Chapter 2
At the appointed hour, Richard stole away from his bedchamber and knocked softly at the door of Anne’s chambers.
Mrs. Jenkinson answered, quietly ushering him into the sitting room.
Anne was dressed for bed, her nightgown covered with a quilted wrapper for modesty, her curly brown hair braided in a thick plait.
Rather than being confined to her bath chair, she was lounging comfortably in the wide window seat that faced the gardens.
“You came,” she said, her voice thick.
“Of course I did,” he replied. “Did you think that I would not?”
“I was unsure if you would.” She motioned for him to join her on the window seat.
Mrs. Jenkinson turned away and made herself comfortable with her knitting in the chair by the fire, near enough to be a suitable chaperone, but far enough to afford them plenty of privacy.
Anne said tremulously, “In fact, I was unsure if you would come to Rosings at all. I had no word from you. I had begun to think you had abandoned me.”
“Never!” Richard clasped her hands in his, pressing them to his lips. “If there is one thing you can be sure of, my love, is that I will always come for you, unless the Lord Himself should prevent me. You must know that, surely you must.”
“Oh, Richard!” she cried, allowing him to take her into his embrace. “You cannot know how these long days and nights apart have plagued me, what my thoughts have been. I have tried my best to keep up my spirits, but I am afraid my hopes have begun to fail me.”
He released her from his breast only far enough that he could gaze into her beautiful eyes.
“I would have come sooner, my darling, if I could have. You know that I did all in my power to return to you at the earliest possible moment. But my time was not mine to command. In my last letter, I indicated my…my mission. I could not speak of it, for fear of the letter falling into enemy hands, but I may tell you of it freely now. I was given a covert assignment in France…under Napoleon himself.”
Anne’s eyes widened. “You saw Bonaparte?”
He nodded. “Indeed, I did.” Richard related to her the details of his espionage, which involved his impersonating a French official, and gathering intelligence in an attempt to overthrow the Republic and restore Bourbon rule.
The attempt ultimately failed, but Richard’s efforts garnered a surprise win of learning valuable military stratagems that Napoleon was planning to enact.
He was able to pass them along to General Wellington, who put them to use in his campaign at Badajoz.
“You are quite the hero, my love!” Anne exclaimed.
“Yes, but I hope you will not let the news of this spread from this room. As far as anyone knows, Napoleon told no one but his closest cohorts and a drunk official who went by ‘Guillermo’ these secrets, and it might undermine the cover of my other comrades who were also engaged in various espionage efforts if it were somehow traced back to France that the British victory was thanks to a spy in Napoleon’s inner circle. ”
“I make it a principle to seal my lips,” Anne said, pursing them so prettily that Richard felt overcome with the desire to kiss them, and did so.
She kissed him back, the weight of their cares forgotten for the moment, each enthralled in the other’s presence, drinking deeply of what they had missed during the many months of their separation.
They parted only when a slight cough from Mrs. Jenkinson reminded them that they were not entirely alone.
“You could have taken my suggestion and come wearing a black cloak and domino mask,” Anne teased. “No one would have recognized you, and I daresay your skills from France would be put to good use in stealing me away in such disguise.”
Richard smiled. “My dear, I fear Mrs. Radcliffe has made too much of an impression on you. My talents in that arena were not nearly so daring as her adventures, nor was my persona as Guillermo anything so romantic as the masquerade costume you describe. I am afraid such an attempt to kidnap you would only result in my arrest and unmasking, and then where would we be?”
“True enough. But now that you have come, we can put an end to this farce of an engagement that my mother has arranged for me,” Anne declared.
Richard sobered. “If only it were so simple.”
He expressed plainly his concerns, stating the publicity of the engagement and the need to protect Anne’s reputation. With such obstacles, he felt at a loss to see a way out of their present predicament.
“I am afraid there is nothing for it; if you do not go through with this engagement, your reputation will be utterly destroyed, " he concluded.
Anne crossed her arms, her voice growing angry.
“I do not care two figs about my reputation! I am already an invalid. What do I care if my neighbors think any less of me for throwing off a match I never wanted in the first place? Perhaps it is you who care about your reputation, Richard Fitzwilliam. ‘A second son of the Earl of Matlock must not elope’, after all, lest he bring down shame upon his entire family!” she spat.
“Be reasonable, my love,” Richard tried to protest.
“I am tired, Richard,” she said, crossly. Shifting her position, she began using her arms to transfer her weight from the window seat to her bath chair beside her.
“Let me help with that,” he offered, stepping in to assist her, but she glared at him.
“I can manage perfectly well on my own! I am sick of everyone treating me as though I am unable to do anything for myself.”
“At least allow Mrs. Jenkinson to assist you,” he said, but before he had finished his sentence, she had completed the task and was wheeling herself over to the bed, then used her strength to climb into it.
“You are a stubborn one, my love,” he said, shaking his head.
“I am,” she agreed. “And I am not ready to give up my entire future so easily, nor should you be. I had thought that you had come to rescue me from my fate, not consign me to it.”
Her accusation stung bitterly. He knew it was cowardly, but he could see no other way forward.
“Go, now,” she said, “and do not let my mother or any of her servants catch you near my chambers, or she will have you thrown out into the night to make your own way back to London, and then nobody will be able to save me from my predicament.”
Richard kissed her briefly on the cheek, which seemed to soothe Anne’s anger a bit, and then he departed from her. He admired her determination. He only wished his own hope held as fast as hers did.