He stared at the note and then pocketed it before he left for the club.
He asked his driver to let him out a few blocks from the club so that he could walk to clear his head. He’d spent the better part of the last day trying to mentally rehearse exactly what he wanted to say to Louisa, but maybe he needed something else to obsess over.
As he walked, he was struck by a memory from when he was a teenager.
Louisa must have been thirteen or fourteen at the time, and Fletcher was home after his first year at Oxford. They were too old by then to play as they had as children, but he let Louisa challenge him to a game of chess. While she was setting up the game, Fletcher’s mother pulled him aside and said that Louisa fancied him, which Fletcher had instantly dismissed. But then, when they were partway through the game, Louisa asked him who he was going to marry.
“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “I reckon that’s something I can deal with after I finish school. It’s not like there are many women at Oxford.”
“You could marry me.”
“You’re too young.”
She rolled her eyes. “I know that. I mean, when I’m old enough.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why should I marry you?”
She shrugged. “We get along. We understand each other. I’m smarter than you.”
“You are not!”
“I’m about to defeat you at chess.”
“No, you aren’t.” He moved his rook. “Check.”
“Fletcher.” She moved her knight. “Checkmate.”
He’d instantly forgotten the conversation and had never brought it up again, but he wondered now if it really was that simple.
And she was definitely smarter than he was.
He arrived at the club and found his friends. Owen handed him whiskey before he sat down.
Fletcher was so lost in thought he barely heard anything his friends said, but he sipped his whisky and then noticed that Hugh was clearly in his cups, swaying in his chair.
“Hugh?” Fletcher asked. “Is everything all right?”
“Adele is expecting,” Hugh said, sounding dazed. “I found out this afternoon.”
“He’s a little overwhelmed,” said Owen.
“I suppose I always knew we would have more children, but not so soon. I was just getting used to the first one.”
“It’ll be a little girl,” said Lark. “Just to terrorize you.”
“I will run every male under eighteen out of England if I need to,” said Hugh. “Send them to Australia, I say.” His speech was a little slurred, so Hugh was definitely drunk.
Fletcher laughed. “Well, all right, then. A healthy attitude.”
Hugh sat back in his chair. He motioned for the discussion to carry on.
Owen looked at Fletcher expectantly. “Have you proposed to Louisa yet?”
Fletcher sighed. “No. Her mother keeps thwarting me. But Louisa promised to speak with me at the Atherton ball.”
