“That is the spirit, but remember to look happy.”
The carriage drew to a halt, but the great front doors stayed resolutely closed. The distance to shelter was not great, but quite enough to become thoroughly soaked.
“I shall fetch an umbrella,” Jamie said, lowering the window and reaching outside for the handle.
Descending hastily, he slammed the door shut again and ran for the front door. After a moment of wrestling with the doorknob, he got it open a fraction, and disappeared inside. It seemed a long time before he emerged again, bearing an umbrella and flanked by a pair of footmen. While the footmen unloaded the luggage and directed the postilions to the stables, Georgie dodged the puddles to reach the Marble Hall safely.
It was empty. Apart from the two footmen, who were habitually stationed there, no one else had appeared. The footmen brought in their luggage and Jamie returned to thecarriage to retrieve the leather tubes containing Joe Ingleton’s precious charts of aristocratic families, and still no one came.
“Shall we just steal the silver and leave again?” Georgie said.
“I’ll fetch Miss Hester,” one of the footmen said, vanishing down the service stairs.
The other footman silently began carting bags and boxes up the stairs, leaving them alone again.
“Well, this is awkward,” Jamie said. “What should we do? Go to our old rooms? It will seem very strange.”
“Follow Robert. If they’ve had our letter, there will be some other arrangement made, and if not, it will have to be our old rooms, just for tonight.”
“Oh.” His face fell.
“It doesn’t mean we have to sleep in them,” she said. “There’s room for two in my bed, after all, as we know all too well.” He brightened at once, making her laugh. “Men! Only one thought in their heads. Come on, or Robert will be out of sight.”
Hastily, they rushed up the stairs, catching sight of Robert ahead of them, just disappearing through the door into Georgie’s room.
“Our old rooms,” Jamie said disappointedly.
“Never mind. You know where I am.”
Georgie followed Robert into her room, which looked just as she had left it only a week ago, although it felt like a lifetime now. It was clear that she was not expected, for the fire was laid but not lit, so that the air was frigid and damp.
The footman dumped all the luggage, and set about lighting the fire. “Soon have a good blaze goin’, Mrs ’Astin’s. Then I’ll see to your room, Mr ’Ammond.”
“No need. Just leave my things here. I shall be sleeping in here tonight.”
Robert’s eyes widened, glancing from one to the other, before his expression settled into blank woodenness. “Yessir. Very good, sir.”
“We got married, Robert,” Georgie said, taking pity on him.
“Oh.” The eyes flicked back and forth. “Congratulations, I’m sure.”
Then, abandoning the fire, he dashed out of the room.
“That should get their attention,” Jamie said, picking up the poker and taking over the work on the fire. “Come a bit closer to the warmth. You must be perished. Are you very wet?”
“Not too bad.” She peered out of the window. “Ah, there is the carriage going round to the stables. Those poor postilions! They are the ones who must be perished. They will not go straight back today, surely?”
“No, we usually put them up overnight, and see them well fed and watered. They would not have agreed to bring us so far without that promise. Postilions have a fine time of it in summer, but a wet December day is miserable. At least we have had no serious snow yet. There, that is a good blaze. I am almost prepared to remove my greatcoat.”
Robert had left the door open, but even so, the duchess knocked before entering the room. “Is it true?” she said, beaming from ear to ear. “That you are married? Oh, how wonderful! I thought… at least, I suspected something between you. You seemed so… oh, I cannot explain it, but comfortable together, perhaps. It has been coming on for a while, has it not?”
That made everything easier, if Lily imagined some growing romance over the past weeks and months. They had only to agree to it and explain that they revealed their feelings to each other on the way to Oxford.
“So you got married at once, and why not? How delightful! Oh, Hester, is it not exciting? Georgie and Jamie are married!This is such a happy day! Charlotte, Augusta, Maria — such news! These two are married — is it not lovely?”
One by one, the various members of the household arrived to goggle at the newlyweds, to hug them and congratulate them and, in one or two cases, to shed tears over them. Lily told everyone the same story, of a long-standing affection, so Jamie and Georgie had nothing to do but fill in a few details and explain the hasty wedding.
“We could not bear a fuss to be made over it,” Georgie murmured for the third or fourth time. “A quiet affair, that was all we wanted.”
