Chapter 24 #3
I nodded. Of course it would be too soon.
They’d barely spoken to each other in six years.
And in the meantime, I’d fought with him, shot with him, stared up at the sky with him, and spent a night caring for him.
I had also spent way too much time remembering every single experience.
It had to stop. I couldn’t keep thinking of Captain Calder like this.
It was scandalous and embarrassing. But how, exactly, does one go about forgetting someone so .
. . so . . . uncommonly out of the ordinary?
We had just over a week left in this house party. Certainly in that amount of time I could purge all thoughts of that night and his whisper. “He should wait at least until the end of the house party.”
“I agree.” She grinned. “And a proposal then would make your mother extremely happy.”
Of course it would. It would make all of us happy. It had been a rough two years without Matilda, especially for Hattie. And while Hattie would always miss her sister, at least now she would be starting a family of her own with perhaps the only man I’d ever met who might be worthy of her.
I leaned forward until our foreheads touched. “I’m going to miss you, Hattie. All these years we’ve had together, you’ve been like a sister to me, only perhaps better, for a sister would have tired of me at some point, while you have been fortunate enough to only see me in small doses.”
“I will always be your cousin. No marriage could change that.”
“I know, but it will be different, for I won’t have you all to myself anymore.”
She laughed and pulled her head back. “If the two of us can’t manage to get rid of a husband for a few days so we may have time to ourselves, then I shall be very disappointed, indeed.”
“True.” I took a deep breath. It was time I started helping Hattie instead of hurting her. “You need to tell him all of this, especially about waiting to propose. Otherwise, I’m not certain it won’t happen tomorrow. How can I help? I could arrange a time for the two of you to meet.”
Hattie chewed on her lip while the slightest bit of a frown formed on her lips. “You think I should meet with him?”
I nodded. “It isn’t a conversation that can be had over dinner.”
“No, I understand that.” Her eyebrows were deeply furrowed. “But don’t you think you should be the one to do that?”
“Me?”
She nodded.
After all the wonderful things she had just said about the man, why wouldn’t she want to have some time alone with him? “You aren’t scared of him, are you? I’ve never seen him do anything ungentlemanly.” At least not when he was in his right mind.
Hattie leaned away from me, a crease forming in her brow. “Of course not, but if I spoke to him about it, it would be extremely awkward, and also completely inappropriate. Couldn’t you mention all of this the next time you are alone with him?”
I sighed. Hattie needed to avoid any hint of scandal. With Mrs. Wickerton watching every move, she was right. She shouldn't be caught alone with Captain Calder. But why would she want me to be? “I don’t have any plans to be alone with Captain Calder.”
She tipped her head to one side and lifted a brow.
“You were practically alone with him while shooting today, you were definitely alone with him at Applewood, and you managed to have a private conversation with him in the drawing room.” She patted the top of my hand.
“I’m certain you can figure something out. ”
I sucked in a breath. That was a long list, and she didn’t even know about all the time we spent alone together the night of the storm. Would the captain tell her about that someday?
“You don’t think the two of us being alone together is a bad idea?”
Hattie chuckled. “Should I? Do you need someone to act as chaperone?”
Her absolute faith in me made my throat thicken. My eyes pricked with tears as I struggled to swallow. How could she believe in me so completely after all the ways I’d let her down?
I could do this for her now. I had to.
It wasn’t as though I would need more than a few moments of privacy in order to tell Captain Calder to wait at least a week to propose to Hattie. I only prayed that after the two of them were engaged they would be able to figure out their own love life without my help.
“I’ll speak to him.”
Hattie made a tiny squeal-like noise and clapped her hands three times rapidly.
Then she pulled me into the tightest of hugs.
The tightness in my throat finally loosened.
She was so ecstatic I couldn’t help but return her hug with fervor, even as a small part of me knew this excitement was not only a beginning for her, but also a partial ending for us.
She was right again. Of course we would be able to find time together. But Hattie hadn’t seen the way the Captain had reached for her in his sleep, or the way he could show that love so convincingly with his hands, fingers and lips.
Hattie was about to become half of a different whole, and I would be happy for her. I was happy for her. If anyone deserved such good fortune in love it was my Hattie.