Grace Burrowes - [Windham Sisters 05]

by Lady Jenny's Christmas Portrait

  He got another silence, though this time, his lordship directed his attention over the fireplace, where a lovely Reynolds portrait of her ladyship held pride of place. “They call it Daltonism now. Seems to afflict us fellows more than the ladies.”

  “I do not know what Daltonism is. You draw brilliantly.”

  “Your mother said as much, but you paint brilliantly, and hence your ambitions deserved support.”

  Support. Elijah tried to wrap his mind around the notion that years of living from commission to commission, of enduring a status that hovered between tradesman and guest, of missing his family was a form of support.

  “What is this Daltonism?”

  His lordship continued to study the portrait. “I cannot see colors, apparently, or at least some colors. Your mother says I lack a proper appreciation for red, and I must believe her. My attempts at portraits and even landscapes were disasters.” Flint’s gaze flicked over Elijah’s face. “Hard to do a rendering of a lady’s smile or her blushes, when a fellow doesn’t understand the color red.”

  The words made no sense.

  “How can you not understand a color, for God’s sake?” And what a curse would that be, to perceive line, composition, and emotional content, but not color?

  “Your mother asked me to paint a small study of flowers, using the colors I saw, and she explained to me that I’m using greens, browns, and oranges in places where I ought to use red. Red, she claims, is a color like the taste of a pomegranate, the scent of roses, or the feel of the flame between your fingers when you pinch out a candle. She says it’s like orange without yellow, though I cannot imagine such a thing.”

  Elijah dipped them both out a glass of wassail, despite the early hour. “So you do not perceive even the blood in your veins as red?”

  His lordship smiled. “What matters the color of my blood? It beats through my veins effectively enough, particularly when I regard your mother.”

  That smile was sweet and pleased. The smile of a man who’d made hard, correct choices. “This puts Mama’s preference for you over Fotheringale in a somewhat different light.”

  His lordship’s brows came down. “Fotheringale is blind to much more significant matters than whether a tree is red or green. He could not see your mother’s talent, and he bitterly resented my little scribblings.”

  “He still does.” Which also mattered not at all. “You all but dared me to try for the Academy, knowing he stood against me?”

  His lordship let the top image roll up—sketches not stored flat would do that—and regarded a picture of the royal couple with a few of their older children in adolescence. Again, attire was proper for an informal evening at court, but the queen was gazing at her king, husband, and the father of her children. A notably reserved woman, Her Majesty’s eyes yet held admiration for her spouse as well as warmth and worry.

  “Ten years ago, Fotheringale was only getting started as a patron, but you were… You were restless, Elijah, as all young men must be, and your mother could not watch your talent be smothered by the weight of a title and family obligations.”

  “A wanderjahr, then. You wanted me to have a year to wander, a time to fly free as an artist and to learn more of my craft.”

  His lordship let the remaining sketches roll up all at once. “I wanted you to stop trying to herd eleven younger siblings into order, to stop trying to outshine the very stewards with your knowledge of the land, to spend less time with your nose in a ledger book and more time where you were happy. All too soon, you will find Flint and its obligations around your neck like a millstone. Your mother and I agreed that your art deserved support.”

  Images of Jenny holding yarn for her sisters, playing hoodman-blind, dancing dutifully with her brothers flashed through Elijah’s mind while he tried to absorb his father’s words.

  “You made the right choice,” Elijah said slowly. “I know more of the greater world, more of human nature, and more of myself for having pursued my art. I thank you for that.”

  His father studied his drink for a moment then treated Elijah to a doting smile. “You will make a fine Marquess of Flint, and the Academy will be lucky to count you among their members.”

  His lordship’s words held apology, but something more too: a paternal blessing Elijah would happily have wandered another ten years to earn.

  “I rather doubt I’ll ever see membership in that august body, nor will I seek it further. Fotheringale has deep pockets, but he’s been allowed to elevate his sycophants regardless of lack of ability. He has been less than gentlemanly regarding Mama, and his antipathy toward women artists generally sets art back, rather than propels it forward.”

  His lordship picked up Elijah’s glass and handed it to him. “I had not counted on your stubbornness when you took off to paint the world, but it sits well on you now. You will be called principled and a man of integrity. We are agreed Fotheringale is an ass, but your mother says he is to be pitied.”

  And Mama’s opinion would always matter greatly to Flint. Elijah touched his glass to his father’s. “To Mama and her stubbornness. Do you ever regret the choices you made?”

  He asked because a man could love his wife and still be honest. Flint’s answer was to leaf through the sketches and pull out one of a young couple from a bygone era, his evening attire nearly as resplendent as her ball gown—for all the image was in black and white.

  “The fashion at one point was to have mirrors in ballrooms, the better to serve both light and vanity. At our betrothal ball, I caught a particular glimpse of your mother’s face as we danced, and it has been all the answer any husband should ever need.”

  The young marchioness gazed at her husband much as the queen had gazed at her king—with love and admiration, but without the worry. Clearly she had found her way into the arms of the one man in all the world who was right for her.

  Flint picked up the sketch. “I would give up the ability to see any color, the ability to sketch, and several appendages as well to spend my life with your mother. She says Fotheringale is to be pitied, and she’s right. The Academy needs fellows like yourself, who stand above old Foggy in both talent and consequence, but your mother would ask you to show some tolerance to a man who ended up without talent, title, or lady.”

  Without lady.

  “About the lady.”

  The lady who was setting off on her own wanderjahr, which might easily turn into years, not of exploration but of exile, while Elijah… what?

  While he missed her. While he looked at his drawing of her the same way his father gazed at the portrait of her ladyship. While he never got his greens quite right and had nobody to tell him so.

  Elijah had been stubborn, but Genevieve Windham could hold onto things—guilt, goals, those sorts of things—more tightly than Elijah ever had. He’d given her all the letters of support he could, but he had not given her the one thing any artist needed to endure the privations of her trade, the one thing that might turn her steps in the direction of home and people who loved her.

  “The lady? Are you inquiring about your mother?” Flint asked, taking a sip of his drink.

  Elijah drank as well—somebody had made some sort of toast—and swallowed a bit of brew that kicked like a happy donkey.

  “Not that lady. I must cut my visit short, your lordship. I must see about a lady who will wander for ten years, alone and far away, unless somebody offers her a different path. You cannot see a few paltry colors, but I cannot see my way home when it’s staring me in the face.”

  Elijah turned to go, pulling Kesmore’s letter from his pocket as he headed for the door. Today was Wednesday, which meant Jenny might leave as early as—

  A knock sounded on the door.

  Flint caught Elijah’s eye. “Enter.”

  “Callers, your lordships. The Duchess of Moreland and Lady Genevieve Windham. The young lady said I was to
interrupt you, and the marchioness agreed.”

  “See them in,” Flint said, which was fortunate, because Elijah could not organize a single thought beyond a fleeting recollection of His Grace’s reference to the espionage of women.

  ***

  Flint Hall was every bit as imposing as Morelands, and far more grandly appointed. Jenny suspected much of the art was her ladyship’s, though it wasn’t quite as warm or detailed as Elijah’s renderings.

  “Their lordships will see you now.” The liveried footman was all that was correct and courteous, without being friendly. Her Grace swept by Jenny and paused outside a door to greet another lady of mature years.

  “Happy Christmas, Your Grace!”

  “Charlotte! Happy Christmas!” The ladies touched cheeks, linked arms, and Jenny felt misgiving uncoil in her belly. Elijah’s mother had that certain self-possession Jenny associated with émigrés and duchesses, a self-possession that might equate to impatience with a young lady seeking an audience with a son recently returned home. The marchioness turned a brilliant smile on Jenny, one that did not remind her of Elijah at all.

  “Lady Genevieve, welcome. Elijah has told me much about you, and I confess I am most curious. Thomas, we’ll be having tea and a tray, please.”

  As the ladies strolled into a roomy, paneled parlor, the marchioness bent her head close to Her Grace’s. “Did you like the portrait of His Grace? I am dying to see it. Moreland has such presence, much like Flint.”

  Jenny did not hear the duchess’s reply, because Elijah was standing across the room, illuminated by a shaft of sunlight that showed him both tired and handsome.

  So very handsome.

  “Ladies, welcome.” An older fellow advanced, one who had Elijah’s eyes and chin. He bowed over Her Grace’s hand with old-fashioned courtliness, and still Elijah did not move from his spot by the window.

  “And you must be Lady Genevieve. Elijah would no doubt enjoy showing you our portrait gallery, though we keep it chilly this time of year to discourage impromptu athletic competitions—to no avail, I might add.” Lord Flint cleared his throat. “Elijah?”

  “Yes, Elijah,” the marchioness added. “The tea will take a moment, given the state of the kitchen of late. Show Lady Genevieve the portraits.”

  Elijah held out his hand, and Jenny stifled the urge to run to him. “Nothing would please me more. Lady Genevieve, welcome.”

  Still he did not smile. Jenny took his arm and processed from the room with him as if they were promenading around some ballroom before all of Polite Society.

  “I should not have come.”

  “I’m so glad to see you.”

  They’d spoken at the same time, which caused Jenny to pause in her progress down a quiet, carpeted hallway. “I beg your pardon?”

  Elijah glanced around. “My brothers are playing skittles in the portrait gallery, and it’s bound to be freezing. Come. We’ll have only a moment, and there are things I need to say to you.” He took her hand in his and tugged her into a room near the end of the corridor.

  And Jenny allowed it—there were things she needed to say to him. They might be the last words she ever exchanged with him, but she needed to say them more than she’d ever needed to paint, draw, or embroider.

  More even than she needed to keep a promise extracted by a wily, if mortally ailing, brother.

  Elijah closed the door behind them quietly, and Jenny found herself in a room much like what the Windham children called Her Grace’s Presence Chamber. The walls were full of sketches, the furniture was as comfortable as it was elegant, and everywhere there was color. The upholstery was blue and cream, the gilding a mellow gold. Green pillows riotously embroidered with flowers added a comfy touch, and gold fleur-de-lis decorated the walls.

  “There’s no red,” Elijah said.

  “That’s what you wanted to say to me?” Though he was right. The room sported neither red nor pink, even.

  “This is my mother’s parlor, and it has no red. But that is not what I wanted to say. What I wanted to say—”

  He went to the door and locked it, which could presage either difficult words or—

  He took her in his arms and brushed his mouth across hers. “We haven’t any mistletoe, Genevieve, and I know you’ll soon be on your way, but—”

  Jenny went up on her toes and kissed him back, kissed him as if he were every destination on His Grace’s splendid itinerary and the place she’d come home to all rolled into one. “Hang the red, hang the mistletoe, Elijah.”

  Hang Paris. She wanted to hang Paris, and yet she might still end up there. Jenny eased back, but did not leave Elijah’s embrace. “Happy Christmas, Elijah.”

  His cheek rested on her hair. “That is your version of a holiday greeting now? I’ll not be introducing you to my brothers, if that’s the case.”

  Jenny inhaled the scent of him and closed her eyes. To be in Elijah’s embrace was better than Paris, better than the world. “You left Morelands before I could give you my Christmas token.”

  “I don’t need any tokens from you, Genevieve.”

  He also apparently did not need to let her go, which was a fine thing indeed. Jenny, however, needed to see his eyes when she bestowed her gift, so she eased away.

  “I need to offer this to you anyway, Elijah.”

  He joined his hands behind his back, the same gesture His Grace had made when Jenny had announced a pressing need to add Surrey to the Itinerary from Hell. “If it’s a farewell, Genevieve, then you may—”

  She put her fingers to his lips. “My gift is a question. I want to give you a question.”

  He took her hand in his, his expression grave. “Ask, Genevieve. With me, you have ever only to ask.”

  His fingers were warm around Jenny’s abruptly cold hand. Her heart thumped painfully against her ribs.

  “Will you come to Paris with me?” That wasn’t what she’d wanted to ask, but it was close.

  Elijah’s expression didn’t change. “Paris stinks, it’s full of Frenchmen, and they have addled notions of chivalry. Why do you want to go to Paris, Genevieve?”

  He hadn’t said no. Jenny clung to that and to his hand. “I don’t want to go to Paris, and I’m not sure I ever did. I don’t want to go anywhere that means I can’t be with you.”

  “Do you want a travel companion, Genevieve? If that’s what you’re asking, then I must refuse the honor.”

  Pain threatened to buckle Jenny’s knees. “Not a travel companion. Not just that.”

  “Somebody to paint with and appreciate art?”

  “Not that either.” Because she would set aside her artistic aspirations happily in favor of creating a life with him.

  “Good, because as much as I admire your talent and dedication, as much as I would enjoy seeing all the great capitals and treasures of the Continent—of the world—with you, I would decline that invitation too.”

  It dawned on Jenny that he wanted her to ask a different question.

  “What invitation would you accept? Tell me, Elijah, and I will extend it.”

  He took a step closer. “You already have. You have invited me to love you, and I do, Genevieve. I love your heart, I love your gentleness and determination, I love your concern for all around you, and I love your kisses.”

  He kissed her, a quick punctuation mark at the end of a lovely little list.

  “But you won’t travel with me?”

  “I’ve seen the wonders of the Continent, Genevieve. Stared at them for so long I was blind to much else, such as the wonders of a loving family and a welcoming home. Marry me, and I will happily explore those more impressive wonders with you, regardless of what country we find ourselves in.”

  Marry me. The question she hadn’t known how to ask him. Jenny bundled into Elijah’s arms. “Yes. Yes to the family and the home, yes to becoming your w
ife. Nothing would make me happier.”

  In the small parlor curiously devoid of pink or red, Elijah held her close, which was very good indeed, because Jenny felt as if she’d fly apart if he let her go, so great was her happiness.

  “We can make Paris our wedding journey,” Elijah said, kissing her cheek. “Though I’d spare you a winter crossing if I could.”

  She aimed for his mouth and ended up kissing his chin. “A New Year’s crossing, please.”

  His hand slid down her back to cup her derriere and draw her closer. “I can’t wait a year.”

  “This New Year.”

  “Better,” he growled against her mouth. “Nearly tolerable, in fact. Kiss me.”

  She did, and she was still kissing him when a tap sounded on the door.

  Elijah smiled crookedly and eased away, pausing to tuck a lock of Jenny’s hair behind her ear. When he opened the door, Jenny saw his parents and Her Grace in the hallway.

  The marchioness led the parental parade into the parlor. “Excellent! You are showing Lady Jenny your sketches. Her Grace tells me she has a similar collection, most of them done by her daughter.”

  “Perhaps it will be a family tradition, then,” Elijah said. He slipped his arm around Jenny’s waist. “I am happy to inform the assemblage that Lady Genevieve has consented to be my wife. His Grace led me to believe my suit would be accepted, and Genevieve has indeed agreed.”

  His Grace? As Jenny accepted a hug from her mother, she spared a thought to wonder when His Grace-of-the-never-ending-journey might have said such a thing.

  “Welcome to the family,” Lord Flint said, bowing over Jenny’s hand. “Elijah, I suggest you complete the ceremony before you allow your lady to meet your brothers.”

  “Flint, that is not funny.” Her ladyship bussed both of Jenny’s cheeks. “Now that Elijah has found a lady willing to put up with him, his brothers might well see the blessings to be enjoyed in the state of holy matrimony. Genevieve, well done.”

  As Lord Flint led them back to the paneled parlor and poured generous cups of wassail, Jenny stayed by Elijah’s side.