Chapter 13 #2
“That is the best outcome for them. Better that, than…” He couldn’t bring himself to say it, to imagine them attacked on the road or gone for ever. “It’s a fine turn of events on the whole.”
Patrick looked at him. “That's all you have to say?”
“What else would you like to hear?”
“A reaction beyond indifference doesn’t seem too much to ask.
” Patrick placed a hand on his shoulder and forced him to look at him.
“Would you behave this way if it had been me running off to marry your intended? You would have struck me dead with that right hook. It must make you feel some sort of way that it was your own flesh and blood. There are no prizes to be won for the man who says least what he feels. We’ve seen men shed tears in Parliament. ”
Evander looked at the fire, laughing miserably. He could barely think about flesh or blood. Especially because any mention of Frederick led to thoughts about Aurelia, and that was somehow more difficult to deconstruct and vocalise.
“I don't know yet. But isn’t that what sleep is for? So a man can make up his mind in peace and quiet?” he asked, putting his glass down definitively and stepping back from the flames.
“Now you’re a philosopher. I gather there are prizes for that,” Patrick said, picking up someone's abandoned glass and examining it. “I will say this before you exit. Your brother is married and presumably somewhere in Scotland, happy about it.” He set the glass back down. “Meantime you are standing here with too-hot knees looking like a man whose wife just told him she is sleeping in her own rooms as though that’s a problem.” He glanced across at him.
“You tell me which one seems like the more pressing concern for a man of your station.”
Evander moved toward the doors, not wanting to speak any more that night.
“Goodnight, my friend,” Patrick called. “Rest well and long to make up that troubled mind of yours.”
Next day, he was at the window with his coffee when he saw them.
Aurelia and Miss Penrose were walking down the south lawn.
The young lady was talking with her hands, and Aurelia listened with her head tilted, the brown hair at the nape of her neck catching the sun beneath her bonnet.
Nike had attached herself to Aurelia's left side. Titan was attempting to arrest the stick from Miss Penrose’s hand.
And for her part Miss Penrose didn’t even seem to notice she had left the poor beast waiting for it to be thrown.
He felt a little like that himself, and took another sip of his coffee. Bitter, like burnt caramel. A punishing enough taste for the morning at hand.
“A pretty view… You should know that she has always been private and won’t appreciate being watched.”
He turned quickly. Violet appeared beside him suddenly, also looking at the garden.
She had a newspaper tucked under her arm, too large to be one of the local broadsheets.
He hadn't heard her come in. The staff were still clearing away breakfast, transporting half-empty dishes of cold meats downstairs.
“Even when she was a girl she was private,” Violet continued. Her eyes were a startling grey in the sun. “She would turn something over for weeks before she said it. I could always tell when there was something bothering her. A bit like now, if I haven’t lost my though…”
She watched Aurelia take the stick from Miss Penrose and throw it before her friend could be further inconvenienced, laughing.
“I used to think it was an inherited stubbornness. My sister was the most stubborn and high-spirited woman I ever knew, a real tyrant in her youth. Now I’m more inclined to think she does not want others to bear the weight of her thoughts and feelings.
She must consider them onerous indeed if that’s the case. ”
“She doesn't burden me in the slightest,” Evander said absently, feeling strangely soothed by the older woman’s presence.
Aunt Violet glanced at him sideways. “No, I can see that. What luck that you’ve found each other then. That’s a rarity, Your Grace.” She paused, readjusting the newspaper. “I hope the marriage is going smoothly and that she isn’t causing you trouble. I know the circumstances were not ideal.”
“You are permitted to say what you like, especially when you are saying the truth.”
“A gentlemanly answer to be sure. Thank you for humouring me.” She smiled slightly.
“And I am trying to thank you too, Your Grace, for what you have done for her, trying to make her happy and fix her life. I know it cannot have been simple, given those circumstances, given what I said about my girl and her quiet ways. But she will prove a good wife to you.”
He latched on to the word simple. “It has not been complicated either,” he said, which was close enough to the truth.
Violet nodded, apparently satisfied. “She will not say it, whatever she feels in the moment, as I said. You should know that moving forward. She will torture you and frustrate you, but it won’t be on purpose.
Even if it were very true… whatever she felt inside of her…
she would find another word for it. Does that make sense to you? ”
He paused, then said, “Perhaps. But it’s still early.”
“Of course. I was probably not supposed to tell you that regardless.” She turned from the window. “I have said it anyway.” She made it halfway to the door before stopping and turning back. “Ah, and one more thing, Your Grace.”
She pointed at the view of the girls through the window, and the dogs. Titan had retrieved the stick himself and was now sitting on Aurelia's foot. “Your dogs are very large.”
“They are,” he agreed, confused but amused.
“And the grey one looks… Particularly large, if you catch my meaning.”
Evander observed Nike through the window.
The shape of her abdomen was a little different, but he hadn’t thought too much of it.
Namely because it was not possible she could be pregnant.
They were guard dogs, not meant for breeding.
Titan could not have done anything to that end even if he wanted to.
And yes, they roamed, but he couldn’t think of a sire large enough in a hundred-mile radius who could have found her.
He winced at the thought. “It cannot be possible. It cannot be Titan – we had him cut years ago for his aggression.”
Violet crinkled her chin. “Then perhaps I am mistaken. I would have your groom look at her anyway, if they don’t have animal-doctors in this corner of England.
She is about as large as a horse. He should know what to do.
If she does have a litter… I could use a guard dog in London now that I am alone.
So think of me when they come out – all eighteen of them. I want the largest.”
Evander smiled as he looked back at the garden and heard Violet retreat. Aurelia had crouched down to Titan's level and appeared to be having a serious conversation with him. Miss Penrose was watching this with her arms crossed, shaking her head slowly.
By ten o'clock that same day, Rosdale had commandeered a coastal trip, organising the carriage, sourcing a map, and suggesting they stop at a fishing village he had read about in one of the Norfolk travel guides at the house, which he had found despite the library being locked the evening prior.
“You should all come,” Lydia said to Aurelia, who was sitting on the entrance hall steps with her hand pressed to her temple. “The sea air will help that megrim of yours, Aurelia, you know it will.”
“Nothing helps except lying in a dark room and waiting for it to pass.” She raised her head weakly to smile then regretted it as pain blared behind her eyes.
“What causes them to happen?” Rosdale asked, putting on his gloves as he watched for the carriage to arrive.
The open door was emitting cool but heavy air.
“I used to have a friend from Milan who would see stars in his eyes after he ate dessert. Have you been down in the kitchens without us knowing and sneaking pies, Your Grace?”
“How ever did you know?” Aurelia replied, though the idea of dessert made her stomach churn. “It’s the coming rain, usually. The pressure in the air does something to me. A physician explained it to Aunt Violet once many years ago.”
Patrick looked at the sky through the open door, his mouth agape. It was overcast but not obviously threatening. “The weather seems mostly fine to me.”
“The headache started at seven this morning. It doesn’t always happen, but given the prolonged rain…” Aurelia trailed off, putting her head back in her hands.“You’ll see. There will be a storm by the sea within the hour.”
Violet kicked her softly, signaling for her to straighten rather than slumping over indecorously. “She's always right about the rain,” Violet told Rosdale. “We might get stuck for the night and have to board somewhere by the coast. They have public inns here, don’t they?”
“There are worse ways to spend an evening. It almost sounds romantic,” Rosdale joked, looking pointedly at Lydia, who mostly ignored him.
“Go now,” Aurelia said, waving them off. “All of you. The earlier you set off the better. I will be perfectly fine. Mrs. Foulger will look after me if I need anyone.”
Lydia looked uncertain. At that moment, Evander entered from the direction of his study. He paused and greeted them with a nod. Aurelia looked at the group and then at him, trying to conceal her fragile state from him.
“You'll be here with her, Your Grace, won’t you?” Aunt Violet said. “To take care of her if the megrim worsens? Cold compresses and drawn curtains.”
“Compresses?” His gaze fell to the ground. He was more formally dressed than usual, which she thought was odd and unnecessary. This was his home, even if all her favourite people were in it. “Actually I was going to walk the grounds.”
Lydia tutted. “You should watch out. Your wife senses oncoming rain. I would hate for a bough to knock you in the head.”
“What a vivid picture you have painted.” Evander scowled. “I’ll take my chances, Miss Penrose. I enjoy walks in the rain.”