Chapter 28

During the following week, Harry called every day at the Grosvenor Square house, but the butler's grim reply was always the same. Mrs. Phillips is not in. After that week, he did not call any more.

When it was clear to Louisa that Harry would not call again, she convinced herself that his remonstrances were merely to assuage his conscience—that and the instructions she received from his solicitor explaining the process by which she could claim her annuity and the money to purchase a residence. Harry hadn't let her down in that regard.

While he would resume the usual practices of men of fashion, she felt she had nothing to return to. The pain in her heart was irreparable. She lost interest in her Tuesday meetings with the bluestockings. She did not feel like writing essays. She spent a great deal of time dwelling on the month she and Harry had spent together. Every glance, every conversation that had passed between them continued to invade her thoughts. And the intimacy they had shared invaded her dreams.

Ellie, too, was glum and full of remorse over her refusal of Mr. Coke. Like Louisa, she spent hours on end reliving in her mind those few glorious days she had spent with the most wonderful man on earth. She had decided that Louisa was right. She was the one who needed to make the first step toward repairing the damage, but she did not know how, nor did she know if such a move would meet with any success at all. It wasn't as if Mr. Coke were beating her door down, as Lord Wycliff for Louisa.

Ellie resigned herself to the fact that she and Louisa would live a most sedentary life together. No more gentlemen of quality paying morning calls. No reason whatsoever to dress fashionably for no one who mattered would ever see them.

So it was that she and Louisa were sitting in the drawing room sewing one afternoon when Williams entered the chamber. "I have taken the liberty to show Mr. Coke into the morning room." Looking at Louisa, he said, "Your denial to Lord Wycliff did not extend to his companion, did it?"

Smiling, Louisa assured him that Mr. Coke was most welcome. Then, turning to Ellie, she said, "It appears you will have your chance with Mr. Coke. It is hoped you will not destroy it — for you may never get another." Inwardly, Louisa ached with her own regrets. Perhaps she had been too unwavering with Harry. But she knew her chance was long gone. Harry had already lost interest in her.

Ellie leapt to her feet, her hands on her cheeks. "I cannot go to him like this. Just look at what a horrid sight I am!"

Louisa laughed. "You are not, my pet. You always look lovely." She took Ellie's hand. "Remember, Mr. Coke made his offer to you when you were dressed like a lad. I think he loves you however you look."

"Pshaw!" Ellie protested.

"Trust me." Louisa squeezed her hand. "Mr. Coke will find you beautiful."

* * *

Edward had never been so nervous in his life. It had taken him a week to gather the courage to come see Miss Sinclair, then another week to think of an excuse for his visit.

When Miss Sinclair walked into the morning room, the air nearly swished from his lungs, fairly robbing him of breath. Demmed but she was a deuced fine looking girl. Or was eighteen considered a woman? Her looks were so extraordinary, she even made a fine-looking lad. At the thought of her dressed as a lad, sitting up beside him on the box hour upon hour, he grew melancholy. Never before in his life had he wished to turn back the clock. Until now.

His throat grew dry. His pulse accelerated. "How very good it is to see you again, Miss Sinclair."

As graceful as a swan gliding across a pond, Miss Sinclair strolled to him and offered him her hand.

He took it in both of his hands and bent to kiss it. When he straightened, his face was flaming. He could not even remember what excuse he had come up with to explain his presence. Fortunately, she did not ask for one.

"How very good it is to see you again, Mr. Coke," Ellie said, her eyes alive and dancing. "Won't you please sit down."

He sat on one of the twin settees that faced each other in the middle of the room, and Miss Sinclair sat on the other one.

"I see the fine weather we enjoyed on our journey to Cornwall has continued," she commented.

"Yes. Very fine indeed." Then he had no idea what he was going to say next.

"You have enjoyed good health?" she asked.

"Excellent. You?"

She sighed. "Physically, quite excellent." Then she took a deep breath and continued. "I find myself reminiscing with unexpected fondness over the journey you and I took together." She could not meet him in the eye.

A smiled flashed across his face. "By Jove! It's the same with me! I find I think most fondly of the journey."

"Not just the journey," she said coyly. "The degree of closeness we gained — you and I — during the journey. I have found that I enjoyed that exceedingly."

"'Twas the same with me! I'd give my next quarterly to do it again."

"A pity I was so beastly proud when you felt compelled to offer for me, for I believe I should very much have enjoyed being married to you." She had not been able to look him in the eye when she spoke.

He leaped to his feet, bounded across the patterned carpet, and dropped to one knee in front of her. He took her hands in his. "It's the same with me, Ellie." He looked up into her smiling face.

"Oh, Edward, I am so very happy to hear you say that. Would it be too presumptuous of me to ask you to procure a special license so we could be wed quickly? I find myself wanting to be with you every minute of the day."

He rose up and joined her on the settee. "I will have it today."

Then he took her in his arms and kissed her soundly.

* * *

The following week, they married one morning at St. George's Hanover Square. Louisa and Harry stood up with them. It was the first time Louisa and Harry had seen one another since the day she returned to London.

After the ceremony, he said, "I beg that you will allow me to escort you back to the house."

To protest would only be to make things difficult for everyone.

She allowed him to hand her up to his carriage. They rode in silence for some five minutes. "You might be interested to know," he began, "That I alerted the House of Lords about Tremaine's murder attempt."

"Had the magistrate confronted the vile man?"

"We did together, that is my friends Alex and Sinjin, along with the magistrate and me. The magistrate said he'd been waiting for a long time for proof of Tremaine's evil doings."

"I wouldn't have gone back to that castle for all the money in the world."Her hand flew to her heart, and she directed a frightened gaze at him.

"You'll be pleased to know Tremaine is now being incarcerated. I don't know if I'll ever regain Wycliff House, but doing so is no longer as important as it once was to me."

Her pulse quickened. What, then, was important to him? "What of your mother's portrait?"

He smiled. "I have it."

"Lord Tremaine gave it to you?" she asked incredulously.

His eyes danced with mischief. "Let's just say I convinced the magistrate it was my property, and I actually filed a theft complaint against Tremaine."

"But, Harry, the man will find a way to kill you!"

He lifted a brow. "You care?"

She sat up ramrod straight. "Not at all."

"Then don't worry your pretty head."

Her eyes narrowed.

They grew silent again. Then Harry said, "Your anger toward me for my lack of sincerity in your causes was well placed. It made me start thinking, trying to analyze what my own positions were on the causes you promulgate."

"And?"

"And I realized that you really had won me over despite my initial reluctance. I admit that I had no intentions of taking my seat in the House of Lords, and I especially had no intentions of embracing your radical politics.

"But the more I thought on it, the more I realized how right you have been all along. I came to know that I was obligated to work toward all those reforms you and I had discussed. The extension of the franchise. Restrictions on child labor. Penal reform. Compulsory education. All the things I had initially laughed at behind your back."

"You are not lying to me to get beneath my skirts?" she asked, looking up to him with smiling eyes.

He stopped. Right there in the middle of Piccadilly Road. "I will never lie to you again."

"Would that I could believe you," she uttered.

Traffic grew snarled behind them, and harsh voices shouted at him.

All of which he seemed oblivious to.

"I have taken my seat in Parliament," he announced. "That I am a Whig, I thought, would make you happy."

Her heart was bursting with joy and love. "I can think of no better wedding present," she said. When he did not respond for moment, she began to tremble. Had she horridly embarrassed herself with her forwardness?

She watched as Harry set down his riding crop, turned to her, took her into his arms, and kissed her slowly and passionately.

Neither of them minded — nor even seemed to hear — the angry shouts from behind them on Piccadilly Road. "Perhaps Miss Grimm has been right all along," he said. "I do aim to get beneath your skirts — after you're Lady Wycliff, that is."