Epilogue
“Remember, dear, with a title comes the opportunity to be eccentric. Society will run rampant with speculation, but all you have to do is raise a brow and people will scurry away rather than ask what your power is when you’ve made it clear you aren’t sharing.”
“I’m not sure I can raise a brow as eloquently as you, Madeleine.”
“Well, you’ll also have Nicky hovering at your side scowling at everyone.”
Sadie grinned. They had only been in Linzen for a day and Nicholas was already begging to go home. He’d skipped his late summer visit to the city using the excuse of getting married, but Madeleine refused to let them stay home during the main social season, too.
Sadie wasn’t particularly excited to socialize among a bunch of people who would look down their noses at her, but she looked forward to dragging Nicholas out of the house to explore the city. Plus, her mother-in-law insisted Linzen was the only place to build up a proper wardrobe for Sadie.
Neither Sadie nor Nicholas had been able to convince Madeleine that the clothes Sadie had suited her needs perfectly.
Ballgowns would be wasted in the brewing room.
On the other hand, Sadie wasn’t protesting too hard about getting a few new frocks.
Since getting out of the trip had been impossible, she had opted to make the best of it.
While in Linzen, Sadie hoped to make connections and drum up business for her and Pippa’s new shop, Potion Perfect.
Madeleine insisted that a baroness living on the edge of a haunted forest, who brewed potions but refused to share what her power was, would garner plenty of interest. If nothing else, curiosity would fund their shop for the next several months.
Also, Sadie looked forward to seeing Jane, Helen, and Beatrice again.
Nicholas trudged down the steps, saw Sadie and Madeleine waiting for him, already bundled up in preparation for stepping into the wintery air, and hurried to pull on his greatcoat. “Let’s get this over with.”
The carriage waited for them right outside the door, and they hurried into the protection from the wind. Madeleine took the forward facing seat, and Sadie sat with Nicholas across from her. He pulled a lap blanket over them both. “Why does winter feel so much worse in Linzen than Marstede?”
“It doesn’t,” Sadie laughed. “The weather is much worse back home. You are just in a miserable mood.”
“I still don’t see why we have to attend this gathering.” He glared at his mother. “I’m already married, why do I need to socialize with these people?”
Madeleine remained unruffled. “To show off your wife.”
Nicholas finally relaxed against the back of the bench. “She is impressive.”
Sadie waved her hand through the air in a motion she had gotten much better at mimicking after months living in the same household as Madeleine. “I’m a mere curiosity.”
“There is nothing mere about you, Wife.”
“Exactly.” Madeleine nodded once, confident that her opinion was fact.
Sadie didn’t bother to argue, a wise choice as the carriage was already rolling to a stop. “We’re here already? Why did we take the carriage for such a short distance?”
“Because walking not only would have been miserable in this weather,” Madeleine informed her, “but Nicky would have had too many opportunities to make a run for it.”
Nicholas grumbled something both women pretended they couldn’t hear, and got out of the carriage.
He offered a hand to his mother to help her down, then took Sadie by the waist and lifted her out of the conveyance.
She yelped and grabbed his shoulders, though he settled her on the ground safely an instant later.
“Nick! That’s not how you help a lady out of a carriage,” she scolded, trying not to notice how many people had watched that display.
“I may be here against my will, but I’m not going to behave differently just to quiet the gossips.”
If we scandalize enough people, he added mentally, the invitations might dry up and Mother won’t be able to force us to any more of these events before we go home.
Sadie stifled a laugh. An interesting strategy. I don’t think it will work, but I’m willing to play along.
Good, because kissing you every chance I get might be the only way I survive the evening. Despite his thoughts, he didn’t lean in for a kiss then, though, instead hustling her inside the home that was their destination. Madeleine was several steps ahead of them.
“How did you make it through social events previously?” Sadie asked softly as they made their way to one of the parlors where most people had gathered.
Nicholas grimaced. “Card rooms—though the men are seldom better than the debutantes—brandy, and going home early after promising to send the carriage back for Mother.”
“I can claim I have a headache.”
Nicholas kissed her cheek, an innocent peck that garnered far too much attention. “Don’t cut your evening short on my behalf. If you are enjoying yourself, then I’ll be happy enough.”
“I want to find Beatrice, Jane, and Helen. Apart from talking to them, I’m not sure I want to be here either.
” Even after months of practice and with her sapphire to aid her focus, such a large crowd was not the most comfortable for Sadie.
And it would only get worse as the night wore on and more alcohol had been drunk.
“There’s Beatrice.” Nicholas pointed his chin toward a corner of the room. Then, instead of offering Sadie his arm, he slipped his around her waist as they made their way over.
“Lord and Lady Marstede,” Beatrice greeted them with a slight nod.
“Sadie and Nicholas, please, Beatrice.” Sadie insisted. “How have you been? Madeleine mentioned you are engaged? Is your fiancé here?”
“No, he is too busy with his work to socialize most days, thank the spirits. I’m only here tonight because Madeleine insisted.”
“So, he’ll work and you’ll be left to your books?” Nicholas asked.
“Exactly so. His work also keeps him in the city most of the year, and I plan to stay at the country estate as much as possible. All in all, it is a good match.”
It sounded rather lonely to Sadie, but Beatrice sounded genuinely content with the situation. And who knew? Maybe she’d discover she had more in common with her workaholic husband than she expected.
“Your arrival caused quite the stir,” Beatrice informed them. “I didn’t see it, but I heard no less than three reports of your behavior before you even entered the parlor.”
Nicholas pulled Sadie closer. “Only three? I was hoping we’d outrage a few more than that.”
“If you are planning to scandalize the hostesses of Linzen, your scheme will fail. If Sadie were an actress or some such, maybe your invitations would dry up, but since she is your wife, you are providing the exact right amount of scandal to make the event talked about.”
“I told you it wouldn’t work.” Sadie smirked.
Nicholas leaned in and kissed her on the lips. When he pulled back, he looked genuinely happy, despite being at a social event. “Well, I’ve committed now.”
Sadie rolled her eyes and turned back to Beatrice. “Have you seen Helen or Jane?”
“Helen hasn’t arrived yet, and Jane is hiding in the retiring room.”
“Hiding?”
Beatrice nodded. “Her parents are pushing her at every eligible bachelor here.”
Sadie looked around. “Where is the retiring room?”
As she scanned the parlor, trying to guess which of the three doors she should head toward, a ripple in the crowd caught her attention.
The mental echo of surface thoughts, just outside her shields, felt a lot like what had happened when Nicholas had kissed her.
She turned, searching for the physical cues that would tell her what had caused the ripple.
“Nick, I think someone else is planning to out-scandal you.”
With his slight height advantage, Nicholas spotted what—or rather who—was causing the commotion first. “It’s the Duke of Demencia.”
Beatrice’s face betrayed utter disgust for a split second before she smoothed it over. “Thank the spirits I’m engaged. I hope Jane doesn’t dare peek out of the retiring room. He’s on the hunt for wife number six, I heard.”
“A sixth wife?” Sadie asked.
Beatrice shuddered. “Yes. His wives never seem to live past the age of thirty. Meanwhile, he has to be in at least his eighties and is using his title to pressure men his son’s age to marry off their daughters who are his granddaughter’s age to him.
Everyone suspects he’s been killing off his wives, yet he can always acquire a new one. ”
“I think,” Nicholas said in a choked voice, “he’s already found wife number six.”
The crowd split just enough and Sadie glimpsed an old man with a hunched back and a knobbly hand clenching his cane. A young woman held onto his other arm, her skin as smooth as his was wrinkled.
“Is that Abigail?” Beatrice whispered.
It was. It absolutely was Abigail.
Madeleine had made it a point to inform Sadie and Nicholas that Abigail’s child had been adopted by the Duke of Kinseran’s steward and his wife, the child’s origins completely obscured, though the prince had been convinced to provide materially for her.
They both suspected Madeleine was responsible for most, if not all, of that turn of events.
That had to have been a month or so earlier.
Madeleine had said nothing about Abigail being in attendance tonight.
“You know,” Nicholas said almost conversationally, “I think Demencia might have finally met the wife who is going to outlive him.” And if he weren’t a lecherous blot on humanity that even my mother has a personal horror story about and who has quite possibly murdered several women, I might have warned him.
Do you think Abigail still has any of the poison the demon brewed when it possessed Jane? Sadie asked.
I think we’ll find out shortly after the wedding.
“Well.” Beatrice stopped after that one word, clearly at a loss. “Well. I think your scandalous behavior will be entirely forgotten if Demencia is announcing an engagement.”
“I think you are right. I also think no one will notice how long we stay,” Sadie looked from Beatrice to Nicholas and back. “Beatrice, if you want to leave, we’ll tell Madeleine that you came. Nick, I want to talk to Jane, then we can leave, too.” I’d rather not run into Abigail if we can avoid it.
“Thank you. I think I will do just that.” Beatrice looked in the direction of Abigail and the duke, then went for the door farthest from them, though it wasn’t the one closest to the main exit.
“Come on, I think the ladies’ retiring room is this way,” Nicholas told Sadie. “You can find Jane, offer to let her come to Marstede to learn potion making with you, and then we can go home.”
“How did you—”
Nicholas kissed her once more. “She’s hiding because she’s miserable, and you know exactly how miserable hiding can make people. Of course you want to offer her a sanctuary. Learning from a baroness is probably the only way her family will let her practice her witchcraft.”
“Are you certain you aren’t the one—” with the ability to read minds?
Nicholas’s lips quirked up. “I can just read you, Sadie.”
“You aren’t mad that I want to invite another person into our home?”
“Sadie, so long as I have you, you can invite everyone into our home.” Except Abigail and Demencia.
“I think just Jane is plenty.”
He nodded at a door. “You talk to Jane, and offer her a ride home—whichever home she prefers for the night. I’ll inform Mother that we are leaving.”
Sadie caught his hand as he turned to leave. “Nick?”
“Yes?”
She initiated this kiss, and she didn’t hold herself back. The hostesses of Linzen might have truly been scandalized if any of them had been looking anywhere but at the Duke of Demencia and his new fiancée.
“You are an amazing person, Nicholas, even if you do pretend to be a grump. I love you.”
“I love you too, Sadie.”
Thank you for reading Peas & Quiet.