Chapter 17

W hile still in Clifton Cross, Anna had reached out to Avery’s regimental headquarters for information about his whereabouts; in London, Lord Bledsoe had gone directly to Whitehall and the Foreign Office. In Paris, Anna had relied upon James’s connections, and they had been fortunate to learn what they had there.

Where were they to go in Toulouse? Were there any government agencies who would have information about the troops who had fought in the city and the surrounding area? Anna doubted it.

But if it meant going house to house, shop to shop to find Avery, she would do it. She must. She owed it to Sparks and Mary and especially to James to do her very upmost to find her brother after all they had sacrificed for her.

James, to whom she was now betrothed! Her heart sang at the thought of his proposal—and his kisses and caresses.

She quickly freshened up once she arrived at her room and hurried back down to the inn’s main entrance to wait for James to join her. He was already there when she arrived.

He greeted her by taking her hand and kissing it gently. “I asked the innkeeper for the names of people who might know something of the whereabouts of the soldiers remaining in Toulouse,” he said. “He suggested a few places to begin our search. I also described your brother to him, but he was unfamiliar with anyone matching that description. He did confess to keeping to himself when all of this was occurring, however, despite any business it might have brought in.”

“Thank you, James,” Anna said. “I did wonder where we would go from here.”

“Shall we?” he said, offering her his arm.

She nodded and slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow.

They walked south down the main street, considering they had entered the city from the north and she had studied each person she’d seen as they’d ridden toward the center of town, just as she had done along the way to Toulouse. James stopped everyone they passed and asked them in French if they knew of an Avery Clifton. He would gesture at Anna as he did, which, she presumed, was to describe the family resemblance. Anna smiled with each encounter and tried to appear optimistic, but as the afternoon wore on and they received only negative responses, she began to grow weary and disheartened.

“Come,” he said at last. “It is getting late, and you are tired and in need of sustenance. I, for one, am famished. I see a small café across the street just there. What do you say we stop and take tea before returning to the inn?”

“Yes,” Anna said. The single word was all she could muster.

James turned her toward him. “My dearest Anna,” he said in a low voice that was nonetheless firm. “You are the strongest woman I have ever had the privilege of knowing. You braved an encounter with robbers just this morning, and you have heard too many people say no to our inquiries. I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder of anyone in my life than I am of you today. We will sit and take tea and then return to the inn so you may rest. We will begin anew tomorrow.”

“Thank you, James,” she said.

He ran his thumb under her eye where a single tear had escaped and then placed the thumb to his lips in a kiss. The tenderness of it nearly shattered her. “Come, my dear,” he murmured and then gently placed her hand back in the crook of his arm and led her to the café.

The café owner greeted them and showed them to a corner table. The café was not particularly busy and allowed Anna a modicum of privacy in which to gather her emotions. James sat next to her and slid his chair even closer to hers. He quickly ordered for them both.

The café owner snapped his fingers, and a serving girl promptly arrived with a fresh pot of tea and cups and saucers and poured both James and Anna a cup. Then the owner bowed and turned to leave, but he stopped and studied Anna’s face rather too closely.

“Mademoiselle?” the man began.

She looked up at him above the cup of tea from which she was about to sip.

James said something to him in reply, to which the café owner rattled off a great deal of French to James, and James’s eyes grew big.

Anna’s heart began to pound, and her breathing began to race. She set her cup down a bit shakily, which made it rattle.

James took her hand in his own. “I don’t wish you to get your hopes up, Anna,” he said in a low voice, “but this gentleman was startled by your similarity to ... his son-in-law, an English soldier they took in and nursed back to health—”

“James,” she said, squeezing his hand until she feared she might break his bones, but she needed to cling tightly to him right now. “It can’t be Avery. It can’t! How could he be this man’s son-in-law? He would have written had he intentions to be married. He would have come home. Do you think it’s truly possible?”

“Avery? Oui, il s’appelle Avery,” the café owner said, and then he spoke to the serving girl, who had just walked up to their table with the rest of their order, and she quickly set their food down and hurried off.

“He asked the serving girl to fetch his son-in-law,” James said. “He says his name is indeed Avery.”

Anna couldn’t have been more shocked if James had told her he was Napoleon Bonaparte himself! She began to shake in earnest. Could it truly be that Avery was alive—and he was married?

Avery was married?

“Try to eat something, Anna,” James said. “You will need your strength for this moment.”

Anna gazed into James’s intense brown eyes. She had trusted him to make their arrangements with innkeepers and coachmen. He had handled the conflicts that had occurred at Prince Schwarzenberg’s soiree. His presence had kept her and Sparks and Mary safe. She owed him so much.

Oh, how she loved him!

And then a movement caught her eye, and she shifted her gaze to see what it was.

“Avery!” she cried. And then she was on her feet and across the café, wrapped in her brother’s solid, familiar arms.

“Anna? What are you doing here? How did you get here?” the new Lord Westbury asked his sister, holding on to her as if his life depended upon it—or perhaps his balance depended upon it. James suspected that Anna had been so focused on her brother’s face that she hadn’t noticed the walking stick that had fallen to the floor when she had rushed into his arms.

“I came to find you,” Anna exclaimed, “and I have found you. Oh, it’s a miracle ! You’re alive ! Oh, Avery !” She dashed tears from her cheeks as more continued to flow, and James discreetly reached down and retrieved the walking stick, hoping to allow her this private moment with her brother. He also felt he must stay nearby, for there would be questions asked and questions answered, and James would not leave Anna on her own for that.

He knew the thoughts of men well enough to know some of the questions that would follow. Oh yes, he knew how men thought. And he knew how brothers would react. Had he himself not been angry and protective when he’d learned of Susan’s betrothal to Aylesham?

Avery’s—that is, Lord Westbury’s—thoughts would take him there soon enough.

“So much has happened, Avery,” Anna sobbed. “John and Papa are both gone.”

“Gone? Gone where?” Lord Westbury asked her.

“They’re gone! They both died—John of pneumonia this past winter and Papa when he got word that you’d—” She stopped herself from finishing that particular sentence. “That is why I had to find you. I couldn’t stand by and let disgusting Cousin Ambrose take claim to Papa’s title and lands. Your title and lands now. I simply couldn’t! They belong to you.”

Lord Westbury’s body slumped at her words, and his hands slid down her arms to his sides. “ Both gone?” he asked in a whisper.

“Yes. But you’re alive! You’re alive! I couldn’t bear to think the worst—that you’d died in battle after what we’d learned from your regiment. I couldn’t even say the words aloud! But you’re here! Oh, Avery!” She burst into tears again, and her brother wrapped his arms around her again.

The poor man looked dumbstruck. Then he caught sight of James.

James nodded politely in acknowledgment and greeting but said nothing.

“Who is this?” Lord Westbury asked Anna.

“James!” she exclaimed, her happiness radiating from her like a white light. “We found him! He’s alive after all!”

“James?” Lord Westbury asked.

“I wouldn’t have found you if it hadn’t been for James!” Anna said. “Avery, may I present Mr. James Jennings, Esquire. James, this is my brother Avery—er, the Earl of Westbury.”

“It’s an honor, Lord Westbury,” James said, handing him his walking stick. War had hardened the young earl’s face. There were lines at his eyes and a few that bracketed his mouth that James doubted had been there before any battles had been fought. James had seen similar lines in his brother Lucas’s face when he’d returned home from the Peninsula.

“Thank you,” the earl said, giving James a handshake and a long look. “And thank you for safely reuniting me with my sister.”

“Would you care to sit, Lord Westbury?” James asked. It was obvious the earl was still recovering from his wounds and seemed a bit unsteady, which the news he’d just received must surely have intensified. “Anna and I were having tea and a bit of sustenance. Please join us.”

“Yes, thank you,” Westbury replied. He glanced across the room at the café owner, who nodded. “I think that is a good idea.”

Anna grabbed her brother’s arm and hugged it to her, then patted it over and over. “I can still scarcely believe it’s you,” she said, beaming at him. “I am not sure I can ever be happier than I am at this moment!”

James, for his part, hoped that wasn’t the case, for having actually found Anna’s brother, he had a particular question he wished to ask the earl, and James prayed the earl’s answer would be a positive one, as Anna’s had been.

“There is obviously much I need to learn about what has transpired. Both John and Papa gone. I can scarce believe it—or that you have traveled such a great distance to find me,” Lord Westbury said, shaking his head.

“I had to find you, Avery. It’s as simple as that,” Anna said.

“Truly, nothing would stop her in her determination to learn of your whereabouts, Lord Westbury,” James said. “Or even, dare I say, whether you still lived, based on the last word your father received from your regiment.”

“Lord Westbury was always my father and was then going to be my brother,” the earl said, wincing a bit. “It will take time to get used to hearing myself referred to as such. There is much information I am hopeful you and Anna can provide. Speaking of which,” he continued, “how precisely are you acquainted with my sister? You are not from Clifton Cross.”

“We met in Dover as she was preparing to cross the Channel,” James replied. “She traveled from Clifton Cross to London first to see if there was information to be had regarding your regiment and you, specifically.”

“London?” Westbury asked.

“Yes,” James replied.

“But they didn’t know anything, Avery,” Anna said. “And so, I had to go to Paris, where all the leaders were meeting.”

When her brother only stared at her incredulously, James decided to continue with his explanation. “When an odd coincidence had us sailing the Channel aboard the same yacht, it became immediately obvious to me that she was ill-equipped to travel to Paris unescorted, as it were, and so I offered my services, as I was heading there myself.”

“You were going to Paris?”

“I have done a bit of diplomatic work for the Foreign Office,” James said. “When I saw a beautiful young lady of the upper class traveling across France with but two servants, none of whom spoke French, I felt moved to act the gentleman by providing an escort and translation abilities to her, at least as far as Paris. She is an indomitable woman to search for her only surviving family member as she has. I quite admire her.”

“Admire her,” Westbury repeated.

“Yes,” James replied, knowing full well what Westbury was implying. James looked at Anna, which was a mistake, for she utterly glowed with joy, thrilled as she was to have found her brother, and she looked even more beautiful to James, if such a thing were possible. He suspected his feelings would be readily apparent to Lord Westbury, as they were impossible for him to disguise now. “How were you injured, if you don’t mind my asking?” James said to Lord Westbury, turning his attention back to the earl.

“Saber wound and a musket ball that thankfully missed anything too important,” he replied. “I’m one of the fortunate ones.”

“Thank heaven for that!” Anna exclaimed.

Westbury didn’t reply.

His lack of reply was telling, James thought. He imagined the earl might feel both blessed and guilty for surviving what many of his brothers-in-arms had not, if Westbury’s experience had been anything like Lucas’s. James felt for the man.

“But you must tell me more of what transpired at home and your journey here,” Westbury said at length.

James was not surprised by the earl’s need to change the subject.

Anna had finally begun to believe that it was truly Avery sitting by her in this little café in Toulouse and not some dream she was caught in.

The serving girl brought an additional teacup for Avery and then stared at Anna briefly and glanced back at Avery before leaving them.

Anna poured tea for Avery and added two sugars.

“You remember how I take my tea,” he said.

“Of course I do!” Anna replied.

A few customers walked through the door, speaking rather loudly.

“Do you think the café owner has a more private place where we may talk?” Anna asked. “Or we could return to the inn where James and I and the others are staying, if you’d prefer.”

“There’s a room,” Avery said. “I live here. I work here. We have my rooms.”

“You work here? At this café?” Anna asked, utterly dumbfounded by his words.

Avery shrugged his shoulders.

He had already picked up the French habit of shrugging!

“Follow me,” he said. He then rose to his feet and began leading them toward the back of the inn. He was leaning rather heavily on his walking stick, which Anna noticed now. He was still recovering from his wounds.

The three of them walked through to the back of the café, where there was an attached building that appeared to include Avery’s apartments. That he was living here , in Toulouse, in what appeared to be permanent apartments, and yet they hadn’t received any letters from him was unthinkable to Anna.

Avery opened a door and gestured for James to enter once Anna had passed through. “Please be seated,” he said.

Anna perched on the edge of the small sofa in the center of the room, and James sat in a side chair opposite her.

Avery then sat next to her on the sofa and took her hand in his. “Tell me of John and Papa, Anna.”

She related the full story of their brother’s passing, his wife and daughter choosing to stay with her parents, and the devastation it had brought to their unwell father. “But it was the letter telling us that you’d been injured and were missing in action that took the final toll on Papa,” she said. “I was told he’d received a letter, and when I went to find out what it was, I discovered him. But he was already gone, Avery! The physician thought it was too much for his heart to bear, after losing Mama and his health and then John. It was too much.”

Avery was silent as he pondered her words. “You received no letters from me?” he asked.

“You mean you wrote ?” Anna asked.

“More than once, after I was feeling a bit better. I was indisposed for several days, and then it was difficult to find writing materials, but I managed to barter for some.”

“Oh, Avery!” Anna said, her eyes welling once again with tears. “I couldn’t believe you wouldn’t have let us know you were alive! And now I know you tried! But we’d received no word, and so I had to—”

“Look for me yourself, you dear, foolish girl!” Avery exclaimed, chuckling and shaking his head.

“And yet you are healthy enough that you could have returned to England, to your family, but you remained here,” James said.

“This is true,” Avery said.

“Avery?” a soft, feminine voice behind Anna asked.

Anna turned toward to sound. “Who—” she started.

Avery smiled as he motioned for the young woman to join them. “Anna,” Avery said, “allow me to present my wife, Jeanne.” He said a few more things to Jeanne in French—his French had greatly improved since his days at university, Anna noted—and he included her name and the words ma s?ur , which Anna gratefully recalled meant “my sister.”

Jeanne’s face lit up, and she suddenly grasped Anna’s hands and shook them vigorously. Anna didn’t know what to do, so she allowed Jeanne to clutch her hands and looked at Avery and James for cues about what to do next. They both shrugged their shoulders.

Anna was so tired of men shrugging their shoulders!

But what was she thinking? This young woman was Avery’s wife! That meant she was as much a member of the family as Sarah had been and still was even after John’s death, even if Sarah preferred to live with her own family now that John was gone.

Anna pulled her hands free of Jeanne’s grasp and stood and wrapped her arms around her to give her a sisterly hug, and then she glanced at Avery.

“And now you know,” he said.

She thought if he shrugged after uttering those words, she might hit him, and she hadn’t done that since he’d broken one of her dolls when she was six.

Luckily for Avery, he didn’t shrug, but then Jeanne said something to him in French and left the room rather than joining them.

“She is making tea,” Avery said.

“We just had tea,” Anna said.

“She wants her new sister to feel welcome in her home,” Avery said. “And since she can’t speak much English, she is choosing to do it with food.”

“I can’t fault her for that,” James said with a smile.

Neither could Anna, who realized that while she was filled to the brim with joy, after a long, difficult day and an interrupted tea service, she was utterly famished.

After feasting on Jeanne’s excellent culinary wares—it was obvious that she had been well-trained by her café-owner father—James was surprised when Lord Westbury suggested that Jeanne show Anna their garden and get better acquainted while the men did likewise. “I’m sure there will be much pointing and gesturing and smiling,” he said to Anna and repeated to Jeanne in French, “but I suspect you ladies will find a way to communicate just fine.”

Jeanne smiled and nodded and offered her hand to Anna, and the two of them strolled off arm in arm as though they were the oldest and dearest of friends.

“That’s gratifying to see,” Westbury said.

“I imagine so,” James replied. “Family is the most important thing.”

Westbury said nothing.

“Jeanne seems a treasure,” James continued. “And indeed, her father’s keen eye was instrumental in bringing you and Anna back together.”

“I should not have lived were it not for Jeanne and her father,” Westbury said.

“Will you tell me of Orthez? And Toulouse?” James asked.

The earl sighed. “I should not wish Anna to know the details for the world,” he said. “War is an ugly business.” He stared out the window for a few minutes before speaking again. James waited patiently.

“We were the victors at Orthez,” Westbury said at last. “But it hardly felt like a victory when I saw the fallen. And it was February. It was cold. I’m not surprised that I was reported as missing in the chaos and confusion. I was hit by a bullet, as I said, and while it didn’t kill me, the saber wound I received after I fell—to assure, I presume, that I was truly dead—bled a great deal. I don’t recall everything that happened after that. I suppose I might have been numbered among the dead when the counts were first made, but luckily, someone saw me after I revived a bit, for I do remember being placed on a board and carried to a tent, where a medic pried the bullet from my side and wrapped my wounds as best he could with what he had at hand.”

James shuddered. The pain Westbury must have felt was incomprehensible to him.

“It was decided that my regiment would continue on with others to Toulouse, with a few brigades going to defend the port at Bordeaux. Those of us who were wounded traveled after the rest, when we were able.

“By now it was April. The fighting began on the tenth of April, Easter Sunday. Isn’t that ironic? The day of our Lord’s Resurrection was the day we began to kill God’s children. But I had developed an infection during the march to Toulouse—a fairly bad one. So rather than being someone who might be of use, I was a liability.”

“Lord Westbury, I cannot believe—” James began to say.

“Casualties of any kind are expected during battle, I know,” Westbury cut James off. “But it was how I felt, nonetheless. My wounds and the infection kept me from fighting, while nine thousand more men were sent to their graves over the course of two days. Two days! And would you care to know what made it even worse?” he continued. “Wellington got word from Bordeaux that Napoleon had abdicated on the fourth of April , and our battle needn’t have occurred at all.”

James’s head dropped, and he stared at the floor.

“And yet, through all of this,” Westbury said, “my salvation has been the French. I was too ill to travel and was left behind. Jeanne and her father saved my life, nursed me back to health. They accepted me. You get to know people rather quickly when your well-being—your life —is in their hands. They become family. I love them. I love her . So now I have a family here, Mr. Jennings, a new family. Do you understand?”

James thought about the travails he and Anna had gone through together the past few weeks. They were nothing in comparison to what Lord Westbury had experienced, but James knew those experiences had bonded Anna and him together in ways a typical courtship would not have. He knew her soul, and he loved her. “I understand completely, Lord Westbury,” James replied.

“You are thinking of my sister, are you not?” Westbury said.

“I am. And as Anna’s only living brother and head of her family, I would like to ask your permission—”

Westbury cut him off once again with a raised hand, which took James aback until the earl continued. “You have my permission already, Mr. Jennings, for I recognize only too well the look you have in your eyes when you gaze at my sister and her expression when she looks at you. That you brought her safely to me also says much for your character.”

“Thank you,” James said, truly grateful.

The ladies returned at that moment, still arm in arm, smiling and laughing. “I am determined to renew my French studies, for I believe Jeanne and I are going to be the best of sisters,” Anna announced.

“I have always wished for a sister, and now I have one,” Jeanne said in French.

“You have two,” James replied to Jeanne.

She looked confused by his words.

Westbury explained briefly to Jeanne that they had a sister-in-law who had been married to his brother, John, and James quickly translated for Anna.

“Sarah,” Anna said to Jeanne. “And little Betty.”

“You have two families, Westbury,” James said quietly. “I hope you find a way to make those two families into one.” He stood. “In the meantime, while there is still much to discuss, I propose that I take Anna back to our lodgings so she may rest, and we can resume our discussions tomorrow. It has been a rather eventful day.”

Anna sighed. “It breaks my heart to leave, but I know James is right, although it helps immensely to know I have found you both. What a miracle I have received today!”

Westbury wrapped Anna in his arms once again. “I love you, my beautiful, determined sister. May the best of dreams await you. We shall reunite tomorrow for luncheon, here, at the café. Will that suit?”

“Oh, yes!” Anna said. “Oh dear!” she exclaimed, turning to look at James. “Sparks and Mary must be worried sick about us. We had best return.”

“Sparks, eh?” Westbury said. “Good man, Sparks. I’m glad he is with you; he always took such great care of Papa.”

“He insisted, Avery. And Mary is my personal maid who was willing to travel with me, even though she’s rather timid.”

“I think I remember Mary; good for her.” Westbury embraced Anna. “Adieu until tomorrow, then, my dear sister,” he said. “Mr. Jennings,” he added with a nod.

James bowed to Westbury and his wife and offered his arm to Anna.

James’s conversation with Anna’s brother after meeting him and his wife had raised questions in his mind. But the most important question he had, without a doubt—especially after seeing the obvious bliss of her brother and his wife—was, How soon could he and Anna marry?