Marriage to a Mister (A Daughters of Regency #1)

by DeAnne Cherry

  Julia dropped her fork onto her plate, the loud crash sounding in time with a gasp from the doorway. Fleur stood there, face flaming, wondering if it was possible for her to actually die from an overdose of embarrassment.

  Taking pity, Madeleine rose to pull Fleur into the dining room and ushered her towards the sideboard. "You look lovely today, Fleur, don't you and Julia make a vision, you in lavender, and she in her blue. Your father must rejoice in the beauty that you two bring to his life."

  Fleur smiled and reached over to kiss her mother-in-law good morning and gave Julia a nod as she filled her plate. "Where are the others? Surely I'm not the last to rise?"

  "The boys are touring the estate with our steward," said Madeleine. "They will be gone most of the day, so it will be up to the three of us to welcome the remaining guests if they have not returned."

  "Who is arriving?" Julia asked.

  "Let us see," Madeleine said and she raised a hand and counted off each remaining member of the party. "There is a Mr. Mason. He, Nathan, and Evan went to Cambridge together, and then there are your three girls. Prudence, Phoebe, and also Charity, along with Phoebe's mother and Prudence's aunt.

  "When do you think they will arrive?" asked Julia,

  "I expect they will arrive between two and four. What shall we do until then, girls?"

  Julia leaned back in her chair and laid her napkin beside her plate. "A walk please, maybe into town? I need some exercise after the breakfast I devoured."

  "That can be arranged, and perhaps we will even run into the boys," said Madeleine, her eyes sparkling as she watched Fleur flush and tuck back into her breakfast.

  ***

  Evan sat on his horse with the others in the middle of a field of tall rolling grass. He had questioned his father's steward on everything he knew about running an estate as he gave his father an update on Blackburn Hall. Edward, being the heir, had been given the education he needed to run the land, but he, being the spare, had not.

  One thing was clear from his abrupt education: he had his work cut out for his new country home.

  "What are you thinking about?" Nathan asked, shouldering his horse up next to Evan's.

  "Just about the new estate. It's apparent even to me that I will need staff to run a place of its size and loathe as I am to lose my privacy, it must be done."

  Nathan baulked. "Staff? You will need considerable staff, Evan, that place is ramshackle. Everything needs repair, all the rooms need outfitting from the walls to the furniture. Lady Fleur can help you there."

  Evan nodded, glad to have someone to help with the finer details. "I have kept on the old steward, though he wishes to retire as soon as possible. He has been a great help and says he has a nephew who is keen on taking his place."

  "That old place has a steward?" Nathan asked skeptically.

  Evan laughed. "The man is almost seventy years old, Nathan. He did what he could considering the old owners refused to hire on and let the place go to ruin. She will be beautiful once I am done, though. "

  Nathan nodded and greeted Edward, Dom, and Felix as they rode up. The duke and the earl continued to converse with the steward.

  "What are you two doing hiding back here?" asked Felix.

  "I was just asking Evan about his new estate."

  Evan, knowing Felix would pounce, stiffened and wished Nathan had never brought it up.

  "Oh, you bought a country home? Why have I not heard of this? Did you know, Dom?"

  "Yes, Edward told me," Dom smiled, happy to duck the blame as long as Felix left him out of it.

  Sensing Edward's discomfort and knowing his brother kept his purchase a secret for his benefit, Evan took the focus. "It is nothing, Felix. I purchased an old estate about ten miles west of here."

  "When can we see it? What's it called?"

  Evan cleared his throat. "When it is ready and it doesn't have a name."

  Murmurs swept from Felix to a surprised Nathan. "Of course it has a name. What did the previous owners call it?"

  "They called it nothing. The place was built decades ago and never occupied. The owners just left it sitting there."

  Edward shook his head as Felix's eyes lit up bright as a school boy's. "Then we shall have to name her. How about Wolfham Hall or HighWolf Turret?"

  "Those are horrid names, Felix," said Dom, his nose wrinkled in disgust. "And it doesn't have a turret, it's Palladian."

  Evan smirked at Felix's sour face. "I think I will wait to name her until after she is restored to her former glory."

  Nathan nodded in agreement and pulled out his pocket watch. "Half past four; we were out here longer than I expected."

  "And longer than my wife will care for," said the earl, riding up with the duke at his side. "Let us head back to the house before she sends out a search party."

  They rode back to the house, and all the while Felix spouted off ridiculous names. Evan laughed at his antics but would not be taking his advice anytime soon.

  ***

  Charity sat in the carriage listening to the chaperones chatter on. She felt thankful her aunt had invited Prudence and Ms. Wilson along as Prudence kept Phoebe occupied while she contemplated the marriage announcement they had all awoken to yesterday morning.

  Fleur was married. And to Evan Woolf!

  "I do believe we are getting close," said her aunt. "We've been swaying away in this carriage for hours. Surely we are nearly there."

  All eyes turned to the window when they saw a young footman running and then jumping on to the side of the moving carriage. "We are nearly there, ma'am, we can see the house now."

  "Thank you, Adam," said Mrs. Simmons. The boy nodded and jumped down to rejoin the other servants in the carriages that held their belongings.

  "Thank goodness," Phoebe said. "I long to take a turn around the gardens, hopefully with a nice breeze. My legs need a good stretch."

  Prudence slipped her arm through her aunt's. "We all need a good stretch. I am not at all sure I can feel my toes anymore."

  Phoebe laughed. "If yours are numb, dear Prudence, just think of how your aunt and my mother feel."

  Suddenly the carriage stopped and sighs of relief made their way around. When the door opened and a footmen set a step in front of her and reached inside to help her down, Charity looked up to see Julia practically bouncing next to Fleur and Lady Blackburn.

  Once everyone was set down she turned to Phoebe and Prudence and whispered while the chaperones talked. "Right. So how are we going to go about this?"

  "What if we all go to our rooms for a moment or two and then meet in the hall? I know we all want to talk to Julia and Fleur as soon as possible about this marriage announcement nonsense," Prudence said, waving the marriage announcement from The Times in her hand.

  Charity shook her head. "Why are you still carrying that around? And how do you suppose we will be able to do that? We will be immediately taken to our rooms and expected to rest until dinner."

  Prudence closed her eyes and Charity knew she was praying for patience. "Then we will have to be very careful and very quiet. I am sure my aunt will be asleep within minutes. I'll sneak into the hall and claim I needed to stretch my legs if I am seen and wait for you two there. But do try to hurry, I'm not sure how long I can wait in the hall without looking suspicious to the servants passing by."

  "And then what?" asked Charity.

  Prudence, becoming irritated, spoke sharply. "We will sneak into Fleur's room, of course."

  "And what if her husband is in there with her?"

  Prudence's eyes flew wide. "O-oh, well ... I did not think of that."

  Charity smiled and shook her head. "Good heavens, you are really bad at this, you know."

  "You will have to forgive me if I am not as well-versed in manipulation as you."

  "Come to my rooms," said Charity. "My rank will certainly assure me my own private quarters. We can send a note off with a maid to both Fleur and Julia to meet us there."

  The other girls nodded
and Charity looked again to the vestibule of the large home. Julia was already speaking rapidly to Phoebe, who had made her way up the stairs. Her shoulders relaxed and she smiled, glad to be reunited with her best friend once again, but she was going to find out about this marriage business even if it took her the entire stay to do so.

  ***

  Evan and Nathan stood outdoors to the side of the house, hidden from his mother and the girls who stood outside waiting to greet the other women.

  They watched three very different carriages drive up to the front of the house. The first was elegant, carrying three young ladies, two dressed in the latest fashions and one equally pretty but not as expensively coiffed, Evan noticed.

  The next two to exit were older ladies, the chaperones, he gathered. Guards of young maids' virtues and matchmakers alike, at least he would be spared their notice. Being married he was now unimportant in the eyes of mamas everywhere.

  The next carriage was a fine specimen but plain, carrying servants that were now bustling around with his family's own, preparing to pull the carriages around the back of the home to unload.

  The third and final carriage, the finest of them all, brought a smile to his face; though its occupant had yet to leave its confines. Evan elbowed Nathan and nodded his head toward the carriage. Nathan smirked.

  "Oliver," they said in unison.

  Noticing how his mother was now greeting the girls and making their way indoors, Evan deemed it safe to reveal himself. He tapped Nathan's arm and they walked towards Oliver's carriage. When he reached the door he yanked it open, threw his head back, and laughed.

  There was Oliver, sitting in the very corner of the cabin, his feet stretched across the seats while his face was pressed against the side of the wall. He was sleeping soundly.

  "Typical Oliver," Nathan said, shaking his head.

  "How should we wake him? Pull his boots off?"

  Nathan laughed. "No, we did that at his twenty-first birthday celebration, remember? There is also the danger he would be too lazy to put them back on, and he'd greet your mother in naught but his stockings."

  "Ear pulling?"

  "Did it, last year of Cambridge."

  "We could always smack him in his fool head, since a fool he is to fall asleep anywhere within a mile of us."

  "As much as I would love to continue our game of, 'How best to wake Oliver,' perhaps we should just wake him normally. I don't fancy the conversation we would likely have with your mother if we awakened the Earl of Stonewick with a smack."

  "Hmm, you may be right, but now that you mention it, I don't think I ever addressed him as such in her presence."

  Nathan laughed. "You mean to tell me your mother invited 'Mr. Mason' to her house party? Evan, she's going to murder you when she realizes—"

  "And who says she needs to?" asked a raspy voice.

  "Ollie! Good to see you, and awake, what a rarity."

  "You have a bloody loud mouth, Carter, and it would please me greatly if we could just leave off on the earl business. Much less fuss that way."

  Evan smirked. "You mean much less harassment by well-meaning mamas trying to lay their claws in you."

  "Quite right," said the non-existent earl.

  "Don't worry, your secret is safe with us, for now," said Evan. "But don't think for even a moment those ladies won't have the peerage memorized backwards and forwards, even elusive earls who inherited when they were babies."

  Oliver yawned. "Hmm, perhaps, but perhaps not."

  "Well come out of there, my mother is waiting with the others inside."

  Oliver leaned forward, rubbing his blue eyes. He reached up and tried to tame his chestnut curls but soon gave up when it proved too much trouble.

  He scooted down the seat and jumped out of the carriage. "Let us go then, shouldn't keep ladies waiting, especially ones as pretty as your mother."

  Evan scowled. "You have never met my mother."

  "True, but Nathan says —"

  "Nevermind what Nathan says," Evan said sourly. The others laughed while they made their way towards the house. Evan smiled, surprised with himself, damned if he wasn't looking forward to a few days with his family and friends. He had not realized just how much he'd missed them all.

  GOOD FRIENDS

  Fleur sat in her bedchamber reading by the window when a knock came at the door. She looked up and then closed her book, one of her fingers marking her place. "Come in."

  A maid peeked into the room, waiting for her nod of approval, and walked forward. "I'm sorry to disturb you, milady, but I was asked to deliver this to you."

  "Thank you," Fleur said, taking the letter and flipping it over, thinking it strange nothing was written on the outside. She looked up to ask the maid who penned the missive, but she had already excused herself.

  "How odd," she muttered. She held the letter still and wondered if it was from Evan. She nervously fingered the edge of the paper, working up the nerve, and after counting to three in her head, she broke the seal and was surprised to see Charity's elegant scrawl.

  She skimmed the invite requesting her to come to Charity's room immediately and lowered the letter to her lap, crumpling it in her hand. She was slightly discouraged it was not from Evan. She had thought for a moment that he had written to her. Maybe inviting her on a walk or even had exposed some sense of his feelings, but she was wrong.

  She sighed and laid her book on a side table before walking outside into the hall. Spotting a maid, she quickened her pace to catch her. "Excuse me, but in which room is Lady Charity installed?"

  "I was just about to ask the same thing."

  Fleur was surprised to find Julia there, a note in hand. "Julia, were you asked to come to Charity's as well?"

  "Yes, I have been summoned," she said, waving the note in the air. "Though I cannot think of why," Julia continued. "She never talks to me unless it is with you. I'm relieved you are to be there."

  "If you would just make more of an effort with her —"

  "Oh, don't start, Fleur. I am still recovering from Madeleine's shopping excursion this morning, and I don't feel the slightest bit accommodating."

  Fleur cleared her throat and looked toward the maid. "Could you point us to Lady Charity's quarters?"

  "Of course, Madam, it is just down the hall, fourth door on the right."

  Fleur thanked her over Julia's giggles. "Madam?"

  "We best hurry, we're late already," said Fleur, trying not to look Julia in the eyes as they walked.

  "Yes, Madam."

  They both laughed, and Fleur took Julia's arm. "I am a married woman now; it is only proper."

  "But it sounds so odd, though I supposed not so odd as Mrs. Evander Woolf." Julia cringed. "Or even Lady Woolf."

  "That is Mrs. Woolf, thank you very much."

  "Oh, dropping the 'lady' are we?"

  "Yes, most definitely," she said with a sigh, stopping in front of Charity's door.

  "What ever for? Afraid plain Mister Woolf will feel slighted?"

  Fleur dropped Julia's arm. "You know as well as I do that Evan has never cared for situation nor titles."

  Julia brought her hand up to her face and looked at her fingernails. "I suppose that's true, but neither does Edward and he has one."

  Fleur looked up and down the hallway, relieved they were alone. "Why are you bringing this up again? What is the matter with you?"

  "Do you really want to talk about this now? In the hallway when we're already late?"

  Fleur's eyes darted about again, and, no, she didn't like the thought of it, but she could not stop herself. "Yes, yes, I do want to talk about it, so let us hear it, Julia."

  "I just feel like Edward was the better choice, he was your fiancé, not Evan, and I think you would be happier as his wife —"

  "Well, I don't," said Fleur, her eyes flashing and her jaw set.

  Julia stared, her eyes blinking slowly and her mouth trying to form words. "I ... I'm sorry. You don't need to get angry."

&nb
sp; "Don't I? From the start you've done nothing but show your disapproval. Julia, I realize that to everyone, it was always meant to be Edward, but for me, it was always meant to be Evan."

  "You ... you, like him? Truly? But why?"

  Fleur laughed, exasperated. "Is it so hard to believe? While you followed Edward around and pestered him, who do you think I was with? Evan, always Evan. Yes, he is crass and sometimes he says things before he thinks about the feelings of others, but I know him Julia, and he is not the monster you think."

  Julia's shoulders stiffened with her demeanor. "Oh, God, you love him."

  Fleur smiled and shrugged.

  "You are completely daft."

  "Well, I thank you for your support."

  "Oh, you have it. If you tell me that you truly will be happier with him than anyone else, including the handsome, kind and perfect Viscount Ravenbrook —"

  "Julia."

  "Then I will love him as my only brother, and never say a word against him again, to you, that is. I reserve the right to complain to others."

  Fleur laughed and gathered Julia into her arms. "Thank you, now should we actually knock?"

  "Let's," Julia replied, raping on the heavy wood door, taking Fleur's hand in hers. "Let's enter the lioness' den."

  The door swung open and they were pulled inside.

  ***

  Phoebe and Prudence sat on the chaise positioned at the end of Charity's bed while the latter paced before them.

  "Did you send the notes?" asked Phoebe.

  Charity answered with a look.

  "Then what is taking them so long?"

  Prudence stood as well. "Phoebe, it has only been five minutes, let us give them a moment to arrive."

  "It is just that one of us married! It's so shocking."

  "Well try not to be so shocked, if you please," said Charity, patting Phoebe on the head as she walked past. "Because what does that say about the rest of us if you're shocked about Fleur?"

  Prudence could only agree with a nod. "It is true, I never imagined she would be unattached for so many seasons. She's the kindest of us all, not to mention stunning —"