the time of her wedding day it was July and the Season was officially over and normally the ton would already have made a mass exodus for their country estates or Brighton or one of the spas, a significant number of them remained in town to attend the event.
Baron Montford was actually getting married. No one could resist seeing it happen, especially since the circumstances surrounding it had been so very scandalous. And everyone had always considered Katherine Huxtable to be so very proper and so very respectable. It was hard to picture her as the bride of such a notorious rake, poor lady. Though of course she had brought it all entirely upon herself by allowing him to dangle after her this year despite that shocking wager of three years ago. She was fortunate indeed that he was willing to do the decent thing. It would have been entirely in character if he had abandoned her to her fate.