Chapter 11
Six Weeks Later
Caroline was trying to focus on the family evening she was having at Arabella and Silas’s home.
Evie and Vaughn were there, with Evie’s pregnant belly almost ready to pop.
It was a delight to watch them with their husbands and see their easy joy and comfort.
The meal had been wonderful and the drinks afterward as divine as the company.
She tried very hard not to compare herself to them.
To compare what they shared with what she had experienced with Simone.
It wasn’t the same. Simone saw her as a temporary lover.
Not even with as much impact as a protector, not that Simone had had one of those for some time.
That was something, at least, even if it shouldn’t have been.
“Excuse me, Mr. and Mrs. Windham?”
The group turned to look at Barnaby, Arabella and Silas’s butler. “Yes, Barnaby?” Silas asked.
“Miss Julia and Lord Castleton have arrived.”
Caroline straightened up. She knew of Lord Castleton, the viscount Julia had been linked with for months, but she’d never directly met him as her niece’s lover.
What she knew of him she little liked. He seemed a rather spoilt, selfish man who laughed too loud at parties.
And his grandfather, the Earl of Heathfield, was a calculating, cruel person who enjoyed his power a great deal.
Judging from the looks the foursome with her exchanged, they thought little more of him than she did. But Arabella took Silas’s arm and said, “Of course, bring them to us, Barnaby. We’ll be happy to have them join us.”
It wasn’t a moment when the pair were led to the parlor. Julia clung to Castleton’s arm as they came into the room, but her face was very pale and almost drawn.
Arabella obviously noticed the same thing, because she released Silas and rushed to her youngest sister. “Julia, is everything well?”
The smile Julia forced was one Caroline knew well over the years with her previous husband. False, meant to trick the eye so there weren’t too many questions. “Yes.”
“We’re surprised but happy to have you here,” Silas said, stepping up to join Arabella and placing a gentle hand on her back. “Castleton, I don’t think you’ve visited us before.”
“It’s such a quaint little home,” Castleton said.
It was so flippant and dismissive a remark that Caroline flinched at it.
The man was a fool, that was evident. He was still talking.
“No, I suppose it would have felt inappropriate before, when Julia and I were merely lovers. But now it’s less so as Julia and I will marry. ”
It was said with no fanfare, as if the man were announcing they would host a ball or meet the rest in the park for a walk the next day. Caroline rushed forward a step as she gasped out surprise and horror.
Julia didn’t look at her, nor at any of the rest. Her cheeks were bright pink as she stared at the floor. She didn’t deny the news, though. Which could only mean it was somehow true.
The others in the room were just as stunned silent as she was until Silas extended a hand. His tone was harder than his look when he said, “What news. Many felicitations, you are a lucky man.”
Caroline could see her own hesitance reflected on every other member of the family and yet each approached to shake the hand of this man.
She did, herself, watching him as he gripped Julia with one arm and shook Caroline’s hand with the other.
He was grinning far too widely for the situation at hand.
Almost smug, but perhaps that wasn’t fair.
Once the congratulations had been said, Evie’s husband Vaughn suggested the men go to the billiards room for drinks so the ladies could speak and soon enough she was left with her nieces.
Almost immediately, Julia seemed to wobble and Arabella caught her arm and took her to the settee.
Her sisters sat on either side of her and Caroline sat across where she could see her niece’s lovely face.
The one now drawn like she was uncertain and even afraid.
“Oh, dearest,” Evie said. “I thought you were going to end things with him tonight? How did this happen?”
“I-I was.” Julia’s voice trembled. “But as soon as I said I thought it was time for our relationship to change, he agreed and immediately launched into a proposal.”
“Did you feel forced to say yes?” Arabella pressed. Caroline flinched. A forced union was what she’d been pushed into, what all three of the girls had once escaped. To believe Julia had been captured by someone by force after all they’d done to protect her was almost too much to bear.
“Not exactly,” Julia said. “He wasn’t threatening at all, if that’s what you mean. Or overly enthusiastic.”
“Well, that sounds very romantic,” Arabella muttered, and Evie swatted her without looking at her.
“It wasn’t entirely romantic, no,” Julia admitted.
Caroline could see her nieces could easily fall into a conversation about semantics rather than delve into reality. She met Julia’s gaze evenly and asked, “Then why did you say yes?”
“Because what he’s offering me is a future. A settled, safe future.” Julia leaned closer and it was as if she was pleading. “You understand, Aunt Caroline.”
“I do.” Caroline drew in a shaky breath.
They rarely talked about her past. She tried to forget it as much as possible.
But she would face those memories if it meant saving Julia for a similar fate.
“I was forced into a loveless marriage for what was labeled security. It was very unhappy, Julia. I wouldn’t wish it on you. ”
“But the alternative is just as dire, I think.” Julia threw up her hands when her sisters both looked ready to speak. “You two are no judges, you found love. I’m talking about a future where that emotion isn’t part of the arrangement. You both know that Simone would say I was making a good move.”
At that Caroline shook her head because she would not hear Simone slandered in that way. “I cannot believe that Simone would tell you to do something foolish!”
All three sisters looked at her and her throat closed slightly. If she weren’t careful, she would be discovered. Her nieces could never be anything but kind, but she didn’t particularly want them digging into the details about her secret relationship with Simone.
Thankfully Julia was too focused on her own problems to dig where she might have dug another day. “Whatever you all think of this, I have agreed to the proposal now. The ship has sailed. It will be well.”
Arabella pursed her lips, “But dearest—”
Evie caught her elder sister’s hand to interrupt her. “We will support you in all things, my love. All things, always. You know that.”
“I do.” Julia was blinking too much. At tears, Caroline could see and it shattered her heart and drove an icy spike of fear for Julia into what was left.
There was the sound of the gentlemen returning in the hallway and Julia got up, wiping at her eyes before her intended returned.
He entered the room first, with a wide smile on his face.
Vaughn and Silas came behind him, both of them with grim expressions.
He had not impressed them, that was obvious.
Arabella got up and Caroline held her breath, but the eldest Comerford sister only congratulated him.
She didn’t appear genuine, but it didn’t seem to matter to the viscount.
Evie moved to him, as well, a little slower.
She rested a hand on her swollen stomach as she asked, “And when will you marry, my lord?”
“I would like it to be very soon,” he said, and sent Julia a side glance. “I hope we can depart to my estate outside of London with haste and see it done before the summer.”
Julia looked as shocked at this declaration as she had looked when he announced their engagement without allowing her a word edgewise.
“I-I didn’t realize you wanted to move with such haste, Laurence. Evelina is so heavy with child.” Julia slipped an arm around her pregnant sister’s waist. “Could we not postpone until later when she would be able to travel to the estate and take part in the celebrations?”
He waved a dismissive hand. “Well, certainly we can celebrate with your sisters back here in London after we return.”
Caroline covered her mouth at that cruel statement. The sisters were closer than any she’d known and to keep any of them from the joy of another seemed ghastly.
“So I would come to your estate and marry…marry alone?” Julia whispered.
“No!” He looked around the room apologetically.
“I think I expressed myself incorrectly. In order to begin to mitigate the scandal my marrying my former mistress will create, we will need to appear more proper. Of course you will have a chaperone for the time we spend there before we wed. Not a maid—I think we’ll need something more official than that.
” He glanced toward Caroline. “Your aunt could attend. She is known as a proper lady. Then you’ll have family there. ”
Caroline gripped her hands at her sides. The idea of standing up for this farce when she knew the path it could and likely would take was almost unbearable. But she also couldn’t leave Julia alone.
The entire room was stone silent as this suggestion sank in. Julia’s voice trembled as she said, “My sisters were recently wed and I was part of their joy, Laurence.”
“And they will be part of yours, for the rest of your life,” he said. His lips pinched. “Honestly, what difference will it make, Julia?”
“A great deal,” Silas interrupted.
Arabella took her husband’s hand. “If—if you insist on rushing this event and Julia is agreeable to that schedule, perhaps we could try to plan something here in London before the wedding. Even a day before you go so that Julia might have friends and family celebrate with you. And so that Evie might enjoy the festivities fully. I’m sure once the baby is born, she’ll be much busier. ”
Laurence waved his hand. “Fine, fine. Yes, plan something for this week if you can manage it. I’d like to leave by Monday once I can arrange a special license.”