“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.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Jasper stood proudly beneath a gazebo he had built himself—with a little help from the groundskeepers. From it, yards upon yards of shimmering cloth stretched out, finding poles set out amongst the settees and armchairs upholstered in very specific shades of gold and ivory that Julia had not been able to live without. Nicholas stood beside him. All around them, candles and draping lengths of cloth rippled in the breeze.
“You have to have an officiant,” Nicholas said for the hundredth time. “Even if it’s not a member of the clergy.”
“I recognize no authority but my own in this matter.”
Nick rolled his eyes. “I am utterly unsurprised that you would say such a thing.”
Jasper grinned. “I stole that from Julia, actually.”
“You’re made for each other.”
“We are.” Jasper scanned the guests. Ruby was eyeing the seating choices. She’d even managed to smile twice. That was a sign of progress. “Did you invite your parents?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’d like to live to see the end of this day,” Nicholas answered. “We’ve barely managed to get them to accept Amelia. This is not going to do me any favors.”
It couldn’t be helped. Jasper wasn’t willing to live without Julia, no matter how many feathers it ruffled. Why so many people felt it was their business was still beyond him.
Instead of choosing a seat, Ruby walked up to them on the gazebo. “Jasper.”
He smiled. “How do we stack up to Westminster?”
“It’s quite…” Ruby looked around, focusing on a pair of footmen waving fans to make everything flutter. “Whimsical.”
“Thank you, and thank you for coming. You didn’t have to.”
She stopped judging everything around them long enough to meet his eyes. “I wouldn’t have missed it. I’m happy you’re happy, Jasper.”
Jasper nodded. He was happy to be happy—finally. Julia was everything he’d ever wanted, right down to the way she’d insisted on the giant swans that were only barely being kept from harassing the guests.
There weren’t many guests. Nicholas and Amelia had been certain to attend. Julia’s parents were there, and her mother had finally stopped fainting every ten minutes. They were more used to this sort of pageantry from their oldest daughter than most. Ruby had come. Beyond that it was mostly members of the Bishop household and a few friends from Europe that Jasper had been able to get word to in time.
Nora, who had been there from the beginning, was sitting in the second row, steadfastly trying not to cry.
“Only the two of you would have a yellow wedding,” Nicholas muttered.
“Gold.”
“What?”
“It’s gold. Kindly stop griping through my wedding—you’re ruining it.”
“You griped through mine.”
“Did I?” He didn’t remember that at all.
He wouldn’t, either. Today was his and Julia’s day. Nicholas’s wedding might have been abrupt and more rustic than either he or Amelia had intended, but they’d been able to enjoy it knowing that no one could deny their existence as husband and wife after it had finished. All Jasper would have was this moment and what it meant to him—what it meant to the woman he loved—but Jasper couldn’t imagine it being any other way.
When they’d met, he and Julia had agreed to expect nothing beyond that one moment. They were still living for the moment—they’d just chosen to promise all of their moments to each other. As many now’s as they had, over and over again.
“I think it’s almost time,” Nicholas murmured.
Jasper looked around. “How can you tell?”
“The swans are about to line up.”
Jasper blinked at him. “Humor is not your forte. Please limit yourself to the law.”
Nick grinned. “Amelia thinks I’m funny.”
“Amelia loves you. Her opinion is notably biased.”
For a moment, they didn’t speak.
“It would serve you right if the swans did line up,” Jasper whispered. “Don’t mention that to Julia. She’ll be devastated she didn’t think of it.”
A hush fell over the servants at the back. Nick opened his mouth to respond, but Jasper silenced him with a gesture.
It was time.
Only, instead of his beloved bride, Amelia was hurrying down the aisle. An elderly gentleman was being towed in her wake.
“What’s wrong? Who’s this?”
Amelia presented the stranger with her brightest smile. “This is the archbishop of Canterbury.”
Behind them, he heard Ruby say, “Praise the lord.”
Jasper just stared.
“The queen sent him,” Amelia explained.
The reality of what was happening broke through. He asked the archbishop, “Is it true?”
The clergyman smiled. “The queen wishes you to know that she finds your choice of bride exceptional, and hopes Lady Julia will dedicate herself to being Duchess of Albemarle with as much passion as she displayed at court.”
He had to be dreaming. Amelia handed him a thick sheet of paper with Victoria’s seal on it, and he realized he wasn’t. It was written there, plainly and clearly. The queen’s approval.
Jasper turned to Amelia. “Does Julia know?”
His soon-to-be sister-in-law nodded, with happy tears welling in her eyes. “Get ready. You’re about to be married.”
Julia was about to become a duchess. The queen might be a serious young woman, but she certainly harbored a secret flair for drama. She’d waited until the last possible moment to send her approval.
But she did send it.
They’d won. The only thing that could have made this day any better had happened. Julia was going to be the Duchess of Albemarle. Her children were going to have Jasper’s name.
She stood next to Tryphosa in her gold dress, which turned out to float just the right amount. All of the nerves were gone. She knew it, because Tryphosa was calm as could be. They were certain of where they were headed, and they were certain it was where they wanted to go.
Beside her, Lord Bishop was a mess. He’d burst into tears at the sight of the archbishop, and he hadn’t stopped crying since.
A Scandal by Any Other Name Page 23
