Chapter 10
The tea shop was a rousing success! There was simply no debate about it! In these last days, she had finally felt fear, despite every assurance that things were going to go well. It had built in her, an apprehension that her dream would prove disastrous.
Truly, fear was the word. After all, there was so much pressure.
She did not want to let Ellen, herself, Calchas, or the Briarwood family down. Quite frankly, she was nervous about what her parents would say when they heard that their only daughter had opened up a shop.
A shopkeeper was not exactly the sort of family member someone in the ton wished to have. The Briarwoods were so unique in their celebration of her endeavor, and the place had buzzed all day long.
This had largely been, of course, because the dowager duchess had come with several of her friends, all of her daughters-in-law, and several of her sons and grandchildren.
The first day alone had been a complete financial success because the Briarwoods insisted on paying for everything in advance. They had run out of almost every kind of cake. The teas had been drunk in abundance, from black to green, all day long.
How she had loved the sound of the liquids pouring from their pots!
How she reveled in the many beautiful porcelain pots that she had acquired. Some were painted with violets, others painted with roses, and some were painted with daffodils. Each one was designed to make its user feel cheer, and the teacups were the same.
The tables were covered in a soft bluebell shade of linen, the walls were painted a beautiful ivory, and there were paintings of ladies enjoying themselves by lakes and gentlemen walking by rivers on every single surface.
She’d wanted there to be a feeling of peace in the shop.
She remembered feeling so peaceful as a child rambling about the countryside, and that’s what she wanted her tea shop to be, a place of respite from the hard world outside, where one could come and eat a pink-icing-covered cake or the richest chocolate ganache.
Yes, it had been most rewarding to see how people came in curious and left satisfied, chatting about the state of the scones and the cream that she served with them.
Her shop had the best of every ingredient.
Some were brought in all the way from Devon, the fruit came from the country, and the jams were made at the Briarwood estates. It was even something she was allowed to say in terms of encouraging patrons to purchase the jam.
“Oh, do have a bit of jam from the Duke of Westleigh’s estate” was something that she had taught her servers to say. And all her servers were ladies of good manners, but she had picked them quite carefully.
All of them were widows of the war.
And she had decided she and Ellen did not need to have two rooms upstairs.
Ellen had agreed. One room would be for them, and the other would be a room where the children of the mothers who worked in the tea shop could play.
She was fed-up with ladies having no recourse, and Calchas had cheered her mightily for this.
They had furnished the room just as the Briarwood nursery was, though it was considerably smaller.
There were wonderful toys for the children to play with and places for the children to draw.
They’d also hired, at Calchas’s insistence, due to his additional investment in the tea shop, a lovely lady that reminded Hester of a warm hen, who was motherly yet also quite disciplined.
The children adored her.
After the initial rush of the first days, the crowds had died down, but not by much. Having the Briarwoods adore the shop so much meant that people from the upper middle class as well as the aristocracy came to visit.
Captain Briarwood came every day to take his tea.
He sat at a table, sipping away, smiling at her, reading a book.
She had asked him why he did this, and he said that he simply wanted to enjoy a good thing done as often as it was possible.
She adored his company and was so glad to have it as often as possible.
But the truth was, soon she was going to have to move above the shop with Ellen. Away from him. There was no getting around it.
And as she took off her apron for the day and sent Ellen scurrying to take a rest upstairs, she looked at Calchas and then crossed over to him.
“Do I need to kick you out, my good lord?” she teased.
He cocked his head to the side. “Most certainly! I protest! I would like to have more scones and another pot of tea.”
She gave him an indulgent look. “If you have another pot of tea, you are going to float out of here.”
He laughed, that deep, booming sound filling the shop. “That would never do.” He paused, growing serious as he looked about the now still shop. “You’re pleased by it?”
“Everything is perfect,” she whispered, surprised by the sudden intensity of her emotions.
“Not everything,” he said.
“Oh?” she murmured. She folded her hands before her so that she wouldn’t fidget. “You’re right, of course. The room upstairs is ready for Ellen and myself. It’s so lovely. Thank you, Captain Briarwood. Everything is perfect. Or will be soon.”
Slowly, he put his teacup down into its saucer, leaned forward, then looked up at her with imploring eyes. “You don’t need to leave Heron House.”
She cleared her throat and smoothed her hands down her serviceable gown. “Yes, I do,” she said quite frankly. “It’s time. I cannot take advantage of your family’s charity any longer.”
“It’s not charity,” he corrected quickly. “We enjoy having you.”
She nodded but squared her shoulders, determined to take responsibility for herself. “Even so, I am not a member of the family.”
“So, become one,” he said suddenly, his voice low and rumbling with the strength of his feeling.
“What?” she gasped.
“Become a member of the family.”
She shook her head, not sure what to think. “What do you mean?”
“Marry me,” he declared.
“You wish to…” Her voice died off. She was barely able to take in his proposal.
He drew in a long breath. “I have wished to marry you almost from the moment that I first saw you.”
“But you don’t want to settle down with me, Captain Briarwood,” she protested. “You are an unsettled man, a wild fellow. I can see it in your very stance. You’re bridling at being in London, though you hide it well. You long for adventure and to go back to sea.”
He shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter,” he said, “what one longs for. It’s not always for the best. My family is here, and they love me more than anything, and I love them.
And I want you to be a part of it. The sea will always be there.
You are here now. Marry me. You’re the only woman alive that will do for me. ”
“The only woman alive,” she teased.
He waggled his brows at her. “Come, you like Briarwood drama and flare for speech, don’t you?
” He took her hands in his and breathed, “It’s true, Hester.
You and I get along better than anyone. You understand me, I think, better than anyone could.
You understand what it’s like for a man to have been at sea for most of his life. ”
She tensed. But then she didn’t take any offense. He was right. “It was very hard for me when my husband went away, you know?”
“I’m sure it was,” he said softly.
“To tell the truth, I don’t know if I can do that again.”
His mouth tightened and he nodded. “I understand.”
“Do you?” she queried, feeling uncertain how to proceed. “Because I could never forgive myself if you were giving up something that you loved so dearly for me. Look at what you’ve done for me. You have given me my dreams.”
“And I should not wish you to stop, Hester,” he said, reaching out, grasping her hand, and pulling her onto his lap.
“Ellen could see!” she gasped.
He held her tightly before he proclaimed, “I don’t care if Ellen sees. No doubt Ellen would cheer us on. She might even be watching from the corner.”
“No, she’s not. She’s exhausted. No doubt she’s asleep already, with Alabaster upstairs.”
They had found a wonderful method of bringing the cat with them wherever they went, and the cat was delighted by his travels from Heron House to the shop and back.
He laughed. “I adore that cat. You mustn’t take him away. The children love him to bits and pieces.”
“Well, only for the children then,” she said lightly, “I will stay at Heron House. With my cat.”
He lifted his hand to her face and he stroked her cheek. “Good. For whatever reason you agree to stay, I want you there. I want you with me. I love you,” he whispered.
She sucked in a stunned breath. “You what?”
He stroked her hair back from her face. “I love you, Hester. I can’t explain it. No Briarwood ever can, but I knew you were for me almost from the start. I truly did. You may not feel the same. You don’t have to, but this”—he gestured between them—“is meant to be.”
“This shop is meant to be because of you, but you and I? I—I can scarce believe it is possible. Don’t you want a grand lady who goes to all the balls?”
He cringed, then gave an exaggerated shudder. “Good God, if you can get me out of those, I would marry you tomorrow.”
He paused, giving this thought. “Actually,” he said, “why don’t we? Why don’t we marry tomorrow? I think it would be the most wonderful of ideas.”
And then he stood, letting her slide down his body before he pulled her into his arms again. “Don’t you think we should marry right away?”
She gazed up at him, her heart hammering.
She’d never dared to imagine getting married again.
She hadn’t wanted to. There was so much that could go wrong in a marriage.
She had loved her husband, they had been such good friends, but it had turned out quite sadly in the end.
It had left her life nearly in shambles.
She did not regret it. How could she? And in the end, she had found a way to negotiate the consequences of such a risky marriage.
It was a great gamble for any lady to marry. But if she married Calchas, she would never have to worry about anything ever again. Not money, not Ellen, and she could… She swallowed, thinking of a question she had not even truly asked herself because it hurt too much.
“Do you wish to have children?” she whispered, her throat tightening, for she had so longed to hold a baby in her arms, yet she had accepted that such a thing was lost to her.
He stroked his thumb along her jaw. “I’m a Briarwood.”
“What does that mean?” she protested.
“I cannot imagine my life without children,” he said easily, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Then he waggled his brows. “Marry me and let us make them.”
She smiled at how he so easily approached life’s challenges. “That is the most fascinating proposal,” she said.
“Is it?” he teased, but then he grew serious. “You know, I’ve wanted you very much, but I knew that I couldn’t press, because if I did, it would make me a scoundrel. My power over you—”
“Oh, I am so very below you,” she cut in, unable to resist teasing him.
“Don’t, Hester,” he said gently.
“No, no, I understand,” she assured. “And I greatly admire you for it. Of course, well done you on your self-control.”
“It’s only because I cared about your esteem,” he promised. “I wouldn’t have been able to bear it if you’d looked at me with disdain or disgust.”
“How could anyone ever look at you with disgust?” she asked, unable to even fathom such a thing.
He wound his hands about her, pulling her into him. “Well, if I had taken advantage of you because I am the son of a duke with a great deal of money and more power and assets than you could ever have, wouldn’t that be something to be disgusted by?”
“Oh, Calchas,” she said softly. “The world is so very lucky to have you in it.”
He grinned. “It’s true of my whole family, really. And the world is lucky to have you too, Hester.”
She frowned. “I think I’m tolerated by the world.”
A look of pure dismay crossed his face before he said passionately, “Never, never say that. You are an adventurous, bold spirit who didn’t take what she was given. You demanded more, and you kept demanding, and look at you now.”
She smiled. “Yes, look at me now.”
She was about to be the daughter-in-law of a duke, the wife of a celebrated captain and lord, if she but said yes.
She looked at his face. “We would have very wonderful children, wouldn’t we?”
“Indeed, we would,” he said softly, his gaze searching over her face. “Is that a yes?”
She lifted her face towards his. “Yes,” she said.
“I knew it,” Ellen exclaimed from the kitchen adjacent to the tearoom. “I knew it was going to happen!”
The applause that followed made Hester burst out with laughing.
“Oh, Ellen, were you listening to all of it?”
“Indeed, I was,” Ellen said, bursting in, overjoyed. Then she had the good grace to look a touch contrite. “Please, forgive me! You must understand how I have longed to see my girl settled so beautifully.”
Calchas gave Ellen a kind look. “I had a strong suspicion you were nearby, Ellen. You love her so.”
“Did you?” Ellen said, grinning sheepishly. “I’m not surprised. You’re such a clever man, and a very clever man to get my Hester to marry you. I truly was afraid that she would never give her heart to anyone again.”
“Oh, she didn’t say she’d give me her heart,” he drawled playfully. “I did, but I suppose I shall survive somehow.”
Hester batted his shoulder. “Calchas!”
“Hester,” he began, “we are going to be very happy. Love me or not, that will be enough.”
Will it? she wondered.
But the truth was she admired him very much.
And that kiss they had shared… But she couldn’t ignore the fact, even if he could, that there was something in his eyes that spoke of escape.
And she knew that feeling better than anyone, because that feeling had changed her entire life. And it had driven her into the unknown.