by Abigail Agar
Gwyn took a sip and said, “That is really delicious. I wonder if they make it just for the event or if they buy it somewhere.”
“I would wager that they make it,” Sergeant Chavers said astutely. “My father has dealings with this family from time to time, and they are avid winemakers.”
Gwyn looked suitably impressed. “Well, they do a fine job of it,” she said honestly as she took yet another sip of the wine. The cool strawberry liquid slid down her throat with hardly any tingle of the alcohol that she knew must be in it somewhere.
“Sergeant Chavers, so we meet again,” a familiar deep voice said. Inwardly Gwyn groaned but outwardly, she put on a smile as she and Sergeant Chavers turned in unison to greet Jack who had a petite blonde on his arm.
Sergeant Chavers nodded. “Indeed, Captain Shelton. And who is your companion?”
Gwyn eyed the young lady curiously as Jack offered, “This is Miss Rebecca Gallant. Miss Gallant, allow me to introduce Sergeant William Chavers and Miss Gwyneth Stanton.”
“Lovely to meet you, Miss Gallant,” Sergeant Chavers said.
Gwyn nodded and agreed, “Most lovely to meet you, Miss Gallant.”
Miss Gallant eyed Gwyn back, and then the young lady put on a bright smile. “It is very nice to meet you both.”
“Miss Stanton and I grew up together as children,” Jack said with a smile at Gwyn.
Miss Gallant again eyed Gwyn with something akin to caution. Gwyn smiled at the young lady. “Be glad that he has outgrown all that pirate nonsense,” she told the young lady with a bit of a laugh which Sergeant Chavers joined her in.
Miss Gallant looked at Jack curiously, and Jack shrugged. “I deny that I ever outgrew it,” Jack said in amusement.
“This is information that I am glad to have,” Miss Gallant said as she finally relaxed and laughed along with them. “Now about that drink,” the young lady said pointedly to Jack who nodded.
Jack said, “If you will excuse us. I must keep a promise. It was very good to see you both.”
Gwyn and Sergeant Chavers nodded and watched the couple go over to the refreshment table. “She seems okay,” Sergeant Chavers said. “Is it your goal to scare off all his matches with childhood talk?”
“I am not the one that brought up childhood things. I was just teaching Captain Shelton a lesson,” Gwyn said reasonably.
Sergeant Chavers chuckled. “Remind me not to get on your bad side, Miss Stanton. I feel as if you could be very conniving if given a reason to be.”
“You might be right about that,” Gwyn admitted with a soft laugh. “I think it is the seasonal events that bring it out in me. This whole charade of the courtship part is really so odd.”
Sergeant Chavers frowned for a moment, and Gwyn was afraid she had offended him. She relaxed when he shrugged. “I suppose it is a bit contrite, but some people need that to help them find a suitable match. The rules keep people from overindulging themselves, and the charade of it helps to keep a certain amount of distance, letting people break ties where they are needed.”
“You have given this a lot of thought, Sergeant Chavers,” Gwyn said in amusement.
The man nodded and agreed, “Probably too much. Then again, I never really expected that I would have to go through the formality of all of this. I assumed I would find a nice young lady in the colonies and settle down.”
“Well, technically you did find me in the colonies,” Gwyn said with a smile.
Sergeant Chavers chuckled. “That is right. I did, did I not?”
“You did, indeed,” Gwyn said with a sigh. “Of course, if we had settled accounts while in India, we would not have to do all of this. Lucky us, yes?”
Sergeant Chavers remarked, “I hope that was a joke.”
“It was,” Gwyn said with a grin. “So, how old do you think Captain Shelton’s date is?”
Sergeant Chavers laughed and said, “She does not look a day over eighteen.”
“I was thinking more along the lines of sixteen,” Gwyn said with a wry smile. “You are right, though, she could just be a late bloomer.”
Sergeant Chavers shook his head with another chuckle and held out his arm. Gwyn gladly accepted the man’s arm and let him lead her back to the dance floor. The music swirled, and the lights sparkled. Gwyn for the first time in a long while felt like she could handle what was being thrown at her.
Gwyn pictured herself married to Sergeant Chavers, and she did not flinch. It was a breakthrough for her to be able to hold that image without there being something subtly wrong with it. Gwyn danced and kept her eyes to the man with her. It was a willful act, but one she felt pride in doing. Somewhere out there in that crowd was the man she had once sworn herself to, but Gwyn held her eyes squarely on the man that held her future—Sergeant Chavers.
***
Jack watched Sergeant Chavers and Gwyn dance. They were growing quite fond of each other. He had thought for sure that Gwyn would not settle for the man, but it seemed she had set her mind that she should marry Sergeant Chavers even if only for her mother’s sake. Was it her mother’s sake?
As Jack watched them, he saw Gwyn laughing, her easy manner telling him that Gwyn was becoming familiar with and connected to the man. Something in Jack rebelled against the idea that any man should imprint themselves so dearly upon Gwyn’s heart. After all, Gwyn had given her heart to Jack a long time ago, and he had not as yet relinquished it.
Miss Gallant had gone to powder her nose, or whatever it was that the ladies did in their powder rooms. Jack failed to notice the woman’s return until she cleared her throat. He turned towards her with a smile. “Ah, you have returned,” Jack said amicably.
“What are you doing?” Miss Gallant asked suspiciously.
Jack had noticed right away that the young woman seemed to instinctively distrust any woman that Jack spoke to and as such he had decided right away that she was not the bride for him. Surely, a woman worthy of being his partner would trust him just slightly, at the very least. “I was watching the dancers,” Jack said truthfully. “The music was so loud and your steps so dainty that I did not hear you approach. Do you wish to dance, or shall we call it a night?”
“I see,” Miss Gallant said. “You do not find me pleasing then?”
Jack had not intended to have this discussion publicly, and he had no intention of letting the woman force it on him. “Of course you are,” Jack said pleasantly. “Are you not feeling well?”
Miss Gallant seemed to be deciding what she was going to do as she frowned out across the dance floor. Finally, she said, “I am actually feeling a bit faint. I think I shall retire for the evening.”
“Shall I walk you out to your carriage?” Jack asked as he looked around for the young lady’s chaperone.
Miss Gallant shook her head. “I can find my own way,” she said spitefully.
“I insist,” Jack said firmly. “I would not want any harm to come to you. I see your aunt just over there. Let me escort you to her if nothing else.”
Miss Gallant conceded with a nod, and Jack walked the girl back across the ballroom to where her aunt was sitting. The woman looked up in surprise. Jack said, “Miss Gallant said she is not feeling well. I wanted to make sure that she got back into your safe hands.”
“Of course,” the woman said as she rose and looked at her niece in concern. “Are you quite okay, love?”
Miss Gallant nodded. “Yes. I would just like to go home so I could lie down.”
“Very well,” her aunt agreed readily. “Thank you, Captain Shelton for your concern for my niece’s welfare. I will see that she gets home safely.”
Jack nodded and watched as the two women headed off to have their carriage summoned. Jack turned on his heel once the women were out of sight and went off to find his brother. Finally, Henry was located sitting with another man playing cards.
Jack shook his head as he dropped down in a chair nearby. “Hardly a gentlemanly thing to do,” Jack remarked.
“Well, I am
not a gentleman,” Henry retorted.
Jack replied, “Your title would state otherwise, but then gentleman is more of a mentality and a morality issue than a bloodline.”
“I am stung, Little Brother,” Henry said absentmindedly as he eyed his hand of cards. “Was that your date I saw leaving?”
Jack nodded. “Yes. She is a bit too clingy for someone I just met. Speaking of dates, where is yours?”
“Oh,” Henry frowned. “I do not know really. She could have left, I suppose.”
With a scowl of disapproval, Jack said, “May I speak with you privately, Brother?”
Henry glanced over at Jack and groaned when he saw the expression on Jack’s face. “I suppose that it is not really a question. Of course, dear Brother,” Henry said with an exaggerated sigh. “Good game, old man,” Henry said to the other man seated at the table who nodded and shook hands with Henry before Henry turned towards Jack.
Jack had risen from his seat and beckoned his brother to follow him with a gesture of his hand. They made their way out of the ballroom and away from the crowds. When they finally stopped, Jack turned with a heavy sigh and sagging shoulders towards Henry who eyed his brother dubiously.
“Mother just wants what is best for you. Surely you can see that you need to pull yourself together for the sake of the family so that Father can bestow the title on you. That cannot have escaped your thick skull. Despite what you might want others to think, I know you are no buffoon and drunkard, Henry,” Jack said, his words dripping with disapproval and frustration. He glared at his brother daring him to make up some excuse as flimsy as the last one that Henry had tried to throw Jack’s way.
Henry nodded. “I do see that, Little Brother. In fact, I have seen that very clearly since I was a child. I have known from an early age that the last thing I wanted to be was Duke of Castleberry. Why would I want to be yoked with that?” Henry took a deep breath and continued, “Even Gwyneth knew I was not cut out for Dukedom when she was eleven. At eleven, that young lady told me that I would make a horrible Duke. And you know what? She is absolutely right. All I will do is slander the family name.”
“Well, you are on a good start for that,” Jack said, and then he shook his head. “Gwyn was a child when she said that. She knew no more about being Duke than being Queen. She just was angry at you for acting like a spoiled brat.” Jack frowned and looked up at the stars overhead. “Have you talked to Mother or Father about any of this, or did you just hope that they would grow tired of your schemes?”
Henry swayed his head from side to side and said, “The latter. I actually thought that I would never make it so far. Then again, you had to go off to war, and that sent my chances of getting out of this devilled inheritance straight to the bottom of the well, so to speak.”
“You know very well why I went to war,” Jack said with an aggravated sigh.
Henry nodded. “Yes. It is in there dancing the night away in her lover's arms. Tell me, Brother, that you are not angry about that?”
“I—” Jack began then shook his head. “I am not angry. I am tired, Henry.” It was a hard thing to admit, but there it was. There was no anger in Jack towards Gwyneth. He could not even say for sure that there ever had been. No, he had always somehow assumed that she had her reasons. After all, Gwyn never did anything without a good reason.
Henry spat, “You deserve better than pussyfooting around her. You deserve better than marrying some girl who is beneath you. These girls are not your girl. Your girl is in there.”
“I had no idea that you thought Gwyn and me a match. I had the distinct impression that you thought she was the Devil incarnate,” Jack said as he raised an eyebrow at Henry.
Henry lifted his arms in a helpless gesture. “Oh, I did think the worst of her. Truth is, I do not know her reasons for what she did, but I have seen the way you two are together. That is not something ordinary. No, Brother, that is quite different than anything I have felt for a woman. That has to be love, right?”
“I do not know. Gwyn is the only woman I have ever felt that for,” Jack said quietly. “She told me that she still loved me, but I saw it in her tonight. She has committed herself to marry Sergeant Chavers. Who am I to ruin her plans?”
Henry scoffed, “You, my dear Little Brother, are the man who loves her. That is who you are.”
***
Gwyn sat with her chambermaid, Adrienne, trying to decide on a hairstyle for the upcoming night out at the ballet with Sergeant Chavers. Gwyn knew several of the young ladies that would be in attendance. It was not a regular social outing during the Season, but Gwyn could hardly turn down the opportunity to go to the ballet. She so rarely got to go and had not attended one the entire time she had been in India.
Sergeant Chavers offered to escort her, but he was called away at the last moment to attend to some business due to his father being otherwise engaged. Gwyn felt comfortable still accepting Mary Donovan and her escort’s invitation to sit with them. Lady Stanton even considered attending as well, but Gwyn’s father was having a hard time, and Lady Stanton opted to stay in with the man to assure that he remained calm.
As it was, Gwyn studied her reflection as Adrienne held her hair up to test out a new look. “We could pin it just here,” Adrienne said hopefully.
Gwyn nodded. “I think that might look nice with several soft strands hanging loose, perhaps?”
“That’s right scandalous, Miss.” Adrienne beamed. “But a lovely idea to frame your face.”
Gwyn smiled back at Adrienne in the reflection of the mirror. “Let us embark upon our adventure and see what comes of it then,” Gwyn said with enthusiasm.
Adrienne made quick work of getting Gwyn’s long dark brown tresses tamed. Gwyn’s hair was so dark that most called it ebony, but there were strands of lighter brown woven in as proof that her father had lighter hair. Gwyn rather liked her hair and likened it to something from a storybook she had read as a child.
“How is this?” Adrienne asked as she stepped back to let Gwyn see more fully what she had done to her hair.
Gwyn smiled as she turned her head from side to side. “I do like it,” Gwyn said happily. “It is beautiful.”
“And it shows off your necklace, Miss,” Adrienne agreed.
Gwyn looked down at the necklace that her mother had loaned to her just for the occasion. One day the necklace would be hers, but for now, Gwyn merely could borrow it from her mother’s jewellery collection. The amethysts in the necklace reminded Gwyn of the first time she had seen her mother wear the necklace when Gwyn was no more than a child.
“It does make the necklace stand out,” Gwyn said softly. “I certainly hope the ballet is worth taking it out.” Gwyn had been most relieved when her mother had told her that she had not sold the jewellery collection. There were family heirlooms in the collection that Gwyn had not wanted to lose. Remembering all the family history they were set to lose made Gwyn even more determined to see the betrothal through with Sergeant Chavers.
Adrienne went to the window and said excitedly, “I believe that Lord Shelton is here.”
Gwyn knew it would not be the Duke. No. It would have to be Henry come to pay them a visit. Gwyn could not even fathom why the man would call on them at such an hour, and she did not fancy finding out. “You stay well clear of him, Adrienne,” Gwyn warned. She would not have her own chambermaid devalued by Henry as he had his own household staff.
Adrienne ducked her head and mumbled, “Yes, Miss.”
Gwyn hated to sound so stern, but the last thing Adrienne needed was for Henry to take a fancy to her. She had heard all too much about how the man had no remorse for his dalliances. Then again, did his brother really? Gwyn frowned as she thought about Jack.
