Chapter 2
"Come along, Louisa," Penelope said, impatience stark in her voice. "You have been dallying all day! If we are not to be late for the wedding itself we really must hurry!"
Louisa brought herself back to reality with a start. The ride over to the fine old church where the Earl of St. Vincent was to wed his fiancée had been entirely taken up with her practicing in her head what she would say to him when they met.
Your fiancée is pregnant? No, that's too blunt. And I am not meant to know the fact, it would be cruel to declare it in front of others.
Perhaps instead I could pretend to be terribly sick and that he was now infected and would have to put off the wedding, then I might try to get him alone and tell him in private?
Would an earl allow himself to be in private with an unmarried woman who had informed him that she had leprosy and he was now infected?
There was no easy way to say what she needed to say!
Oh how she wished she had confided in one of her sisters before now.
But how she could explain how she knew what she knew completely escaped her.
It was so terrible a thing that when she tried her words ran out and she found herself stumbling or stammering until the person she was trying to speak to grew frustrated and left her to it.
She slid out of the carriage to follow Penelope, who had grown weary of waiting for her and headed towards the rest of their family alone.
Penelope would be able to work this out if it had been her to hear the news.
Or Alexandra, or Evelina or even Margaret.
If they could not figure it out they would simply share with their husbands who would surely know the best way to approach their friend.
Instead she had heard it, mousy little Louisa who could barely speak to a stranger without blushing and forgetting all the wonderful words that she spent her life reading.
"Isn't it lovely?" Alexandra asked, her face aglow as she took Louisa's arm.
The chapel seemed to have been drowned in white roses adorned with white ribbons and tiny little sprigs of apple blossom.
It was a dreamily scented space and it took Louisa's breath away for a moment as they joined Evelina and Margaret who were standing with their husbands talking to a smartly dressed gentleman with his backs to them.
"Oh here they are now, dear fellow," Theodore said cheerfully. "Come sisters, let me introduce you to my dear friend and the man of the day, Cedric, Earl of St. Vincent. Cedric, these are Louisa and Alexandra Balfour, my sisters in law."
The gentleman turned, the groom! It was the groom!
Tall, so tall and with broad shoulders – he seemed to tower above her.
She got a hazy impression of blue eyes and a coronet of fair hair in her panic as he bowed graciously, one hand on his heart.
Louisa could feel Alexandra curtsy and followed suit almost mechanically for how was she meant to continue thinking when looking into those eyes?
"A pleasure to meet you, my lord," Alexandra said.
Louisa murmured something, hopefully something that made sense because she was no longer quite in control of herself.
When she had heard the rumors that Cedric St. Vincent was charming she had not guessed at how well he would look!
She had only ever seen him in the distance while she had been trying to fade into the background of a ball or escape from yet another social engagement.
She had never been able to see the tones of gold and brown in his hair or how clear his blue eyes were.
"The pleasure is certainly mine," Cedric said warmly, a faint smile on his lips. "I have heard a great deal about the Balfour ladies from my dear friends, and I have to say that neither of these gentlemen have done justice to the fairness of your faces."
Am I blushing? Louisa thought frantically, feeling an unusual heat rush through her face as Theodore and Gabriel immediately started to protest.
"I told you that every sister was a beauty!" Gabriel said, laughing. "It's not my fault, sir, that you do not take heed of my words."
"Nor mine," Theodore added dryly. "I would have thought that seeing the loveliness of my wife would have told you all you needed to know about the fairness of her sisters."
"He is simply trying to make us look bad so that he can be all the more charming by comparison, Dunmore, what shall we do about it?"
"We shall have to let him, Notley, it is his wedding day."
Cedric laughed and raised his hands placatingly but that simple statement had brought Louisa's focus back into sharp relief. It was the wedding day and she had still not done her duty and told this man what she needed to say to him.
"Lord St. Vincent," she said softly. "May I speak with you?"
He turned that gaze on her and inclined his head. "Miss Balfour."
"I—I mean—that is—" Louisa felt a rush of horror curdle at her insides. "I—I just have to—I need you to un-understand…" Oh she would not be able to! She couldn't say the words!
Her sisters peered at her with concern, Alexandra squeezing her arm. "What is it, Louisa? Are you well? Have you taken the sun while in the carriage?"
"Do not concern yourself, Miss Alexandra," Cedric said, that smile a little broader on his lips, his gaze distracted. "It is not the first time that I have had this effect on a lady."
For a moment Louisa could not speak at all, but instead of the feelings of anxiety that she had been fighting with, a little flame of irritation flickered alight in her chest. She fought past it and doggedly tried again.
"Excuse me, my lord, I really have to talk to you about something very important… "
The earl smiled again at her, charming and dismissive. "Thank you indeed for the compliment of your admiration and for your attendance today. You must excuse me, I am wanted elsewhere."
Without having any control over it, Louisa let out a sound that was suspiciously like a scoff.
In fact it was a scoff.
In public. To an earl.
His eyes snapped to focus on her properly, narrowing a little as though he were at last paying attention to her.
"I can imagine, my lord, that you have had plenty of reason to believe that every lady you meet must be charmed by you, however I must assure you that I am not one of those ladies."
He raised an eyebrow in response. "Indeed? The redness of your cheeks speaks otherwise, my lady."
"If my cheeks are red, it is through embarrassment that you have so thoroughly misunderstood me, sir," Louisa said, keeping her smile as polite as she could in the circumstances. "Not because of secret girlish passions."
"Well I do know quite a deal about girlish passions, I must say," Lord St. Vincent said, his voice low and amused. "Perhaps you are simply unaware of what you are truly feeling."
This was getting out of hand, and fast! Louisa swallowed her pride hard and took a breath.
"My lord," Louisa said as calmly as she could, though her knees were trembling and her heart pounding hard in her chest. "I am not trying to compliment you, I have a piece of news that it would do you well to hear -"
A swell of music filled the chapel and people started moving past them towards the seats. Murmurs of admiration filled the air and Theodore and Gabriel clapped Cedric on the shoulders.
"You'll be wanted, old man," Theodore said and Cedric shook both their hands hastily and bowed to the ladies.
"Excuse me, my bride is coming."
Then he was gone. Louisa had not told him. She had not stopped this thing from happening. It was going ahead anyway. She had failed.
"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here in the sight of God…"
Would this ceremony never end? Cedric had attended a few in the last year and they were always the same, the same words, the same droning on by the priest in front of a congregation that were only there so that they could get to the wedding breakfast and toast the couple.
If he had been able to he would have demanded that all that was said were the important vows, but Father Samson had assured him that there was nothing in the text that could be missed.
Oh that it would be over soon and they could be done with this fuss and head back to his home. "...duly considering the causes for which matrimony was ordained…"
How long could the old man draw out his words for, it felt that he must surely be doing it on purpose at this point.
He flexed his hands in his gloves and focused on the priest. Once this was over there would be peace back in his life.
All the stress and concern would melt away, he would be able to—
"Into which holy estate these two persons present come now to be joined…"
Get back to the work of managing his estate and—
“...let him speak now or hereafter forever hold his peace."
Cedric was thinking about the peace of his study and the mountain of paperwork that he had waiting for him as he glanced lazily out over the crowd.
There was no one here who had reason to stop the wedding so the priest would wait a moment or two and then this affair would be closer to being over and leaving him finally married.
"I object!" a woman cried out, a young lady shooting to her feet and then going red in the face as every eye in the church turned to stare at her. "Um—I object," she repeated quietly.
It was the sister of Theodore's and Gabriel's wives, the one who had stammered something to him before the wedding.
Cedric found himself staring at her in shock that quickly bled into rage as the congregation started to their feet in astonishment, voices raising in shouts for an explanation.
What reason on the planet could she have for this display?
They would have to re-read the banns and rearrange the whole wedding! Did she think this was a joke?
"Why do you object, miss?" the priest asked gently. "What is your reason for stopping this holy union?"