Chapter Twenty-Two
It had been three days since Colin had been bedridden, and he had done his level best to make up for lost time with his sisters. His behavior had been abominable to everyone, and his selfishness had left him so close to death he would swear he’d actually seen the gates of heaven. He’d even heard Susannah’s soothing voice, calling him her love and encouraging him softly. Out of his head with fever, he’d heard and imagined all sorts of things, and it had changed everything for him.
Apologies now flew from his mouth faster than compliments ever had, and he felt worlds lighter for it. Not that his guilt surrounding Susannah had lessened at all, but he was assured that where everyone else was concerned, he could be settled. He had made no attempt to find Susannah or to reach out to her. He probably should have, but what could he possibly say? Though he could admit to being wiser and more of a man for the ordeal he had just survived, he had no more answers there than he’d had before.
But he would live, and go on living, and would not think of himself alone anymore.
At this moment, in fact, he was not thinking of himself at all.
He sat next to Rosie’s bed, clutching her hand, while the inestimable Dr. Howard, the private physician of the Whitlocks, looked her over. Two days ago, Rosie had complained of a headache and been unusually tired, yesterday the same and worse with a cough, and this morning she had been too weak to even rise from her bed. And she had refused breakfast. Since then, she had grown listless, pale, and had begun to burn with fever.
Colin and Kit had wasted no time in sending for the doctor at that point. They both knew very well that Colin’s fever had been considered infectious and thus the entire house had been at risk, but as it had been five days since Colin had been declared out of danger, they thought the rest had been safe. But looking at the somber look on Dr. Howard’s face as he listened to Rosie breathe and took her pulse, there was nothing safe about this.
He slowly shook his head, raising his eyes to the brothers. Kit stood behind Colin, his fingers rubbing anxiously against each other as they hung at his side. He would have been at Rosie’s side as well, but one of them had to be composed.
“She is not doing well,” the older man told them softly, glancing down at Rosie. “I have no doubt it is the same fever you suffered from, Mr. Colin.”
Colin winced and moaned, leaning his head to touch the coverlet. Kit immediately put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed hard, pulling Colin back upright, leaving his hand in place.
“It was bad enough in a grown man of your robust nature and stamina, but in a child this young?” He shook his head and put a hand on Rosie’s perspiration dampened brow. “It could be quite dangerous.” He hesitated, then added, “It already is dangerous. It’s taken such a vicious hold already, I’m not sure there is much to do.”
“What can we do?” Kit asked roughly, his grip on Colin’s shoulder tightening.
For a moment, Colin feared the good doctor would simply say “Pray.” But he stared at Rosie for a long moment, his mind obviously whirling. “If she were older, I would suggest blood-letting. But as it has moved so fast and she is already having pulmonary distress, I dare not. Have you any of the laudanum I left for you?”
Colin nodded once, swallowing with difficulty.
“Dilute that significantly, as she is a child, but she will grow more restless and need it.” He looked at her eyes, his mouth forming a thin line. “She’s not to crisis yet, but it won’t be long. I will go and fetch some things to help her. Is Mrs. Creighton still about? She was instrumental in caring for you, was she not?”
Colin nodded again. “Yes, she was. She is with the girls at the moment, but we can have her tend Rosie.”
Dr. Howard hummed a noise of discontent. “Your other sisters are still about? I would send them away, sirs, for their own good.”
“No,” they said together at once.
Dr. Howard looked at them strangely.
“They lost their mother to illness,” Kit explained in a stiff voice. “And were sent away without knowing it would be the end. They could not leave their sister the same way. And we would have us all remain together. As a family.”
Colin nodded his “amen” to that.
Dr. Howard sighed and picked up his bag. “I stand by my recommendation, the girls should be removed. I will come back in a few hours. In the meantime, try to cool her, open a window, and turn her if she coughs too much.” He nodded to them both and left the room.
“I’m so sorry,” Colin whispered to Rosie, holding her hand tightly. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart.”
“You cannot blame yourself,” Kit said coming around to rest his hand on Rosie’s brow, smoothing her hair back.
Colin looked at his brother, struck by how disheveled Kit looked. They’d been observing Rosie all morning and into the afternoon, but Kit looked as rumpled and untidy as Colin had ever seen him. “Who else is there to blame, Kit?” he asked, his voice cracking in agony. “It was my idiocy, my stupid, selfish behavior that got me sick, and now it has taken hold in her. I did this.”
Kit gave him a severe look. “It is not your fault, Colin.”
Colin shook his head. “You will never convince me of that. Not in a million years.” He took Rosie’s feverish hand and brought it to his mouth. “I’ve been such a fool. I’ve wasted the time we’ve had with the girls; I could have given them so much more of myself.”
Kit made an impatient sound and grabbed Colin’s shirt in his fist. “She is not dead, Colin. And our sisters adore you. They’ve forgiven you your moments of idiocy, and they love you. We’ve just gotten you back, don’t you dare waste that.”
Colin swallowed and gripped his brother’s wrist hard. “I can’t breathe, Kit. I can’t think. I can’t lose Rosie, not now.”
Blessedly, Kit said nothing else, and the two of them watched Rosie’s bedside, only leaving when the other two girls needed one of them.
Hours later, they watched with more anxiety. Dr. Howard had left again to tend to Lady Ralston’s impending delivery, but Colin had known the look in the doctor’s eyes. He had done all that he could.
Mary had come to help with the girls, and Geoff was on hand below if anything was needed. The girls were being distracted, but he knew it would not last long.
He needed someone to distract him.
Still he sat at Rosie’s side, her hand in his, not seeing anything anymore. Mrs. Creighton had worked herself into exhaustion and had retired to rest for a time. Colin and Kit were alone in the room with Rosie, the only sound the crackling of the fire.
“What do we do, Kit?” Colin asked finally, wishing for the thousandth time that he were back in this bed and not Rosie. “We can’t just let her…
Kit, sitting on Rosie’s other side, rubbed at his eyes. “Honestly, Colin? I have one idea. Just one.”
Colin looked at him expectantly.
Kit stared back for a long moment. “Susannah.”
Colin flinched, the sound of her name something he had somehow forgotten, the pain as sharp as his guilt over Rosie. “No.”
His brother growled. “You have a better idea?”
“No, but I…” He swallowed and shook his head. “I can’t. I can’t ask that of her. I can’t ask anything of her.”
Kit got to his feet and put his hands on his hips. “She can help, Colin. She worked in hospitals and with doctors. She can…”
Colin shook his head fiercely. “No. I cannot ask her to do that.”
His brother frowned at him. “Not even for Rosie?”
“She wouldn’t come. She hates me, Kit. She wouldn’t come.” He had been tormented by Susannah every night since he had said those things to her, his sleep destroyed by every agonizing moment of joy and pain he had shared with her. He’d felt her pain at his hand, imagined thousands of scenarios where she was cool and dismissive of him, as she ought to be, and others where she raged, no matter how against her nature it was.
She would not come for him.
And she ought not.
“You don’t know that,” Kit murmured in a low tone.
Colin did not respond, could not. He looked down at Rosie’s coverlet, her hand the only thing he could feel. No, Susannah might not hate him now. But she should.
He heard Kit sigh, and then move away from the bed in clipped steps. “Fine!” Kit snapped. “I will go for her myself.”
Colin snorted softly. “You don’t know where she is. I don’t even know. She’s vanished.”
Kit gave a snort of his own. “Of course I know where she is. I knew that a few days after she left.”
That brought Colin’s head up with a jerk. “Why didn’t you say anything?” he whispered.
Kit raised a brow. “You never asked. If you wanted to find her, you would have.”
That much was true. But it did not explain how Kit had done so. Kit did not have Colin’s network of connections. “How did you find her?” he asked, confused.
Kit smiled faintly. “Come now, Colin. You think you are the only one who has contact with the Gent?”
Colin looked at him for a long moment, stunned and more confused than ever. “You know who he is,” he said slowly.
“I do.”
“Who is it?”
Kit shook his head firmly. “I swore not to tell, though I am surprised you haven’t guessed yet. But he’s been watching over her for us, and I’m bringing her here so you can do that from now on.”
Colin felt his heart leap at the implication in the words, but was just as quick to snuff the feeling. He shook his head. “She won’t come, not for me, not after what I did.”
“She loves you, Colin,” Kit murmured.
“I know,” Colin whispered. “I know she did, but…”
“No,” Kit interrupted roughly, “she does love you. I would bet both of our fortunes on that. And you do not deserve her.”
Colin glared at him. “I know that, don’t you think I know that?”
Kit tilted his head, folding his arms across his chest. “So what is holding you back?”
There was no fair way to answer that. Colin couldn’t even admit to himself his reasons. Again, he shook his head. “I can’t… She will never forgive me.”
“You underestimate her, Colin.” Kit’s voice was disappointed, and sad.
“I can’t face her,” Colin admitted with a hitch in his voice. “I can’t.”
“Then I will go, damn you. She is Rosie’s best chance. And yours.”
A knock at Susannah’s door interrupted her nightly reading to Freddie. He was so close to sleep, he barely noticed as she slid from beside him.
“Miz Hart?” Sasha called, knocking again. “Gentleman at the door for you. An’ he’s a looker.”
Susannah looked to the ceiling in distress. Sasha had been out of work, having found herself in a difficult and delicate situation, and she was desperately trying to get Susannah to pick up where she had left off, claiming there was good money and a bit of fun to be had.
She left the bedchamber, thanked Sasha, and went to the cracked door. “Yes?” she asked, opening it slightly.
Kit Gerrard stood there, looking disheveled, rumpled, and exhausted. “Susannah.”
She gaped, then swallowed. “Who?” she asked faintly. Then she shook her head. “Never mind, one moment.” She left him at the door, raced for her cloak and shoes, and told Sasha she was leaving, which earned her a cheeky grin and a wave. Susannah frowned at her. “Mind Freddie?”
“O’ course, Miz Hart,” Sasha replied. “Pleasant evening to you and your fella. Get your money’s worth!”
Susannah shook her head and ran back to the door, surprising Kit as she exited, shutting the door behind her.
“You live with a…?” he said, fumbling for words.
“Prostitute,” Susannah supplied, pushing a loose bit of hair behind her ear. “Yes.”
Kit opened his mouth, then shook his head and gestured for Susannah to lead the way.
They hurried out of the building while Kit apprised her of the situation and gave her the pertinent details, helping her into the carriage. She made him repeat several things, her mind thinking quickly. She had them stop at the apothecary again, grateful she was on good terms with him, as it was far beyond his shop’s hours, and then they barreled on for the house.
Rosie’s situation sounded grave indeed, and she was not entirely sure what she could do to help, given the speed with which the fever was raging. But she could try. And she could be with the people she loved most in the world, except for Freddie. And if Rosie was destined to… She could hardly think the words, but if the worst should happen, then Susannah might perhaps be able to make the passing easier for the sweet girl.
Before disappearing forever.
There would be no remaining in London if she could not help Rosie.
She forced all of that aside as they reached the house. There was work to be done, and she would need all of her skills and abilities to do it.
“Where are Bitty and Ginny?” she asked.
“Sleeping, for now,” Kit told her, taking her arm and letting her inside. “Mary Harris is with them. I doubt they will sleep for long.”
She nodded, stripping off her cloak and gloves in the hall, dropping them on the floor as Kit had done as they moved to the stairs. They took the stairs two at a time, Susannah holding her skirts with one hand, her heart pounding hard in her chest.
Entering the room, she immediately felt the stuffy congestion of a sickroom, and the dim light of the fire cast distorted and miserable shadows.
“More light,” she murmured to Kit as she entered. She saw Colin by the bed, clasping Rosie’s hand with both of his, his head on the counterpane. Her heart was suddenly in her throat and she worked hard to swallow. What would Colin think?
“I need more light,” she said again to Kit, whose hand was suddenly at her back. “And fresh linen and water.”
Colin’s head jerked up at her voice.
“Of course,” Kit murmured. “I’ll see to it. And Mrs. Creighton?”
Susannah nodded, pushing her sleeves up. “Unless she is fatigued. In which case, would you ask Mary if she would mind?”
She did not wait for his response as she went to the bed to check on Rosie, who was pale and far too still for her liking. Her pulse was soft and thready, not at all the strong, steady cadence it ought to have been. And she was hot to the touch.
She ignored Colin as best as she could, though he was just to her right, and she knew his breathing was uneven. The warmth from his body could have seared her had she been any closer. As it was, her right hip and leg were suddenly tingling in a strange sort of anticipation.
Whatever injuries he had caused, whatever their past had been, she could not feel anything for him but love and compassion. And she wanted him still, more than she ever had.
Kit murmured softly to Colin, though she could not make out the words. Save for these: “She didn’t even ask. She just came.”
She swallowed hastily, peeling away the high collar of Rosie’s night gown to expose her throat more fully.
The door was softly shut, and she looked back to see that Kit had left. Which meant she was alone. With Colin.
For a moment, there was no sound at all but their breathing, and Rosie’s rasping, shallow breaths.
“You came,” Colin finally said, his voice rough and awestruck.
She looked down and found him watching her with the same awe she’d heard in his voice. His eyes were soft and full of wonder, and she gave him a gentle smile. “Of course, I came,” she murmured. “Did you really think I wouldn’t?”
He made a choked sound and his throat worked, then he looked away.
She covered his hands, then looked down at Rosie with a small sigh. “Are you sure she isn’t yours?” she asked with the barest hint of teasing.
Colin looked down at his sister and swallowed hard, then shook his head. “No, I am not sure. It hurts like she is mine. I love her like she is mine. She…” He shook his head again, dropping his head.
Susannah moved before she meant to, wrapping her arms around him, though she stood and he was seated. He buried his head against her, his frame shaking with emotional tremors. She rubbed his back soothingly, forcing her fingers not to wander to his hair. She blinked rapidly to keep her tears from falling, and kept her breathing shallow to fight off her own distress at his state.
When she could, she said, “I am not going to make any promises but this: I will do everything I can for her.”
Colin looked up at her, his eyes shining.
Susannah smiled and touched his cheek once. “Because she is mine too.”
Colin’s breath hitched at her touch and his eyes fluttered ever so slightly.
Feeling rather the same way, Susannah smiled again. “When this is over, we need to talk,” she murmured, stepping out of his tempting hold.
Colin suddenly had a strange light in his eyes. “Let’s talk now,” he said simply, hooking his leg around another chair and pulling it over.
She looked over at Rosie, who was starting to shift restlessly. She put her hand to the girl’s brow, shaking her head. “Rosie needs us.”
“I need you.”
Something in Colin’s voice made Susannah go completely still. He was so earnest, stripped of artifice and pride, and all that was left was his heart. Which was all she ever wanted.
She wanted to look at him, but she couldn’t bear to.
“Whether Rosie lives or… does not,” Colin said in a low voice, his body canting towards her though he still clung to Rosie’s hand, “I will be eternally grateful to you.”
“I don’t want your gratitude, Colin,” she whispered.
“I know.”
She looked at him then, and his eyes were full of such longing, such adoration that it stole her breath completely. There was only one thing she could say to such ardency. “You still love me,” she said in wonder.
“I never stopped,” he replied. “Marry me, Susannah.”
She stiffened and tried to turn back to Rosie, but Colin caught her arm with his free hand. “Let me worry about your sister, Colin. We can…”
“We have waited long enough,” he said firmly.
She sighed heavily and looked back at him. “What if I can’t save her?” she asked in a small voice.
He kept his eyes on hers as he shook his head. “Won’t change how I feel.”
She swallowed back tears. “It will,” she insisted.
“No,” he replied. “It won’t.” He sighed and looked at Rosie, still holding her hand. “I love my sister. I don’t want her to die. In fact, I am terrified at the prospect. I want you to do everything you can to save her. I would sell my soul to save her, to trade places with her, anything. But I know there are limits to what we can do. What she can endure.” He swallowed and looked back at Susannah. “And what we can endure. And my limit is going one more day without you. I cannot do that.”
Susannah’s breath caught and she gripped the nearby counterpane for balance.
Colin stared at her as if in agony, shaking his head. “I have been horrible to you, I didn’t know what you had been through, what you had suffered… I never meant that you weren’t good enough for me. Quite the opposite, in fact. I am nowhere near good enough for you. That was what I meant when you came to me. But I need you anyway. No matter what happens, you are mine, Susannah. And I am yours.”
Her tears fell softly down her cheeks, her heart soaring with love and hope, with fear for Rosie, and with regret for what they had lost. But mostly, she was full of a desperate need to tell him something she had never said to him. Something she should have said ages ago, years ago, and had never done.
She reached out and laid her hand alongside his cheek. “I love you,” she told him, her voice breaking a little, but full of feeling.
“Say yes,” he begged softly.
A smile crossed her trembling lips. “Yes.”
He exhaled softly, his relief evident, and turned his head to kiss her palm, then smiled at her with so much emotion her knees shook.
The door to the room opened quietly, and Mary and Mrs. Creighton both entered with the things Susannah had requested. “Both of you?” she asked in surprise.
Mary smiled and came to her with a tight hug. “Many hands, and all that. Put us to work.”
They worked steadily for hours, wiping down Rosie’s burning flesh with cold rags, setting a poultice on her chest for her breathing, and trying to get her to take a sleeping draught or laudanum when she became restless. It was arduous, but eventually, they reached a point where all three felt the only thing they could do would be to wait and see what the rest of the night brought. She was not quite out of danger, but neither were they as fearful as they had been.
Mary and Mrs. Creighton left to sleep in nearby rooms, while Susannah curled up on Colin’s lap. He had dozed as they worked, but was never quite asleep. When the others left, he murmured for her to come to him, insisting she sleep as well, but only in his hold. They both reached hands out to touch Rosie, and fell asleep as such. Though she was fairly insensible, neither could bear that she would ever feel that she was alone.
Sleep was limited and fitful, but it did come.
The earliest glimpse of morning light broke into the room from the open window and Susannah shivered as a cold breeze entered. Colin’s arm around her tightened. “I don’t mind waking up like this,” he murmured in a sleep-roughened voice.
“In a chair?” she asked with an innocent air, craning her neck and sitting up.
“Of course,” he said simply. “That’s exactly what I meant.”
She smiled with a roll of her eyes. She looked towards the bed at Rosie, whose chest rose and fell softly, steadily. Without any hint of a hitch.
“Colin,” Susannah cried, her eyes going wide.
He had seen it as well and in one motion they were both on their feet, their hands on Rosie, checking her pulse and skin temperature.
She was still warm, but so markedly cooler than what she had been all night and the days before it was astonishing. Her pulse was strong and throbbing in her small wrist. Her color was rosier and her eyes fluttered when Susannah laid a hand on her cheek.
“Rosie?” she whispered, pushing back a damp curl. “Rosie, darling, can you hear me?”
Rosie licked her dry and cracked lips, her eyes opening a little. “Susannah?” she sluggishly replied, the words garbled.
Susannah hiccupped a laugh and Colin gripped her shoulder tightly. “Yes, love. It’s me.”
“I think I’ve been hit by a boulder,” Rosie drawled with a wince. “My head pounds something fierce.”
“You just sleep a while, pet,” Colin told her, his voice clogged. “We’ll sort it out later.”
“Colin,” she said with a smile as she nodded, her eyes closing again. “I dreamed of a pony. Can I have one?”
He laughed and kissed her hand. “You can have twelve, Rose, so long as you never get sick again.”
She snored softly in response, asleep again.
Colin laughed loudly and seized Susannah in a fierce hug, his tears flowing freely as hers did. She clung to him, laughing and crying all at once.
The door to the room was suddenly flung open, breaking them apart.
Kit was in the doorway, looking haggard and rough, Ginny in his arm, fully awake, and Bitty clutching his hand tightly. Mary, Geoff, and Mrs. Creighton suddenly appeared behind them, staring into the room.
Colin smiled and waved them all in. “It’s all right,” he said, still laughing even as tears leaked from his eyes. “She’s all right. Her fever has broken and she just told me she wants a pony.”
“God save us,” Kit said with a look to the ceiling, his cheeks wet. He set Ginny down on the bed and the little girl crawled to her sister and snuggled up against her, popping her thumb in her mouth. Bitty clambered onto the bed and did the same on her sister’s other side.
Kit bent to kiss Susannah’s cheek and then pulled Colin into his arms for a tight hug that did not break for a long time.
Mrs. Creighton and Mary were crying and hugged Susannah in turn, then sat and watched the girls with their sister. Geoff grinned with his relief, clapped Colin and Kit on their backs, and took up position behind his wife, his hand firmly on her shoulder.
Kit thanked Susannah profusely, then went and took Colin’s seat by Rosie’s bed, stroking her hand with a smile.
Colin linked his fingers with Susannah’s and pulled her from the room without a word. She wordlessly followed, her heart picking up speed the further away from the room they went. He led her down the stairs, moving faster with each step.
When they reached the sitting room, he turned and cupped Susannah’s cheek, his eyes free of tears, but full of heat and love. “I love you,” he said in an uneven voice.
She slid her hands up his chest and around his neck. “I love you, too,” she whispered.
He barely let her finish before his lips were on hers, hungry and insistent, and reminiscent of that day in the gazebo. He pouring longing and need and the anguish of separation into his kiss, melting and searing every part of her so completely that she groaned against him. He moaned softly as she pulled him closer, going up on her toes. A fever threatened to rise within her, within them both, and something began to uncurl in the pit of her stomach.
A faint clearing of the throat gave them pause, their lips barely touching as they panted together.
“So…” Kit drawled in a surprisingly Colin-esque voice. “I take it a wedding is in our immediate future?”
Colin chuckled and kissed Susannah quickly. “Yes,” he answered, turning Susannah a little so they could see his twin leaning casually against the doorframe.
Kit grinned mischievously. “Finally get to use that special license, eh, Colin?”
Susannah jerked and looked up at Colin. “What?” she cried.
He looked sheepish, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. “I, erm, got a special license.”
She leaned back, startled. “When, exactly?”
“Before I asked you to marry me the first time.”
Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened. “That was almost six weeks ago!”
He shrugged, grinning now. “You took some convincing.”
Susannah stared at the man she adored in awe, wonder filling every part of her. “You really do want to marry me, don’t you?”
He took her hand and pressed a hot, fervent kiss to it. “From the very beginning.”
Well. There was only one thing to do about that.
She cleared her throat and turned to face Kit fully. “In that case… Kit, would you fetch our friends? I must rush home.”
Colin jerked and stepped back into her view. “What? Why?”
“I need my son and my things. Do you think Tibby would take us in until then? It won’t be for long, obviously,” she told him as she moved to the door. “I am to be married, after all. As soon as Rosie is well enough.”
Kit coughed a surprised laugh, while Colin merely looked thunderstruck. “What? Susannah…”
She turned and gave him a serious look. “Colin, earlier you spoke of limits and what yours are. Mine is this: I have spent too many years and months and weeks away from you, and one more minute of loving you and not having you is more than I can bear. So your brother will get our friends, I will fetch Freddie, and you will fetch the doctor. The moment your sister is recovered, we will be wed. Prepare yourself, my love. Your boring bachelorhood is at an end. But I promise you, the rest of your life will be quite exciting.”
“Exciting?” he repeated, still bewildered.
She quirked her brows. “Quite.” Then, using her best Tibby impersonation, she swept boldly from the room.
As she fetched her things, she did not immediately hear a reply from within the room. But she could imagine Colin gaping openly.
She suddenly heard Kit’s voice. “You’d better do as she says, brother. She is determined to have you.”
“And it’s about time!” Colin exclaimed cheekily.
“Where are you going?” Kit laughed.
“To find Duncan and Derek,” Colin called, his voice fading a bit. “I haven’t a thing to wear for a wedding!”
Two weeks later, a ball was held at the Gerrard home to close out the autumn festivities of London, the last event before winter arrived. And all of London Society was invited.
Very few people knew the truth of Colin Gerrard’s rumored marriage, but word had gotten out that he had been seen at St. George’s at Hanover Square in very fine attire, and that was enough to get the gossip started.
Susannah stood near one of the extraordinarily tall windows of the ballroom, looking up at it, shaking her head at such an expense. She would never get used to being mistress of such places, let alone having such funds at her disposal. Though Colin had confessed to paying off her exorbitant debts, somehow there was plenty of fortune left. It was an astonishing thought.
She smiled as Kit entered and he gave her a warm nod in response, keeping his public reserve in place. Since the wedding, Kit had removed himself to his bachelor’s residence, claiming he had no desire to be about with a newly married couple. She suspected it was awkward for him, though he loved them both, and wondered faintly if he might, in some small way, miss his brother.
The girls missed him fiercely, but he came over at regular intervals and was frequently present for dinners.
Freddie delighted in having sisters, though they were technically his aunts, and they would undoubtedly get into their fair share of scrapes soon. All of the children were blessedly well and whole, no one else succumbing to the fever that had raged Colin and Rosie. They were also quite jealous that Colin and Susannah were to go on a long trip, but they were easily consoled by the fact that Kit would be staying with them while they were gone, and he had promised to make a spectacular time of it.
Whatever that meant coming from Kit Gerrard.
She might have to warn Colin about that one. She looked around the room for her husband, who was no doubt getting into mischief himself. They had avoided the awkwardness of a formal introduction of Susannah as his wife by keeping with the Gerrard tradition of informality, and no one in this room knew who she was except for their friends.
No one would even suspect.
She saw Derek nearby and smiled, moving towards him.
She was suddenly tripped by something, but caught her balance before she could do more than stumble. She heard a familiar jangling of a beaded bodice and turned with a stiffened spine to face Lady Greversham.
“Lady Greversham,” she said just as stiffly, narrowing her eyes a little. Though the woman did not know it, she would not be permitted to insult or abuse the lady of this house. Susannah would not stand for it, and nor did she have to anymore.
“I don’t recall being introduced to you formally,” the old woman hissed. “How did you gain entrance to this event?”
Susannah opened her mouth to reply when a much taller, much more imposing person was suddenly at her side. She looked up to see Colin wearing a polite smile, though his eyes were a furious shade of their usual blue. “I know you did not just trip my wife, Lady Greversham, that is highly unlike you. So do tell me, what did you do?”
Lady Greversham’s mouth worked like a caught fish. “Wife?” she croaked weakly.
“Wife,” Colin said firmly with a nod. “We were married last week before family and friends, so obviously you were not invited, and we are leaving tomorrow for an extended trip, during which I shall do my very best to ignore every hurt you have done to my beloved wife so that upon my return, when I have adapted properly to the wedded bliss in which I currently reside, I will not strangle you with your own ghastly lace collars. I believe you can show yourself out? My servants have far better tasks than to assist you.”
He took Susannah’s arm and led her away from the gaping and gasping woman.
Susannah beamed up at him, laughing. “You’ve destroyed your reputation,” she told him as they reached their circle of friends, who had witnessed the whole thing. “Sending Lady Greversham from your house? It is too shocking!”
“What care I for reputation?” he scoffed, which made everyone laugh. “I have been made husband of the only woman I have ever loved, and left behind my dark and dreary wasteland of bachelorhood for the brilliant paradise of being well and truly bound for eternity. What greater fortune could be had?”
Soft sniffles echoed in rapid succession as every woman in the group, Susannah included, wiped away tears. Susannah took her husband’s chin in her hand and gave him a very improper sort of kiss for a ballroom, but it was natural for them by now.
“All right,” Derek said with a suddenly accusing air, “who toyed with Colin’s beverage?”
Susannah laughed and broke away from Colin, who settled his hand a little too close to her hip.
“Too right,” Geoff agreed with a snort. “That was so poetic I forgot it was Colin.”
“It was terrifying,” Duncan offered with a shudder.
“It was beautiful,” Annie corrected, smiling at him.
“Pity it was Colin,” Moira sighed. “I enjoyed it.”
“Is he feverish?” Kate asked with a wink.
Nathan slowly shook his head. “Susannah, you’ve married a madman.”
“Aye, I have,” she murmured, brushing a lock of his hair away. “And I find I am just as mad.”
Someone sighed, and Colin winked at her, stroking her hip surreptitiously.
Geoff heaved a dramatic sigh and shook his head. “Well, that is the end, I suppose.”
“The end of what?” Mary asked, looking confused.
“An era.”
“How so?” Annie asked, her brow furrowed.
He pointed at Colin. “Colin, it seems, has reformed.”
No one said anything for a moment as they considered that. “Do we have a moment of silence?” Nathan asked, looking around.
“I think I may cry,” Derek said, dabbing his little finger to his eye.
“Please don’t,” Duncan begged. “It will set the women off.”
Mary laughed. “Colin reformed? Nonsense.”
Geoff shook his head. “No, he is, utterly reformed, it’s all over.”
“Colin…” Derek said, looking at his friend. “Come now, tell us the truth: are you reformed?”
Colin looked a bit bewildered himself. “I suppose I must be. Good heavens, I’m reformed?” He looked at Susannah in confusion.
“Please,” Susannah snorted.
Colin grinned. “Well, almost, then.”
“Not quite,” Susannah added.
He held up a finger. “And certainly not entirely.”
Susannah wrapped an arm around Colin’s waist, looking up at him with adoration in her heart. “And that is just the way we like it.”