by Ann Barker
What kind of man was he really? From her mother’s accounts, she had learned that he was an unprincipled rake, a judgement which was confirmed by Jessie Warburton. Lady Agatha said that he was a gambler, and Gabriel saw him as a neglectful parent. Yet with Anna, he had been kind, gentle and understanding. Who was the real Ashbourne?
As Eustacia observed him, she saw him idly watching the crowd. Then she actually caught the moment when his interest was suddenly captured by something – or someone – that was very important to him, and his expression almost became one of yearning. Following the line of his vision, she saw Gabriel coming towards her with her lemonade. Like his father, he was dressed in a restrained style; not so much from reasons of fashion, she suspected, but more because he didn’t like dressing up. He still cut a very fine figure, and Eustacia, filled suddenly with pride, forgot about everything else apart from the look in his eyes.
Another guest who graced the gathering that evening was Jessie Warburton, accompanying Lady Agatha. To Eustacia’s great surprise, Henry Lusty was also with them.
‘I encouraged him to come,’ Lady Agatha told her goddaughter as they took a turn about the room.
‘You encouraged him?’ echoed Eustacia in surprise. She was recalling how Lady Agatha had chased the hapless young clergyman with an umbrella.
‘I did it to annoy Ashbourne,’ said her ladyship tranquilly ‘He’s so used to thinking of Jessie as only having eyes for him. It’ll do him good to see that she’s got another suitor.’
It occurred to Eustacia, as she watched Jessie, that Henry Lusty might not be the only suitor beating a path to Jessie’s door. Miss Warburton had benefited from her stay with Lady Hope. Eustacia could see the marks of her mother’s good taste written all over Jessie’s elegant golden evening gown.
‘Yes perhaps, Godmama, but it did not seem to me that you would ever be likely to be seen anywhere in Mr Lusty’s company,’ Eustacia ventured.
Lady Agatha laughed. ‘Oh, that,’ she replied. ‘That little scheme of mine is quite put behind me. Thanks to Ilam, I shall soon be installed in the Dower House at Ashbourne. I’ve already convinced Lusty that the whole business was more than half due to his overactive imagination.’
‘You mean your plan to’ – Eustacia dropped her voice – ‘to bring down the Church of England?’
‘Bring down the Church of England?’ she responded in shocked tones. ‘And I, a vicar’s widow? Certainly not. Besides,’ she went on mysteriously, ‘I have other fish to fry.’
A short time later, Eustacia had the opportunity to exchange a few words with Jessie Warburton. ‘Henry Lusty has asked me to marry him,’ said Jessie. ‘Part of me is inclined to accept.’ Luckily, since Eustacia could not think of a response to this, Jessie went on, ‘Eustacia, I cannot change the way that I feel, but I must have something of my own. If I carry on the way that I am, I shall have nothing but an empty heart and an empty home and a huge collection of futile dreams. Yet part of me is still holding back.’
‘I wish you happy whatever your choice,’ replied Eustacia. ‘You deserve to be.’ She thought for a moment. ‘I have a book that has helped me a lot, and I would like to give it to you, if I may. It does at least acknowledge that women have rational minds that can be employed in all kinds of situations. I think you may find it useful, whatever your decision.’
‘Thank you,’ Jessie replied. The next time Eustacia saw her, she was dancing with Henry Lusty.
That evening, Eustacia had the pleasure of dancing with her future father-in-law. It was a pleasure, too, for he was an excellent dancer, and knew how to make a lady look – and feel – as light as a feather.
‘My son has good taste,’ he said when the movements of the dance permitted. ‘You will make a charming viscountess.’
‘Thank you,’ she replied. ‘All I want to do is to make him happy.’
‘A laudable ambition.’
‘If only you could make up your differences.’
At once, his face took on a shuttered look. ‘I fear that is beyond even your skill,’ he said, and then began to speak of something else. As the dance ended and they reverenced one another, he said, ‘Confess it, my dear, if you had seen me first, you might have been tempted.’
Eustacia laughed. ‘Oh no, my lord,’ she replied audaciously, taking his hand as he led her off the floor. ‘You’re much too pretty for my taste.’
He burst out laughing. Ilam, who was doing Jessie Warburton the same courtesy, frowned a little. ‘Pretty! I don’t think I’ve ever been called that before,’ Ashbourne said, as soon as he was able.
‘What were you laughing about with my father earlier?’ Ilam asked her suspiciously as they were going to supper.
Eustacia smiled. She had noted that he was beginning to speak of his father in that way, rather than referring to him as Ashbourne. She thought it a promising sign. ‘I told him that he was too pretty for my taste,’ she said. Gabriel stared at her uncomprehendingly. He glanced about him, then drew her through a door in the corridor into a small parlour.
‘Stacia, are you sure – really sure – that you prefer me’ – he paused – ‘to him?’
‘To your father? Of course I’m sure,’ she told him. She laid a hand on his arm. ‘You’re the man I love; you’re the man I’m marrying – remember?’
‘Yes I know,’ he replied. ‘But what if you had met him first? What then?’
‘It doesn’t follow that I would have liked him better,’ she answered. ‘Remember my mother met him before she met my father; yet my father was the man she fell in love with and married.’ She paused. ‘I only wish I was a bit more like her. Men used to pretend to be interested in me; then later on I would discover that they only did it so that they could be with her. However much one loves one’s mother it can become a little tiring.’ She sighed.
Gabriel sat down and pulled her onto his knee. ‘Listen to me,’ he said. ‘You’re perfect; absolutely perfect, just as you are, and I love you; not your mother, but you.’
Looking into his face, she saw the same expression upon it that she had seen before he had first confessed his love before the whole company in the vicarage at Illingham. She reached up and touched his cheek. ‘And I love you,’ she answered. ‘Not your father, but you.’ He kissed her; she kissed him back; and once they had started, they found it quite impossible to stop.
A few minutes later, one of the female guests at the ball opened the door, quite by chance. She hurried off to find Lady Hope, telling her in shocked accents that the happy couple had better be summoned to supper quickly, as Lord Ilam seemed to be set on enjoying a meal of quite another kind!
*
Eustacia could not help feeling a little strange as she set off with her father in the carriage on her wedding day. It was not that she did not trust Gabriel; of course she did. He was not Morrison Morrison. It was just that she wished that she had never had that experience of going to the church and being jilted in that way. Somehow, those memories coloured what was happening now.
The previous night she had gone to bed in a happy haze, fully expecting to dream of Ilam. Instead, she had dreamed that she had gone to the church alone and on foot. It had been filled with people she knew, both here in her own village and at Illingham. As she had stood at the end of the aisle, which seemed to be much longer than that of St Peter’s Church, she could see no sign of Ilam. She began to walk up the aisle, and as she did so, everyone started to point at her and laugh. Morrison Morrison, who was standing facing her dressed as a clergyman, was laughing the loudest of all.
She woke up wringing with perspiration, and sat up in bed at once, staring about her. It was still nighttime, but she did not get to sleep again for a long time. When she did so, she enjoyed a dreamless rest, but she woke with a faint oppression of spirits. She soon pushed this mood to the back of her mind as her mother helped her to get ready, but as she got into the carriage, the dream came back.
Her father, seeing her thoughtful expression, asked her if
she was all right and she answered in the affirmative. She just wished that it could have been a different church. Almost she wished that she had eloped as Ilam had jokingly suggested.
Walking into the porch would be the worst bit. Everything had been as it should be until she had walked into the porch and seen that Morrison was not there. If only she did not have to wait to see Gabriel until she had got inside the porch!
They walked through the lych gate and she could feel her legs start to tremble. Her father looked down at her concernedly and she returned his gaze with a wobbly smile. ‘Look,’ he said, pointing. She turned her head towards the church, and there was Gabriel standing in the porch. He looked so handsome in his blue coat and white breeches that she found that her knees were trembling for quite another reason.
In a complete departure from tradition, Sir Wilfred released his daughter’s hand from his arm and laid it on that of her groom so that they could walk into church together.
‘How did you know?’ she asked him, as they reached the back of the church. He shrugged and grinned. ‘Oh Gabriel,’ she sighed, and those members of the congregation who turned at that point, witnessed another departure from tradition as the groom enfolded the bride in his arms before the service and soundly kissed her.
By the Same Author
His Lordship’s Gardener
The Grand Tour
The Squire’s Daughter
Derbyshire Deception
Fallen Woman
The Wild Marauder
The Squire and the Schoolmistress
The Adventuress
The Other Miss Frobisher
A Gift for a Rake
Lady of Lincoln
Clerkenwell Conspiracy
Copyright
© Ann Barker 2008
First published in Great Britain 2008
This edition 2011
ISBN 978 0 7090 9471 5 (ebook)
ISBN 978 0 7090 9472 2 (mobi)
ISBN 978 0 7090 9473 9 (pdf)
ISBN 978 0 7090 8684 0 (print)
Robert Hale Limited
Clerkenwell House
Clerkenwell Green
London EC1R 0HT
www.halebooks.com
The right of Ann Barker to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988