“I thought my punishment was to be eternal,” her mother said. “It is the millstone I have carried about my neck for well nigh forty years. I thought I would carry it to my grave.”
“Whatever are you talking about, Mama?” Louise asked. “Are you well? Matilda, is Mama ailing?”
“Stop fussing,” their mother said. “Start talking about a wedding instead. It must be a grand one. I will not stand for anything less. Matilda must have her grand wedding at last. And if you have anything to say to the contrary, Lord Dirkson, I would suggest that you keep your tongue between your teeth and allow the women to do what women do best.”
He actually grinned as he clasped his hands behind his back. “Plan weddings?” he said.
“Precisely.” She nodded briskly.
“Mama—” Matilda began.
“Ma’am.” Charles spoke again. “I am quite prepared to allow the world to turn upon its axis as it always has done. However, I feel compelled to speak out on two points before I lose my voice altogether, and I fear that time is imminent. First, Matilda and I did not get as far as discussing our wedding last evening. I have no idea what sort of ceremony she wants or where or when she wants it to happen. She must make that choice—with me. I will not allow her to be bullied into giving in to what her family and mine may think appropriate. And second, when the women sweep in to organize us, as they no doubt will unless Matilda chooses to elope with me, it must be remembered that there are women in both the Westcott and Sawyer families. My daughters, despite my dire warnings this morning, very probably have my wedding half-planned already.”
“I am still in shock,” Anna said, getting to her feet. “But a very pleasant shock. Aunt Matilda! I cannot tell you how pleased I am for you. And you too, Lord Dirkson. Avery and I slipped off quietly to marry one afternoon, you know, while Grandmama and the aunts and cousins were busy planning a grand wedding for us. I was never happier in my life.” She leaned over Matilda’s chair and hugged her warmly. “And Abigail married Gil in the village church at home just a few weeks ago with no one present except Harry and the vicar’s wife. I believe she will always treasure the memory. Perhaps you—”
“Thank you, Anna,” Matilda said. “But I want awedding.”
She had not thought of it until now, when she had been almost afraid to believe in the truth of what had happened last evening. But it was true. All her life she had dreamed of a grand wedding, but for most of that time that was all it had been—an ever-fading dream. And, for the last twenty years or so, entirely faded.
“Then a wedding is what you will have, my love,” Charles said.
My love?Oh. In front of half her family.
“St. George’s it will be, then.” Louise clapped her hands as though to draw the attention of thousands. “We must have the banns called next Sunday. It is already rather late in the Season and we do not want to wait until it is over and most of thetonhas returned to the country. If Matilda is to be married at St. George’s, the pews must be full to overflowing. Oh goodness, we must let Wren know and Elizabeth and Althea. They will want to be involved in the planning.”
“We must arrange a meeting with Mrs. Dewhurst and Lady Frater,” Viola said. “They will have ideas of their own. They already do, according to Viscount Dirkson.”
“Alexander will want to host the wedding breakfast,” Anna said. “But I know Avery will insist that the ballroom at Archer House has more room.”
Atonwedding at St. George’s on Hanover Square? A wedding breakfast in the ballroom at the town house of the Duke of Netherby? Matilda started to feel anxious again. Surely, oh surely, she would be the laughingstock. She had not meant anything quite so grand. Just a definite wedding with …
“Matilda,” Charles said. “My curricle is outside your door. Why wait until later to go for our drive? I have the distinct impression that our presence here is de trop. Will you come now?”
“Yes.” She got to her feet. “Oh yes. Thank you.”
How many times had she participated in family conferences and family planning committees? She had usually been at the forefront of them all, busy planning how to extricate some family member from disaster or how to help them celebrate an event in their lives. Was she now to be the object of such family activity?
Oh. It did feel good.
“Matilda,” Charles said when she joined him downstairs after going to fetch her bonnet and gloves and reticule, “I will not allow you to be bullied, you know. Even by me. Especially by me. You are looking worried, even a little stricken. There is no need. You must tell me as we drive what you want. And you shall have it. You are the bride. You are to make the decisions.”
You are the bride.
She felt that growingly familiar urge to weep. She smiled instead as he handed her up to the passenger seat of the curricle and she remembered that heady feeling of being much farther off the ground than she had expected. The feeling of danger and exhilaration. She laughed aloud.
“But everyone would be so disappointed,” she said, “if we were to run off with a special license to marry in secret. Besides which,Iwould be disappointed. And they would be upset if they planned and planned and I disapproved of everything. My family would be upset. So would Barbara and Jane. I think a marriage is for two people, Charles. But a wedding is for their families and friends. Shall we just let them plan?”
“It would save us a lot of anguish,” he said, grinning at her as he took his place beside her. “When I walked into that room awhile ago and saw you, I feared you had changed your mind. You looked brittle and severe.”
“But only because I was convincedyoumust have changedyourmind,” she said.
“Absurd,” he told her.
“Absurd,” she agreed, and they both laughed as though someone had just made an extremely witty remark.
“Charles,” she said, laying a hand on his arm as he leaned down, took the ribbons from his young groom, and gathered them in his hands, “I wish we were in the country. I wish I could ask you to spring the horses.”
He turned his head to look into her face, his own still filled with laughter. “Doyou, my love?” he asked her.
