by Brenda Hiatt
"And I'll be there, as well," Silas added. "Indeed, I wouldn't miss this for the world."
Thor was less than pleased by this news, convinced as he was that Moore had designs on Violet's fortune. Still, he said, "There, Violet. With all of us to keep an eye on you, perhaps you'll make it through an entire season without scandal."
"Perhaps," she agreed, "though I shouldn't advise anyone to wager anything of value upon it."
They all laughed at that, and if everyone's laughter but Violet's was strained, they all pretended not to notice.
"For such a brief visit, that certainly was a productive one," Violet said as their coach trundled down the main street of Ashcombe early the next morning. "How excessively pleased you must be, Dina, to discover your brother had no designs on your fortune after all. I was prepared to find him a thorough villain, and was excessively relieved when he proved quite the opposite. I should not have minded staying another week or two."
Dina glanced at Thor, but though he frowned slightly, he said nothing to disabuse Violet of her assumption. After a slight hesitation, therefore, she only said that she was sure Violet would have an opportunity to visit Ashcombe again sometime.
"I hope so. Still, I confess that it will be pleasant to sleep in my own bed again, Mother's inevitable scolding notwithstanding," Violet continued. "Not that the bed I slept in at your home wasn't perfectly comfortable, of course," she added hastily.
Dina smiled. "No, I understand what you mean. After so much travel, I appreciated the familiarity of my own room, if only for two nights."
It was disconcerting to think that it might be months, even years, before she returned to the only home she'd ever known —if she ever did so at all. At least she'd been able to bring along her dumbbells and exercise clothes, for they had hired a second coach to follow them, packed with most of Dina's worldly possessions, along with her maid. Her mother's jewel case she had tucked into her own valise.
She hoped that once she settled into whatever routine there might be at Plumrose, she would be able to resume her physical regimen. Its temporary cessation had proved it was far more important to her than she had realized.
"How pleased Mother must be that you have married at last," Violet said to her brother after a few moments of silence. "No doubt she will throw a grander Christmas Eve ball than ever to celebrate. Indeed, I won't be surprised if she has already sent out the announcements."
"I will," Thor replied, "considering that I did not include word of my marriage in the letter I sent."
Violet stared —as did Dina. "You didn't tell our parents?" Violet exclaimed. "But . . . why not?"
"My main concern was to inform them of your safety, and to assure Mother that you had not married Plunkett, so that she would not continue to fret. My own news, I thought, would be better delivered in person than by letter."
"I suppose," Violet said doubtfully, but then she brightened. "This will be much better, now I think on it. Mother will be so overcome by your news, she may well forget to punish me at all. How clever of you, Grant."
He arched a brow. "Believe me, mitigating the consequences of your foolishness was by no means my intent. Should Mother be distracted, you can trust me to remind her of what is due you on that head."
Violet made a face at him that Dina might have considered amusing, had she not been struggling with growing dismay. She was to meet Thor's parents, be introduced as his bride, without so much as a word to prepare them for her arrival? How awkward that would be. Nor could she help wondering why he had chosen not to tell them.
Perhaps he was not so confident of their reception as he and Violet claimed. Or perhaps she was not the only one to consider the possibility of an annulment? The thought that he might have been planning for just that, from the very moment of their marriage, was sobering. But then, why should he have changed his mind?
She wished she dared to ask him any of the questions now swirling in her brain, but she could not— particularly with Violet in the coach.
"The roads still seem solid," she commented, simply for something to say, when the silence began to feel strained.
"Yes," Violet agreed. "Can we reach Plumrose by tonight, Grant, do you think?"
"Not likely, though if this frost lasts and we can avoid any lengthy delays when we change horses, we should reach it by midday tomorrow," he said, glancing out the window. "It is perhaps only eighty miles from here across country, but the roads are not as direct as we could wish, making our actual journey something over one hundred miles, I would estimate."
Dina did not know whether to be glad of a day's reprieve before meeting Lord and Lady Rumble or to dread spending another night at an inn with her new husband. The night they'd spent on the way to Ashcombe had been . . . unsettling, to say the least.
As it happened, she need not have worried. After a relatively uneventful day, they stopped for the night in Newark, a town boasting several large coaching inns. To Dina's vast relief, Violet did not protest when Thor bespoke three separate rooms at the Bunch of Grapes, only sending her brother a reproachful glance. He ignored it—as did Dina.
With uncharacteristic discretion, Violet waited until they were alone in a private parlor, awaiting their supper, to say, "Honestly, Grant, one would never guess that the two of you are on your wedding journey."
"I've never known a gentleman to bring his sister along on his wedding journey," he replied. "I regard this trip more in the light of fetching an errant sibling home, with a wedding along the way."
"Then you do plan to take a proper wedding trip later?" She glanced from him to Dina hopefully, but sighed when neither of them gave her the least encouragement. "Sometimes, I think I must be the only romantic left in the world," she grumbled.
Dina had quite a task to keep her expression neutral while her mind conjured up all manner of inappropriate fantasies in response to Violet's suggestion. What was the matter with her? Thor had given her no reason to expect a wedding trip or any other trappings of a romantic marriage. Nor did she want them.
Once she had that settled firmly in her mind, she risked a surreptitious glance at Thor. He was regarding his sister with mild amusement, proving that his mind was not engaged similarly to her own. She was just telling herself that she was grateful for that when his eyes flicked to hers.
Mortified to be caught looking at him when the conversation was on such a topic, she quickly looked away, blushing to the roots of her hair, but not before she saw something in his eyes that snatched at her breath. It was as though that quick glance stretched a fine wire from her senses to his, connecting them.
She cast about for something to say, some mundane comment upon the room or the day's journey just past, anything to prove she was unaffected, but her mind was a blank. Thankfully, the parlor door opened at that moment, rescuing her.
"Our supper is here," she said, as though the others couldn't see that for themselves. The grateful smile she sent the servant caused him to stumble, nearly spilling the soup.
They ate in near silence, punctuated only by occasional comments about the food or the next day's journey. Dina had no idea whether Thor felt as uncomfortably affected by her nearness as she did by his, but could only be glad when he suggested they all retire immediately after eating. Even Violet was tired enough to make no protest.
Alone in her room a short time later, Dina found it difficult to sleep, even after such a long day. Her mind kept going back to that shared glance before supper, and to that night at the Spotted Dog, then forward to her uncertain reception at Plumrose tomorrow. Finally, exasperated with herself, she climbed out of bed and sat on the carpeted floor to stretch and do a round of calisthenics.
Half an hour later, she finished with a few dozen push-up exercises and climbed back into bed. The activity had calmed her mind somewhat and soon she drifted off to sleep.
"Almost home," Thor announced as the coach passed through the village of Rumbleton before turning onto the road leading to Plumrose. It would be his
first visit home in nearly six months —the first visit in years where his mother would not be asking him several times a day why he had not yet found a bride. He smiled.
"Look, Dina," Violet said, pointing at the last large building in the village. "The Red Lion is where most of the local assemblies are held. I shall ask Mother as soon as we get home how many there will be before Christmas."
Dina obediently looked at the indicated house, though Thor thought he detected a trace of anxiety in her expression. "It . . . it seems a very well-appointed inn."
"Oh, it is. A very fine inn, with a large room upstairs that is perfect for dancing. Mother may try to forbid me from going to any balls as a punishment, but I will point out that you will not wish to go without me—and you must attend, for we'll want introduce you to everyone as soon as may be. Won't that be fun?"
"Yes. Fun." There was no mistaking the strain in her smile now.
Thor sent his sister a quick frown. "Pray don't overwhelm her with people this first week, Vi. Dina will want to settle in, get to know the house and grounds —and Mother and Father, of course. There will be time enough for parties once she's comfortable at Plumrose."
Violet pouted, but Dina's grateful glance was all the reward he needed —indeed, it affected him far more than he cared to admit, as her very presence increasingly did. Making her smile had become a regular goal of his on this journey, for her smiles did something undeniably pleasurable to his vitals.
Dangerous ground, that.
"Parties are a fine way to get to know people," Violet pointed out, "and Mother enjoys them. I should like to keep her occupied, and I'd think you would, as well."
Thor shrugged. "I have no reason to fear her attention —not now." He gave Dina a wink that made her eyes widen. When she glanced at Violet questioningly, he tried not to feel slighted.
"I know you've heard us say that Mother has been wanting Grant to marry," Violet explained in response to Dina's unspoken question. "In fact, she has been after him so continually of late that she quite drove him to distraction —and away from Plumrose entirely for months at a time. If it were not so unromantic, I would say that he married you simply to get some peace from her."
"Violet," he protested, glancing at Dina in concern, though in fact his sister's words were at least half true. "That was only one of many considerations, as I think you know by now."
Dina did not meet his eye. "It is good to think that the benefits of our marriage will not be all on one side."
"I certainly hope not," he said, wondering again whether he'd done the right thing to refuse her offer of an annulment.
How, really, did this marriage benefit Dina, after all? It was small wonder she had suggested dissolving it on learning that her fortune was not affected after all. He had believed she would be better off— safer— married to him, but she did not seem to agree. Was he as much a tyrant as her brother to hold her to their agreement now?
It was an unsettling thought, but luckily he did not have long to dwell on it. Only a few minutes later they pulled to a halt on the broad gravel drive that swept through the center of Plumrose Park to end in a circle before the house. The driver opened the coach door and Thor handed down his sister and his bride before directing the removal of Dina's trunks from the second coach.
As they all turned toward the house, the front door flew open and Lady Rumble, resplendant in a mauve day dress that made the most of her Juno-esque proportions, hurried down the broad stone steps toward them.
"Grant! Violet! Here you are at last. I've been expecting you these three days, at least, as I have been telling your father hourly. What ever can— Oh!" Her flow of chatter stopped abruptly as she noticed Dina. "Who—? That is—"
Thor took Dina's hand in his. "Mother, I would like you to meet Dina Turpin —my wife."
His mother's mouth made a perfect O of surprise, her expression of amazement as extreme as he had hoped it would be. That, and her long, uncharacteristic silence was almost worth all of the difficulties he had endured over the past several days.
He couldn't help grinning, and a glance showed that Violet was doing the same. Dina, however, looked wary.
"Is it not the most famous surprise, Mother?" Violet exclaimed. "And was Grant not the slyest thing in the world, to say nothing of it in his letter?"
Dina looked from Thor's satisfied smile to Violet's, then back at Lady Rumble, just in time to see her recover from her pardonable shock. Her open mouth closed, then opened again into a smile as wide as her son's. Moving swiftly foward, she enveloped Dina in a hug that nearly smothered her.
"Married!" she all but shrieked, though to Dina, still embedded in her bosom, it was muffled. "At last, at last. Grant, you are forgiven your tardiness, most completely forgiven indeed. Married! I am delighted to make your acquaintance— Dina, was it? Oh, how I shall love introducing my daughter-in-law about the neighborhood."
Finally released, Dina sucked air into her deprived lungs before answering. "I am honored to meet you, my lady, and apologize for arriving unannounced. I only learned yesterday that Mr. Turpin had not written you about our marriage."
Lady Rumble turned fond eyes upon her son. "Oh, dear Grant has always delighted in surprising me, even as a child. Quite the prankster, our Grant. This is a surprise to cap all, however, and the happiest one I can remember.
"Oh! We must go and tell Lord Rumble. He will be as pleased as I am, I know. Come, come, all of you." Dragging Dina by the hand, she headed up the steps to the house.
"See?" Violet whispered in response to the alarmed glance Dina sent over her shoulder to be sure that she and Thor were following.
Dina managed a dazed nod. Though relieved that her reception was so positive, nothing had prepared her for the whirlwind that was Lady Rumble. Her hand felt enclosed in a lace-covered vise.
They passed through the great hall so quickly that she was unable to identify the marble busts in alcoves along the way, or to notice more than that the stone floor was highly polished and the furnishings both plentiful and fine. She was pulled inexorably past the great staircase and into a double-doored room on the right, which proved to be a superbly stocked library.
"My dear Lord Rumble, only look," Lady Rumble cried as they entered. "Grant has brought home a bride, at last. Is it not the grandest thing?"
Lord Rumble stood up from behind a cluttered desk to peer at Dina over a pair of half-moon spectacles. "A bride, say you? That's nice, my dear. And Violet home safe too, I see." In contrast to his wife's rapturous tones, his voice was so calm as to be almost bored.
Dina smiled politely up at the baron, noting that he was very nearly as tall as his son, though substantially thinner. "I . . . I am honored to meet you, my lord," she said, just as she had to Lady Rumble before. "And I apologize—"
"No apologies necessary," he replied kindly. "Only see how happy you have made my wife. I presume you have a name?"
"Dina," she said, feeling rather foolish.
"Dina," he repeated. "I will endeavor to remember it. I must thank you, son, for bringing your sister home as I asked, and for answering your mother's fondest wish into the bargain. And now, if you will all excuse me, I was just in the middle of translating a fragment of Theagenes's defense of Homer's epic style."
They all retreated from the library, Dina feeling more overwhelmed and confused than ever.
"Don't mind him, my dear," Lady Rumble said as she led them upstairs to the drawing room. "Lord Rumble is a dedicated scholar —a genius, really. His mind is always full of Greek and Latin and mathematics and such things, but I can tell that he is nearly as delighted to have you here as I am."
Dina glanced up at Thor and he gave her a reassuring nod and an even more reassuring squeeze of her shoulder. "She's right. It's a high honor that he intends to remember your name, for he forgets mine on a regular basis."
"Too true," Lady Rumble agreed. "Now, suppose you all tell me how this surprise wedding came about." She took a seat by the fire but then jumpe
d back up, before any of them could answer.
"Goodness, I nearly forgot," she exclaimed. "I must speak with Mrs. Hornbuckle at once about dinner, which I'm determined will be a special one, given the occasion. And she must see to your room as well, Dina, since we had no word of your coming. Though perhaps you would prefer to share Grant's this evening?" She gave them both a broad wink.
Dina felt the color rushing to her cheeks. "I, ah—" she stammered, having no earthly idea how to respond in a way that would not offend her new mother-in-law.
"I'm sure Dina would like to have her own chamber," Thor said firmly, rescuing her. "It's not as though we are short on space."
"Of course not, but newlyweds, you know . . ." She trailed off with a titter. "I'll have Mrs. Hornbuckle move you into the west corner, Grant, so that Dina may have the adjoining room. Your usual room has no connection to the one next to it and you'll want easy—and private—access to each other, I know."
Again she winked, and again Dina felt herself blushing. Finally, after a few more suggestive nods and smiles, Lady Rumble went off to find the housekeeper, leaving the new arrivals alone for a moment.
"You see, Dina, I come by my penchant for romance quite naturally," Violet said with a grin. "I am a mere dilettante compared to Mother."
"It's true," Thor agreed. "I'm afraid we are in for some embarrassment at her hands. I should have warned you, but I'd hoped she might restrain herself somewhat, at least on first meeting you."
Dina looked from one to the other. "At least you were both right that she seems happy about our marriage. But what are we to tell her about how it took place?"
"The truth, more or less," Thor replied with a shrug. "That you helped to prevent Violet's marriage to Plunkett, and that in return I agreed to help you out of a difficult situation."
Dina nodded. "Perhaps once she knows that it was purely a marriage of expediency, she will cease making romantic allusions."