Chapter 21 #2
“I can’t take Baz for a full week all by myself. You won’t mind if I go back to Surrey, will you?” Sir asked.
That he’d just returned from there the previous day didn’t signify.
Sir had been helping his mother and sisters settle into the cottage and small plot of land Hugh had offered them at Cranleigh.
Mrs. Givens had accepted it without hesitation, knowing that life would be far better for them there than in London.
Spending the last week there had also kept him away from the news in regard to his father’s murderer.
The trial against Hammond Abbey had been swift and decisive.
Abbey would face the noose. A handful of Sanctuary members had been revealed publicly, including Sir Oliver Pendleton, who, as co-owner of the Morning Post, had disclosed the story of the bodies to help along Mr. Gye’s crisis at Vauxhall.
However, after the fiasco, Mr. Gye decided against selling the lease, and in the last week, Vauxhall had become a crush again.
“Go to Surrey if you like,” Hugh said. “So long as no one comes back here for one full week. The duchess and I will get on just fine, all on our own.”
Thornton snickered, but Sir leaned forward again to look past him. “You mean the viscountess.”
Hugh’s chest clamped hard, and all his impatience fizzled. He blinked, his eyes strangely burning. Speaking around a sudden knob in his throat, he said, “The viscountess. Right you are, Sir.”
Had he never been named viscount, she would have married him still, of that he was certain.
She would have become Mrs. Audrey Marsden just as willingly as she would have the Viscountess Neatham.
The only thing that she would care about was simply being his wife.
He swallowed hard, and Thornton clapped him on the back, as if in understanding.
The doors to the drawing room opened, and Hugh’s heart lurched.
Basil stepped to the side and cleared his throat.
He looked inordinately pleased with the ceremony of it all as he snapped his fingers, and the strains of a violin filled the room.
Hugh’s butler, Whitlock, had been in an orchestra in his youth and had offered to play.
Everyone turned in their seats to view Audrey’s attendant, Cassie, entering first. As she took measured steps down the aisle, Hugh refrained from tapping his foot, though just barely.
“A sloth may have moved faster,” Thornton muttered as she came to stand across from them. She shot him a glare, but then faced the doors again.
And then, there she was. Audrey’s eyes immediately found him, and Hugh was lost. She was a vision in cream silk. Perfect in every way. He stood tall and waited for his bride to come to him.
Two years ago, Audrey had descended a set of steps, into the dark, dank cellar of the Brown Bear on Bow Street.
In that moment, her heart had been in her throat.
Her best friend, her husband, had just been arrested for a crime that she knew, in her soul, he never could have committed.
When she’d walked into that cellar and met with the arrogant, belittling arresting officer, Audrey never could have imagined that she was, in fact, meeting her next husband. The love of her life.
As she entered the drawing room, clutching the small bouquet of lilies and honeysuckle, the officer she had so detested upon their first meeting blinked to keep his tears at bay.
Now, she knew Hugh Marsden was neither arrogant nor belittling.
She’d come to know him as the kindest, most honorable, caring, intelligent, and loyal man she had ever met.
He could still be infuriating at times, but she’d never felt more loved.
A person’s life could take such curious and serendipitous turns. Though Philip was gone, he would always have a place in her heart. Without him, she would have gone through with the arranged marriage to Lord Bainbury. She would have continued to feel like an outcast, afraid to be who she was.
Most importantly, without Philip, she would have never met Hugh Marsden.
As she walked slowly down the aisle between the chairs filled with their friends and family, a violin playing a soft piece, she felt full of gratitude that they were here, rather than in some church that held no meaning for them.
This would be their home. It would be where they would love each other and grow old together and raise children together.
There could be no better place to take Hugh as her husband.
Upstairs, after Greer and Cassie had helped her into the gown Madame Gascoigne had turned out in record time, there had been a knock on the bedchamber door. Michael entered, and pulling on his cuffs, announced, “I’ve come to offer myself up.”
Audrey peered at him in the mirror’s reflection as Greer pinned a dainty, crystal-studded netting over her upswept hair.
The mirror was one of the only pieces of furniture in the room, other than a few trunks and the large tester bed that gave her an electric thrill when she imagined sharing it with Hugh that night.
“How so?” Audrey asked.
“To walk you down the aisle, of course,” he answered. “We are still family. Your marrying the viscount won’t change that.”
Audrey turned from the mirror, the sting of tears biting the corners of her eyes.
“Oh, Michael.” Greer quickly finished with the netting pins, and Audrey went to him.
His alarm at her approach was significant, as if he worried she was going to throw herself into his arms. But she stopped short of that and only took his hands into hers.
“I’m lucky to have you. Both you and Genie. Cassie and Tobias too.”
“I should say so,” Cassie said, suppressing a grin as she came forward with the pair of tall silk gloves the modiste had sent as well.
Audrey sniffled, knowing she couldn’t cry before the wedding. It would make her eyes red and puffy. “Thank you for the offer, Michael, but I want to walk myself down the aisle,” she said. “I’m giving myself to Hugh.”
Michael nodded, a bashful grin forming. “I could not be happier for you.”
So, after a long time coming, and a short walk down the aisle, her eyes hinged on her groom with every step, Audrey reached the altar on her own. Though, as Hugh came forward and took her hand into his, she knew she would never be on her own again.