Chapter 15
“I am very grateful to you for agreeing to attend the blessing of my relationship with Wulf, Grandfather.” Billy looked shyly at William Robbin, the Earl of Billingsley, as the two of them stood in the vestibule of the chapel on the Duke of Sheffield’s estate in Kent.
Billy couldn’t have been happier. Today, all their friends and family were gathered to celebrate the love he and Wulf felt for each other. There was to be a blessing of their union before God and those friends and family in this small private family chapel, to be officiated over by the vicar attached to the Sheffield estate.
All three of Wulf’s close friends were in attendance, along with Toby and Christopher, the husbands of the Duke of Sheffield and the Duke of Lancaster.
Henry and his family had also traveled here from London.
Wulf, having discussed the matter with his three close friends first, had asked Henry to act as manager of the Apollo Club when it reopened next month. Thus promoting Henry and giving him a higher wage, at the same time as it freed the four owners from the task of one of them having to be present at the club each evening.
Billy’s brothers and sisters were also sitting at the front of the chapel.
Their father, having learned that his wife’s father, the Earl of Billingsley, was to take care of the financial welfare and be a part of the lives of all his grandchildren, had immediately signed onto another ship and returned to the sea he loved. Billy did not particularly mourn that decision.
Billy had now officially taken his place in Wulf’s household as his permanent secretary. Wulf had found another place for Jamieson when the other man returned to London the previous week, his father’s health being much improved.
The past two weeks had been ones of great happiness for Billy. Wulf had proven to be a fierce and devoted lover who could not bear to let Billy out of his sight for more than a few minutes at a time. A partiality Billy wholly reciprocated.
Luckily, as Wulf’s secretary, Billy was able to accompany his lover even when Wulf carried out his duties as magistrate or as a minister for the Crown.
“I am honored to have been invited,” his grandfather now assured him as he stepped back. “I know the Duke of Wulferston to be an admirable man. One of deep integrity. If he is in love with my eldest grandson, and my grandson is in love with him, then I happily give my own blessing on your lifetime union.”
The earl was a short and rotund gentleman, his red hair streaked with gray, but his green eyes were as lively still as his eldest grandson’s.
A man Wulf had realized, from the little information Billy had told him of his circumstances and that odd spelling of Billy’s middle name, was the father of an only child, a daughter: Lady Elizabeth Robbin. Billy’s mother.
It transpired that Lady Elizabeth had fallen in love with a handsome sailor whilst spending a few weeks visiting relatives in Great Yarmouth. Her father, a widower, when he learned of the unsuitable friendship, had taken his daughter home with him and instructed she must never see that sailor again, or else suffer banishment from his home.
Lady Elizabeth’s answer had been to return to Great Yarmouth and elope with that man, Billy’s father. The Earl of Billingsley had never heard from nor seen his daughter again. Something he had regretted for the rest of his life.
But he was ecstatically happy to now have five of his grandchildren living with him, Mary having immediately become his closest and loving companion.
Wulf had taken Billy to meet the earl the day after Mrs. Hodges’s death and the dismissal of the case against Billy being involved in Moreland’s murder.
Billy had immediately seen the resemblance between himself and the earl, but a single glance, at the portrait hanging in the earl’s study had dispelled any lingering doubts he might have had as to this man being his grandfather.
The portrait was of a young lady with the same refined and pretty features as Billy’s, the same red hair and green eyes. A woman Billy easily recognized as being his own mother in a less care-worn time.
A knock now sounded on the salon door before Wulf opened it and walked into the room.
Billy took in his beloved’s appearance at a glance before happy laughter bubbled up from deep within him.
Wulf grinned back at him knowingly, the two of them only having eyes for each other as the earl made a discreet and polite exit to join the rest of the guests waiting in the chapel.
Wulf wasn’t wearing his usual dark clothing today, but instead wore a green-and-gold jacket which perfectly matched the one Billy was wearing.
The red jacket had been rendered irrevocably damaged and stained when Mrs. Hodges attempted to stab him. With Wulf’s permission, he had visited the tailor and replaced the original with a green-and-gold superfine to wear at their blessing.
“Mr. Radcliffe told me this was your choice for a new jacket, and I instructed him to make an identical one for me,” Wulf told Billy indulgently as he took him in his arms. “Ready to pledge yourself to me for the rest of your life, my love?”
“As ready as you are to pledge yourself to me for the rest of your own life,” Billy answered huskily.
Wulf nodded. “Then we shall go and do that now, after which we shall commence living the rest of our lives loving each other and being always together.”
Never one to doubt Wulf’s word, Billy happily linked their arms before they stepped into the chapel side by side.
Together, always.