Sixteen
Olivia arrived back in London after another long carriage ride, dropping her trunk off at Mary’s and seizing Rufus’ curricle with hardly a hello. She raced to Nathaniel’s, arriving breathless and minus her hat. She vaulted from the coach and rang the bell repeatedly. The butler, in his shiny black boots, answered the door with a curt, “Madam!”
“Could you please tell Mr. Jenkins that Miss Olivia Blakesley is here to see him. It is something of an emergency.”
“He is not at home, Miss.”
“Is he really not or did he just tell you to say that? I know he is mad at me, but I really must talk to him. I need to tell him what a toad I am.”
The butler stared at her expressionless. He looked behind him, then leaned toward her conspiratorially. “He has gone to the green.”
“Oh, thank you! I could kiss you!”
He reared back in alarm.
“But I won’t, of course not. Good day!”
She hopped back into the buggy, crying for the horses to GO!
The cook peeked out from behind the butler and nudged him. “You should have told her he was with that Miss Mayes. That’ll be a shocker.”
“I have no doubt Miss Blakesley can take Miss Mayes with one hand tied behind her back.”
“Ooh, would you like to make a little wager on that, sir?”
He looked at her in surprise. “Are you betting on Miss Mayes?”
“Course not. Just how long it’ll take Miss Blakesley to get rid of her.”
“Mmm.”
“Nathaniel!”
He turned in surprise to hear his name shouted across the green and stared in disbelief as Olivia came racing through on a curricle.
Miss Mayes peered toward the contraption. “Who is– Is that Miss Blakesley? What is she doing?”
Nathaniel shut his mouth quickly and tugged on his waist coat. “It appears she is trying to run over the pedestrians.”
Miss Mayes slipped her hand through Nathaniel’s elbow and chuckled. “It does appear that way. Ho, Miss Blakesley, where’s the fire?”
Olivia jumped from the rig, pausing when she saw Miss Mayes. “Are you still wearing that dreadful feather in your hair? Really, Nathaniel, could you not have picked a girl who at least didn’t walk around looking like a chicken?”
Miss Mayes screeched, “This is the highest fashion, I’ll have you know! And at least he picked someone who knew what fashion was!”
“He doesn’t even know what fashion is! He doesn’t care! Nor does he like opera, nor does he like balls and dancing. He did all that for me. And he definitely doesn’t like silly little girls who think life is about parties and dresses!”
“Oh, you think he would rather have someone who cared for naught but the stars? Who publishes in magazines? Mr. Jenkins is a gentleman, he would never want so low a wife.”
Nathaniel watched in amazement as they nearly came to blows. He held Miss Mayes firmly away from Olivia.
“Olivia! What has come over you?”
“You! Look what you’ve done to me! I was quiet before I met you. Content. Now I’m screaming like a fish wife at Miss Mayes, who I may not have been bosom buddies with but I never hated her. Nathaniel, what are you doing with her?”
“I’m attempting to live my life, Olivia.”
Her face crumpled. “But you love me. I am your life. And I was stupid and threw that away, like it was nothing. Like it wasn’t the most romantic and sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me. Like you didn’t mean it, when I knew you did. When I knew you were the best man I had ever met. The only man I could ever love.”
She searched frantically for her handkerchief. Nathaniel handed her his and she buried her face in it. She wailed something into it.
Nathaniel watched her, his heart warming at the ridiculous sight of Olivia flustered and sobbing. “Olivia–”
“I’m a toad!” she cried. “I don’t deserve you. But I want you! I want to marry you, and live with you, and wake up with your leg crushing mine–”
Miss Mayes gasped.
“–and argue over who gets to read the paper first, and lock you in the bedroom so I can paint outside, and have little screaming babies who look exactly like you– except not the girls, I would prefer they take after me. Please, Nathaniel. I will be your perfect wife, please.”
“I rather think you will be.”
Both women looked at him and said, “What?”
“I think you will be the most perfect wife for me, Olivia.”
Miss Mayes looked between the two of them– Olivia in her ugly brown dress with buttons to her neck, her hair skewed, hat missing; Nathaniel, who watched her with obvious admiration.
“I think you both belong in Bedlam.”
Nathaniel drew her hand from his arm. “I apologize, Miss Mayes.”
She looked between them again. “No, I think this is probably for the best.”
She called to her maid, who had stayed well back from the commotion, and walked off– happy to have some very titillating gossip to share.
Olivia stepped closer, gazing into his eyes. “Do you really still want to marry me?”
“God help me, I do.”
She frowned. “Did you kiss her?”
“Of course not. She is a proper young lady.”
Olivia smiled slowly– hope crowding out the panic, happiness warming the cold.
“I am not a proper young lady.”
Nathaniel offered his arm. “Believe me, Olivia, I had noticed. Would you like to swing by the gazebo before we depart?”
She laughed and entwined her arm with his. “Indeed I would.”