by Julia London
The door swung open at that moment, and Middleton himself strolled in. “What did you tell me, darling?” he asked calmly. “Or perhaps a more appropriate question is, what have you not told me?” he asked, and chuckled with amusement at his own jest.
“Jared!” Ava cried. “Where is she? Has she come?”
He extended his hand, holding a vellum between two fingers.
“Not another letter!” Ava exclaimed as Phoebe snatched it from her brother-in-law’s hand and broke the seal.
“Well? Is it from Greer?” Ava demanded.
“It is,” Phoebe said, and unfolded the vellum. “Dearest Phoebe and Ava,” she read aloud. “I have the most extraordinary news! I was quite wrong about the prince, and now we are to be married!”
“Oh my God!” Phoebe cried, sinking onto a settee.
“What?” Ava shrieked, taking a seat next to Phoebe. “What else does it say? Give it over,” she insisted, and reached for it, but Phoebe batted her hand away as the marquis strolled to the window and stared out as she read.
“I shall be married when this letter reaches you. Please do not be cross, for the prince and I agreed that it was improper for me to remain here another moment without the benefit of marriage, and Lord Harrison agreed, so there was really no time to invite you all to Wales for the ceremony. I know you must have many questions, and I shall answer them all when we return to London in the spring. I could not bear to be away for Ava’s lying-in.
“Oh darlings, I cannot wait for you to meet him, for he is a most extraordinary man—”
“Is she referring to the same man she previously called an ogre and a beast?” Ava demanded.
“Apparently,” Phoebe said, frowning, and continued to read. “He is kind and wise and quite well traveled and very tolerant of my views of Parliament. I hope you will come to love my husband as I do. Please thank the marquis for his generous letter and Lord Harrison to see me home. It seems neither is needed any longer. Lord Harrison is a bit cross, for another snow makes it impossible for him to travel, and he claims to be stranded here. I must close now, for we are to host a Christmas soirée. With love, G.”
“Oh dear God!” Ava exclaimed, and snatched the letter from Phoebe’s hand. “And I had so hoped to present her to our guests at our gathering this evening. Now it shall be dreadfully tiresome.”
“Oh, I think not,” Middleton said easily. “You have yet to host a tiresome event, darling.”
Ava looked at Phoebe and rolled her eyes, then slumped back against the chair, one hand resting listlessly on her belly. Phoebe joined her, staring morosely at the carpet, wondering if they would ever see Greer again.
In a posh hotel in London that very afternoon, Greer straightened Rhodrick’s neckcloth. “A gathering,” he said, the distaste evident in his voice. “A lot of sitting about and wishing to be somewhere else, isn’t it?”
“Speak for yourself, Radnor,” Lord Harrison said gruffly. “Some of us have been put away in Wales too long without the company of beautiful women.”
Rhodrick grinned at that.
“I don’t know if it is wise to surprise Ava and Phoebe,” Greer said uncertainly. “They can be rather cross at times.”
“They will be delighted,” Harrison said. “I can’t think of another pair who could possibly be more delighted with a surprise such as this. But now, if the prince and princess will excuse me, I believe my business here is complete. I shall see you tonight.”
They said good-bye, and Rhodrick saw him out, thanking him for his help. When he returned to the dressing room, Greer was seated at her vanity. As he watched her don sparkling earbobs, he thought again that he was perhaps the luckiest man in all the world. The beautiful woman sitting here was his wife. It seemed almost a dream to him yet.
As for dreams, neither of them had dreamed of Alis since marrying. Having brought them together, she seemed to have left them to their happiness. But Rhodrick had dreamed of something else, and now he walked and stood behind Greer, and put his hand on her shoulder.
She smiled at him in the reflection of the glass.
“I should like to take a turn about town before we meet your cousins,” he said.
“A turn?” She twisted about on the bench, caught his hand, and kissed it. “Surely you are not frightened of them?”
“Frightened of two young women who, by all accounts, are just like you?” He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. “I am trembling at the prospect.”
Greer laughed and stood up, put her arms around him, and kissed him heartily. “Then a turn about town to help settle your nerves,” she said. “But you mustn’t fret. I won’t let them eat you.”
An hour later, Rhodrick directed his driver to proceed to Audley Street, near Hyde Park.
“Audley Street,” Greer said, raising her brows with surprise. “One might mistake you for an English duke, my lord.”
He smiled, took her hand in his. When they reached Audley Street, he directed the driver to stop. “Let’s walk, shall we?”
“Walk?” Greer asked, peeking out the window. “But we are expected at Ava’s.”
“We will be at your cousins’ soon enough,” he said, opening the door. “Let us walk.”
Greer sighed, but was smiling as he helped her down from the carriage. They walked past the first large town house, but at the second, Rhodrick paused and glanced up the steps to the double doors. Greer looked up, too, her face full of curiosity. “Who lives here?”
He smiled mysteriously, took her hand, and started up the steps.
“Rhodrick!” she said, tugging at his hand. “It is too late to call unannounced!”
“It is never too late,” he said, and with a yank, pulled her up beside him. At the door, he knocked.
“You see? There is no one about,” Greer said, and turned to go.
“Not so quickly, madam,” he said, and withdrew a key from his pocket. As Greer watched, wide-eyed, he opened the door and held it open for her.
She leaned to her right, looked inside, and saw that it was vacant. “I don’t understand.”
“Sometimes I wonder what is in that head of yours,” he said fondly, and gave her a gentle push over the threshold.
She twirled around in the foyer. “Whose place is this?” she asked again.
“Yours.”
It took a moment for his response to register. But when it did, Greer turned slowly from where she stood, peering into an empty salon. “What did you say?”
“Tell me what you think of this, Lady Radnor. Suppose we were to spend the winter and spring in London so that you might dance and dazzle the masses with the art of your conversation during the Season, and then return to Llanmair in the summer and fall?”
She gasped, her eyes full of hope as she clasped her hands together at her throat. “Do you mean it, Rhodi?”
He smiled at his beautiful young wife. “Of course I mean it. You must know by now that I would do anything to make you happy, including spending the interminable social Seasons in London.”
With a squeal of happiness, she rushed across the tiled entry to him, flinging her arms around him and kissing his face.
“But I won’t like it in the least,” he said, as she smothered him with kisses. “I will think it all a lot of flummery and nonsense. Harrison has assured me that I may join him at a gentlemen’s club—”
“I love you,” she said breathlessly, and kissed him on the mouth.
“I love you,” he said, meaning it with every fiber of his being. “And it is alarmingly true that I would do anything for you.”
“Anything?” she asked softly, and slid one hand down to the juncture of his legs, cupping him.
Rhodrick raised a brow. “What are you about, Mrs. Glendower?” he asked.
“I want to say thank you properly,” she said, and with a mischievous smile, she slid down his body and to her knees to show him just how much she adored him.
A half hour later, Ava was sitting listlessly on the settee in h
er pristine grand salon, moping.
“You look piqued, my love,” Middleton remarked.
Ava exchanged a look with Phoebe. “My good humor is dashed along with my hopes of ever seeing Greer again, if you must know.”
“I do think she has abandoned us,” Phoebe added, her good humor likewise gone.
“Good Lord,” Middleton muttered. “Excuse me, ladies, but I think I hear someone at the door.”
“Send them home, Jared. I can’t possibly entertain,” Ava said dramatically, and as her husband went out, she said to Phoebe, “I wanted him to send messengers around and cancel, but he wouldn’t hear of it. He can be so beastly at times.”
“You would think she would at least come to London to be married,” Phoebe said, ignoring Ava’s remarks about her husband, whom Phoebe knew she adored completely. But she was still hurt that she’d not had the opportunity to make Greer’s wedding dress. “Why did they have to marry in Wales of all places?”
“Didn’t you read my letter?” Greer asked. “I was very clear why I married in Wales.”
With twin shrieks of surprise, Ava and Phoebe scrambled to the door where Greer stood, grinning broadly. The three of them hugged one another tightly, their voices rising as they all chattered and laughed and squealed happily at once.
At the threshold, the marquis of Middleton stood beside the prince of Powys, earl of Radnor, watching them. “I don’t believe I extended you a formal welcome to the family,” Middleton said.
“Thank you,” Radnor responded.
“I think it only fair to warn you that you should expect a lot of this sort of behavior.”
“Indeed?”
“Oh yes,” Middleton said, clasping his hands behind his back and nodding sagely. “And sometimes, they are angry with one another. On those occasions, it is much louder.”
“That seems impossible,” Radnor muttered.
Both men were startled when Ava’s head popped up and her eyes narrowed on Radnor. “He doesn’t look the least like an ogre!” she declared as she suddenly started marching toward him.
“Gird your loins,” Middleton muttered, and stepped away just as Ava reached him, staring up at him. Like her cousin, she was beautiful, but blond. And behind her was Phoebe, who was, Rhodrick thought, uncommonly beautiful. And behind her, his Greer, dark where they were light, beautiful and absolutely glowing with joy. She winked at him as Ava studied him.
“You are a wretched man,” Phoebe said. “Tell him he is, Ava.”
“You are,” Ava agreed.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Really, sir, could you not have married in London? How could you have married without us?” Ava demanded.
“Don’t answer her, Rhodrick, for you will only agitate her further,” Greer warned cheerfully.
“Oh blast it,” Ava said, and suddenly threw her arms around his neck, kissing his cheek. “How very wonderful it is to meet you, my lord. Anyone who can bear Greer for more than an hour without being completely exasperated is very welcome in this house and in this family,” she said with a warm smile.
“Thank you.”
“I am Phoebe, my lord,” Phoebe said, curtsying politely, and then she, too, kissed his cheek. “Thank you for bringing our Greer safely home. I mean, to London, as I imagine she will live in Wales now.”
“It is my great pleasure,” he said, smiling at Greer.
“Come in, sir! You must sit and tell us all about Wales,” Ava said, linking her arm through his.
But Phoebe stood back as she often did, watching as Ava seated herself beside the prince and Greer—a shining, glowing Greer—who sat across from her husband. It was clear that Greer loved him as much as Ava loved the marquis. And she was a princess now!
Blast it all, but it was precisely as Phoebe had feared. She was the last of the three to be married, and as she had no suitors clamoring for her hand, she undoubtedly would become the batty old spinster at whom the neighboring children would one day throw rocks.
At least she would be a finely dressed spinster, she thought in an effort to console herself, and glanced down, admiring her handiwork on a stunning green silk. She really was quite talented, if she did say so herself.
“Phoebe! Stop admiring yourself and come here,” Ava called out to her. “He’s telling us what awful things Greer did while she was in Wales.”
“I was not awful!” Greer protested with mock indignation, but took Ava’s hand and squeezed it fondly.
The prince caught Phoebe’s eye and smiled so warmly that she was instantly drawn to him. Oh yes, she could see why Greer had married him, and she felt a ridiculously unbridled surge of happiness for her.
“Phoebe!” Ava insisted.
“Really, Ava, must you always command us to and fro?” Phoebe responded, but she was already moving forward to join her family.