Men were funny that way.
By the middle of the morning most of the young guests were outside too, exclaiming with delight over all that had suddenly appeared around them, and choosing the activities in which they planned to participate. Several of them offered to help.
Charlotte was more excited than anyone else. This was her eighteenth birthday, and after today no one could deny that she was old enough to be considered a young lady. And what a birthday it was. She came and linked her arm through Katherine’s while the latter was admiring the needlework table that Mrs. Bonner and one of her daughters was arranging with an eye for artistry and color.
“Kate,” Charlotte said, squeezing her arm tightly. “I love you. I really, really do. And I know I have you to thank for all this-for the houseguests, for the fete, for the ball tonight. There has surely never been a birthday party to match this one.”
“You are happy, then?” Katherine asked unnecessarily.
“I am happy,” the girl said with a sigh. “I am even happy that Aunt Prunella and Clarence have come and Great-Uncle Seth, though he swore last evening that he would not come out of his room today. They are my family, and family is important, is it not?”
“It is,” Katherine said, patting her hand.
“And Aunt Prunella cannot take me away from here,” Charlotte said. “How could she when you have come here to be such a steadying influence on Jasper? You are happy, are you not?”
“I am,” Katherine said. “We are.”
And it was not even an untruth. Not for now, anyway. What would happen when the honeymoon was over, she did not know. That was undoubtedly what they were living through, she and Jasper. It could not last, this amity between them, this… Well, this honeymoon. But for now she was happy, and she believed he was too.
Charlotte was laughing.
“Jasper used to call her Aunt Prune,” she said. “Was he not dreadful?”
“Indeed,” Katherine said.
And then Charlotte went dancing off to link her arm through Stephen’s, and they both went off to join some of the other young people.
Meg was helping Mrs. Penny arrange the baking items on a long table on the lower terrace.
There was no time for luncheon. There were too many last-minute details to attend to. But Katherine did not even realize she had missed the meal. Any minute now the outside guests would begin to arrive and there was only time to rush upstairs to change into her lemon yellow muslin with the blue sash and to have her hair properly styled beneath her wedding hat.
Jasper was standing propped by one shoulder in the doorway of her dressing room when she was ready to leave again, looking handsome and immaculate in blue and cream. He raised one eyebrow.
“It is to be my sun goddess today, is it?” he said.
She smiled and he offered his arm and led her down the stairs and out to the upper terrace, where Charlotte was already waiting. The three of them would greet all the visitors as they arrived.
“Happy, Char?” Jasper asked.
“Oh, I am,” she said, turning a glowing face to him and wrapping her arms about his neck. “If I were any happier I would burst.”
“Sounds messy,” he said, patting her back. “Enjoy your birthday anyway. This is all for you, Char. Katherine’s idea. Blame her if you burst.”
And if he thought he knew nothing about love, Katherine thought, watching him with his half sister, then the foolish man ought to see his face now.
And as good fortune would have it, Lady Forester was coming out onto the terrace with Clarence, and Mr. Wrayburn was coming out with Uncle Stanley and Lady Hornsby. They would all see the hug and the look on both faces.
Suddenly people on foot and people in gigs and two or three on horseback were approaching along on the driveway.
The outside guests were coming, and the fete was about to begin.
She was mistress of Cedarhurst, Katherine thought, and hostess of the revival of the annual fete and ball. Her husband was close to her, Charlotte between them.
Life felt very good.
The boats were out on the water-three of them-and there was a queue of people waiting to take them out. It had been decided not to have any boat races but merely to use them for recreation. There were children swimming and paddling at the beach end of the lake under the supervision of some parents and grandparents. There were people strolling about the lake, exploring the cottage folly and standing above the waterfall. The mud was ready for the wrestling and tug-of-war later on-much anticipated by the men and by a good number of the women too, Jasper suspected.
He left the lake behind him and strode up the lawn toward the house. The archery competition had begun. There was a cluster of people on the lower terrace, looking at the baking and needlework and the wood carvings. There were people sitting in the parterre gardens or strolling about the gravel walks. There were people at the food tables on the low balcony outside the ballroom.
He was going to have to taste and judge the fruit tarts later on. But for now he strode across the upper terrace to the east lawn, where the races were to be run. In future years they would have to be located elsewhere, as the rose arbor and the apple orchard would fill this space.
A large crowd of very young children were playing a circle game, their hands joined. Katherine and Jane Hutchins were leading them. There was a burst of shrieking merriment as they all fell to the grass.
Jasper stood still, watching Katherine get back to her feet and brush the grass off her skirt. Her face was flushed and filled with laughter. She looked quite breathtakingly beautiful.
And then her eyes met his across the distance and her hands stilled against her skirt and her smile was arrested.
And he realized something like a hammer blow.
She had become as essential to him as the air he breathed.
Whatever the devil that meant.
He did not pause to consider the puzzle. He strode toward her, his hands at his back. He was equally unaware of the children who darted across his path and the adults who stepped out of it-and then paused to watch his progress.
He stood in front of his wife and noted how the sun brightened her face and glinted gold in her hair. Her wonderful, fathomless eyes gazed back into his. Except that they were no longer fathomless. He could see into their depths.
“I love you,” he said.
And for the first time the words were involuntary. And for the first time he could see from the welling of tears in her eyes that she believed him.
He leaned forward and kissed her lips.
And was instantly aware of three things simultaneously-that he loved her more than life, that she knew it and returned his love full measure, and that the cheers and laughter and applause that erupted around them had nothing whatsoever to do with any game that was in progress.
Good Lord! Devil take it! Could he have chosen a more public setting for such an epiphany if he had tried?
He lifted his head and grinned at Katherine before turning and acknowledging the applause with a regal wave of his hand and a theatrical bow.
There was another burst of laughter.
But Mrs. Ellis was waving her arms purposefully at him. She was ready to start the races, and it was his job to fire the gun to begin each one.
“To be continued,” he murmured to Katherine before he strode away.
It was truly amazing how many children lived in the neighborhood. Not that it was all children gathered for the races. There were many young people here too, including most of the houseguests, and all were in noisy high spirits. Perhaps it was as well that Lady Forester was sitting in the parterre garden with Mr. and Mrs. Dubois.