Chapter Twenty-Eight
“I assure you, she would have preferred nearly anyone else in the entire world.”
Her husband’s voice was muffled through the drawing room door as Augusta approached it.
Surprisingly, the sound of it did not grate her, nor did it make her think of turning tail and walking away.
No, he had told her to meet him in the drawing room shortly after breakfast, and she was more than happy to do so.
In fact, she felt happy about nearly everything today.
From the moment she’d left her conversation with Sebastian the day before, her very footsteps had felt lighter.
The sun had even come out to greet them, shining brightly upon the frost which covered most of London, as though it knew of Augusta’s joy and wanted to partake in the celebration.
So when she pushed through the drawing room doors, even the sight of Lord Bancroft sitting on the chaise could not sour her mood.
Sebastian stood by the window, his arms crossed and his face pinched as he looked at his friend, but Augusta’s presence seemed to snap him from whatever tension he’d felt moments ago. He dropped his arms and smiled.
“Love,” he said softly, earning him an eye roll from his friend. “Come, sit.”
Augusta offered him a small smile - which felt rather genuine - and sat in a chair across from Lord Bancroft.
She’d known yesterday, when her husband had said that he would be recruiting the man as a source of a speech writer, that she might see him again. Even without the speech, he was a member of the ton, and there would be no avoiding him in the long term.
What shocked her most was that she could not muster up the hatred that she had easily felt for him before.
Likely, her mood was just so elevated that nothing could perforate its walls, but she suspected, too, that it was partly due to gratitude.
Whatever help Lord Bancroft could give her in this moment, however begrudgingly given, was wholly welcomed.
“Good morning,” she said. “Am I to understand that you are my writer for the rally on Saturday?”
He gave a curt nod. “Yes, unfortunately. I…” he cleared his throat. “Well, I suppose I am…sorry, or something, for how I have behaved. And it sounds as though you need some assistance, so…we shall call all things evenly split between us after this.”
If an even split meant that they could go their separate ways after this, then Augusta was happy to swallow her pride.
“Of course, all is forgiven,” she said. When a sharp knock came at the drawing room door, she added, “From myself, at least. We shall see how Ginny feels.”
“Miss Greene?” Lord Bancroft’s brow nearly raised to the ceiling as the door opened and Ginny stepped inside, her waify figure nearly silent when she moved. He stood so quickly that his chair nearly toppled over behind him.
Ginny paused at the door, looking between the two of them, then over at Sebastian before dipping into a quick curtsy. “I apologize, I received a note that I am to call at this time. Am I interrupting something?”
“No!” Augusta rushed to say, at precisely the same moment that Lord Bancroft gave a sputtered, “Not at all.”
Sebastian, with a knowing smile, gestured to the chair beside Augusta. “Come join us, Miss Greene.”
Ginny did as he said, slowly moving over to them and taking a seat, her back straight as a pin. “Has something gone wrong?” she asked Augusta. “The urgency in your note worried me. And I suppose, well…I suppose I am surprised to find all of you in the same room.”
“Lord Bancroft is going to help me write my speech,” Augusta said, and the words seemed almost fanciful.
Ginny cast nervous glances from Sebastian to Lord Bancroft. Finally, she leaned in close to Augusta. “So they know, then? About Saturday?”
Lord Bancroft sat up straighter, rolling his shoulders. “Yes, in fact.”
Ginny looked at him, her expression as unreadable as ever.
“But you…surely you don’t actually agree with all this?”
Lord Bancroft shrugged. “My years in politics have fully prepared me to convince others of things that I myself do not believe in. I assume that will be amenable to the both of you.”
He said it with a tone of warning.
Augusta nodded. “Yes, I will allow it. You need not fear my disdain, Lord Bancroft, for you already have it.”
It took a moment for the insult to land, but when it did, Lord Bancroft frowned and turned to Sebastian. “Has she always been like this?”
Sebastian looked at her then, and her heart did the funniest little thing.
“Yes,” he said, and she could have sworn that there was just a hint of pride in his voice.
Lord Bancroft sighed. “Well, at least we know she has a voice. Now let us find a way to use it.”
*****
Five hours later, as the sun cast a purplish glow across London, the four of them held in their hands a piece of parchment whereupon Augusta’s fate - and the fate of all the medical women of England - was printed in Ginny’s neat handwriting.
Augusta felt elated. Sebastian looked as though he might be ill.
“The deed is done,” Lord Bancroft huffed. “And I, for one, would like to never hear of this again.”
“That will be impossible,” Sebastian said. “For you will be with me in the crowd on Saturday.”
Lord Bancroft’s eyes nearly bugged out of his skull. “Have you lost your mind, Brightwater?”
Sebastian shook his head, still slightly pale as he looked down at the parchment. Bless him, he had not said a discouraging word the entire time.
“I shall need someone with me to ensure that things do not get out of hand in the main crowd. Augusta will be behind the stage for much of the rally, but I do not want anything to happen on the other side of it that might compromise her safety. You shall be my right-hand man. Then - and only then - will we call everything evenly split between us.”
Lord Bancroft looked as though he was about to offer a scathing retort when Ginny piped up.
“Yes,” she said, “Besides, I shall need you to write to me about the event. I want no detail spared.”
Whatever protest Lord Bancroft had died in his throat as he looked over at her. “Write to you?”
She nodded. “Yes. Unfortunately I shall be going north for the holidays on the morrow, so I will not be able to hear it from Auggie firsthand. It wouldn’t matter anyway - I want to hear about it from the perspective of the crowd.
Therefore, I shall need you to take note of every single detail and write to me. ”
This appeared to work some sort of magic upon Lord Bancroft, who looked down at his hands like a chastened schoolboy.
“Alright, then. I shall be your eyes and ears, then.” His voice turning steely, he added to Sebastian, “And then we shall be settled.”
Sebastian nodded. Augusta could see some lingering resentment from her husband against his friend.
She also knew that, one day, it would disappear.
The pair went back too far, and had too much good blood between them to truly split.
Besides, a part of her had come to appreciate the presence of the gruff cad over the past few hours.
She still did not like him, but she did feel that he brought a special brusqueness to the whole endeavor that would have been sorely missed, and he had, in times past, made Sebastian terribly happy. Therefore, she would have to concede that he was here to stay.
Lord Bancroft stood, sighing dramatically. “Well, I ought to go and make my own plans for fleeing the city this weekend. I suppose the lot of us will be stuck up north together like refugees.”
This earned a small giggle from Ginny. Lord Bancroft suppressed a smile which, at its full, likely would have looked as though he had caught the proverbial canary.
“Miss Greene,” he said, more softly than Augusta had ever heard him speak. “Shall I walk you to the door?”
Ginny nodded as she stood, grabbing her bonnet. “Yes, I ought to go and finish preparing for my travels.”
Just before they left, she gave Augusta the tightest hug that the pair had ever shared, and Augusta felt that she had truly found the greatest friend in the entire world.
“You will be as spectacular as I have always known you to be,” Ginny whispered.
Augusta held her even tighter.
When they finally split again, a part of her felt as though her own heart were walking out the door, soon to go to Derbyshire. She was glad for Sebastian’s negotiations to spend the holidays there, knowing that she would get to retreat into the arms of so dear a friend.
Lord Bancroft shuffled on his coat and made small talk with Ginny as they exited, only some of which Augusta heard. As they disappeared down the hall, she caught one final part of their conversation, asked by Ginny.
“I say, my lord, what on earth has happened to your nose?”
She did not hear his response - she did not have to. Instead, she smiled, and picked up her speech, and all felt right with the world.