“No wonder I thought I saw my late sister,” Lady Marie stated as the tears began to flow again. “May I hug you, Your Royal Highness?” Elizabeth gave a nod and Marie approached her tentatively until she enfolded Elizabeth in her arms, and the tears flowed in earnest.
When Lady Marie stepped back, she was replaced by her brother who opened his arms for his niece and Elizabeth stepped into his hug. “On behalf of myself and my birthmother, I forgive both of you,” Elizabeth granted, “but never ask me to forgive your parents.” Elizabeth returned to sit with her parents and birthfather after Wes released her.
“We understand why you do not feel like you can grant my parents forgiveness, and we will never ask you to do that which you do not desire to do,” Wes assured Elizabeth.
“I second my brother’s statement,” Lady Marie said with purpose as she dried her eyes.
“Once there is a Royal decree about Princess Elizabeth…” Wes started to say when he was interrupted.
“Elizabeth or Lizzy, please,” Elizabeth interjected as she looked from brother to sister.
“In that case, aboutLizzy, I would suggest posting the letter to my parents then,” Wes completed his suggestion.
“I think that is a good suggestion,” Lady Edith opined, and those present allowed it was so by general agreement.
“As you are Lizzy’s aunt and uncle, you are invited to the ball this night and the wedding on Monday,” Fanny insisted after a nod from her husband.
“It would give me great pleasure to remain for the festivities. Thank you, Mrs. Bennet,” Wes replied.
“I must return to my husband and parents-in-law in Town,” Marie explained. “As much as I would love to be here, there will not be enough time to return from London today. As Long as the Duke and Duchess agree, we will depart London at sunup and will join you on Monday.”
Not long after, Lady Marie started her journey back to Birchington House on Russel Square to inform her husband and the Duke and the Duchess of the outcome of her trip into Hertfordshire, and to share the invitation to the wedding with them.
Chapter 25
Wes was introduced to the rest of the family. He had met Andrew, Richard, and Jamey previously. Although he had not met William before, he did know him by sight.
His father’s—he knew his mother had been forced to follow her husband’s directions—actions had cost him a courtship, but in hindsight he owned the truth. He had not loved the lady—he was not sure he liked her much; it was an alliance his father wanted to bolster their position in society and to gain another ally in the House of Lords, so Wes could not repine the family’s defection.
When he looked at the three betrothed couples present, Wes saw the obvious love between them and decided then and there he would not be induced to court a woman again unless he too found what they so obviously shared.
Marie had been pushed toward Sed Rhys-Davies by his father, using his daughter to bolster his position in society. He would always love his parents, but he could not repine the price his father was paying for the cruelty he had visited on his late sister. It was sad that they would never know their granddaughter—he felt badly for his mother, but as long as his father’s pride was an obstacle, she would be stuck where she was—but he knew the situation they found themselves in now—ostracised from society—was entirely of his father’s own making.
“What do we call you?” Tommy asked. “Uncle? Cousin?”
“Just Wes, Tommy,” Wes responded. “Just like you address the rest of the younger men without a prefix before their names.”
“You are like me, the youngest in your family, are you not?” Tommy verified.
“Yes, you are correct,” Wes confirmed.
“How old are you? I am ten,” Tommy enquired.
“I am two and twenty,” Wes averred.
“You and William are the same age. Did you know him at University?” Georgiana interjected.
“We were not at the same schools, Gigi,” William informed his younger sister. “I, like Andrew, Jamey, and Richard, went to agoodschool—Cambridge—while Wes went to Oxford.”
“As those who go to theinferiorandnewerCambridge know, Oxford is more than one hundred years older,” Wes countered in the good-natured banter of rivals.
“Older does not mean better,” Andrew joined the fray.
“Peace, young men,” Bennet interjected. “Do not pick on Lizzy’s uncle because he had the misfortune of not studying at Cambridge.”
“I know when I am outnumbered,” Wes capitulated playfully. “Do any of you Cambridge men know how to play chess?”
“We all do,” the Prince informed his former brother-in-law.
