‘You’re right,’ she said listlessly again. ‘Both of you. I’ll go and make myself ready, then find him and tell him I will marry him. I am sure he will be delighted to hear it. Will you come with me? It is better I am not alone with him, for when we are alone you know what happens…’ They both nodded without saying anything more, for they had every reason to know, and she stood – she had not touched her breakfast – and left the room, closing the door softly behind her.
Louisa raised her glass and looked at her nephew through it, a question on her lips, and saw to her astonishment that he was smiling broadly now. He winked cheerfully at her. ‘Pour me a cup of coffee, would you, Aunt?’ he said.
‘I suppose you know what you are about?’ she said drily as she did so.
‘To be honest, I wasn’t sure until I opened my mouth whether I was going to command her to marry him unless she wanted to be cast off, or strictly forbid her from doing so. I thought in the end the effect would probably be much the same whatever I said, but I felt sorry for the poor fellow last night, and so I thought this way would be kinder to him. If I’d said I meant to forbid the banns, we’d have had to leave here directly, which would have caused complications. I couldn’t be sure just how long it would take her to convince herself she “owed it to him” to elope with him, or some such Drury Lane nonsense, and all the while he’d be fretting himself to a shade over it. Besides, can’t have a Pendlebury running off to Gretna, dash it all. Not the done thing. And damned bad roads for it, too, if it comes to that.’ He took a gulp of coffee. ‘Much less trouble this way, get them safely leg-shackled so they can sort it out between them and leave the rest of us in peace, as you said yourself last night. But d’you think I should have shouted at her like a Dutch uncle, made it more convincing, or would that have been laying it on too thick?’
‘You’ve never shouted at one of the children in your life, Hal, under the worst provocation. This is no time to start.’
‘You’re probably right. Too late to start coming the stern brother now, you think?’
‘Much too late.’
‘Pity, but I dare say you’re right.’
‘I’d say I often am, but all this has taken me completely by surprise, so I shall not. Hush, she is coming. Wipe that foolish grin from your face, Hal, or she will suspect something!’
28
Her brother and her aunt accompanied Georgie downstairs, keeping their faces admirably straight and avoiding catching each other’s eyes, and found His Grace busy with his steward. That gentleman took his leave at once, and when the door had closed behind him, Georgiana approached the Duke and said resolutely, ‘I will marry you, if you still wish me to.’
He had risen as they entered, and took her hand, raising it to his lips and saying, ‘Thank you. I hope… But this is not the time, perhaps, for such discussions.’
Their eyes locked, and though they did not speak or move they appeared to have forgotten that any other persons were present in the room; Hal was obliged to clear his throat to drag their attention away from each other. ‘How are we to manage the business?’ he asked prosaically. ‘I think perhaps you should arrange for a special licence, Northriding – let’s not wait three weeks for the banns to be read, shall we?’
‘Please, God, no. I don’t think I could stand it,’ said Louisa to nobody in particular.
‘I have, in fact, already sent to obtain one, a day or so ago,’ the Duke said. He met his betrothed’s outraged gaze steadily,though his lips twitched, and said blandly, ‘I thought it seemed like a useful sort of a thing to have to hand.’
Louisa snorted, and converted it to a cough, but Georgie paid her no heed. ‘Is it possible merely to insert the gentleman’s name, and leave the lady’s blank, to be added at a later date?’ she asked sweetly. She felt a spark of anger at his presumption, and welcomed the hot emotion; it was an easier thing to feel than the confusion that otherwise threatened to overwhelm her. ‘That would have been excessively convenient for your purposes.’
‘Wouldn’t it? I don’t believe it is, in fact. It seems a sad omission. Perhaps I shall raise the matter next time I speak in the Lords,’ he replied with perfect composure. He was so calm, and that annoyed her further, perilously close to tears as she was. ‘I imagine it might prove extremely popular.’
‘I dare say it would. They are all men, are they not? But I am a woman, and I did not come here in the expectation of being married, so I will need clothes,’ Georgie stated, refusing to succumb to his teasing and soften towards him. Did she even want to? She wasn’t sure.
‘Are you quite positive you shall?’ he shot back outrageously in a low tone meant for her ears only. She coloured, and glared at him once more, but he did not seem to be in the least abashed. A little silence grew between them, stretched. He knows, she thought, that he can always win me over; even now, if we were left alone, he’d reach out, touch me, and I would welcome it with pathetic eagerness… But the power of the physical pull between us is not in question. It’s everything else that is so difficult.
‘We will be obliged to draw up marriage settlements without loss of time,’ Lord Irlam ploughed on heroically. ‘I have a lawyer in York now – it’s been useful, with all the tangled affairs of my wife’s estate. I presume you do too, Northriding?’
‘Naturally,’ said the Duke urbanely. ‘I have business all over the North. And call me Gabriel, please, as we are to be brothers.Perhaps we could repair there in a couple of days, and I am sure, Georgiana, you will be able to find anything you feel you require in the way of trousseau. You will all be welcome as my guests – I have a house hard by the Minster which is most convenient.’
Georgie could only nod and attempt a smile. She fell silent now as her future – hers – was discussed. She had no objection to raise. She’d said she’d marry him, hadn’t she? It would be weak and childish, she thought with sudden piercing clarity, to blame others – Hal, Louisa, Gabriel himself – for this situation she found herself in, to say that she was being forced. She wasn’t. She must admit that a part of her, not just her body that always yearned for him but perhaps also her heart, urgently wanted this. If only she weren’t so frightened – of her own feelings, as much as anything else. And as for his feelings… She had every reason to know that he was obsessed with her. He’d convinced her of the truth of that. What she could not know was whether it could possibly be enough to base a life upon.
‘Oh, and call me Hal, naturally. Quite right. York races?’ asked Hal with interest, though Georgie at least barely heard or heeded him.
‘Of course. Not at this time of year, sadly. Next month.’ If the Duke felt any fraction of her inner turmoil, he did not show it.
‘Dashed nuisance, that. Could have combined the two things, you know.’
‘That’s all very well,’ objected Louisa, with a brief roll of the eyes at the propensity of men to be distracted by inessentials, ‘but must we all decamp to York then come back here again directly for the ceremony? It sounds most fatiguing and unnecessary. Could you not simply marry there, perhaps in the Minster itself?’
‘I am sure it could be arranged without too much trouble,’ said the Duke of Northriding drily. ‘Many of my ancestors have married there in the past.’
‘My wife can travel down from Skipton, then, to be with us,’ said Hal. ‘My brother Bastian is with her there, and will come too, I dare say. Make it a regular family affair, as is only proper, Gabriel. But I amnotsummoning the younger boys up from Hampshire. Well do I remember the chaos they caused in the days before my own wedding.’
‘Thank God,’ said Louisa. ‘They are perfectly happy where they are, and Cousin Leo has charge of them and is – one hopes – keeping them out of trouble. If he can manage a ship full of rowdy sailors, presumably he can manage the three of them. Leave them be.’
Hal explained to his host, ‘My late mother’s sister, Mrs Winterton, is with my three youngest brothers at our home in Hampshire. Her son is a captain in the navy, and has been teaching them sailing this summer, heaven help him. Yes, we can well do without them, believe me. You don’t understand why yet, but you will soon enough, I promise you.’
