The Vicar's Daughter

by Josi S. Kilpack

  “She recognized it was not Evan’s script,” Lenora offered, “and felt I was trying to exact revenge on her by creating a situation that would bring trouble to both her and Mr. Glenside.”

  “By meeting in the glen against my wishes?” Mr. Wilton clarified.

  “I did not know of your wishes, Papa. I assumed the reasons they were kept apart was because of my feelings, not yours.”

  “And now you are hoping I will change my feelings?”

  Evan caught his breath and glanced at Cassie, who also seemed to be holding her breath. Would Mr. Wilton change his mind? And if he did, what then?

  “I do,” Lenora said with a nod. “I bear neither of them any ill will and, in fact, I very much want them to find happiness with one another, if that is possible.”

  “He broke an engagement to you and damaged your reputation, perhaps beyond repair.”

  Cassie cringed.

  Lenora, however, spoke, and her voice was strong. “Do you remember the Bible story of when the Pharisees brought the woman caught in the act of adultery to Christ and asked Him to pass judgment on her? Christ was in an impossible position because he could not overstep Roman jurisdiction nor could He go against Mosaic law. He could give no right answer, so he asked the accusers to look inward rather than to either of the laws, which he could not satisfy. Mr. Glenside was put in an equally impossible place.”

  She paused for breath, and perhaps strength. Evan sent a silent prayer in her direction in hopes to help her. As it was, he had never seen Lenora speak with such confidence. He’d never heard her say so many words at one time.

  “He could not marry me when his heart was somewhere else, but neither could he follow his heart due to his proposal to me. He did the only thing he could, which was to turn away from us both.”

  “My dear Lenora,” Mr. Wilton breathed.

  “Don’t do that, Papa,” she said in a softer tone. “Do not let me be the victim of myself any longer.” She waved toward Cassie, who was blinking back tears.

  Evan wished he could reach for her hand. He hated that she felt responsible for all the pain.

  “Cassie did for me what I couldn’t—what I wouldn’t—do for myself. She was trying to help me, Papa, and I believe that her intent was pure at the start.”

  Papa shook his head. “She was trying to satisfy herself. She wanted you married so that she might be out in society.”

  “She was trying to make up for my deficits—as you all have done all of my life.”

  Mr. Wilton straightened, and Evan considered once more that he should leave. The things being shared were far too personal for his ears. But to interrupt was unthinkable.

  “In Bath, I was forced to speak with people, answer questions about myself, and interact differently than I ever have before. Aunt Gwen did not protect me, and I had to find my own way with people I’d never met before. Cassie once gave me advice on how to hold myself, and I used it every day I was away. Though it hasn’t been easy, I have improved, Papa, more in the last weeks than in all the years ahead of it. I am disappointed in how I have behaved until now—so quick to let others attend to me and make things easy—and I am determined to be better. The first step is to make this right. I want you to lift whatever sanctions you have put upon Cassie and Evan and let them follow their hearts.”

  The room fell silent. Evan could do nothing but blink.

  “Perhaps it is not proper,” Lenora said after several seconds of silence, “but it is right, Papa, and I think you know it is. They have my blessing, and I hope, from the bottom of my heart, that they shall have yours as well.”

  Cassie could barely breathe. Between the astounding things Lenora had said and being so close to Evan, she feared she was dreaming. She kept her eyes trained on Papa, fearful that when he spoke, the fragile hope she had dared build would shatter. The room was still, like the morning after a heavy snowfall, and she wished she knew what to do. Should she state her opinion and beg for Papa’s mercy, or would her eagerness appear vulgar? None of what Lenora had said could discount the fact that Cassie was still the culprit of this mess, and she dared not try to offer a defense for fear that the prejudice against her would be even further ignited.

  “Cassie,” Papa said, his tone unreadable as he turned his eyes to her. “Mr. Glenside.” He moved his gaze to Evan. “Please leave us. I would like to speak with Lenora alone.”

  Cassie’s hope froze in her chest. Did that mean he wanted to speak more candidly than he would with her and Evan there? But he was dismissing them . . . together. “Yes, Papa,” she said, turning toward the door while her heart thundered in her chest.

  “Yes, sir.” Evan stepped past Cassie so he could open the door for her. She glanced at Lenora before leaving. Her sister stood opposite Papa’s desk, her neck red and her hands clasped behind her back while she stared at the floor.

  “Thank you, Lenora.” If Lenora was going to get in trouble once the door was closed, Cassie wanted to make sure she knew she had Cassie’s gratitude.

  Lenora glanced up and smiled nervously.

  “Cassie,” Papa said as Cassie stepped over the threshold. She turned even faster. Evan quickly stepped out of the way so she might meet her father’s eyes.

  “Papa?”

  “Gather your mother.” He looked at Evan. “Call your uncle and your mother and meet us in our parlor at four o’clock. We shall all be there.”

  “Yes, Papa,” Cassie said at the same moment Evan said, “Yes, sir.”

  Then Cassie exited and Evan shut the door. She turned to face him. He was so close to her she could see the tiny white stars in the blue of his eyes.

  “What will happen in that parlor, do you think?” she whispered.

  One moment he was looking down at her with those eyes, and in the next, he cradled her face in his hands and kissed her. She startled, but then grasped his wrists in case he tried to pull away. They both stood there, lips touching still and silent for the space of time it took a starling to dart from beneath the eaves. Then she tightened her grip on his wrists and kissed him back. Her hands slid up and around his neck as though they belonged there, and he lowered his hands from her face to her shoulders and around her back. Her mind, which was so often spinning, became blessedly still. No thought existed save for him and for her and for what might be. What could be.

  Finally he drew away, allowing her to look into those beautiful blue eyes again. “Let us pray that is not the only affection we ever share,” he whispered.

  “I shall pray it with every beat of my heart,” she whispered back. She looked at his lips, eager for another kiss to seal such sentiments, but her mind was moving again. They were standing beside the church, mere feet from her father on the other side of the door and in full view of the vicarage across the graveyard.

  Evan took a step back but held onto both her hands as though determined to remain connected. “I so feared I would cause more damage by turning in that letter.”

  “I so feared you would go to the glen.”

  He smiled with one side of his mouth. “I nearly did.”

  “But you were a man of your word and that may very well have saved us.”

  He smiled fully and leaned forward for one more kiss, which she savored for the moment it lasted.

  “I shall fetch my uncle and my mother,” he said, finally releasing her. “And I will see you in the parlor at four o’clock.” He tapped her on the nose, then turned and fairly ran for the front of the church. Cassie waited until she heard the thundering hooves of his horse before she turned back to the vicarage, lifted her skirts, and ran for the back door.

  It is the meek and the mild who will inherit, Mama had said. How she hoped she had been meek enough and mild enough to prove the proverb right.

  Papa may have summoned what could be the most important conference of Cassie’s life, but Cassie had promised Mrs. As
hby she would take responsibility for removing the wash from the line. One would think there would be a reprieve, given the circumstances, but Mama was Mama, and she’d been quick to remind Cassie of her responsibility. Mrs. Ashby had left, and Cassie started on the driest linens in hopes that by the time she reached the wash most recently put on the line, those items would be dry too.

  By the time she finished, it was half past three. She scrambled toward her room, calling for a basin of warm water as she darted through the kitchen. She dearly wanted to change into a more suitable dress. While there was something endearing about Evan not being put off by her wretched appearance that afternoon, she would very much like to make a better presentation.

  Young did not arrive for ten minutes. Cassie spilled water from the basin down the first dress she put on, then caught her hair on the clasp of the next dress, and finally banged her shin against the dressing table so hard that she lost her balance and jarred her wrist when she fell. Suffice it to say, her preparations for the afternoon meeting were a fair representation of all the mishaps and difficulties she had faced throughout her acquaintance with Mr. Evan Glenside.

  By the time Young had applied a tight bandage to reduce the swelling in Cassie’s aching wrist, it was a quarter after the hour. Cassie hurried down the stairs and threw open the parlor door with more strength than she meant to, causing it to bang against the wall behind it. Every eye in the room turned to her, and Evan, Mr. Glenside, and Papa all rose to their feet.

  “I am so sorry I am late,” she said, wishing she were not out of breath. She hurried into the room, taking the empty space beside Mama on the settee. “Please, continue.”

  Mama laughed. “Continue? It is done.”

  Cassie looked at Mama, then at Papa, whose expression was rather blank, and finally to Evan, who was still standing and smiling at her in such a way to give her hopes flight. Even Lenora, quiet and still in a chair beside the settee, had a smile on her face.

  “What is done?” Cassie asked.

  “I think to say ‘it is done’ gives too strong an impression,” the older Mr. Glenside said. “Perhaps we ought to excuse ourselves.”

  Everyone seemed to agree and exited the parlor, leaving only Evan, still standing, and Cassie, still in her seat. Once the door shut, he came to sit by Cassie. He took her injured wrist in his hand, turning it gently, but perhaps not gently enough. She winced slightly, and he handled it even gentler still.

  “What happened?” he asked, looking into her face.

  “I’m ridiculous,” Cassie said. “If you are to marry me, you should know that. . . . Not that you are . . . or . . . goodness.” Her face felt like a kettle left on the stove too long, and she tried to pull her hand away. He wouldn’t release it and lowered his head and kissed the skin just above the bandage. It was no longer just her face on fire.

  He looked up at her through his lashes. “What else must I know about you if I am to marry you?”

  He kissed her arm just below her elbow. She shivered.

  “I . . . I have opinions about everything.”

  “Everything?” He kissed just above her elbow.

  “Yes,” she said. “Everything.”

  He kissed her again, further up her arm. “What about horses?”

  “I love horses.”

  Another kiss, this one below the hem of her sleeve. “Parsnips?”

  “I-I love parsnips.”

  “Spiders?” He kissed her collarbone, and her eyes fell closed.

  “I don’t care for spiders, but I can kill them when I ha-have to.”

  She felt his breath against her ear before he spoke next. “And what do you think of a common-born man, ill-equipped for high society, who jilted your sister and then wished every day for a way to see you despite promising your father he wouldn’t?”

  The kiss he placed on her jaw sent pure fire through her veins, and she reached for him while moving her lips to meet his with a kiss of such passion that her mind was still again. “Is he particularly devoted to his family?” she asked between breathless kisses.

  “He is.”

  “And a man of his word in every way?”

  More kissing. “Nearly to his detriment.”

  “And does he love me despite knowing the very worst parts of my character?”

  Evan laughed low in his throat and kissed her again. “He does.”

  “Then I have no objection to such a man.” Cassie pulled back and looked him in the eye. The adoration she saw there, pure and unmasked, made her throat tight with emotion. “Am I to assume my parents gave their blessing?”

  “It seems Lenora can be quite convincing when she’s of a mind to. And it seems she was very much of a mind to.”

  So many poor choices on Cassie’s part. So much hardship endured by so many people because of her actions. But, then, so many prayers. So strong a desire to make things right. Never again would she regret the need to copy a Bible verse so that the voice of God might imprint itself more indelibly upon her heart. Only, as a married woman, she would not face that discipline ever again. A married woman.

  “I can’t believe it,” she breathed.

  “Then let me convince you further,” Evan said, kissing her until she had no doubt at all that he was meant for her and she was meant for him.

  The daughter of a vicar would never be married by special license, therefore Father read the banns in church as required for the next three Sundays. Not everyone in the village approved of this turn, but the entire Wilton family held their chins up high and ignored the whisperings that accompanied the readings. A united front gave little soil for the complaints to grow.

  While wedding preparations took place at the vicarage, Evan’s mother and sisters took residence of the Dower House, allowing the apartments they had been using to be available for the newlyweds. Cassie’s wrist healed without incident, and Rose was delivered of two beautiful, although small, baby boys. Cassie reminded herself, almost daily, that this was truly happening, and yet there was little time for such ponderings. Even a simple wedding required a great deal of preparation.

  The church was cleaned top to bottom, and the vicarage was humming with sewing, baking, packing, and a hundred other things that Mama managed gracefully. She had done this four times before, after all.

  Christopher and Percy returned from school on the Monday prior to Wednesday’s ceremony, along with Cassie’s sisters not already residing in Leagrave. There was barely a moment for anything other than wedding work and wedding talk, and a great deal of attention for Rose and her babies.

  Lenora had continued to stay on with Rose, but she returned to the vicarage the night before the wedding so that Mary’s family might stay with Rose. It was easier to fit her family of six there than it was at the vicarage, which was overflowing. The evening was loud and chaotic until finally, blessedly, everyone began retiring to their rooms.

  Lenora, quiet as always, was making her exit from the drawing room when Cassie hurried to catch up with her. After her impassioned plea to Papa, Lenora had quickly retreated to her shy disposition. Cassie took Lenora’s arm. “Walk with me in the yard?” she whispered.

  Lenora looked as though she might object.

  “Please,” Cassie added.

  Lenora swallowed whatever she might have said and nodded.

  Cassie steered them past the stairs toward the back door. Everything had happened so quickly that Cassie had had little time to talk with her sister. She suspected that Lenora preferred it, but Cassie could not in good conscience make her vows tomorrow before speaking privately with Lenora. Without Lenora’s mercy, this turn in Cassie’s life could never have taken place, and yet the guilt Cassie felt about her actions still haunted her.

  Soon enough the sisters stepped into the quiet yard, lit by a half-moon. The night was pleasantly cool.

  “Are you all right?” Cassie aske
d amid the sound of night birds and crickets.

  “I am,” Lenora said, patting her sister’s hand and giving her a reassuring smile.

  “But you would not tell me if you weren’t,” Cassie said. “In fact, no one would be able to tell because you keep your thoughts so very much to yourself.”

  “That I keep my thoughts to myself does not mean I am not all right.” Lenora looked Cassie in the eye. “I have no regrets of what has happened, and I truly want you and Evan to be happy. Please do not let assumptions of my feelings detract you.”

  Cassie looked deeply into her sister’s face and saw her heartfelt sincerity. “I don’t doubt that you want us to be happy—that is what is so remarkable.”

  “It is not so remarkable,” Lenora said, shaking off the compliment. “This is right, and my knowing it gives me peace.”

  Cassie felt her heart soften as she cocked her head and regarded her sister. How had she missed the strength of her sister for so long? “And what shall you do, now? What will your future hold?”

  Lenora took a deep breath. She stepped away from Cassie and looked across the yard to the trees that surrounded the glen. She said nothing.

  Cassie filled the silence. “I have sensed that you do not plan to stay in Leagrave once the wedding is over.”

  Lenora gave her a surprised glance, then looked back at the trees. “I do not want to detract from the wedding.”

  “So you will not stay?” Guilt burned brighter in Cassie’s chest. Had she chased Lenora away from her home?

  “Aunt Gwen left me with an open invitation to stay with her in Bath and . . . I am different there.”

  “You mentioned that when you spoke to Papa.”

  “I attend Aunt Gwen, and rather than speaking around me, she pulls me in to conversations and forces me to share my opinions. It was overwhelming in the beginning, but in time I realized that I was capable.” She turned back to Cassie. “It began with your advice to smile and focus on my breathing, and then, though it was ill-fated, my time with Mr. Glenside forced me to step further out of the circle of my comfort. I thought any progress to be worthless when I left for Bath, but in fact that became a starting point.”