Chapter Thirty-Five
P
Arabella was leaving.
Charlie had healed well over the past six weeks, thanks to the care of his mother and the attentions of the local physician, Scorseby having long since returned to Nottinghamshire.
Charlie had missed the start of the new term at Cambridge and would not be returning until after the Christmas holiday.
His prolonged absence had increased his enthusiasm for taking up his studies once more.
The time away from his brothers had increased his enthusiasm for their company.
He was ready to return to Lampton Park, as was Mater.
Linus would miss them. But Arabella’s departure weighed far more heavily on him.
Six weeks he’d had her company. Six weeks of walking through the neighborhood and leisurely strolling the gardens and estate. Six weeks of holding her hand each evening after dinner. Six weeks of growing attached to the idea of her in this home, at his side. And she was leaving.
The past month and a half had changed them both.
She had shed much of the uncertainty that had once hung heavy in her eyes.
He had slipped free of the loneliness that had dogged his heels the past eleven years.
They were happy together, comforted by each other, strengthened.
He could not imagine his life without her in it.
He was running out of time to secure that future.
The first item of business was running Mater to ground, which proved quite easy.
He found her in Charlie’s room. Somehow, over the course of the last two months, Linus had begun to think of the bedchamber he had once shared with his brother as Charlie’s.
It was not the place of pain and regret it had once been, neither did he rush past the door or refuse to step inside.
He would always feel Evander there. He would always miss and mourn his brother.
But he no longer feared those emotions. There was happiness in this home now.
“Linus.” Mater had begun calling him by his Christian name. Indeed, she had taken on a role in his life one could only describe as maternal. “Have you come to help us pack?”
“No.”
Charlie laughed as he put yet another book inside his small traveling bag. He had received a steady stream of texts from Cambridge to study during his convalescence.
“What has brought you in, then?” Mater asked.
“I have come on a matter of business.” That was not quite the right word, but his nerves rendered his thoughts a little muddled.
“I know that Arabella’s nearest male relative is her uncle, but as I have no intention of giving him the false impression that he has any say whatsoever in her life or decisions, I will not be presenting this bit of business to him.
And though your oldest might be the substitute Society would consider most acceptable, you are the one I feel best suited to this particular matter of . . . business.”
Lud, he was rambling. And Charlie, blast the boy, was grinning quite unrepentantly.
“I realize it is customary when undertaking this type of business”—he really needed to come up with a different word—“to seek the blessing of the lady’s family.
I would like to know that you approve, that you support this possibility.
She would be unhappy if her decision did not meet with your approval, but I do consider her more than able to make this decision without—I am not asking you for permission; I—not that I don’t value your thoughts, but—”
Charlie actually snorted.
Mater swatted at him before crossing to Linus.
She set her hands on his upper arms. “Arabella is more than capable of choosing her own future. That you know that and acknowledge it only endears you to me further. And your concern that our position on the future you mean to propose to her might bring her unhappiness does as well.”
“You do not think me entirely terrible, then?” he asked with a laugh.
Charlie chimed in. “Not entirely.”
Mater shook her head. “Do not listen to him. Now that he is feeling better, he is choosing to be troublesome.”
“As any younger brother worth his salt would,” Linus said.
Charlie wandered over, moving slowly and using his cane. He would require time yet to fully heal. “How do you intend to ask her?”
How? He looked from Charlie to Mater and back again. “I was simply going to ask.”
Charlie rolled his eyes.
Mater eyed her son. “I suppose you, when the time comes, intend to undertake something grand and spectacular.”
“One ought to make a gesture,” Charlie said as if any other opinion was simply absurd. “Proposing a future together should be memorable.”
Linus couldn’t help a laugh. “You sound like Artemis.”
Charlie’s expression turned stern. He pointed a finger at Linus. “Keep spouting nonsense like that and I’ll brain you with this cane. My sister-in-law showed me how, and she is an expert.”
“As much as I would enjoy an impromptu duel, I have far more important . . . business to attend to.”
Mater patted his cheek. “Arabella does not require gestures or grand productions. She simply needs to know you love her. Remind her of that.”
“Remind her?”
Mater smiled kindly. “You have shown her again and again these past weeks the truth of your love for her.”
Quite to his surprise, Mater pulled him into an embrace. Memories of his mother doing the same when he was a little boy flooded over him. Linus put his arms around her and cherished the moment.
“Thank you, my dear Linus,” she said, “for loving Arabella. For seeing my Charlie when his own family didn’t always.” She pulled back enough to look him in the eye. “For being a welcome and wonderful addition to my beloved boys.”
“And thank you for letting me be part of your family at a time when I desperately needed one and for giving me a mother again. That is something I have not had since I was very little.”
“It seems I was wise to hold that house party.”
He nodded. “I will be forever grateful that you did.”
She set him a little away. “Go find Arabella. I will write to my son Jason. He can procure a special license, then we need not wait to plan a wedding.”
“Do you not think you are getting a little ahead of yourself?”
“Not in the least.” She moved to the writing desk. “I have no doubt of the outcome of your endeavors.”
“I will rely upon your confidence, then, as I am not nearly as sure she will be pleased at the idea.”
Mater smiled at him fondly. “I certainly wasn’t when first confronted with the possibility of a match between myself and the gentleman I would eventually marry. I threatened to run away from home.”
Linus laughed. “You are not helping my confidence.”
“Yes, but you see, our situation was not at all the same as yours. You love her, and she knows you do. That makes all the difference in the world.”
“Well”—he returned to the doorway—“wish me luck.”
“Without a gesture, you’ll need it,” Charlie called after him.
“Stop it,” Mater laughingly scolded.
Linus shook his head in amusement as he stepped into the corridor.
Being part of the Jonquil family these past weeks had been a joy and a blessing.
He’d begun not only thinking of himself as one of them but also growing more anxious to make the needed effort to rejoin his own family, finding for himself a place amongst them rather than simply bemoaning the gap created by years of separation.
He meant to spend Christmas at Falstone Castle.
If all went well, he and Arabella could spend Christmas there.
Though he wanted to brush aside Charlie’s insistence, Linus suspected he needed to find a better way to pose the possibility other than simply searching her out and saying, “If you don’t have plans for Christmas, we should get married and then visit my family. ”
He ought to do something, but what? He was not a very romantic person, having so little experience with such things. There must have been something he could do or arrange that would help his cause, something that would further show her he cared.
On the instant, he knew.
He ducked into the study and pulled open the top desk drawer.
A former shipmate of his lived in neighboring Cheshire.
Linus had written to him three weeks earlier, knowing that the retired sailor had amassed a collection of oddities from around the world.
Just as Linus had hoped, his one-time associate had amongst his international trinkets a particularly unique bead, one he had been willing to sell.
The bead had arrived only two days earlier, but Linus hadn’t found the right moment to give it to her.
This was that moment.
He pulled the package out and tipped the bead into his hand.
It wasn’t colorful like the bead Arabella had received from the earl, neither was it impressive like the two jade beads he’d given her weeks ago.
It was not fancy or fine, but it was unique and interesting. He felt certain she would love it.
A quick glance at the clock told him where he would find her.
She no longer spent hours of each day walking for miles on end, but she did walk around the gardens or the open meadows of the estate each afternoon.
Linus had joined her on many of those excursions.
Doing so had relieved his concerns. She no longer looked weary and afraid and worn down.
She seemed content. More than content, she seemed happy.
He made for the garden first in case she’d chosen a path closer to the house.
Fate was on his side. He found her sitting beneath the branches of an oak tree on the west side of the garden.
Autumn had edged the leaves in red. The nearby bushes had undergone the same transformation.
The scene was tranquil, captivating, more so for her being in it.
How easily he could picture her in that very spot in the white of winter, the budding greens of spring, the vibrant sunshine of summer.
She looked up as he approached. Her eyes lit with pleasure.