After The Storm (8 page)

“Very well, then. Doesn’t this make sense? Don’t
we
make sense? I am not asking you to love me. Don’t deny us
this union. I honestly believe we can make one another happy. I
respect and admire you and want you to be my bride. I must marry,
and I know that I do not want any other—
only you
,
Jenny.”

“You are entitled to a wife who will give you
children …” she said tentatively.

His eyelashes flickered, and something retreated in
those blue eyes of his as he hesitated. He rose from his bent knee
and sat beside her again. “Jenny, I wish with all my heart that
you, Jennifer Ashley, will accept the compromise I have offered. I
will not make any demands on you and, in return, expect none made
on me. I have several estates, and you may choose which one you
wish to reside in. If you like, I will stay at my London town house
and out of your way. As to children, this is not the time to
discuss that matter. Will you, Jenny, become my bride and grace my
life?”

It was so prettily said, she thought. She looked at
him for a long moment and then said, “But children … if I may
be so blunt, how will you attain an heir if I refuse to share your
bed, which I do refuse to do?” Again she felt heat in her cheeks as
she looked away from him.
What are you doing, Jenny
? Guilt
had a voice, and it berated her.
Think of Johnny
, that voice
demanded. Guilt flooded through her blood and filled her mind as
though it were a separate entity. However, somehow another voice,
her own
, shoved this aside with a harsh, sharp interruption.
It was a voice she knew, a voice that had always bubbled with
laughter in her head, her voice that had vanished this last year.
It was this voice that had toppled her from one adventure into
another. It was the voice of a carefree, happy young woman, pleased
to be alive. And that voice whispered the earl’s name in a way that
made her blush.

* * *

The earl regarded her speculatively for a long moment
before replying. He
wanted children
. In fact,
he wanted
her
. He had every intention of seducing her to his bed, but
this was not the time to tell her so. He had not gotten her this
far only to frighten her off. His voice, low and grave, said,
“Jenny, I promise you, sweet Jenny, that I will never force myself
on you in anyway.”

“But it wouldn’t be fair to you. Do you not want to
look further for a bride that will fulfill all your … er
needs, my lord?”

She was going to accept. He heard it in her tone, in
the weakness of her voice, in the shyness of her body movements.
Oddly enough, though he should be miserable at the prospect of this
forced marriage, he wasn’t. He felt a sudden elation, perhaps
because he always enjoyed winning, and it appeared he was on the
verge of victory.

Jenny looked away from him completely, and a sob
escaped her. He watched her, touched her arm, and then moved to put
an arm around her. She allowed him this intimacy, surprising him
and filling him with an absurd joy.

He tried to soothe her; he didn’t want her unhappy.
It was a new dawning for him. He honestly did want to make her
happy. Was he ruining her chances of ever finding love? The notion
of her finding love with someone else was an irritant, so he put
this out of his head and softly said as he turned her face back to
his, “Our marriage will be a friendship. I will allow no harm to
come to you, and it will put you in the Season as a countess,
instead of a maid looking for a husband. This will give you back a
life, Jenny.”

She surprised him then, for he fully expected to have
to do more cajoling. From the look on her face, he rather thought
that she had surprised herself as well as she said, “Very well, my
lord, I accept your proposal.”

Thus, there in a moment, he thought, as Byron’s words
infiltrated once more, the
two of them had plunged their
years!

~
Five ~

Sweet Love of Youth, forgive if I forget thee,

While the world’s tide is bearing me along;

Other desires and other hopes beset me,

Hopes which obscure, but cannot do thee wrong!

—Emily Bronte

JENNY’S FATHER’S ASTONISHMENT was only exceeded by
his distress. He made a lengthy argument against such a union and
was flabbergasted to find his daughter resolved to go through with
her plan to marry the earl.

She assured him it was what she wanted, and then,
after reassuring him one more time, she left him and went outdoors,
saying she wanted a short walk in the gardens.

He went in search of his sister.

Beth adjusted the lace trim on her dark green muslin
day gown and brought her hazel eyes up to her brother’s puzzled
brow. She had received the news with less surprise than he had,
sitting back in her chair and saying nothing as she considered the
matter.

This irritated the squire, and he said in a testy
tone, “Well, when the devil are you going to say something,
Beth?”

“I don’t barge into things, Alfred. After all these
years, I should think you would know that.” She eyed him
thoughtfully and said after a long pause, “I have given the matter
my careful consideration, and my first comment is that it is not
that astounding as you seem to think.”

“What? How can you say that?” The squire spluttered
as he spoke.

“Had a notion something was afoot, though I couldn’t
quite put my finger on it, and the truth is, I didn’t think the
earl would move that quickly.”

“Confound it, Beth! How can you say you had a notion
something was in the air is beyond me.” The squire’s tone was
peevish, and he paced.

She smiled complacently at her brother. “Poor dear, I
daresay you would have noted it as well if you hadn’t had your nose
into that new machinery you received this week. It is really quite
understandable. The earl, you see, had come to ask for Lavina’s
hand, but I realized the moment I saw him looking at our Jenny,
well,” she said as though that explained everything. “You add to it
the fact that I discovered the earl had met our Jenny quite by
accident when he first arrived, and it blended in my mind and all
started to make sense.”

“Yes, yes, but Jenny—
she has accepted his
offer
. I cannot believe it.”

“Have you not noticed that our Jenny is suddenly, not
slowly, but suddenly far more animated? She doesn’t just pick at
her food but actually devoured her dinner in its entirety. She had
been putting care into dressing her hair, looking at herself in the
mirror, and when she speaks of the earl, there is life in her
voice.” She nodded knowingly. “Well, that tells you something
doesn’t it?”

“No, no, it doesn’t, Beth, it doesn’t tell me
anything other than the poor dear was hungry and is interested in
the cut of a gown!”

“Men,” said Beth with a shake of her head. “You never
see what is right under your noses, do you?”

“Pray, do not speak in riddles,” said the squire
exasperatedly.

“You are impossible,” returned his sister.

“What are you trying to say, that the earl came in
here and swept her off her feet?” He was in a fully combustible
state. “Even her John never did that. It was a slow and easy
friendship—why, John took an entire year after she came of age to
ask for her hand.”

“Precisely. John and Jenny were friends first,
friends since childhood, friends forever. I am not saying she
didn’t love him, but I never saw a grand passion there, Alfred. I
saw a great love, yes, but it was an easy and comfortable
friendship. I didn’t see our Jenny longing for kisses and time
alone with her Johnny. It always seemed to me they were playmates,
not lovers. This is quite different, will be very different.”

“What are you saying?” he demanded, throwing his
hands up.

“This—that whatever it is that has begun, our Jenny
seems to be going with her instincts, and it will do, I think.”

“I …
damnation
, Beth,” started Jenny’s
father sadly. “The devil is in it that I can’t resign myself to
it.”

“Dearest brother, our Jenny has always had her head
squarely on her shoulders. She has always known what would work for
her, right or wrong—
she knows
. I expect she thinks she has
good reasons for this oddly hurried marriage, and I also believe it
will all work out in the end.”

“Do you, Beth? Well, I suppose, but …” her
brother offered.

“And by the by, I met the earl just as he was leaving
and asked him to dinner. He was very happy to accept my
invitation.”

“’Pon rep, Beth!” exclaimed her brother. “You amaze
me—is there nothing you cannot arrange or manage?”

“Yes, Alfred,” she said with a twinkle. “The marriage
settlement. I do think it would be better if you discussed this
matter after we dined, though I expect his lordship will think it
proper to discuss this immediately after he returns to us.”

“Quite right. Perhaps they may change their minds at
dinner about his entire fandangle,” the squire said hopefully.

His sister laughed. “I do not see why a good dinner
should do anything to alter their decision, Alfred.”

* * *

The Earl of Danfield tooled his horse through the
fermentation of clanking wheels, shouting street peddlers, and
crying beggars reaching with their eyes as well as their hands. He
paused momentarily and threw his purse to the beggars.

It was already past noon, and London’s heart beat
painfully to the throb of life as his gaze swept past these
ordinary scenes and his ears half shut out the noise. He paused in
his progress once more at the sight of a street urchin whose feet
were both bare and bleeding. This caught his attention and made
something in his chest ache. Once again, he reached into his pocket
and threw the child a hefty coin.

The boy cried something incoherent and caught the
money to hurriedly scramble away. The earl felt a sense of
helplessness and guilt when he came across such children. He
watched the child try to avoid an adult bent on stealing from him;
he smiled to see the lad scurry between the scoundrel’s legs and
hurry on to safety.

The scent of poor sewage and horse manure receded as
the poorer quarters of London were left behind. Just as the scent
improved, so did the appearance of the homes, taking on first a
respectable and then an elegant semblance.

Duke Street was reached at last, and the earl
dismounted in front of his lodgings. He was in a quandary of
conflicting emotions, but he pulled himself together, tied the
reins of his horse to the hitching post, and mounted the steps to
his front door. There he was met by his butler, an estimable
individual of mature years.

“Good afternoon, my lord,” Dobbs said as he took the
earl’s hat, gloves, and greatcoat.

“Yes, it is, Dobbs. Would you have my horse taken to
the stables and my phaeton prepared and brought by my tiger in one
hour? I want a hot bath and shall be in the library. Call me when
it is ready, and, Dobbs, as always, thank you.”

“Very good, sir,” replied his butler, allowing the
earl a twinkle as he took the liberty of years in his service and
asked, “I take it all went well, my lord?”

“Very well, Dobbs, very well, indeed,” was all the
earl meant to say at that moment as he made his way into his
library.

The earl’s gaze swept the room and noted it had been
maintained as he had left it. One could not detect that each and
every piece of furniture had received daily care and dusting, so
accurately had each been returned to its place.

Ah well, the earl suddenly thought depressingly, with
a woman about, all that would surely change.
She will want to
rearrange the furniture … among countless other womanly
oddities.

He situated himself behind the Regency desk he had
recently acquired and scribbled the wedding announcement that had
been agreed upon between himself and the squire only last
evening.

A smile planted itself upon the earl’s handsome face
as he recalled the evening and Jenny’s warm green eyes. He had not
been able to stop himself and had teased her at every opportunity.
An easy camaraderie sprang up between them, alleviating the natural
tensions that came from such a rushed arrangement as theirs.

Jason of Danfield sealed the envelope containing the
wedding announcement and sauntered back to the hall,
unceremoniously calling out for Dobbs, who appeared from a side
door.

“Ah, there you are, Dobbs. Would you be so kind as to
have this taken round to the
Gazette
.”

“Indeed, my lord,” said Dobbs. “And your bath should
be ready in a moment or two.”

He looked around at his small rooms and decided that
this would not really be suitable for his new bride. He would have
to give this some thought. Other irksome things nagged at him as
well. He had gone on very well with his small staff, but now with a
wife …?

He had his bath, donned fresh clothing, and took up
his phaeton, his mind haunted with matters that needed immediate
attention. The first thing he had to do without delay was visit
with his sister.

It was already three in the afternoon when he arrived
at Berkeley Square and pulled up his team to the curbing. He looked
up at the three-story and impressive brick building, jumped easily
down, and handed the reins to his tiger. As he started for the
marble steps to the front door, he called back to his tiger to walk
them if they got fidgety.

The front door opened, and the elderly retainer
smiled a greeting. “I thought I had heard your voice as I just
closed the door behind one of her ladyship’s friends. Your sister
will be so pleased, for she has been walking about with your name
on her lips for three days.”

The earl grinned at the butler, for they were very
well acquainted, and he dropped his greatcoat, top hat, and gloves
into the retainer’s waiting arms. “Where is she, old boy?”