In truth, how could she not?
But when he passed the dining room, she knew that something was off. “Davien, what is going on?”
He didn’t reply until they walked over the threshold of the front parlor. She felt her mouth fall open at the sight that met her gaze. “Only our wedding, my dear, Cosette.”
Tears sprang to her eyes as she saw the servants standing in a single file line along the side of the room. Charlotte and Quinn were there too, along with—
“Is that the Archbishop himself?” she whispered in awe.
Davien held out a hand to encompass the man in question. “May I present His Grace, John Lynch, the Dean of Canterbury? He kindly offered to perform our ceremony after I purchased a special license.”
The deacon inclined his head. “I’d also like to thank you for your generous contribution to the Society for the Support of the Widows and Orphans of the Clergy.”
Cosette looked at the man that was to be her husband and shook her head. “I can’t even imagine how you even succeeded in doing something this unexpected. You’re wonderful.”
He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed the backs of her knuckles. “You’ve made me into a better man.”
“Before we begin . . .” Davien nodded at the archbishop, and then back to Cosette. “I thought you should know why I was conspicuously absent today.”
He gestured for a woman to walk forward from the back of the room. She had pale blonde hair, but she had been rather invisible until that point, as if she wished to blend into the wallpaper behind her. “Cosette, I’d like you to meet Miss Elizabeth Collins. I’ve recently taken her on as an understudy to Cook.”
Cosette inclined her head politely. “It’s lovely to meet you.”
“Thank you, Miss, er—” She colored instantly, afraid that she’d already insulted her new employers.
“It’s fine, Miss Collins. She’s not my wife.” Davien turned to wink at Cosette. “Yet.”
Blackburn drew Cosette back before the archbishop, but he lowered his voice so that only she could hear. “I know it must seem rather odd that I should introduce a young woman to you on our wedding day.” He winced. “But she’s something of a special case. The only thing that Mrs. Clay asked of me, the seer that helped us to defeat Lilin and the beast, was that I freed Miss Collins from the Bethnal Green asylum.”
Cosette felt her eyes widen. “Is she—?”
“No.” He shook his head. “According to Mrs. Clay, her only ailment is being an illegitimate daughter. I had to use all of the influence at my disposal, but I went back there today to honor my promise. I found out, according to her brief admittance records, that Miss Collins has only been forced into that hell for the past two months. She is as lucid as they come. I wouldn’t have allowed her in the front door otherwise.” He visibly swallowed. “But something has to be done about the poor treatment of the rest of those patients. Their sickness is likely worsened by the horrifying conditions they’ve been forced into.”
Cosette reached out and took his hand. She wouldn’t have expected anything less from his kind heart, the one that had been buried under that terrible curse. “I’ll help you in any way I can.”
“I know you will. I think it’s why I was first drawn to you.” He brushed a stray curl away from her cheek. “You looked so . . . forlorn, staring out at the Thames that night . . .”
She froze. “Wait. You saw me?”
A ghost of a smile touched his mouth. “I did.”
“So . . .” she said slowly. “You told your coachman to run me over?”
“You weren’t supposed to walk out in front of Quinn. Trust me, he was just as scared as you were.”
“But you aren’t denying that it was planned,” she pointed out.
“You fascinated me,” he admitted, almost in awe. “I had just left the Abbey, finding that the rituals and rites they performed had begun to sicken me. I was looking for a way out, but I didn’t know where to begin. That’s when I saw you, standing on the banks of the river, looking as lost as I felt. I thought that you might be someone who could understand the dark place I was in. Little did I know that meant literally.”
Her lips curved upward.
“I would have found a way to end it, if it hadn’t been for you.” His eyes shone, but this time it was with the inner glow of love. “I guess you could say you saved my life more than once.”
Cosette swallowed over the growing lump in her throat. “I’m just sorry that you couldn’t enact justice on Dashwood for killing your father.”
His jaw clenched. “I can’t prove that he was to blame, only that I felt confident he was. It very well could have been Lilin, but working on Dashwood’s behalf. Unfortunately, I’ll probably never know. But rest assured, I have already set the wheels in motion for his decline.” His grin returned. “I made sure that Dashwood was named a suspect in the fire at Shadowlawn. I made a statement claiming that I had demanded to leave the Order, and that Dashwood refused, going so far as to threaten me. I may have even mentioned the word arson.”
Cosette could only look at him in amazement. If she thought he had been fearsome as the aswang, that was nothing compared to the terror that the Duke of Blackburn could cause.
