“We are going to organize a party to go to Vauxhall one evening,” Jessica said. “One night when there is to be music and dancing and fireworks and we can all believe we are in fairyland. Well, I daresay Mama and Anna will organize it. And Avery’s secretary.MostlyMr. Goddard, actually. But you are to come with us and anyone else you would like us particularly to invite. Abby and Estelle and Bertrand may be here to come too. Mama mentioned that you may want to invite Mr. Franck. I have met him and like him.”
“My love,” Cousin Louise said. “Allow poor Elizabeth to get a word in edgewise. But really, Elizabeth, unless you have decided to go home to Riddings, as Althea thinks you ought, all you can do is carry on as if life were normal until it is. And we will all stand by you, you may rest assured. No one is going to say anything cruel inmyhearing. And Avery has only to raise his quizzing glass halfway to his eye and any would-be gossiper will melt into an ignominious puddle at his feet.”
“Dear me,” Avery murmured. “I hope my boots will not be splashed. My valet would not be pleased.”
Anna held Elizabeth’s hand tightly.
“Did you finish your letter to Miss Scott, Elizabeth?” Wren asked. “I would not let anyone disturb you because I know you particularly wanted to write to her today.”
“I did not,” Elizabeth said. “I barely got started. Colin came.”
“Colin?” Wren rescued the pendant of her necklace from Josephine’s mouth. “He was here? While we were upstairs with Nathan? But why did you not tell him you were busy and send him up? And he has gone away without seeing us? How vexing of him.”
“He had a rather urgent errand and could not stay,” Elizabeth said. Her lips were beginning to feel a bit stiff.
Before she could say more there was a tap on the door behind her, and the butler opened it to announce the arrival of the Dowager Countess of Riverdale with Lady Matilda Westcott and Lord and Lady Molenor.
“We have come,” the dowager announced rather unnecessarily. “I have never been more angry in my life. Well, rarely anyway. Who is spreading all these ridiculous stories? Of Elizabeth of all people. There is no one more worthy of respect and admiration. Elizabeth, who has long been the rock of cheerfulness and kindness for the whole family. Can a rock be cheerful? Or kind? Never mind. Matilda, if that is a vinaigrette you are withdrawing from your reticule, you may put it away again. When I am about to have a fit of the vapors I will let you know.”
She crossed the room to her usual chair as she spoke and seated herself. Everyone else, who had risen to greet the new arrivals, resumed their seats. All except Elizabeth, who stood in the middle of the floor feeling very conspicuous indeed.
“You missed Colin,” Wren said. “We all did. He spoke to Elizabeth and then dashed off on some urgent errand. I wonder why he came at all. Did he say, Elizabeth?”
“Yes,” she said. “He came to persuade me to marry him.”
“Again?” Alexander frowned. “Can he not accept that he is in no way responsible for any of what has been happening? Must he keep on torturing himself with the conviction that he did something to compromise you when he waltzed with you? I hope you set him right this time, Lizzie.”
“I said yes,” she said.
There was a beat of silence in the room.
“Well, bless my soul,” Matilda said, the first to break it. “You have followed your heart, Elizabeth.”
“Matilda!” Cousin Louise said scornfully. “What utter nonsense you speak. There must be all of ten years between them.”
“Nine,” Elizabeth said.
“Elizabeth.” Wren had a hand over her heart. Josephine was on her father’s lap, trying without much success to get his quizzing glass into her mouth. “Oh no. No. I can understand his offering. But you cannot—Oh, surely you cannot haveaccepted.”
“My love,” Elizabeth’s mother said, hurrying toward her and setting an arm about her waist. “You have been horribly upset, and I hold Sir Geoffrey Codaireentirelyto blame whether he has had any hand in this ugly campaign against you or not. I feel desperately sorry for Lord Hodges, for everything started while he was dancing and conversing with you. But for the two of you tomarry…It is preposterous, as you will see when you are in a calmer frame of mind. You are four years older than Alex, Lizzie, and he is older than Wren, and she is four years older than Lord Hodges.”
Yes. Nine years.
“We will send for him to call here later,” Alexander said, getting to his feet and coming toward her. “We will settle this matter once and for all. We will persuade Colin that he doesnotowe you marriage, and in the meantime we will assure you, Lizzie—all of us will—that trying to set his mind at rest by marrying him is not the answer to anything. You would have a lifetime enmeshed together in a mismatch.”
He drew her into his arms, and her mother’s arm fell to her side.
“I am so sorry about all this,” he told her. “I wish I could do more to protect you. Sometimes one feels so helpless. But I do agree with—”
“Notallof us will try to persuade Elizabeth to change her mind,” Matilda said, interrupting. “Not all of us were blind over Christmas or have remained blind this spring. Nine years are nothing when the heart is involved.”
“The heart!” her sister said impatiently. “Have some sense, Matilda. And what do you mean about Christmas? I suppose you sensed a budding romance that simply was not there. And you cannot romanticize what is happening here. Lord Hodges and Elizabeth, both acting with the best of intentions, are trying to console each other. It is quite admirable of them. But it would be a disaster if they tried to do it bymarrying. You must not do it, Elizabeth.”
“Elizabeth.” The languid voice of Avery silenced them all. He had given his daughter his watch to play with. “Must you? Must you marry Hodges?”
It was not an admonishment. It was a question.
“No,” she said. “There is no compulsion for either of us to marry the other. We have agreed to it because it is what we both want.”
