A Lady's Perfect Match: A Historical Regency Romance Book

by Bridget Barton

  For her, he realised, it had not all worked out in the end. She was looking at her little sister's bliss, when she herself had not received the answer she wanted from the Shaw brother that she loved. Brody vowed to himself that he would try to fix things before Montgomery fled to London, but for the moment he wanted to enjoy the adoring eyes of the little woman at his side. He looked down at her and nudged her teasingly.

  "You know, lass, I've been thinking it's about time to meet with your father on the subject of our courtship and marriage."

  Hannah's eyes widened in surprise and delight. "Already? Are you certain?"

  "I've been certain for some time; just a coward unable to share how he truly felt. Thank you for being patient with me, little woman. Thank you for waiting for me to catch up to your faithful love all these years."

  She curled closer into the crook of his arm and Brody felt that all was well in the world at last.

  Chapter 35

  Montgomery woke early the next morning and sent his packed luggage down to the waiting carriage. He had agreed to meet his mother and Brody in the breakfast room for the first meal of the day, but aside from that he intended to leave at once for London. The longer he stayed with a separation between him and Emelia Wells, the more painful the county seemed.

  When he came into the breakfast room, he was surprised to see that Brody was already there, looking even more bright and earnest than usual. He stood as soon as Montgomery entered in a show of formality, and waved his brother to a seat by their mother.

  "You're in a fine mood today, Brody," Mrs. Shaw said, a little pertly. "You do remember that today is the day that your brother takes his fine person away from the county, don't you? We shall miss him dreadfully."

  "Yes, that is all disappointing in the extreme," Brody said quickly, almost dismissively, "and I must speak to you about that at a later date. But first, I have some important information to give you."

  Montgomery raised his eyebrows at his brother, hardly imagining what the information was, and took a warm sticky role off the platter at the centre of the room.

  "Go on, then," their mother prodded.

  "Well, mother—brother—I am engaged to be married."

  Montgomery felt a gut punch to the stomach. He kept his eyes on his plate, trying desperately to regain his composure and keep from insulting his brother with his reaction. There was only one real possibility for his brother choosing something so lasting: he and Emelia had patched things up. He heard his mother gasp, and was thankful that she started off the questions and spared him the need to dive into the particulars until he'd had a chance to gather his composure.

  "Brody! And with no hint to us of the lady."

  "There may have been some hints, if you were looking closely," Brody said with a cockiness that shot through Montgomery's heart. He had to get out of this blasted county; had to disappear to London where he would only be forced to see Emelia at family functions, and those, hopefully, few and far between.

  "Hints are not," Mrs. Shaw said firmly, "you shouldn't tease us any longer. I demand you tell us at once who it is you've agreed to marry, and when we might pay her a visit and our fondest congratulations."

  "It's Hannah Shaw, mother."

  Another jolt of electricity and realisation shot through Montgomery, followed closely by a feeling of immense relief, and then immediately after, compassion. He looked up at last from his meal and made serious eye contact with Brody.

  "The sister of the girl you were engaged to only a few days ago? Don't you think that will be a serious wound to Emelia—I mean, Miss Wells?"

  Brody's expression froze for a moment, and something indiscernible flitted just beneath the surface. Then he was all smiles again. "I think Emelia will be quite alright. She bounces back quickly from such things, and I don't know that it will be such a great heartache as you presume, brother. You should really come over with me to the Wells' for tea this afternoon. I spoke with her father last night but today he wishes to have a small, private celebration with you and I and mother. Can you both come?"

  "Of course," Mrs. Shaw effused, seeming to recover much more quickly than Montgomery from this shocking turn of events. "And what a fine girl you've chosen, Brody. She's so sweet and quiet and kind. I think she will be a fine match to your vigour, and I'm sure she's equally proud to be attached to you."

  "She is loveliness indeed." Brody's eyes shone, and despite Montgomery's cynicism he was forced to admit that, for better or for worse, his brother really was in love. He had hidden it well beneath his charm and debonair attitude, but now Montgomery was beginning to look back on the past months and wonder whether all their time with the Wells sisters had been about Emelia, as he'd originally thought. Still, even if Brody's attentions had been fixed on Hannah, Emelia would have no way of knowing that.

  "When you had this conversation with her father," he said, trying to keep his tone calm, "did you happen to speak to her sister as well?"

  "Montgomery, for the last time—Emelia is quite satisfied with the arrangement. I assure you." Then, after a pause. "And I repeat my invitation. If you doubt it, come see for yourself this afternoon."

  ***

  Mrs. Shaw agreed to walk with Montgomery and Brody across the path between the estates instead of going round by the main road, and as they traversed the familiar way Montgomery wondered if he was making a mistake. He could have just climbed into his carriage and ridden away towards London without any of this painful reckoning with Emelia, but instead he'd been moved by Brody's joy and his mother's insistence and, if he was absolutely honest with himself, a desire to see whether Brody's diagnosis of Emelia's apparent happiness was correct.

  They were greeted at the door by Mr. Wells, who was all atwitter with excitement and delight. Apparently, although he had never seemed to fancy Brody for Emelia, he was over the moon about this new arrangement.

  "We're all in the parlour," he said. "And we're absolutely delighted to see you. Delighted. Come on in and sit by your soon-to-be bride, lad."

  Montgomery shot a glance over at his brother. In the past such open discussion about settling down to a life of marriage and commitment would have made Brody Shaw quake with fear and restlessness, but in this moment he seemed to be the picture of peace. He smiled and shook Mr. Wells' hand soundly before slipping into the room ahead of the others. He was already by Hannah's side when the rest of the group walked in, sitting in the chair nearest hers; watching her with open-faced admiration.

  It was as though some fog had been lifted over the two lovers, and Montgomery wondered why it had been such a surprise to him that Brody had chosen Hannah after all. They seemed so natural together; so in love. It was only when he turned his gaze to the other side of the room and saw Emelia sitting and watching the pair that his heart sank again.

  She was dressed in white, something he rarely saw her in, and it seemed a stark contrast to her expression. Her face was drawn and serious. She'd glanced up when he first entered the room, but just as quickly her eyes had slipped back to the figures of Hannah and Brody on the couch. Her hair was only loosely pinned up at the base of her neck, and she had no other adornment but a ribbon fastened around her neck.

  Montgomery forced himself to look away from her sadness and the intoxicating curve of her sweet neck. He wanted desperately to go to her and comfort her; to tell her that she ought not to dwell on the sadness Brody's flirtation and false commitment had produced, but he knew that he could not. The room; propriety, and his own heart held him back. For the moment, at least, he would hold his tongue.

  "My dear, how happy I was to receive your news!" Mrs. Shaw pushed past Montgomery and in a moment was upon Hannah's slight form, embracing her and exclaiming over her. "I always thought the houses of Shaw and Wells were meant to be joined, but I never imagined it would be in such a happy, unexpected way."

  Hannah blushed and let her eyes fall into her lap. "I'm surprised you are so kind and open to me, Mrs. Shaw. When I was last in your house I
made a spectacle of things, and I wish I had some way of showing you that was not in my nature and I am mortified by the embarrassment I surely put you through."

  "My dear, you forget that I was with you your entire life. I watched you play in my garden as a child and I comforted you during your mother's death. I know your nature is kind and good, and now that I have seen the reason for your outburst—" she cast a significant look at Brody, "—all is forgiven. Come, tell me all your plans for the nuptials."

  Mr. Wells gathered by the couple and Mrs. Shaw as they spoke of wedding dates and housing arrangements. Montgomery hovered for a brief moment on the outskirts of the fray, but then he couldn't hold back from the quiet figure in the corner any longer. He walked over to Emelia's side and sat down beside her on the couch, looking out away from her.

  "You came to visit me?" she said softly, a forced lightness in her tone. She was trying to make him feel at ease, and the pitiful kindness of the gesture struck at Montgomery's heartstrings.

  "I have not much to contribute to their discussion, and I know that you and I have never been short for conversation topics." Careful, Montgomery. Don't make this about yourself. "This is quite a bit of excitement in your house as of late. How are you handling all the changes?"

  "You want to know what I think of their marriage?" she asked again, softly. Montgomery turned to look at her and saw that her gaze was still fixed on the lovers. Her eyes were filled with a soft sheen of tears, glimmering but unshed. She looked so still, her skin creamy and cold, her face immovable, that for a moment Montgomery had the feeling he was looking at a statue of a girl—not the girl herself.

  "I'm sorry," he said impetuously. "I know this must be hard for you."

  She was quiet for a moment, and when she did at last speak her voice sounded soft and far away.

  "I'm not sure I know what you mean."

  "Emelia," he said, using the word that was sweetest to him, "It won't always be like this. I know that you're heartbroken right now, but I assure you that you will learn to love again."

  His words had a strange, mobilising effect on Emelia's face. She turned to look at him, a thaw of disbelief in her eyes sharpening into something much more hurt. She locked onto his gaze.

  "What? You say I will 'learn to love again?'"

  "Yes. Everyone does."

  "Well, I'm not so easily driven off the course my heart has set," she said bitterly. The tears escaped now, running silently down her cheeks. She was still sitting with the rigid propriety that she'd maintained for the whole of the visit thus far, such that a casual observer might not have even noticed that she was crying. But he saw it. There, tracing small lines down her pale cheeks—the evidence of a broken heart.

  She shook her head, but the tears were coming faster now. She stood, looking as though she were going to make some excuse or other, and then seemed to decide better and half walked, half fled, out of the room.

  Montgomery looked up and saw Hannah's eyes on him. He stood to follow Emelia, but she stood as well, excusing her from the conversation in which she was snared, and running to his side.

  "Something’s wrong," he said quickly. "I said something to upset your sister; I think that perhaps I ought to go after her and speak with her."

  Hannah shook her head and laid a hand on Montgomery's arm. "I think I know what is bothering her," she said quietly. "If it is as I suspect, than it would be best if I—not you—made overtures. Please. Stay here with our parents and distract them with wedding conversation and the bliss that consumes them. Don't leave." She took a few steps again and then turned around. "You won't leave, will you?"

  Montgomery shook his head. "I will stay until she gives me leave to go."

  Hannah paused for a moment, and then tilted her head to one side. "You've become very close to Emelia in the past few weeks and months, haven't you? You never used to be so friendly as you are now."

  "I'm not sure we're as friendly as we were earlier this month," he said with the bitter taste of regret in his mouth. "But I will admit to you that I have a soft spot for your sister."

  As Hannah walked out of the room, Montgomery's conscience mocked him softly. A soft spot? Is that a new name you've discovered to describe overwhelming love and affection?

  Chapter 36

  Emelia tried to hold close her eyes against the tears that kept burning forth against her eyelids, but still they came, seeping out and down her cheeks as she shook with weeping. She'd escaped from the house into the garden beyond and was sitting with her back against the willow tree facing away from the main building.

  No one would be able to find her here. She could take a few moments and come to her senses; be an adult who could handle the happiness of her sister without feeling that stab of pain at the nearness of Montgomery.

  "You will learn to love again," he'd said.

  It was the closest he'd come to telling her the truth: that he didn't care for her the way she cared for him, and it was time for her to move on. Suddenly, Emelia heard the soft tread of shoes nearby and turned to see Hannah slipping up beside her, back against the willow.

  "No, please," she said, holding up a hand. "Go back inside. It's your engagement celebration. I just needed a few moments of fresh air."

  Hannah slipped down beside her and laid her head against Emelia's shoulder. "First, if you think this little gathering will pass for an engagement celebration where Brody is concerned, then you have another thing coming. Second, I know you well enough to spot hidden tears miles away, sister—don't you think I'd notice them in the same room?"

  Emelia put a hand to her mouth, trying to stifle the sobs that kept threatening to break forth. "I can't…" she choked. "I can't be there in the same room with him, not knowing that he doesn't feel the same way about me that I do about him."

  Hannah gave a wry, humorless laugh. "A few days ago if you'd said something like that I would have added it to my long list of paranoid assumptions about you and Brody, but now that I know you don't feel that way about Brody, I must assume the truth about you and Montgomery at last. You care for him."

  "I—I love him."

  "Are you certain he doesn't feel the same way about you?"

  "I am." She buried her head in her hands. "I feel so foolish. I acted inappropriately, opening up to him about the things I cared about, sharing my secret fascinations with science and medicine; nursing him—"

  "You may have saved his life with that nursing."

  "I don't mean in the three days when he was facing death," Emelia said softly. "I would do that again in a heartbeat. No, I mean the days after during his recovery when I insisted on going over every day and tending to him, singing to him, playing music with him." She threw her hands down against the soft earth at her sides in frustration. "That stupid mancala game."

  She felt Hannah's arms creep around her. "Don't be so cruel to yourself, Emelia. You loved him. You did all those things not only for your own self, but because you wanted to bring him joy and rest and peace after a trying time."

  "It doesn’t matter now," she said softly, her heart thudding dully in her chest. "He's leaving."

  Hannah's arms dropped away again and she stood. Emelia looked up at her with tear-filled eyes. Hannah bit her lip. "Wait here, Emelia." And in a moment, she was gone.

  ***

  Montgomery looked up when Hannah came back into the room, noting at once that Emelia was not with her. The younger Wells girl walked swiftly to his side, still allowing the others to talk blithely away by the fireside, and pulled him into the corner.

  "I think my sister needs you," she said softly.

  Montgomery felt a twinge of confusion and pain. "What do you mean?"

  "She's ill, Dr. Shaw."

  The confusion was immediately replaced with a dull sort of fear. Montgomery had been worried about something like this ever since Emelia had given her time and energy to nurse for both him and Aggie. "What ails her?" he asked, already walking out of the room with Hannah close on his heels. "What
her symptoms?"