Chapter 10 #2
It was all a test. The old man hadn’t truly thought him unworthy of his daughter’s hand – but he wasn’t sure.
As any father, he wanted to be sure that the gentleman who won his daughter’s hand was worthy of her.
And so David had been sent away, not as a punishment, but to see whether he would come back.
This changed everything. Everything.
David swallowed. “He…‘tis from your father.”
“From my – ”
David looked up to see Louisa bring a hand to her mouth, and then look sternly at her mother. “You had a letter for David, from father? Why did you not send it to him when father died?”
It was the same question racing around David’s heart as he looked down at the carefully spiralled handwriting in the letter before him.
He should have known. An Archdukedom for finding a rabbit? He should have asked the Czar what on earth was going on. Should have realised it was absolute nonsense, and that something more was going on.
And he, David, should have guessed that the title would have permitted him to make his addresses once more to Lady Louisa Jarrold – and more successfully the second time. He should have returned to Louisa the moment the sword had been lifted from his shoulders.
Lady Jarrold was smiling through her tears. “Oh, David, if I had known where to find you…Arnold had not thought to tell me where he had sent you. He had thought he would live forever, as all men do. Then he was gone, and your father too, and I had no place to even start looking! But you found us!”
David’s mind was reeling. It was a test. He had their permission. Louisa loved him. He was an Archduke because of a rabbit. Louisa loved him.
“You…you knew about this?” he stammered, as Louisa reached out for the letter.
He handed it to her and watched her eyes move rapidly across the paper, her mouth falling open as she reached the end.
“Not one of my husband’s finer ideas, I will admit,” said Lady Jarrold with a wry laugh. “I thought we should trust the two of you to discover your affection for each other, and that should be enough. No daughter of mine would have to marry simply for gain. Ah, you’ll need to open the parcel.”
Head spinning, hardly understanding what on earth could happen next, David’s fingers fumbled to pull apart the wrapping of the parcel.
He heard Louisa’s gasp, but did not look away from the small red velvet box in his hands. His heart was almost frantic, and David held his breath as he opened the box.
There, nestled in more red velvet, was a ring. A golden ring. There was a rather large sapphire atop it, glittering in the candlelight.
“What on earth…” he breathed.
“Grandmother’s ring,” Louisa said beside him, her voice full of wonder. “But – but I thought that lost! Part of the inheritance that passed to Father’s cousin!”
“It was part of my dowry, and now it is part of yours,” said Lady Jarrold.
David looked up to see a wry smile on the older woman’s face.
“Well, I thought you would not have had time to procure a wedding ring, and with the marriage needing to…ahem…happen so quickly…That is where I have been. I went to the bank, to retrieve the ring from my deposit box, the moment David arrived. If it hadn’t been for the storm, I would have returned within the hour. ”
David rose from his seat, surprised his legs could carry him. “But…but I thought you hated me!”
A wry smile crept over Lady Jarrold’s face. “Oh, David. Why do you think we continued to invite you to our home? Why do you think we had no qualms about you spending time, alone, with our daughter? You think we would have permitted such a thing if we opposed the match?”
David’s mind was reeling. So much information had been revealed and shared in the last few minutes that he barely knew what to do with himself.
A hand slipped into his. I’s. Her presence grounded him, made it possible for him to straighten his back and say the words he had been longing to say for too long.
“Lady Jarrold, will you give me permission to marry your daughter?” How he managed to get all the words out, and in the correct order, David did not know.
Still, it was said. All he could do now was celebrate his beautiful future bride.
Louisa squeezed his hand and whispered, “We will need to get a lot of mistletoe.”
“No. No, David, I do not give my permission.”
David whipped around to look at Lady Jarrold. “I beg your pardon?”
This was more than his heart could take.
David’s mind was spinning, utterly at a loss to understand it all.
Why would Lady Jarrold give him this letter, reveal to him the secret that both his father and Louisa’s father had taken to the grave, give him this ring – if she did not intend for him to marry her daughter?
“I am so confused,” David said helplessly.
“What are you asking me for?” Lady Jarrold pointed out with a wry smile. “I think someone else needs to answer that question.”
It was not perhaps how he had imagined it, bending on one knee in the Jarrolds’ library with his future mother-in-law watching, but David did not care. If it brought him closer to Louisa, if it meant they could soon begin their lives together…
Kneeling slowly as he held onto Louisa’s hand, David looked up into the eyes of the woman he loved. “Lady Louisa Jarrold, will you do me the very great honour of being my wife?”
Her eyes sparkled. “Of course.”
David could not help it. Mother-in-law or no mother-in-law, he rose quickly, pulled Louisa into his arms and kissed her passionately.
“Happy Advent, Louisa,” he breathed.
Louisa laughed. “Advent with an Archduke. Who would have thought.”
I hope you’ve enjoyed this novella in the Ravishing Regencies series.