“Or not,” Avery said quietly from his corner. “It seems to me that Abigail was invited here for tea.”
“Oh, shewas, Alexander,” Elizabeth said. “We want to rejoice with her.”
“Rejoice,”Grandmama said scornfully. “In the absence of the bridegroom. He will not come here to face us himself.”
“Because he agrees with you, Grandmama,” Abigailsaid, and felt all attention swing her way. “He believes he does not belong here. But he does belong withme.I married him, knowing full well who he was and why he needed to marry without delay. Harry knew everything, and he has known Gil for years. They are close friends. Harry approved of our marriage. The Reverend Jenkins married us in the village church and came to the house afterward with Mrs. Jenkins for a wedding breakfast. Mrs. Jenkins decorated the church with flowers, and the staff at Hinsford decorated the house. They greeted us formally when we returned from church. It was a sudden wedding because Gil needs a wife to give him a better chance of recovering his daughter from his first wife’s parents, to whom she was taken without his permission while he was in Belgium just prior to the Battle of Waterloo. It was a sudden wedding, but it was not clandestine.”
“His reason for marrying you and for doing it in a hurry is obvious,” her grandmother said. “Your reason is less clear, Abigail. Were you so desperate for a husband? Yet for six years you have resisted all the attempts of your family to introduce you to eligible gentlemen.”
“Marcel,” Abigail’s mother said, getting to her feet, “take us home, please. It was not for this that we—”
“It is all right, Mama,” Abigail said. “I was aware of the tension in this room even before we entered it, and it is as well that Grandmama had the courage to confront it.”
Her mother subsided back into her seat while Abigail returned her attention to her grandmother.
“I was not desperate,” she said. “I was quite prepared to go through life unmarried if I did not meet the man who would be perfect for me. I found him in Gil, though I do not believe I will ever be able to explain to anyone what I mean by that. I married him because I wanted to, and I marriedhim in a hurry because that was what he needed. I am sorry that I have upset you all. But I am not sorry for what I have done. I expect to be happy.”
“Brava, Abigail,” Avery said from his corner. Everyone turned his way.
“That is all very well to say, Avery,” Aunt Louise said. “But Lieutenant Colonel Bennington refuses to face Abigail’s family, he is embroiled in what might well be an ugly fight over custody of his daughter, and he is the illegitimate son of a washerwoman.”
“None of which matters,” Elizabeth said, “if Abigail is happy with him. He is a man who has achieved a very high military rank. Avery has told us that he has won several commendations for bravery, most notably for leading a successful forlorn hope when he was in the Peninsula. He is Harry’s friend and was kind enough to accompany him home and stay with him while he recovered his health and strength. He obviously cares very deeply for his daughter if he is fighting to get her back when he could very easily leave her with her grandparents and not have to worry about the raising of her.”
“I do not care what anyone says,” Estelle cried. “If Abby has married him, I am prepared to like him. Idolike him. Who can forget how he allowed Robbie to take over his dog while we were all at Hinsford?”
“Well done, Stel,” Bertrand said. “Our stepsister is old enough and mature enough to know her own mind. If she is happy, I am happy for her.”
“Well said, young man,” Cousin Althea said.
“What we need,” Aunt Matilda said, her cheeks flushed with color, “is aplan. Whether we like it or not, Abigail is married to Lieutenant Colonel Bennington. I am not even sure I donotlike it. Clearly she cares for him, and perhaps that matters almost more than anything. We need a plan fordrawing him into the family, for making him feel welcome. Not just on sufferance, butwelcome.”
“And how are we to do that, Matilda?” Aunt Louise asked.
“And we need a plan,” Aunt Matilda continued, ignoring her sister’s question, “to make sure that he and Abigail succeed in getting custody of his child. It is quite unthinkable that a father not be allowed to take his own child home with him when he clearly loves her and did not consent to her being taken to her grandparents in the first place. He does love the child, Abigail? I cannot imagine you would have married him if he did not.”
“He adores her,” Abigail said.
“Matilda is right,” Aunt Mildred said with a sigh. “We do need a plan. But what?”
“Abigail,” Alexander asked, “who is Lieutenant Colonel Bennington’s father? Does he know?”
She hesitated. Gil did not like to talk about his paternity. He had not even told his lawyer. When asked yesterday morning, he had evaded the question.
“Viscount Dirkson,” she said.
There was a brief silence.
“ViscountDirkson?” her mother said.
“Gil does not make it generally known,” Abigail said. “He did not even know who his father was until after his mother died when he was a sergeant in India. The viscount purchased his ensign’s commission and then his promotion to lieutenant. Gil stopped him purchasing any further promotions and even regretted the ones he had been surprised into accepting. He wanted nothing to do with his father. He still does not. As far as he is concerned he had only one parent.”
“Viscount Dirkson,” her mother said again. “He was a member of the set with whom Humphrey consorted.”
“And that is not a strong recommendation,” Grandmama said. “Most of my son’s friends were unsavory characters. Just like him. So Dirkson abandoned his by-blow, did he?”
“Even so,” Uncle Thomas said, “something might be made of the fact that Bennington is well born, at least on his father’s side.”
“I am acquainted with his son,” Bertrand said. “I mean reasonably well acquainted. We were at Oxford together. He was a year ahead of me.”
