CHAPTER 1
THE EARL OF CLIFTON
July 1820
This morning, society witnessed the wedding of a second Legendary Lord. Yes, the marriage of Viscount Kendrick to Miss Caroline Edwards did indeed take place. This author would like to offer her heartfelt (albeit amazed) felicitations.
* * *
I am aware that there was a significant amount of speculation as to whether Miss Edwards, who was crowned the Diamond of the season, would come to her senses and end the engagement. Many gentlemen, both young and old, had their hearts set on that eventuality. With Parliament still in session this summer due to that unpleasantness with the Queen, they will not be able to return to the country to nurse their broken hearts.
* * *
Better luck next year, gentlemen!
* * *
– Lady X, The Mayfair Chronicle
Two weddings in three months.
When the year started, if anyone had suggested that two of my closest friends would be married by what should have been the end of the London social season in any other year, I’d have wagered a considerable amount of money against them.
And I’d have lost.
The wedding breakfast was coming to an end, but none of the guests had yet departed. They were still milling about the edges of Kendrick’s dining room. At least it had been a small affair with a very limited guest list.
From the way Kendrick was looking at his bride, I could tell he was itching to steal away with her. But Caroline’s aunt seemed intent on keeping that from happening until everyone had departed.
I leaned against the dining room wall and watched the newly married couples. Moreland and Victoria were standing with Kendrick and Caroline, chatting and laughing. Two surprisingly happy couples.
It was unfathomable. Marriages for the sake of convenience, I could understand. Arrangements in which young women were married off to older and more wealthy gentlemen were common.
My own parents had undergone a similar arrangement, with my father, who’d been over the age of fifty, marrying my mother when she was only eighteen and newly out in society. She was his second wife, but his first had never given him children. I’d assumed that the detached distance I witnessed in their dealings with one another was the norm and had seen the same dynamic repeat itself with every married couple I’d encountered during my youth. I’d always assumed that was what society marriages were all about.
In recent years, I’d glimpsed interactions between a few married couples of the ton that seemed to defy that perception. But I never thought I’d witness it so closely. Moreland falling in love with the woman he was pretending to ruin had been a shock. And then Kendrick falling for the woman he had won in a card game, unbeknownst to him, had almost done my head in.
But the damnable thing was that I couldn’t really blame them. Victoria and Caroline were exceptional young women, and I liked them both. I could detect no artifice in their demeanors or in the way they behaved with their husbands.
I drank from the glass of Madeira I was holding, congratulating myself for not scowling. The wine was too sweet for my taste, but I suspected Caroline’s aunt had taken control of the menu for the wedding breakfast. It was probably for the best since there was no chance I’d drink enough to become inebriated. If brandy had been available, I’d have already been well on the path to that state.
Witnessing the obvious happiness of my two friends in their new marriages had me feeling as though my future fate was sealed. Given the rarity of such marriages, the likelihood I’d also marry for love was nonexistent.
I rarely thought about marriage beyond acknowledging that it would happen one day. And I’d never even considered the possibility of finding love. But devil take it, Moreland and Kendrick’s happiness called to an unexpected part of me that yearned for a similar outcome.
“It’s obscene how euphoric they are.”
I turned to Fairfax, who was also watching the happy couples, and shrugged. “It baffles me when I think about how quickly this came about.”
Fairfax’s gaze remained fixed on them. “You know that people will be placing bets on which one of us is next.”
“Recent history has indicated I should stay clear of such conjecture. I hate to think how much money I’d have lost betting against both of these marriages.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Diana Atherton approaching the bride. Caroline turned to her with a grin and swept Diana into a hug, while Kendrick smiled fondly at the young woman.
I hadn’t recognized Diana when she’d first arrived with her aunt and uncle. I’d known her many years ago when she visited my family’s estate with her mother. She’d been younger, full of life and curiosity. I’d always expected her to grow into a young woman who would take society by storm.
Diana’s mother had come from a genteel family and was good friends with my own mother, but as the daughter of a viscount, Lady Atherton had married beneath her station. A love match with a wealthy merchant. Society would have looked down on her for that decision, but it was my understanding that Diana’s father had been very successful. As his only living child, Diana would be an heiress now that both her parents were deceased.
