He really is a dear man. Mel nodded. “I shall visit the Satterthwaites after the wedding,” she said.
The hackney stopped in front of the church and they descended, the men all being careful to wrap their mufflers around their mouths. They were just in time. Four of the couples were already waiting in the church porch, and the fifth couple’s carriage drew up just as their hackney rolled away.
The wedding was a joint ceremony for all five couples, with few witnesses beyond the other brothers, Madam Hera, and one of the Golden Adonis’s maids, the one who used the name Aedas.
When the service reached the point where each groom in turn was to make his vows while placing a ring on his bride’s finger, Kemble came to each couple to present a gold ring, and shortly after that, the minister pronounced them all husband and wife.
The five couples signed the register, with Kemble and Mel as their witnesses, and they all shook hands with the minister. Kemble gave him an envelope. “A small token of our appreciation, sir,” he said. “You understand, I believe, that this matter must be held in confidence for the next week.”
“Yes, my lord,” replied the minister. “Yes, indeed.”
Distracted by this interaction, Mel suddenly realized that Gerard had been in intense conversation with Aedas. He now approached the minister. “Will you be available at half past seven tomorrow morning for a sixth wedding? My betrothed and I would like my brothers to attend, and two of them are leaving London later that morning.”
“Gerard!” Kemble exclaimed.
“Amber, have you met my brother Allan?” Gerard said to the woman on his arm. “Allan, you may remember Miss Amber Spense, the daughter of our next-door neighbor at the Teign estate in Essex.”
It was a rare delight to see Kemble, who prided himself on being always in control, so flummoxed that his jaw dropped. He collected himself rapidly, however. “Miss Spense? The Miss Spense the marquess arranged for you to marry two years ago? The one who ran?”
“Gerard and I arranged for me to disappear,” said Miss Spense, looking pleased with herself. “I found work with Madam Hera. Imagine my delight when Gerard began working at theGolden Adonis.” She hugged Gerard’s arm and looked up into his eyes as he gazed back, both with that look of poleaxed pleasure that she had seen on the other couples around her.
Mel refused to countenance the twinge of jealousy, and chose to embrace pleasure in their obvious happiness, instead. “How wonderful you can now be free to marry,” she said.
“My lord,” said the minister. “If you can acquire a license by tomorrow, I should be happy to perform the ceremony.”
*
Her friend Winifred,now Lady Francis, insisted on taking Mrs. Blackmore to visit the Satterthwaites. “Yes, Lord Kemble,” she assured Allan. “I shall have the carriage drop Frank and myself at our home, and return to convey Mrs. Blackmore wherever she pleases.”
“I shall return to the tower as soon as I know the details of the arrangement,” Mrs. Blackmore told him, and Allan had to be satisfied with that.
“Here is the key to the door from which I emerged earlier,” he said. “We’ll be in there.”
She took it and smiled.
I would do a great deal for one of Mrs. Blackmore’s smiles. Allan squelched the fleeting thought as she disappeared into Lady Francis’s carriage, the footman closed the door, and the carriage drew away.
It was just the plethora of weddings that was turning his mind in such a direction. He’d been married once, and it was a disaster. In any case, despite his brothers’ determination to defy fate and the marquess, he had no intention of bringing anyone else into the chaos that was their family.
Gerard was off to speak to the bishop, and would then return to the Golden Adonis to be with his intended bride. Most ofAllan’s other brothers had wives to return home with. “Come along, younglings,” Allan said to Isaac and Jerome. “Let’s go to the lower tower. There are several trunks lying around, and I’m sure we can find more items that will be useful for you in your travels.”
And Allan would take a look at the space available, and choose a room to stay in. It would save money to remain in the tower, and if he stayed in the lower rooms, behind the hidden door to the tower steps and with the hidden door to the top two floors locked and bolted, he’d be perfectly safe.
In fact, it would be remarkably satisfying to be on the marquess’s land but out of his reach.
By the time Melody joined the three remaining brothers, they had retrieved the luggage the youngest two would need—two large trunks to go in with the cargo and two cabin trunks that were fitted with drawers and partitions to carry what they needed for the trip and to be used as cabin furniture. A third smaller trunk was large enough to take a traveling desk so the brothers could write home and also the cases with Jerome’s violin and Isaac’s flute.
Allan had found each brother a money belt to carry the bank notes he intended to fetch on the way to the wharf. Although the savings account holding the brothers’ earnings was at a bank the marquess didn’t use and under a name the marquess would not recognize, there was no point in taking chances.
The detritus that had ended up in these unused rooms also included several travel shaving sets and some maps of countries around the Mediterranean. Isaac and Jerome were making their choices when Mrs. Blackmore arrived.
“We’re just about to take these upstairs,” Allan said. “My brothers will soon be packed and ready to go.” He forced a smile. “What an adventure for them.”
“I am sorry I was away so long,” Mrs. Blackmore said, “but it is all arranged. You will need to go to the docks directly from the church tomorrow. You are sailing at ten in the morning on the Jamshid.”
It was really happening. Allan’s face was going to crack if he had to keep on smiling. “Let’s get these trunks to your rooms, then try to get some sleep. We’re still expected to work tonight, according to our agreement with Madam Hera.”
Of course, he didn’t expect Isaac and Jerome, excited as they were, to manage even a doze. He certainly didn’t. His mind teemed with all the things that could go wrong, both before his youngest brothers embarked on their journey, and once the ship left London. A long sea voyage in winter, a foreign land where they did not speak the language, thieves, rogues, pirates, diseases.
