Chapter Twenty-Four
Jasper stopped in to see Julia before his next cigar and whiskey session with Lord Bishop. The last one had involved an awkward discussion about the funds Lord Bishop intended to level on his eldest daughter. Apparently, Julia was an heiress. Jasper was vaguely familiar with the sum Nicholas had been awarded upon marrying Amelia, but they needed the money with Nicholas only being a second son and Nick’s parents not being thrilled about his marriage to Amelia.
The situation for Jasper and Julia was much different. The queen might be against them, but Jasper was in no danger of being short on funds. Still, Lord Bishop would not be dissuaded. They’d finally settled on putting it in a trust to be disbursed back to Julia upon Jasper’s death, or evenly amongst their children if she preceded Jasper to the grave.
Bridal contracts weren’t exactly Jasper’s idea of high romance.
He hoped his blushing fiancée would deliver a much-needed injection of engagement excitement before he had to dive back into the mercenary world of father-in-law negotiations.
“I hope you’re not trying to plan it all without me.”
“See this.” Amelia pointed with the dip pen she was using to take notes. “You should have picked someone like Nicholas. He didn’t have opinions about anything.”
“I’m going to tell him you said that, and no, thank you. I’m very happy with my choice.” Julia lifted her cheek for his kiss.
He sat down beside her with the ease of a contented man. “So, what’s it to be? Are we traversing the aisle on the backs of elephants? Entering the ceremony on ostriches?”
“I hadn’t thought of riding animals!” Julia’s face lit like a lamp, before falling into a scowl. “Which one goes better with a fairy barrow?”
Just the mention of the barrow made him reach for her. For Amelia’s benefit, he feigned ignorance. “What’s this about a barrow?”
Julia sent him a sly smile. “I’ve decided to theme our wedding after my favorite room in this house.”
He was signing up for a lifetime of delicious torture.
“Are you disappointed we won’t be at Westminster?” she asked, suddenly serious.
Every DeVere for as long as he could remember had been married at Westminster Abbey. It was the sort of tradition that Ruby and his grandmother would have insisted on, under different circumstances.
Jasper squeezed her hand. “Not a bit. Without the queen’s approval, the bishop would be arrested for performing it, and I’ve never put much stock in tradition.”
“What about your grandmother?”
“She’ll come around.” Just likely not in time for the wedding. Ruby had written to let him know the dowager duchess could not support his break with the crown by attending his ‘sham ceremony’. His grandmother wasn’t coming. He tried to tell himself it didn’t matter, and in the end, it wouldn’t, but it still stung. Ruby would attend, though, and that made him happy.
Amelia tried to shift the subject back to more pleasant subjects. “Julia, tell him about the settees.”
His fiancée lit up like the dawn. “I thought we could use settees and armchairs, instead of pillows on the ground, if we set them up just right. I’d want them in all white and gold.”
“That sounds lovely.”
“It sounds like it’s going to be almost as difficult to find as all these candles you asked me for.” Lord Bishop stood in the doorway, smiling over his daughters.
With great exaggeration, Julia batted her eyelashes at him. “Papa, I know that you have been dreaming about funding an extravagant wedding our entire lives.”
“Have I?”
“Of course.”
“Ever since you were a little girl,” Amelia added.
Lord Bishop scowled at his daughters. “Albemarle, please tell me you’re ready for our meeting so I can escape these hoydens I’ve raised.”
Jasper much preferred watching the sisters tease their father, but it wouldn’t do for him to get on his bride’s father’s bad side. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
They didn’t have much left to discuss. The dowry had been haggled over, albeit in the opposite direction it usually took. He was hard-pressed to think of what else they needed to discuss.
In the study, Lord Bishop poured the now-traditional afternoon whiskey. He swirled the glass between his fingers for a long while before he spoke. “I wanted to ask you, before it’s too late, if there’s any chance of your taking Julia to Boston and marrying her properly.”
Ahh. “I could, but we wouldn’t be allowed to come back to England after that, and Julia couldn’t stand to be away from Amelia. She is dead set on challenging the queen.”
Lord Bellamy chuckled, low and a little sad. “My daughter doesn’t have any shortage of nerve, does she?”
“No, she does not.” Jasper picked up his glass. “You’ve raised formidable women, my lord.”
“Maybe too formidable,” the older man murmured. He studied the bottom of his glass for a moment, before shaking himself. “All right. If this is what she wants, then she’ll have it, but what happens next? How does all of this work, after the ceremony?”
Jasper nodded. It was a hard thing to discuss, but he was stealing the man’s daughter away. He owed Lord Bishop at least that much for going along with everything. “We’ll live together as man and wife. That’s how I’ll refer to her, and I’ll not allow anyone to disrespect her. As far as the law is concerned…”
“She’ll be your mistress.”
“Only in the eyes of the law. I intend to petition the privy council as soon as I’m able next year, but…there’s not much hope of that being successful.”
The quiet settled between them.
It was a hard thing to ask a father to accept for his daughter. Before this experience, he couldn’t imagine himself or his grandfather accepting such an arrangement for Ruby, but Jasper knew the strength of his feelings for Julia, and he wouldn’t be asking if there was another way.
“You love her.”
It wasn’t a question, but Jasper answered it anyway. “With all that I am.”
“What about your children?”
“If we are blessed to have any, they will be the heirs to everything except my title.”
Lord Bishop sighed. “If she ever wavers, and considers letting you make an honest woman of her—”
“We’ll be on the first ship to France, and she’ll be my legal wife within the day.” In France, at least. England would never recognize the marriage without the monarch’s approval.
It was all Jasper could promise without going against Julia’s wishes, but it seemed to be enough. Lord Bishop frowned in thought, and then nodded slowly. He held out his hand. Jasper shook it, sealing the promise.
Organizing a wedding in a fortnight was how families became estranged. First the candles were on time, then suddenly they weren’t. Three days later, everyone who upholstered furniture seemed to be out of gold fabric. Then, five days before the wedding, some farmer mentioned that it would surely rain on the day Julia had chosen.
Now she was standing in front of a mirror in her bedroom and the dress she’d commissioned did not look right at all.
“You look lovely,” Amelia insisted.
Pure rubbish. “It doesn’t float like it ought to.”
“Perhaps because it weighs four stone?”
Julia shot her sister a glare in the mirror.
“Right.” Amelia stepped away from the dress and toward the door. “I’ll get Jasper, then, since he’s the only one who can get you to admit to anything sensible these days.”
“No! He can’t see me. Not in the dress.”
“I thought this wasn’t the dress. I thought you’d decided the seamstress hated you, and we were going to find another one who could create a miracle in the twenty-four hours you have left.”
Julia swished the skirt side to side. “I just want it to be perfect.”
“It is, and it will be, but you’ll be getting married in it alone if you don’t behave yourself.”
“I’m not that bad, am I?”
“Yes!” Nora shouted from where she was buried under a mountain of tulle.
Julia just wanted everything to go well. “Do you think people will understand what this dress was supposed to look like?”
“All they’re going to see are blood stains if you keep fussing with it,” Amelia promised, but she tugged a lock of Julia’s hair when she said it. “Everything will be wonderful.”
“How do you know?”
“Because you and Jasper love each other. If that’s all you have when it’s over, it’s still quite a lot.”
It was more than a lot. It was everything.
Amelia leaned in, whispering next to her ear. “You have overcome far more than an improperly floaty dress to get to this moment. Don’t start doubting yourself now.”
Suddenly, the dress was perfect, and she became very certain that the candle merchant would be able to sort out his difficulties. All became right in Julia’s world—except for the fact that their mother showed up early, with a day still to go until the wedding.
“She’s where?” Julia demanded of the housekeeper, Mrs. Polk, who was still standing in the room after delivering the news.
“On her way from the train station.”
Julia scrambled to get out of the dress.
“Stand still,” Nora demanded. “If you rip it, you’ll have only yourself to blame.”
With Mrs. Polk’s help, Nora and Amelia got her out of the dress and into a new one without any major catastrophes. Julia managed to be downstairs in the foyer when Lady Bishop swept in like a hurricane.
“Girls!” She stopped when her daughters didn’t rush to her side. “No warm welcome for your mother?”
“We still remember how you behaved during Mia’s engagement,” Julia said.
Lady Bishop brushed the thought away with her hand. “All is forgiven. Julia is marrying a duke.”
Amelia turned to Julia. “You didn’t tell her.”
“It must have slipped my mind.” A small part of her had been relishing this moment. For her father’s sake, Julia had invited their mother back, but she did not entirely intend to let bygones be bygones.
Lady Bishop looked between her daughters. “What’s the matter? What’s going on?”
Julia took a deep breath. “I’m not exactly marrying a duke. He’s a royal, and the queen wouldn’t approve it.”
“Then what is all this?”
“We’re committing to live in sin together.”
“What do you mean, live in sin?” Lady Bishop knew exactly what Julia meant, she was just trying very hard not to know it.
“Julia is going to be Jasper’s mistress,” Amelia announced. “We’re throwing a party to celebrate.”
The shriek echoed through the foyer, and no doubt the rest of the house and halfway through the county. Lady Bishop’s ungraceful collapse was disrupted by a footman with quick reflexes. Julia didn’t miss the smile that flashed on Amelia’s face and then disappeared.
Lord Bishop stepped out from his office. “Did someone scream?”
“Just Mother. She’s arrived.” Amelia didn’t seem to feel the need to say more.
Their father raised his eyebrows at the scene in front of him. “It’s good to have you back, Felicity.”
“I think this might have been a real fainting spell,” Julia explained, when Lady Bishop didn’t respond. The footman lifted her prone form and carried her to a nearby bench.
Lord Bishop peered at his wife. “What happened?”
The folds of Julia’s skirt were suddenly very fascinating. “I failed to mention that the event she’d been invited to was not, in fact, a legal wedding.”
He squinted at his daughters. “Menaces, both of you.”
“Most certainly,” Julia agreed.
“I blame our parents,” Amelia added.
“You should probably find some unsuspecting men to foist us off on before it’s too late.”
“What’s all this? Who are you being foisted on?” Jasper came through the front doors and kissed Julia on the cheek.
She kissed him back. “Men who are oblivious to our flaws.”
“I’m the perfect candidate, then. Also, your candle merchant just drove around the back. I’m going to meet him.” Jasper noticed Lady Bishop, who was blinking back to consciousness in a slump on the bench. “Good afternoon, Lady Bishop.”
He left with the same jovial mood he entered.
Amelia leaned close to Julia, watching him go. “Does it alarm you a little how well he fits in with our ridiculousness?”
“Not at all,” she answered distractedly. For once, Julia’s attention was on something other than Jasper or the wedding. She was watching her parents and the veiled looks of longing they were sending each other when they thought the other wasn’t looking.
“Papa, can you explain the wedding preparations to Mother? I’m sure she’ll want to find some way to help.”
“Wouldn’t you know better what needs to be done?”
“No time, I’m afraid.” She grabbed Amelia’s arm and dragged her toward the stairs. “We’re still trying to sort out my dress.”
She left them behind, confident that they would find something with which to occupy themselves. There was no shortage of occupations for Julia, either. It was late into the evening before everyone cleared out of her room and she had a moment alone.
The window seat in her room was lit up with moonlight. She sat on it, watching the world outside, trying to reconcile herself to everything that was about to happen. This was her last night in the room she thought she would live in forever. So much was about to change. So much had changed already.
People could say it wasn’t a real wedding, but for her and Jasper, it would be. It would mean the same thing. Even if she never stood up in her gold dress, Julia knew—she and Jasper were forever. It was such a strange feeling, to have a man be so much a part of her and be sitting here in the sanctuary of her childhood.
Her door swished across the carpet. Julia didn’t need to look. She and Jasper had agreed not to see each again until they stood up in front of their families at the ceremony. It could only be one person.
“You’re still the noisiest creeper I’ve ever heard.”
“I don’t put the same value on illicit talents as you do,” Amelia answered.
Julia grinned. “How sad for Nicholas.”
A pillow sailed across the room, bouncing off the window. Amelia followed behind it on a longer delay. She crawled up into the window seat opposite Julia, and they looked at each other.
“Don’t,” Julia insisted.
Amelia couldn’t stop her smile.
“I said don’t.” But it was no use.
“I told you so.”
Julia sighed.
“I told you he would love you, and I told you that you would not die a spinster.”
“But you didn’t know.”
“I did know! Admit it.”
“I will do no such thing.” Just because Julia was emotional and vulnerable over the coming wedding did not mean she was so slack-witted as to concede an unproven point.
“Fine, don’t admit it.” Amelia crossed her arms. “We both know I was right.”
“Shouldn’t you be with your husband?”
“This is more important.”
“Gloating was more important?”
Amelia nudged her foot. “You couldn’t be with me the night before I was married. It was awful.”
Julia felt her throat go thick and the prickling start behind her eyelids. “Damn you, Amelia Bishop.”
Her sister scrambled across the seat, finding room to sit shoulder to shoulder. “Just remember—I’m the boring Bishop, so you’ll always know where to find me if you need me.”
“Nose deep in a book.” Julia nudged her. “Thank you.”
Amelia nodded. “If you just want to be boring for a while, that’s acceptable, too. What you’re doing—”
“People are going to hate it.” More than they already hated everything about her. Julia looked around at the menagerie that made up her room. Gold elephant statues, wire birds suspended from the ceiling—aside from Nick and Amelia, they’d been her only friends growing up. Julia had no doubt that some days would be very lonely, but she could handle it. She still had Nick and Amelia, and now she had Jasper.
“I think what you’re doing is very brave.”
“You mean foolish,” Julia added.
“That, too, but it’s your plan, so we can’t expect it to be a good one.”
“My plans are excellent!” Julia nudged her, causing Amelia to almost fall off the window seat.
“Of course,” she sneered, righting herself. “That’s why the queen of England went out of her way to put a stop to you.”
The snicker came out of Julia as a snort. “She really did, didn’t she?”
“Broke precedent, for the first time in seventy years. Well done, Jules.”
“Thank you. I try.”
Amelia grabbed her hand and squeezed. “You should get some sleep so you’re not puffy and unbearable in the morning.”
“I’ve never been puffy a day in my life.”
“Keep telling yourself that.”
The silence descended again when Amelia left. It was just her, the moon, and this bedroom—like it had been so many nights.
Julia looked up at the moon. “I once asked you for a prince on a white horse. You didn’t send me a prince, but the man you did send—he’s perfect. Thank you.”