At Last Comes Love (25 page)

“I will not apologize,” he was saying, “for the manner in which I have received you during the past few days, Sheringford. My primary responsibility is to my sisters, especially Meg, who lives under my roof and to whom I owe more than I can ever repay. I would do anything in my power to protect her from harm or lasting unhappiness—and all the available evidence suggested that you might well bring her both. But she told me something this morning, in strictest confidence, that has convinced me I have misjudged you. I do hope that if I were ever called upon to make a decision as excruciatingly difficult as the one you faced five years ago, I would have the courage to make the same choice you made—and to keep it a secret too, according to the lady's wishes. Indeed, I honor you.”

“Nothing has changed, you know,” the earl said. “Miss Huxtable will still be marrying a social pariah. I am still guilty of jilting one woman and stealing another from her lawful husband. I take it your sister also informed you that she has accepted my offer?”

“She has,” Stephen said, “and I must confess that I still felt it my duty to caution her, as marriage to you will
not
be easy. I respect her decision, though. Meg is nothing if not courageous.”

“I will do my utmost—” the earl began, but Margaret cleared her throat at that point and made her descent.

Lord Sheringford bowed to her.

“Maggie,” he said.

“Lord Sheringford.”

“Maggie?” Stephen said with a laugh. “That is a new one.”

“A new name for a new life,” she said, “as Lord Sheringford pointed out a few evenings ago. I believe I rather like it. It makes me seem less dull and staid. I am ready.”

“
Dull
?” Stephen said, laughing. “
Staid
? You, Meg?”

He kissed her cheek and waited to see them on their way. It still seemed strange to realize that he was all grown up, that he was the one now who felt responsible for
her
.

She felt a rush of love for him.

15

“STEPHEN wishes to host a wedding breakfast for us,” she said as they walked. “Will it be appropriate, do you think? More to the point, will anyone come?”

“Appropriate?” he said, glancing uneasily up at the sky. It was surely going to rain in the not-too-distant future, and she was wearing a pale blue walking dress and spencer and a straw bonnet trimmed with cornflowers. He had had the forethought to bring an umbrella with him, but even so it was infernally inconvenient to be without a carriage. “There is to be a wedding, is there not? Why not a wedding
breakfast
, then?”

He had not actually thought of their nuptials as a
wedding
. Which, of course, had been extremely shortsighted of him. There were still ten days left before his grandfather's birthday, plenty of time in which to organize something that resembled, well, a wedding. It was a ghastly thought, but he supposed he owed her that. All ladies liked to have a proper wedding, did they not? Of course, her misgivings might prove to be justified. The
ton
might well decide overwhelmingly that such a wedding inLondon itself was in the very poorest taste. Though perhaps not.

“And I would wager,” he said, “that the whole of the fashionable world will come if it is invited. How could anyone resist going to the church to discover at first hand whether I will turn up for my wedding this time? There is a wager in at least one of the club betting books that I will not.”

“Oh, dear,” she said. “I would have been just as happy if you had not mentioned that.”

“They will lose their bets,” he said.

“I know,” she agreed.

“My mother will be ecstatic,” he said, “at the prospect of a wedding.

She will wish to help plan it.”

He winced inwardly.

“So will Nessie and Kate,” she said. “I believe I might safely leave all the details to the three of them. Though I fear it is not in my nature to be passive.”

“As long as you do not expect
me
to help,” he said, “I will be entirely happy.”

She laughed, and two unknown gentlemen who were passing on the pavement turned their heads and regarded her with identical looks of admiration.

They arrived atGrosvenor Square a few minutes later, andDuncan rapped on the door of Claverbrook House with the knob of his umbrella.

Forbes opened the door.

“Good afternoon,”Duncan said briskly, ushering Miss Huxtable inside and following her in. “Lord Sheringford and Miss Huxtable to see the Marquess of Claverbrook. Inform him we are here, Forbes, if you would be so good.”

Forbes looked from one to the other of them as if to assure himself that they were not impostors.

“I will see if his lordship is at home,” he said.

Duncanraised his eyebrows and looked down at Miss Huxtable as the butler made his unhurried way up the staircase.

“He has been at home for the past twenty years at the very least,” he said.

She smiled. “But in all that time,” she said, “he has reserved the right to refuse admittance to unwanted guests—as every man and woman is at liberty to do in their own homes. Has he ever refused to admit you?”

“No,” he said. “He has always been glad of yet another chance to give me a thorough scold on some subject or other.”

“Then I daresay,” she said, “he will admit you today. I suppose he reads the morning papers.”

She was quite right, of course. No sooner had Forbes disappeared from the head of the stairs than he reappeared there to make his way back down.

“Follow me, my lord, miss,” he said when he reached the bottom instead of simply hailing them from the top. And he turned to trudge upward again. Perhaps it was his way of keeping reasonably fit,Duncan thought.

Nothing in the drawing room had changed in five days. It would not surpriseDuncan to learn that his grandfather had not moved from his chair in all that time. And he was looking in no better a temper. His eyebrows almost met over the bridge of his nose again.

“The Earl of Sheringford, m'lord,” Forbes announced, “and Miss Huxtable.”

“You will forgive me, Miss Huxtable,” the marquess said, both hands on the head of his cane, which was braced between his legs, “for not getting to my feet. The getting is a slow and rather painful business these days.”

He ignoredDuncan .

“But of course, my lord,” she said. “Please do not even think of it.”

“Step forward, young lady,” he said.

She stepped forward.

“Another step,” he commanded, “so that you are in the light from the window. It is infernally dark in here. I suppose it is raining outside. It usually is. Sheringford, open the curtains a little wider.”

WhileDuncan went to do so, his grandfather studied Miss Huxtable in silence.

“There has been no official announcement yet,” he said at last, addressing himself solely to her, “but the
ton
has believed such an announcement to be imminent for the past several days. And I suppose it
is
imminent if Sheringford has brought you here this afternoon. This is no mere social call, I daresay. He has brought you here for my inspection and approval before sending off the announcement to the papers.”

“Yes, my lord,” she said. “That is correct.”

“Are you a fool, woman?” he asked.

Duncantook one firm step away from the window, but she did not look as if she were about to collapse in a quivering heap of vapors or hysterics.

“I do not believe so,” she said, her voice quite calm.

“Then why are you marrying Sheringford?” he asked her. “Eh? You are not poor. You are not without looks. And your family disapproves—at least that young puppy of a brother of yours does.

He told me so in no uncertain terms when he came to pry into my financial worth. He disapproves very strongly.”

“No longer,” she said. “But the important thing is, my lord, that I have agreed to marry the Earl of Sheringford and have come here with him in accordance with your command so that he may keepWoodbinePark as his home and its rents and farm profits as his income after we marry. I have freely agreed to marry him. He has used no coercion whatsoever. My
reasons
for agreeing concern no one but me—and Lord Sheringford himself.”

Duncantook another step forward. Good Lord! Had she really just told his grandfather in so many words to mind his own damned business?

There was a pregnant pause.

“I daresay,” his grandfather said, “it is because of your age. The shelf you are on must have been gathering dust for a number of years.

How old are you?”

“That also is my own concern, my lord,” she said. “As is my practice of always returning courtesy for courtesy and courtesy for
dis
courtesy. May I have a seat? It will be more restful for you to look across at me rather than up.”

Duncanresisted the powerful urge to laugh. Though he might be laughing on the other side of his face in a moment, after his grandfather had dismissed her in his wrath and refused to endorseDuncan 's marriage to her. But really, what a priceless setdown—
my practice of always returning courtesy for … discourtesy
.

“Sit down,” his grandfather commanded gruffly. “You have a saucy tongue, Miss Huxtable.”

“I beg to disagree, my lord,” she said, gathering her skirts about her and seating herself on the edge of a large sofa that looked as if it had not been sat upon for a decade or more. “It is merely that I do not allow myself to be browbeaten.”

“I daresay,” he said, “you have had some practice during the past few days.”

“They have not been easy days,” she admitted. “I am not accustomed to attracting a great deal of attention and I do not enjoy it. But I do not cower away from it either, when I have done no wrong and in no way regret anything I have done to draw that attention. The
ton
, I am sure, will recover its equilibrium after Lord Sheringford and I are married and living quietly and respectably atWoodbinePark . Gossip becomes tedious when there is no fresh scandal to feed it.”

Except that Toby would be there too and the plan to pass him off as the Harrises’ orphaned grandson was to be abandoned. He had been mad to agree to that,Duncan thought. There was going to be no way of confining word of it to the neighborhood.

“I understand,” the marquess said, “that you are the daughter of a country parson, Miss Huxtable.”

“I am,” she said.

There was a slight pause.

“You are not about to rush in to remind me that he was also a descendant of a former Earl of Merton?” he asked her.

“Since you knew about the country parson part of my heritage, my lord,” she said, “I assume that you know the rest. And since you doubtless know that my brother is the Earl of Merton, I would assume you did not even have to dig very deep to uncover the information. The village was Throckbridge inShropshire , but I suppose you know that too. If there is anything you do
not
know and wish to be informed of, I will be pleased to answer your questions.”

“Except the one concerning your age,” he said.

“Except,” she agreed, “any personal details that cannot concern you at all.”

“Your age
does
concern me,” he said, thumping his cane on the floor and looking irritable. “Sheringford is my heir, Miss Huxtable, and it is high time he produced an heir of his own. How am I to know that you are still in your breeding years?”

Lord!Duncan felt stranded somewhere between the window and the sofa. He was rooted to the spot, if the truth were known—with a horrified sort of embarrassment. It took a great deal to embarrass him, but his grandfather had just succeeded in doing it. He had asked Miss Margaret Huxtable, sister of the Earl of Merton, if she was a breeder. Specifically if she was still
young
enough to breed.

He could see only half of her face around the brim of her straw hat.

But if he was not much mistaken, she was actually
smiling
. Her voice confirmed the fact when she spoke—there was laughter in it.

“You are not to know any such thing, my lord,” she said.

The marquess made a show of setting his cane against the side of his chair and moving until his spine was resting against the back and his hands were gripping the arms.

“Sheringford,” he said without taking his eyes off Miss Huxtable, “I believe you have just done the wisest thing you have done in your entire life—or the most foolish.”

Duncanrescued his feet and moved the short distance to the side of the sofa in order to set a reassuring hand on Margaret Huxtable's shoulder, though she seemed to be doing very well without his support.

“Nothing in between?” he said.

“She will not crumble under adversity,” his grandfather said. “And there may be much adversity to test her mettle. On the other hand, you will find it impossible to ignore her or to rule her. I will expect to read an announcement of your betrothal in tomorrow's papers—unless, that is, Miss Huxtable returns to her senses before then.”

“AndWoodbinePark ?”Duncan gripped the shoulder beneath his hand.

“It will be yours on your wedding day,” his grandfather said. “Which will be … ?” He raised his shaggy eyebrows.

“The day before your birthday, my lord,” Miss Huxtable replied without hesitation, though it was something they had not decided upon together. “My brother and sisters and Lady Carling are to organize a grand wedding breakfast at Merton House, which you must, of course, attend. We will be able to drink an early toast to your birthday on the same occasion.”

“I do not leave this house under any circumstance, Miss Huxtable,”

the marquess said, “having discovered long ago that there is nothing but foolishness beyond my own walls. And, lest you suddenly dream up some wild scheme, I do not entertain here either. Neither do I celebrate birthdays—least of all eightieth birthdays. Anyone who chooses to celebrate an eightieth birthday must have windmills in his head, and a few moths too.”

“Nevertheless,” she said, “you
will
attend our wedding breakfast, my lord. The Earl of Sheringford is your only grandson, and I will be your only granddaughter-in-law And this birthday will be celebrated as the one on which you were reconciled to your grandson and gained a granddaughter who just might still have a few breeding years left before she withers into her dotage. You would not knowingly spoil my wedding day. I am sure of it. You
would
spoil it by remaining here in self-imposed isolation.”