Chapter Sixteen
Edward’s parents sat blinking at him. Rather like large, startled owls. His brothers, Hugo and Arthur, were equally surprised but seemed a great deal more celebratory.
“Excellent news yet again, brother,” Hugo said, jumping up to clap him on the shoulder. “I assume your lady has accepted this time. Unless you have found someone else. Either way, couldn’t have happened to a better man. I wish much happiness for you and the lucky lady.”
“You haven’t even met her yet,” Edward said, slightly taken aback at his brother’s sheer enthusiasm.
Hugo shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Whoever she is has accepted your proposal, thereby making me the happiest man in England.”
Edward’s brow furrowed, his confusion growing by the second. “Making you the happiest?”
“Absolutely.” Hugo stretched and rolled his shoulders, before planting his hands on his hips and sucking in a deep breath. He let it out with a satisfied sigh. “I must say, it feels amazing to have the weight of the family’s legacy off our shoulders, doesn’t it, Arthur?”
Ah. There it was.
“Oh, indeed.” Arthur flashed a brilliant grin at him. “We were growing quite worried it would fall to us to continue the family line and whatnot. You have our heartiest congratulations.”
“And gratitude,” Hugo added with a smug grin that had Edward narrowing his eyes. If they had still been in their teen years, he would have wiped those smiles from his brothers’ faces. In fact, he still might.
Hugo and Arthur were nothing if not resourceful when it came to saving their own skin, and were already heading for the door, calling more congratulations over their shoulders as they went. Edward shook his head and turned back to his stunned parents.
His father cleared his throat. “Is it too much to hope that you’ve chosen another woman than the one to whom you proposed previously?”
The first thread of nervousness wound its way through Edward.
He had no doubt that Selena was the woman for him.
Well, no overwhelming doubts. Surely it was normal to have some doubts.
It was a very large step in a man’s life after all.
And there were questions he still had no answers to.
Yet, he couldn’t imagine anything that would make a difference in how he felt about her.
“Edward?” his mother prompted, making him realize how long he’d been lost in his own spinning thoughts.
He straightened his shoulders. “Yes, it is Mrs. Selena MacLaren.”
For the second time that morning, Edward was treated to the sight of his parents staring at him with wide-eyed astonishment.
She finally blinked. “Oh Edward. You didn’t.”
“Mother, we have had this conversation.”
“Yes, we did, but you apparently didn’t listen. The fact that there are rumors at all is a problem, Edward, whether you wish to acknowledge it or not. Your future wife must be above reproach, a woman of comportment, intelligence, good moral character, and the finest pedigree.”
“For heaven’s sake, Mother, she’s a woman, not a horse.”
“For all intents and purposes, my dear son, the requirements are not so different. Speaking of which, while she is certainly beautiful enough, elegant, I suppose, and of good comportment and disposition as far as I’ve seen, I am still concerned about her age.
She is rather older than I had envisioned for you. ”
Edward gaped at her. “You speak of her as if she were a silver-haired crone.”
“Oof,” his mother scoffed, waving him off. “I am doing no such thing. But you cannot deny she is far closer to a matron of thirty than a girl of twenty.”
“And I am thirty as well, which happily makes us of an age.”
“All well and good,” his mother retorted. “However, it does makes birthing an heir that much more difficult. And gives you far less time to have several.”
“We aren’t even married yet,” Edward said, his head spinning.
“A good thing too!” His mother rounded on him. “If you were, you’d likely already be dead.”
He didn’t bother choking back his groan. “Mother—”
She held up a hand to stop his protest. “There is little reason to continue an argument in which neither of us will yield.”
“I agree.”
“I realize you wish to marry this woman—”
“I will marry her.”
“I am not completely objecting. Frankly, I’m afraid if we don’t permit this, you’ll never propose again. It’s nothing short of a miracle you’ve done it once. Or twice, I suppose.”
He opened his mouth to fire back a marginally disrespectful retort, but his mother, knowing him as she did, pressed on before he had a chance. “However, I thought we had agreed you would wait until my investigator returned with his report.”
“I agreed to no such thing. I simply agreed not to object to you sending out an investigator. Which you would have done in any case making my objection pointless.”
“It is foolhardy in the extreme to marry a woman about whom you know nothing,” his mother said.
His father nodded. “Listen to your mother, son. She’s always had a good head on her shoulders.”
Edward took a deep breath. Losing his temper wouldn’t help convince them that he had made a rational choice. To be honest, he wasn’t all that certain he had made a rational choice. Only that he’d made the only choice he could. Losing her was not an option. Even if it was the safer path.
“What exactly are you proposing, Mother? That I rescind my offer?”
“Of course not. Not just yet, in any case.”
He glared at her, and she waved him off again. “Oh, contain yourself. If all is well and she is who she says she is, then your father and I shall offer no more objections to this union.”
Edward glanced at his father, somewhat surprised he had let his mother take the lead in this conversation.
Then again, when it came to his offspring, the duke did prefer to let his duchess handle matters.
The only reason he was likely still in the room was because this particular matter was so sensitive and had such far-reaching repercussions.
“She is who she says she is. She is not a murderess, simply a woman with the great misfortune to have lost more than one husband. And I have no intention of allowing her to lose another one. I will not waiver. I will be calling upon the lady and her family on the morrow to ask their permission for her hand.”
“Edward, I really think it would be best to wait until—”
“No, Mother. You won’t find anything.” He hoped.
“And I wouldn’t care if you did.” He was pleased to find he actually meant that.
Mostly. It wouldn’t change how he felt about her, of that he was certain.
There was no eradicating this woman from his heart even if she were to rip it from his chest. In fact…
“If you will excuse me, I believe I shall call upon the Haddons and ask to speak to Sir Rawley. Today.”
His mother opened her mouth, likely to object or urge caution or patience. But he had none left and no desire to hear more from either of them.
“If something of, shall we say, an unsavory nature were to be discovered,” his father said, “and your engagement is already public knowledge, what little reputation Mrs. MacLaren has left will be destroyed. I will not allow a son of mine to marry a criminal.”
“Father, if your investigation discovers my betrothed is, in fact, a murderess, we will both have far larger problems on our hands. As for her reputation, I’m fairly certain a broken engagement will come second to murder in the justifications for its demise.
But as I said, you won’t find anything. So do what you must. As will I. ”
He gave them a sharp nod of his head and, though his father continued to glower, he thankfully said nothing as Edward made his escape.
He didn’t allow himself to think as he climbed into his carriage and sent it post haste to the Haddons’ London home. Before his parents’ fears had time to take root.
He had enough of his own.