Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
It was not that Evelyn had not trusted her brother’s insistence that he would keep Hugo safe; it was more that she had not trusted her father not to do something wretched.
She had heard them all leaving the townhouse that morning, through the cracked-open door that Luke had not locked.
She had heard her father declare that Hugo would never trouble their family again, and that had been enough to make her mind up: she would follow her family to Hyde Park and stand in Hugo’s way if she had to.
But I did not have to. Tears welled in her eyes, hidden by the downpour, as she looked at her eldest brother. He had kept his promise and more. He had stood up for her when it mattered, using himself to ensure no harm came to Hugo.
“Evelyn, what are you doing here?” Hugo rasped, breaking away from the protection of Luke’s stance, running toward her.
A moment later, his arms were around her, his hand splayed above her head in a vain attempt to keep the rain from falling upon her face.
She shook violently, wondering if she had ever been so cold in her life, but it could not stop the warmth from spreading through her chest as she pressed her cheek to Hugo’s chest, holding onto his wet lapels, pulling him closer.
“I could not let you risk your life for me,” she whispered. “I thought of Octavia, and how stricken she would be, and… I hoped to stop it before anything could happen. But I lost my way through the park. I had forgotten that it would be dark, and the rain did not help matters.”
“You silly, stubborn thing,” Hugo murmured, as he hastily shrugged off his sodden coat and put it around her. “You beautiful, foolish, stubborn thing.”
“Step away from her,” Josiah barked.
Peering around the peak of Hugo’s shoulder, she cast a fiery glare at her father, possibly the first she had ever dared to.
“I love him, Father. It is him or no one.” She pressed tighter against Hugo, her hands finding fistfuls of his wet shirt instead.
“Please, just permit me this one thing, and I shall never ask for anything else. I shall never darken your door again, if that is what you want. Just… let me marry the man that I love. Let me have what Mother had.”
It was a lie, for she knew that her mother had never loved her father, not in the same way that he had loved her. But she was tired of trying to do the right thing and reaping no reward, so if she had to bend the truth a little, then now was the time to do it.
Her father dropped the pistol in shock, a soft gasp slipping from his lips, heard even above the drumming of the rain. “What your… mother had?”
She nodded. “Let me marry Hugo, Father.” With a sigh, she peeked out a little more.
“He loves me, as you loved her. I know I am being disobedient, but I never wanted to marry the baron. I agreed to it because you asked me to, because I thought it might please you. But… I should like to please myself, just this once. Give your blessing, Father. Please.”
Her father continued to stand with his hand slightly curved, as if he thought he was still holding the pistol.
He did not seem capable of moving a muscle, his eyes flickering with every raindrop that struck, his mouth twisting as if there were things he wished to say, but could not.
Mention of Evelyn’s mother had changed everything; she could see it on his face.
“Father, you are not seriously considering this,” Matthew hissed.
“Be quiet!” Josiah snapped, as he narrowed his eyes at Evelyn, brow furrowed in intense concentration.
She smiled back at him. “Please, Father.”
“I will take care of her, Lord Townshend,” Hugo said, turning. “I ask for no dowry, just her. And I would rather wed her without animosity among her family, though I mean to marry her all the same.”
Evelyn’s heart swelled with hope, praying that her father would be kind, just this once. Miles would not marry her anymore. For that reason alone, her father had to see sense.
The old man suddenly sagged at the shoulders, removing his hat to sweep a hand through his graying hair.
In that moment, she wondered what she had been afraid of for so many years; he was just a weathered gentleman, hunched and small, twisted up by memories of a wife he had never been able to forget.
“Very well,” he said, heaving out a sigh. “Very well, I give my blessing. If you wish to marry her, Your Grace, you may marry her. I am tired of this entire debacle.”
Her father still did not care, that was obvious, but none of that mattered now. He did not have to care, not when Evelyn had Hugo: a man who loved her, who saw her, who would never allow her to feel small or invisible ever again.
And what was more, she would be a duchess. There was some satisfaction in knowing that she would rank higher than her entire family.
“Let us discuss the details like civilized gentlemen tomorrow,” her father added. “Come to tea at the house, Your Grace. Two o’clock. Evelyn, you are to come with us.”
Evelyn did not wish to be parted from Hugo for even a moment, but if a brief separation meant she got to spend the rest of her life with him, she would manage somehow.
Her father and brothers began to walk away, through the passage between the bushes. Miles followed along after them, tipping his hat to Evelyn and Hugo as he passed. Evidently, he was relieved for the ordeal to be done with too.
“I believe I may owe at least one of your brothers an apology,” Hugo said in a soft voice, now that they had a moment alone.
Evelyn smiled up at him, her teeth chattering. “Luke has been transformed. I do not know why, but I am glad of it.” She paused. “You will come to tea, will you not?”
“Nothing could stop me,” he replied, lifting a hand to her face. “That being said, I will be stationing one of my footmen outside your house, in case this is some final ruse of your father’s.”
She chuckled. “I do not think it is, but I shall be all the more reassured if I know you have someone outside.”
“I still think you are extremely foolish for coming out here in the rain,” he said, brushing a lock of wet hair out of her face. “You shall catch your death, and then what shall I do?”
She shook her head. “I am entirely warm, now that I am in your arms again.”
“Your shivering would suggest otherwise,” he teased, smiling. “I love you, Evelyn.”
“As I love you,” she replied, her heart so full, so happy that she could hardly believe this was all real.
He brushed his thumb over the apple of her cheek.
“As soon as I have been to tea at your house, I shall go directly to the archbishop for a special license.” He leaned in.
“Now that there is nothing standing in our way, I do not plan to wait to be married to you. Will a week be enough time for you to make all due bridal preparations?”
“More than enough,” she replied, laughing. “Too much time, perhaps.”
He grinned. “If I could, I would marry you tomorrow.”
“As would I,” she told him, her eyes closing in a sort of joyful delirium as he closed the gap between them and kissed her.
It was everything she had dreamed of, a story far greater than anything she had read in Joan’s library or her own.
Here she was, in the pouring rain, held close in the arms of the man she loved; a man who had been willing to risk his life for her, who had challenged her father for her, who had not been afraid to let everyone know that he loved her.
Looping her arms around his neck, not caring if her father or her brothers came back through the passage to fetch her, she rose up on tiptoe and kissed Hugo harder.
She kissed him as if they would be apart for weeks instead of a matter of days.
She kissed him as a promise, that this was to be the beginning of the rest of their lives.
Indeed, she doubted she would ever tire of being able to kiss this wondrous man.
“You know,” she said with a smile, pulling back, “I think you might be the most fortuitous investment I have ever made.”
He raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean, my love?”
“The auction.” She chuckled as she thought of it. “I was the one who bid on you. For Selina, yes, but I was the true bidder.”
“You were?”
She nodded. “Truly, you are worth every penny.”
“Well then,” he said, pulling her closer, “I suppose I owe you a lifetime of happiness, and a solemn promise that I will be every bit the man that you have always dreamed of.”
“You already are,” she told him in earnest, holding his face as she grazed her mouth against his.
He kissed her back with equal fervor, his arm tight around her waist, his other hand lightly cradling the curve of her neck. Any cold she had felt abandoned her as she savored each moment, warm and safe in her beloved’s embrace.
If it had not been for Luke’s impatient shout of, “Evelyn, come along!” she might have stayed there until the sun came up, kissing her future husband.
“Until tomorrow,” Hugo said, reluctantly releasing her.
“Until tomorrow,” she replied with a smile. “I love you.”
“As I love you.” He dipped his head to steal one last kiss, and with that, he took her hand and escorted her back through the bushes, to where only Luke was waiting.
Everyone else had gone on ahead, and as the happy couple made their way through the park to the entrance, Luke walking behind them as a belated chaperone, Evelyn could not help but grin, for, at long last, she could finally see the merit in promenading through Hyde Park.
Even in the pouring rain before dawn, with no one else around.
In truth, as she gazed up at her beloved, she knew it was the perfect promenade.
“Promise me you will sit by the fire when you return home,” Hugo said, squeezing her hand.
“I shall not leave the fireside until I am fully thawed,” she promised.
Hugo smiled. “And how is your heart? Is that warmed?”
“It is blazing, my love,” she replied, squeezing his hand in reply.
Just before they reached the gates, the shadows of the carriages just visible through the bars, Hugo leaned in and whispered in her ear, “As is mine, though I promise I shall never burn you.” He paused.
“I meant what I said. All of those things you said you wanted in a husband; I shall spend the rest of my days ensuring I am that man.”
“And as I told you,” she whispered back, beaming, “you already are.”