Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
When Zek arrived at Starling Hall the next morning, he did not come alone.
Izzy was with him. Christine eyed the young girl uncertainly, but Izzy kept her head down as they made their way into the best sitting room.
This one was not shabby, and Christine would have preferred to use the comfortable one, but Lady Meg had insisted that this was where they must go.
“This is a truly momentous occasion, after all,” she said with a glint in her eyes. “Far greater than when Will said he was going to marry dear Molly, or Breana said she was going to marry Theo. Greater even than when Abby and Reeve became engaged. You and Zek Nash! Christine, I am speechless.”
Christine didn’t think she sounded speechless, but she was happy to show Zek into the best sitting room and offer him and his sister refreshment while they waited for her father to appear. Sir Stephen was out at the moment, but had promised to return very soon.
“I am eager to hear what Zek Nash has to say,” Sir Stephen had said the night before. “Should I demand to know his intentions, do you think? Should I make him stammer?”
Christine hadn’t known whether to laugh or not. “Please don’t frighten him away, Father.”
“I won’t,” he had promised, putting his arm around her for a hug. “But if he is serious about you, I doubt anything could put him off, my dear.”
Izzy’s quiet voice startled Christine out of her thoughts. “I’m to tell you I’m sorry.”
“Izzy wants to apologise,” Zek said. “She got everything wrong, I’m afraid. Some silly things I had said about you years ago stayed in her head.”
“About teaching me a lesson?” Christine looked from one to the other. “Punishing me for being horrible to you both?”
“Well, you were,” Izzy said defensively.
“Izzy...” Zek groaned. “Don’t make her decide not to marry me, please! I’ll be miserable if you do that. I’ll end up like our uncle, a grumpy old man longing for the past.”
Izzy looked horrified. “Zek, you know I don’t want that. I just...”
Christine spoke up. “You are right, Izzy. I was horrible. I was mean and selfish, and I regret everything I did back then enormously. I am so, so sorry, Izzy.”
Izzy stared at her, and then her lips twitched. “We did a lot of horrible things to you too, I suppose.”
Christine felt herself smile in return. “Yes, well, we were too young to know any better.”
“I suppose not.”
Zek seemed relieved. He reached to take Christine’s and Izzy’s hands in his, then placed their hands together. “There. Are we all friends then?”
The two women looked at each other. Izzy frowned. “On one condition,” she said, then suddenly made a dreamy face. “I want you to introduce me to Mr Kean.”
Mr Charles Kean was a famous actor, far more famous than Christine, and well outside her current social circle, but she pretended to consider it. “I promise you, when I meet Mr Kean, you will be the very first person I will introduce him to.”
Just then, Sir Stephen arrived and whisked Zek off for a private interview.
They weren’t gone long, however, and when they returned, their faces were wreathed in smiles.
Christine felt relieved and happy as champagne was poured and glasses were held up for toasts.
She tried not to notice sixteen-year-old Izzy with her own glass.
“To Zek and Christine!” everyone cheered. Molly and Will arrived to join them now, and little Phyllis jumped up and down with glee.
“That just leaves Josh, Rosina and Arnold,” Lady Meg said, counting off her remaining unmarried children on her fingers. “And young Nigel, of course.”
Zek leaned in and asked Christine to come for a walk in the garden with him, and the two slipped away.
Outside, the sky was clear. The storms of the past few weeks were gone.
Soon it would begin to cool, and the autumn leaves would start to fall.
But right now, Christine felt as if she lived in endless sunshine.
“I will take a house in London,” Zek said in a way that showed he had been carefully thinking over their future. “But we will come home to Barton Lacey often. Do you mind living in the Lady’s House or would you like a house of our own?”
“I love the Lady’s House, as long as your mother and Izzy don’t mind.”
Zek smiled, lifting her hand to his lips. “I want to make sure you are happy, Christine. You can have your career and a family, and so can I.”
Christine stretched up to kiss his lips, then cuddled against him and sighed.
“Do you know I spent all my life wanting to be a famous actress, and now that I am a little famous, I realise it isn’t the answer to my prayers I thought it was.
I am proud of what I have achieved, and I know I can achieve more in the future, but what I truly want is to come home to a family.
To you, and perhaps children of our own. ”
He held her closer. “I feel the same. How did we not know years ago that we were suited for one another?”
They stayed in the garden a while longer, then made their way back to Starling Hall, to celebrate with those they loved, and plan their future together.