Salt Hendon Omnibus 01 to 03
Page 78
When Kitty blinked at him and remained politely mute, though her apple-red cheeks told him she knew to what he alluded, the Prince added solemnly,
“May this old man offer you advice, as a grandfather would his own granddaughter, Miss Aldershot?”
Kitty nodded and smiled shyly. “Of course, Your Highness. I would welcome it.”
“Spend time exchanging letters with Mr. Tom Allenby. In that way you will grow to know each other better. You will become friends, very good friends. That is important to the future happiness of you both. When the time it is right and you both feel you know each other well enough, the next logical step will present itself.”
“But—Your Highness… Mr. Allenby—Mr. Allenby has not asked to correspond with me, so how—”
“You would like to exchange letters with that estimable young man, would you not?”
Kitty nodded, her blush deepening. “As we are confiding in one another, then yes, very much so, Your Highness.”
The Prince grinned, a twinkle in his blue eyes.
“Good. That is what I told him,” he said matter-of-factly.
EIGHT
‘TOLD HIM?” Kitty repeated in a whisper.
The Prince ignored Kitty’s gasp and wide-eyed whisper that he had dared to discuss her with Mr. Tom Allenby, and returned her to the hearth where Lady Reanay was patiently awaiting their return.
Her Ladyship held up Ned’s Christmas angel with a smile, and turned it over to show them the reverse. The writing had been covered with a thin sheet of silver paper.
“It is only lightly glued, but will suffice to stop any questions,” Lady Reanay announced, pleased with her handiwork. She gave the drawing to Kitty. “Now, dearest, you may show the proud parents their son’s exceptional drawing skills, and they will be none the wiser the paper was once part of a letter. Oh, and here they come now!” she announced, up on her heels.
They all turned to face the double doors as they were thrown open by two liveried footmen to admit the Earl and Countess of Salt Hendon, Lord Temple and Lady Caroline a step behind them, and all four full of good cheer and conversation.
Mr. Tom Allenby soon followed on their heels, tugging at the points of his embroidered waistcoat, and looking about him as if he had lost someone or something. Kitty saw him at once, and did not know where to look, because she was still feeling awkward knowing the Prince had discussed her with him. So she turned to the old lady, saying with a smile,
“Thank you for repairing Ned’s drawing, my lady,” adding in a whisper near her ear, “And may I be the first to wish you and His Highness both very happy?”
“Oh, my dear girl, of course! I am—we both are—delighted to have your blessing.” Lady Reanay glanced across at the Prince, and tapped his upturned cuff with her fan to get his attention. “Did I not say to you dearest Kitty is an angel, Your Highness?”
“You did, my lady,” agreed the Prince, a wink at Kitty. “Upon several occasions. And she is. I would claim her as our Christmas angel, but I believe Ned has already done so.”
“An angel?” the Earl enquired, taking out his snuffbox and looking about at his family. His gaze fell on Kitty, a twitch to his mouth. “So Kitty has been crowned this year’s Salt Christmas angel?”
“She has, my lord. Observe your son and heir’s extraordinary drawing talent,” Jane, Lady Salt said with a smile, taking Ned’s drawing from Kitty and holding it up for the Earl’s inspection. “This is Kitty as a Christmas angel, drawn by Ned.”
Everyone awaited the Earl’s response, smiles spreading as the silence stretched while His Lordship did his best to interpret the drawing held up before his eyes by the Countess. And when he finally raised an eyebrow at his wife and diplomatically refrained from commenting, laughter could no longer be held back. The Countess giggled and squeezed her husband’s silken arm before kissing his cheek.
“Oh, I knew you would be speechless with admiration for Ned’s exceptional artistic skills!” Jane said, tongue firmly planted in cheek.
Salt took snuff before saying loftily, a twinkle in his eye, “I will gladly allow Kitty to be crowned the Salt Christmas angel, and add that I am relieved Ned will one day inherit an earldom and not need to eke out his existence as a painter of portraits.”
There was general laughter at this quip, and the playful banter between the Earl and his Countess gave Lady Caroline the opportunity to draw Kitty a little away from the group. She embraced her best friend and kissed her cheek.
“Are you feeling better, Kitty dear?” she asked, and when Kitty nodded, said at her ear, “Did Jane tell you—tell you Antony and I are expecting?”
“’Tis the most wonderful news, Caro! I wish you both so very happy,” Kitty said, a glance over at Lord Temple who was inspecting Ned’s drawing through his quizzing glass as if contemplating a fine work of art. “I want to hear all about your stay in Ireland, too. And how fares your menagerie after your travels home? Did Boots behave himself on the journey?”
Lady Caroline shook her head with a laugh at mention of her beloved pug puppy.
“Boots behave himself? Poor Antony has had to send to London for a dozen more stockings. He was so put out by Boots’ naughtiness that he says when the baby comes Boots must find another place to sleep other than at the end of our bed. Imagine! I cannot, and so I told him. The baby is just an excuse to banish poor Boots to the dressing room. Of course I will not hear of it, baby or no. It is the baby who must become used to having Boots for company. Do you not agree with me, Kitty?”
Kitty smiled in understanding. Knowing how devoted her friend was to her animals there was little likelihood of Lord Temple succeeding in having his way. Not that she thought it likely he would carry out his threat. Antony Temple was devoted to his wife. Indeed, they were a blissfully happy couple, as happy and devoted as the Earl and Countess were to one another. Surely being so happy in her own marriage, Caroline would want for other couples, one couple in particular, to be just as happy, reasoned Kitty. Which made her determined to make her best friend realize that the elderly couple was deserving of their happiness too. She wondered how best to broach the subject of the Prince and Lady Reanay, and was so deep in thought on the matter that she did not see Mr. Tom Allenby at her shoulder.
Lady Caroline seemed to read Kitty’s mind, and asked her in a conspiratorial whisper, “Jane tells me you’ve been playing host to His Highness, and that Aunt Alice has done her best to make certain he’s not been a burden on your time. You have more patience than I, dearest. He is always so brimful of questions I cannot answer!”
“Oh, His Highness has been no trouble at all,” Kitty assured her earnestly. “He is a most congenial guest. In truth, I was rarely inconvenienced by his presence as the Prince and Lady Reanay were able to amuse themselves—”
“Of that I have no doubt,” Lady Caroline interrupted with a smile that lifted her brows. “Tom!” she added, putting out her hand to the young man and drawing him into the conversation. “Tom! Be truthful. Has the Russian Prince’s visit monopolized poor Kitty’s time, and burdened her with a sack-full of unanswerable questions?”
“No—No, my lady. That is, Miss Aldershot has been most patient with the Prince,” Mr. Tom Allenby assured Lady Caroline, a quick glance down at Kitty, hoping to catch her eye. “His Highness could not have asked for a better guide to our customs at Christmastime. And I do believe Miss Aldershot was able to answer every one of the Prince’s questions admirably.”
“Admirably? Well there’s high praise indeed, Kitty dearest.” Lady Caroline smiled, but then peered at Tom Allenby, curious. “Are you perfectly well, Tom? You’ve a flush to your cheeks, and just now you swallowed hard—twice…” She took a step away, suddenly alarmed for her baby, a hand to the front of her velvet bodice. “You’ve not caught cold, have you?”
“No! No! Nothing of the sort, my lady!” Tom assured her, color ripening in his cheeks. “It must be the sudden warmth in this room after the cold of the outdoors—”
“Oh no! Not now. Not on this night. Earlier. With Ned. To make snow angels,” Mr. Allenby assured her, and took the opportunity to move closer as Lady Caroline had turned away to catch her husband’s attention with a wave of her fan. “Miss Aldershot…” he began nervously, “Miss Aldershot, I wonder—I wonder if I may now have that word with you?”
Instinctively, Kitty moved into him and looked up into his flushed handsome face, acutely aware that she too was blushing from nervousness. Yet she managed a bright smile and nodded. “Yes, yes, Mr. Allenby. I should like that very—”
“Come along, Kitty!” Lady Caroline demanded, taking her best friend by the arm and pulling her away, oblivious to the conversation between the young couple. She joined her husband and the rest of the family in front of the Yule log, saying to Lord Temple, “Antony, perhaps now would be a good a time as any to settle that wager you have with Salt.”
“Wager, my love?” asked Lord Temple, bewildered, as he had been deep in conversation with Prince Mordvinov about the winters in St. Petersburg. When his wife opened wide her green eyes and jerked her red hair coiffure in the Prince’s direction, Lord Temple knew at once to what she was alluding and grinned. “Ah! Yes, that wager.”
“Wager?” drawled Salt, suitably blank-faced, though he, too, knew to what his sister was alluding. When she glared at him, he inclined his head. “Just so, my dear… Caro thinks—and so do we all—that now, with the family gathered for Christmastime, would be an auspicious time for Your Highness to make known your intentions.”
“My intentions…?” the Prince responded vaguely.
The Earl saw Kitty’s eyes widen on the word and he smiled crookedly. “My dear Prince, why, if the Christmas angel is aware of your purpose, then so too should the rest of the family…”
“It is not the time to appear dull-witted, Timur,” Lady Reanay hissed, adding with a sigh of resignation and a look up at her wide-shouldered nephew, “Though I fear I do not know if any time will be a good time, my dear boy.”
“Ah! That purpose. Yes! Yes! I agree with you, my lord,” said the Prince, and with a smile, first at Kitty, and then at Lady Reanay, became serious. “With all your family gathered, this is a most correct time for me—for us—to make our announcement.”
Prince Mordvinov then looked at Lady Reanay, and she at him. And he had such a conspiratorial gleam in his eye that her frown lifted into a smile realizing the absurdity of the situation at their age. It took only this exchange of smiles for the elderly couple to fall into a fit of the giggles—Lady Reanay behind her fluttering fan, the Prince into his fist. Both then looked to Lady Reanay’s family, who were all politely waiting for the Prince to speak, wondering at the response their announcement would have on them.
The Prince’s family in Russia had reacted badly to his news, and consequences had been threatened, one of which was forbidding his return to Russia and all contact with his family, effectively exiling him from Russia altogether. Of course the Prince disdained these threats. He wrote to his family, and left behind a sealed letter for his Empress before embarking on his trade mission to England. In it, he told her that he quite understood if she did banish him from court. After all he had not sought her permission, or even told her of his intentions once he reached English shores, but he did ask her to allow him to continue having contact with his family. Even if that contact was to be had outside the Russian empire in some foreign capital. Since leaving St. Petersburg he had not regretted for a minute his decision, or his actions. As to the consequences, he merely shrugged and left those to God and others.
But when he remained silent, his gaze on Lady Reanay, it was left to Antony, Lord Temple, to move time on. He rudely waggled a finger at his Russian friend, a grin splitting his handsome face, before turning to the Earl and saying bluntly, “I told you, Salt! You owe me twenty pounds. His Highness has already done the deed! Is that not so, Your Highness?”
The Prince pulled a face and shrugged a shoulder, a little embarrassed to be the subject of a wager for a mere twenty pounds, but nonetheless accepting his friend’s pronouncement with good grace. So it was left to Lady Reanay, somewhat deflated the momentous news she had to share with her family was announced in such a cavalier fashion, and the Prince not given the opportunity to offer it up on behalf of them both. She was also a little shaken her nephew and the rest of her family were confident in their prediction, and not at all convinced they knew precisely what they had in fact done.
She blinked up at her nephew, and said petulantly, “I am not at all overjoyed to find that His Highness and I are the subject of a wager between my nephews. And I am not convinced you have the slightest idea of what you’re talking about!”
“Dear me, Aunt Alice,” Salt drawled. “Do tell me otherwise so that I can keep my twenty pounds.”
The Countess gasped. “Salt! You don’t mean that in the least.” She went forward and kissed Lady Reanay’s rouged cheek. “I—we—all of us—are so very happy for you both!”
The old lady’s eyes misted and she touched Jane’s cheek. “Thank you, my dear. I had hoped you at least would think so.” She looked about at the rest of her family. “That perhaps you would all understand, and not be disappointed—”
“Disappointed? Why would you think so?” Lord Temple replied, dipping to kiss his aunt’s cheek before sticking out his hand to grip the Prince’s hand. “Jane is right. I—we all—are exceedingly happy for you both.”
Salt was next to kiss Lady Reanay’s cheek and then shake the Prince’s hand. “Of course. Though my consequence is bruised you did not first seek me out to ask permission of the head of the family before you became engaged to Aunt Alice—”
“Be truthful, Magnus!” Jane interrupted rudely and laughed behind her hand when the Earl’s nostrils pinched. “You were more for the match than Caroline—”
“Oh, no, Jane,” Lady Caroline pleaded. “You know why I had doubts—”
“—until she was introduced to the Prince,” Jane continued with a smile at Caroline, and then at the Prince. “Please forgive me, Your Highness. But Caroline’s reservations were sound, and stated only because of her love for her aunt.”
“We couldn’t allow Aunt Alice to marry just anybody,” Lady Caroline explained, a guilty flush to her cheeks at being the lone voice of dissent.
The Prince threw up a hand good-naturedly.
“I am not offended in the least, I assure you,” he murmured politely, a little taken aback by the effusive welcome of Lady Reanay’s family. He happened to glance over at Kitty then, and such was her lovely smile that a lump formed in his throat and he quickly caught up Lady Reanay’s hand and announced, “We—I—must tell you everything! Particularly on this of all nights, and before our Christmas angel.” He looked into Lady Reanay’s eyes. “Do you not now think so, Alice?”
“Yes, Timur. It is what you wanted all along, but I was the one who insisted on keeping up the pretense until—”
“I know. I know. But that no longer matters. All that does is from this night forward we no longer skulk about corridors in the cold and dark! I am far too old for such—how do you English say—antics.”
When the Prince said this his gaze locked on Kitty, and he was not surprised at her quick intake of breath. He inclined his white head in acknowledgement of her astuteness, and the fact she did not blurt out the obvious, and allowed him to remove the metaphorical blindfolds from Lady Reanay’s family.
“You will be disappointed, we know it, and perhaps none more so than you, my dear Lord Temple,” Prince Mordvinov explained. “To have lost your wager with Lord Salt.”
“You are not engaged to Aunt Alice?” It was Lady Caroline and there was genuine disappointment in her tone. “I do not understand…”
“Not engaged. No. We are—we are already married,�
� announced the Prince with a note of apology, and a smile at his wife. “We were married at the Russian embassy a month ago, just days after I arrived in London with the trade delegation. But we thought it best to keep our marriage to ourselves—Alice wanted us to wait—until you had returned from your honeymoon,” he said to Lord Temple and Lady Caroline. “And until I had spent some time with the family, so you could know me better.”
There was a moment of collective silence as this most surprising piece of news was digested by all family members. Mr. Tom Allenby was the first to find his voice.
“This is wonderful news, Your Highnesses!”
“Yes! Yes! Wonderful news indeed!” agreed Lord Temple, and the rest of the family.
“Though perhaps you will be disappointed not to be able to arrange a wedding, my love,” Lord Salt said at his wife’s ear.
“Now that you are aware Lady Reanay is in fact already my wife,” the Prince announced, “her correct title is Her Highness the Princess Mordvinova—”
“Rot, Timur! My family will continue to call me Aunt Alice. And when we are in England, you will be known as Uncle Timur. I insist.”
The Prince’s look of mock horror at such a pronouncement sent everyone into whoops of laughter, and with another round of congratulations, the wassail bowl was brought out and toasts made: To the happily-married couple; to the Temples’ news of a baby on the way; and to the goodwill that Christmas brings.
Kitty was so caught up in the elderly couple’s news, and the ensuing merriment she completely forgot that Mr. Tom Allenby wished to have a private word with her. That is until the toasts were being made, and discovered the said young gentleman staring at her over the rim of his creamware cup. She smiled shyly at him, and seeing this as an invitation to join her, he returned her smile and made a step toward her, only for the Lady Caroline to once again claim her friend. But it was not many minutes before Lord Temple came for his wife, and Mr. Allenby was able to approach Kitty with the excuse of having her empty wassail cup refilled.