Chapter Thirty-Six
N athaniel handed Lady Louisa out of the coach. When he assisted Lady Edith from Cecil’s carriage, he held her gloved hand a moment longer than necessary. “It has been a long day. Thank you to you and Lady Louisa for aiding in the search for our veterans.”
“Thank you for letting us help. Do keep us updated on their condition.” She squeezed his hand before withdrawing her own, color rising in her cheeks at her boldness.
“Shall we go inside?” Louisa asked archly when neither he nor Edith moved.
Once the women were safely inside the house, he turned to see Cecil grinning down at him from the coach box. “When will you speak with her father?”
“You’re awful cheerful about the possibility of my getting leg-shackled.” He shook his head and climbed up next to the viscount. “What has happened to you?”
Cecil flicked the leads, and the coach started forward. “I am relieved to see you happy. You have been depressed for what seems like years, and Lady Edith has breathed life back into you.”
“You have described it exactly! I feel as if my life is just beginning.” He sobered. “I won’t ask her to marry me until the registry is sorted. We need to speak with Taylor and Porter.”
“I’ll speak with them tomorrow morning while you’re checking on our veterans in Greenwich. I imagine you’re going to send a missive to Ashford?”
“As soon as I return home. We need to decide what to do with the registry office. It’s hard to believe that Mrs. Stafford and Black Jack were working with the RA.” He sighed. “All I want to think about right now is a hot bath and supper.”
“In that order?” Cecil asked lightly.
He clapped his friend on the back. “If you’re wrangling for a dinner invitation, you’ve got one.”
“Excellent. A bath can wait when faced with a meal cooked by your excellent chef.”
* * * * *
“H is lordship would like to speak to you and Lady Louisa in the drawing room before dinner,” Edith’s maid informed her as she helped her mistress dress.
“Thank you, Mary.” Edith studied her reflection in the looking glass over her dressing table. Was it her imagination, or did her eyes sparkle and her cheeks look rosier than usual?
“You look to be in high spirits, my lady.”
“Do I?” Edith held back the laugh bubbling inside. Despite the problems associated with the registry office, she felt light as air.
Her father and Louisa were already downstairs when she entered the drawing room.
“It sounds as if you ladies had an eventful day,” her father said drily from his place near the drinks tray on a low dresser.
“Louisa told you all about it?” she asked once she was seated near her friend on a settee.
The other girl nodded. “All of it.”
“I don’t know what to say.” Her father poured a glass of port, swallowed most of it in one gulp, and turned to face her. “If I hadn’t been preoccupied with my own concerns... Well, to be truthful, I don’t know what I would have done. Warning you to stay out of danger is a moot point now.”
She nodded. “Very true. May I ask after Lady Sandhurst?”
“Don’t change the subject, my girl.” Her father took a seat in a nearby chair. “What is this about your having feelings for Lord Harbury?”
Edith felt her cheeks warm. She glanced at Louisa before replying simply, “I love him.”
“Louisa tells me the man cares for you despite allowing you to accompany him on his adventures across half of England.”
“Oh, Father!” She couldn’t help but giggle. “Woolwich and Greenwich are not so very far away. Lord Harbury and Lord Wycliffe were with us, protecting us from danger.”
Her father let out a whistle. “Lord Wycliffe is a formidable man, of course. And Lord Harbury is a war hero, and you won’t find a richer man in London.”
“He respects my opinion,” she replied. "He listens to me, Father, and we share the same interests.”
“Oh yes, that is what is most important.” He frowned at her. “And this business with the veterans is over? You’re not in any further danger?”
“It’s over. I imagine the registry will reopen very soon.”
She had no idea if it would, but she knew the baron well enough to know he would want to continue helping veterans as soon as possible.
Her father reached out and patted her hand. “If he comes to speak with me, I’ll gladly give him my blessing.”
“And now, may we speak of Lady Sandhurst?” she asked, eager to change the subject from herself.
Her father replied, “Our estate is near her daughter’s, and I want to leave for the countryside soon. I’ll give your baron a fortnight to come up to scratch.”
A fortnight. Surely Lord Harbury would come courting before then?
* * * * *
A fter a hearty supper and a hot bath, Nathaniel slept like a babe. He escorted Mrs. Davidson and Mrs. Wilson to see their husbands the next day and took the chance to visit all three of the veterans.
“I don’t know what happened,” James Fleet told him from his hospital bed. “I was examining the hoof of a horse that was supposedly lame, and the next moment I woke up in a churchyard. I was given something to drink; I must have been drugged. The last few days have been a blur. I was transferred to a ship, but remember little else, my lord.”
“It’s all right. We’ve pieced together what happened. You’re safe now.”
Wilson and Davidson had much the same stories. Commander Phelps wanted the men to stay in the hospital for a few more days for observation. Nathaniel saw Mrs. Davidson and Mrs. Wilson home with a promise to have his carriage and driver return them to Greenwich on the morrow.
When he returned to Grosvenor Square, Cecil was waiting for him in the drawing room, a tea tray before him.
“Nathaniel!” Cecil raised a teacup. “Alicia provided refreshment before departing for an engagement with Lady Kettering.”
He took a seat and yawned. “I don’t want to ride in a carriage again for several days.”
“I spoke with Taylor and Porter. I told them the veterans were safe and sound and that Mrs. Stafford had left London to visit family. We shared a bottle of gin, and they didn’t seem too concerned about all the details I didn’t tell them.”
“You’re a good liar.”
Cecil chuckled. “I work at it. I know it’s too soon to expect a reply from Ashford, but have you determined what you want to do with the registry?”
“We need to sign it over to someone who isn’t part of our inner circle but whom we trust to run the business. If Ashford approves, I mean to ask Lady Devon. She bears no ill will for me over the death of her brother and expressed a sincere desire to help the registry. Diana will still run the day-to-day business, but the world will know Lady Devon as the owner of the registry.”
“If Ashford agrees, I think Lady Devon is a splendid choice.”
Two days later, a reply to his letter came from Ashford, and he wholeheartedly approved of signing the registry over to Lady Devon. He also informed Nathaniel that Diana would work with the lady to keep the registry open.
“Of course, I will help run the registry!” Lady Devon smiled brightly, her eyes filling with tears when Nathaniel asked her for help. “It is a way to honor my husband and the crew of the HMS Defence . Thank you for thinking of me, Lord Harbury. It will be a privilege to work with Lady Diana to help our veterans.”
When he would have departed, she placed a hand on his sleeve. “You’ve done your penance, Lord Harbury. And then some. I’m going to be watching you, you know. I want to see you happy and living a full life. If you owe your former shipmates anything, you owe them that.”
Having transferred the ownership of the registry to Lady Devon, another tie to his past life in the Navy was severed. He knew it was for the best.
Commander Phelps had notified him that the three veterans were released from care. Now that the future of the registry was decided, he would visit Hanover Square and update Lady Edith and Lady Louisa on recent events.
Nathaniel hadn’t seen Lady Edith in three days. Three days that had been surprisingly without melancholia or nightmares. He felt like he’d come out of the dark into the sunlight. His future would be what he made of it. It was liberating to know who and what he wanted.
When he exited his carriage in Hanover Square, he felt a strange sensation behind his breastbone. Fear? Anticipation? He wouldn’t discount the possibility that if the lady seemed overly happy to see him, he might find the nerve to speak to her father that very day.
* * * * *
“L ord Harbury!” Edith smiled softly, joy bubbling up like champagne bubbles inside of her as she took a seat on a settee in her father’s drawing room. “Tea?”
“No, thank you.”
The baron was seated on a stuffed chair, one of a pair, while Louisa sat on the other.
“You have news?” Edith asked, realizing too late it was a silly question. Why else would the baron be in her home?
“Our veterans have been discharged. They are well and plan to take up their new positions soon. Their employers were very understanding.” He paused. “Lord Wycliffe spoke with Sir Henry, of course. To smooth his ruffled feathers.”
She could well imagine that conversation.
“Lady Diana will return to Town in the next few days, and the registry will reopen. Lord Ashford and I have decided to hand the registry over to Lady Devon. She is well-respected in the ton and known to be a fair and honest lady. She has a great desire to help the veterans, and the registry will be able to thrive without the involvement of somebody the RA wishes to punish.”
The word punish caught her unawares. For a moment she couldn’t breathe, emotion welling in her throat.
“Are you all right, Edith?” Louisa rose from her chair at the same time as the baron rushed to sit beside Edith.
“Edith, can you speak?” He took her hand in his, his face turning pale.
“It’s, it’s- You could have been killed!” A few tears slipped from her eyes as she struggled to gain control of her emotions.
“But I wasn’t. I’m here. With you.”
The tenderness in his voice caught her attention, his hand warm against her bare palm. Blinking away further tears, she smiled uncertainly at him. “Lord Harbury?”
Louisa quietly exited the drawing room, leaving the door to the room wide open behind her.
“I would like to hear you say my name.”
His gaze moved to her mouth, and she whispered, “Nathaniel.”
“May I kiss you?” he asked in a husky voice.
She couldn’t speak, so she merely nodded.
He leaned in and brushed her lips with his. Once, twice, before raising his head to smile down at her. “Edith, my darling girl. I love you, my sweet, intelligent, brave girl.”
Edith squeezed the hand that held hers and replied shyly, “And I love you.”
“I’m not Cecil,” he said with a mock frown.
“Thank goodness!” She giggled. “You’re kind, considerate, polite...”
“Handsome?” he queried with a grin.
“Very!” At that moment she’d never thought anyone more handsome.
He sobered to ask gravely, “Would you mind not volunteering at the registry for a while? We should all stay away from the office for a bit.”
“That is a prudent idea.” She paused. “My father would like me to avoid the registry for now.”
“Is your father home?”
“Why?” she asked playfully.
“I want to tell him you are to be my wife.”
“Did you ask me to marry you?” she queried, raising her brows.
“It was implied in the kiss.”
“Really?” She leaned forward. “I think I missed that the first time.”