Chapter 30
EVELYN BLACKWELL
Papa finally got the chance to speak with John in private, albeit slightly later and slightly less private than would have been his preference. Mama and I had both forced our way into his study.
Papa stood behind his desk, pacing, while Mama and I each sat in one of the two chairs near the fireplace, leaving poor John to face him alone.
Other men might have cowered under Papa’s fury, but not John.
He withstood it well—so well I had a hard time removing my gaze from his broad uncowering shoulders while he waited patiently for Papa to form words.
When they came to him, he turned toward us and leaned both of his hands on his desk. “You came here with the express intent of proposing to Harriet, and now you expect me to allow you to propose to my daughter only two weeks later? Absolutely not.”
“I was first going to ask for your permission to court her.”
Papa raised a hand toward the door. “How can you propose only courtship after Mrs. Wickerton witnessed that scene?”
There wasn’t a correct answer to this question.
As John stood his ground, I could practically see his brain churning trying to think of what he could say to appease Papa.
“Perhaps you and your family can discuss the timing and inform me what you think is best. I’m more than happy to court, propose to, or marry your daughter at your convenience. "
Papa ran a hand through his hair. “You think I want a man who would take advantage of my daughter as a son-in-law?”
“Advantage?” I interrupted from my chair. “How could he have? He was delirious.”
Papa’s eyes were steely when he looked at me. “I’ve seen what men do when they are delirious. And beyond that, your mother discussed the possibility of you being the woman who saved Captain Calder that night. But you weren’t wearing white. How did you end up wearing white, Evelyn?”
Oh. Even more than the kiss, our state of undress would be quite hard to explain. Thank the heavens the door to Papa’s study was locked and Mrs. Wickerton wouldn’t be able to walk in on this conversation.
“You must understand,” John stated as if he were giving his commanding officer a report, “I was extremely ill. My trunk had been sent ahead to Applewood and I was soaked—”
It was better to simply give Papa the facts. He didn’t need long explanations. “The only dry clothing was my nightgown and my wrap. I gave him my wrap.”
“Evelyn,” Mama said with a gasp. I shrugged. It was the truth and I helped the only way I knew how. I wouldn’t be ashamed of it.
“Would it have been better for me to leave him shivering in his wet clothing? He could have died. I suppose I could have removed his clothing and kept my wrap and my nightgown for myself. What do you think, Papa? Would that have been a better solution?”
Papa’s eyes turned steely. John put a hand to his face. It seems I wasn’t arguing this quite as he would have, but he didn’t know my parents like I did. Logic and truthfulness always prevailed with them. Papa might bluster, but he wouldn’t actually explode.
“I left his breeches on,” I finished. That should be a point solidly in our favor.
A bird sounded outside and the clock ticked on unconcernedly above the fireplace.
A furrow I’d never noticed before made a deep V between Papa’s brows. My comment about the breeches might not have been as helpful as I’d thought.
“General Blackwell, Mrs. Blackwell.” John looked at each of them in turn.
“Evelyn and I may not have had the most conventional introduction, but I love your daughter, and that has nothing to do with the storm or the darkness or what we may or may not have been wearing that night. I want to marry Evelyn, but not because Mrs. Wickerton overheard our conversation. You both know exactly how extraordinary your daughter is. I see it in your faces every time she walks into a room. You asked how I could come here seeking to court one woman and end up falling in love with Evelyn so quickly instead.” John placed both of his palms on Papa’s desk and leaned forward.
“I ask you—how could I have resisted doing anything but that?”
I sat back in my chair and closed my eyes, letting John’s words wash over me. He was extraordinary, just as everyone had tried to tell me time and time again, and somehow I was fortunate enough to be loved by him.
I opened my eyes to find Mama’s hand over her heart, tears forming in her eyes.
Papa was not so easily convinced. He narrowed his eyes and mimicked John’s stance, palms on the desk leaning forward. “Do not use my love of my daughter against me.”
John lowered his head. “I’m not trying to use it against you. I’m trying to use it for us.”
“You and Evelyn?” Papa asked.
“No. You and me.” He pushed himself off the desk and stood back at attention. “You came into my life just as my father left it. I don’t want to lose your respect. And I do want to marry your daughter. It may be selfish of me, but I hope I can have both.”
“Papa, please.” My voice cracked slightly. I knew how much John cherished his relationship with him. “Before he came here, I only heard the best of stories about your Captain Calder. Does one unfortunate bout of the ague make him a less worthy man?”
The room went silent. Papa was wavering. We could all see it, but I didn’t get my stubbornness from nowhere.
“No.” Mama’s voice was soft beside me, answering the question I’d proposed to Papa. “No, it shouldn’t. In fact, your father and I had hoped you would form an attachment for one another. Hadn’t we, James?”
He pushed himself off the desk. “Not like this,” Papa muttered.
“You what?” I asked. I couldn’t have heard that right.
Mama sighed. “Do you think we said so many wonderful things about Captain Calder for our own sakes? We hoped for a match between the two of you.”
I shook my head. That couldn’t be true. “But the men you invited here were for Hattie.”
Mama shrugged. “She didn’t mind.”
“She didn’t mind?” My voice rose at least an octave. “She knew?”
All that time I’d tried to keep her away from John she was only too happy to oblige?
The way she smiled at the idea of John and me playing shuttlecock and battledore together, the moment she told me to shoot with the men on my own, and the library.
I dropped my head into my hands. Of course she tried to push John and me together. How could I have been so blind?
“She helped us,” Mama said, confirming my suspicions. “If we’d simply known about that night in the rain this all could have been much simpler.”
I shook my head. “No, it wouldn’t have been.” I threw my hand out in his direction. “He was still in love with Hattie that night.”
He put his hands out in defense. “I wasn’t in love with her. I was in love with the idea of a family and a wife.”
Papa stopped pacing and placed both of his hands on his desk. “How do we know that isn’t what you are feeling now?”
“James,” Mama sighed, putting both of her hands on the arms of her chair. “This is Evelyn. No one would pick her only because they liked the idea of a wife.”
“Mama,” I said, affronted.
John tried to hide a surprised laugh as a cough, but I caught enough to give him a glare.
Papa heaved a sigh and walked over to Mama, holding out his hand. “I’m going to finish my breakfast. Will you join me? I could use a bit of calm after the events of this morning.”
Mama smiled up at him. “That sounds lovely.”
“Don’t we have more to discuss?” I asked. Nothing had been settled. Not exactly.
Papa shook his head. “You two will no doubt do whatever you like, but I think you should take a walk down to the waterfall. I’ll send Charlie down to retrieve you in fifteen minutes.”
Mama gave me a grin and then glanced up at Papa. “Twenty might be more reasonable.”
“Fifteen,” Papa said again. “If Captain Calder can’t say what he needs to in fifteen minutes or less, he needs to learn to be more succinct.”
John gave Papa a slow and purposeful salute. “Thank you, sir.”
“My daughter is forgiven,” Papa said with a longsuffering sigh. “You will still need to prove yourself. Based on your record, I trust you will.”
John straightened his shoulders and gave Papa a smile, and then we were left alone.
Presumably so we could go to the waterfall for a proposal.
It looked as though my meeting with John last night had been in vain. He wouldn’t actually be able to wait until the end of the house party to become engaged after all.
John and I took a moment to take each other in before he half-sat on Papa’s desk, his legs kicked out in front of him. He sighed heavily and crossed his arms over his chest. “I told you he would be upset.”
I tried to hold in a laugh but I couldn’t.
A surprised chuckle escaped my throat and, with it, some of the tension of the morning.
I’d been certain I could make Papa see reason but I wasn’t completely certain how long it would take.
“I think my comment about your breeches was the one that truly won him over.”
John grinned at me, then pushed himself off of the desk. “Please never mention my breeches to your parents ever again.”
“Oh, John.” I scrunched my nose. “You should know better than to tell me something like that. Your breeches will now be a regular topic over dinner.”
He shook his head but he couldn’t even manage a frown.
He was in front of me in a few swift strides.
He’d tried to tame his hair and fix his cravat after the debacle in the breakfast room, but both were rumpled.
That, combined with his broad shoulders and well-cut jacket, made me catch my breath.
He was ridiculously handsome, in a rough and achingly familiar way.
He was exactly what I described to Hattie when I told her what I was looking for in a man, probably because I was already thinking of him.
How many times had I looked upon this man and felt entranced by him?
Even when he was nigh unto death's door he had a presence I couldn’t ignore.