Chapter 10

10

Three days later…

“I pronounce that they be man and wife together, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.”

The Bishop of London’s words had Nathaniel’s stomach squeezing in a mixture of anticipation, excitement, and anger. With the bishop being the Seatons’ family friend, the special license had been arranged in three days.

His chest felt too tight for his heart, which jumped around like a wild thing. As the salon of Sumhall erupted in cheers and claps behind him and Calliope, he turned to her.

God knew how much he despised the idea of having a wife. Over the years, he’d gone to desperate measures to avoid succumbing to his father’s will and binding himself to someone.

And especially not to father a child.

But here she stood, his wife.

Beautiful and fierce, with her big blue eyes framed with long eyelashes, a pretty blush on her cheeks, and her auburn hair swept up, yellow irises framing her curly chignon. She wore a gown of an intense yellow color, as though the sun itself shone upon him. They were a striking combination, her in glowing yellow and him in his dark navy uniform, as though he were absorbing all the light that came from her.

Someone so delicate, so precious was now his responsibility. How could he ensure this woman and their future child would be safe? And he still needed to make sure of the same for his sisters.

Cold dread rolled down his spine as he and Calliope turned to their guests, facing the Seatons, their friends the Duke of Loxchester and his wife, and his three sisters. Even the damned cat was there in the dowager’s arms. Everyone clapped as he and Calliope walked down the aisle, between the guests.

As yellow petals showered over them, the most delightful laughter came from Calliope’s throat.

He must be losing his mind, but his heart did something, a warm lurch of some kind, and he felt a strange buzz as though full of bees. He grasped her hand, and they walked through the passageway that their families and friends created together. A shock of something wonderful shot through their fingers, just as when he’d held her as they’d danced at the ball. And as he held her in his arms just a few days ago in the Admiralty, so close he could kiss her.

They passed through into the dining room, where light spilled through tall windows, dressed with heavy brocade curtains—a rich shade of burgundy trimmed with intricate golden embroidery. Walls in a warm Mediterranean terra-cotta color were adorned with gilt-framed landscapes depicting the rolling Spanish countryside. Ornate candelabra cast a warm glow, illuminating the beautifully arranged table settings.

Soft music was played by a small chamber orchestra, and laughter and lively conversation filled the air as the guests went to their seats.

The guests and the Bishop of London gathered around the large dining table draped with pristine white linens, each setting boasting fine china, polished silver cutlery, and sparkling crystal glassware. An impressive centerpiece combined a floral arrangement featuring yellow irises with elegantly crafted silver and gold decorations.

“Let me guess.” Nathaniel chuckled. “Do you like yellow irises?”

Calliope shrugged one shoulder. “Your observational skills are unprecedented.”

He cocked one eyebrow in question. “Aren’t they a little too simplistic for a duke’s sister…and now wife?”

“I beg your pardon! My mother loved them as they signify hope and wisdom. She always said she needed both, being a duke’s wife in England.” She looked at a large portrait of a very handsome and muscular dark-haired man. “We can use all of the hope we can get at the moment.”

Nathaniel recognized Spencer, the former Duke of Grandhampton. He’d seen him in Portside boxing, as well as at drunken soirées usually attended by rakes.

“Besides,” she said, “I love the vibrant color, and I think they’re very pretty.”

As the guests gathered around the table, the footmen came to help everyone sit. The old butler came to Calliope and with tears in his eyes said, “On behalf of the whole staff downstairs, madam, may I offer our best wishes for your health and happiness.”

Calliope smiled warmly. “Thank you, Teanby.” Then she looked around at the footmen, who cast warm glances upon her. “Thank you, everyone.”

They all took their seats at the table, which held seemingly endless platters of perfectly presented food: cold cuts of meat and cheese, bread, poached salmon with hollandaise sauce, asparagus vinaigrette, and slices of succulent roast beef accompanied by a tangy horseradish cream. The wedding cake stood on the sideboard, ready to be served. It was an intricately decorated fruitcake with white sugar flowers and icing. Nathaniel didn’t particularly enjoy fruitcake as he found the combination of dried fruits, nuts, and spices, and the layer of marzipan and white fondant too intense. But after years of eating stew at practically every supper, he was not about to be picky.

While the footmen served the first course, Nathaniel became aware of more than one heavy set of eyes on him. Grandhampton, who sat on the other side of Calliope, glared at him, while his wife, Penelope, chatted happily with the Bishop of London, an elderly man with a round head and a powdered wig.

Calliope’s brother Richard and his new wife, Jane, had arrived from the country, and his was the second pair of heavy eyes that kept Nathaniel in their glaring focus. The third was from the Duke of Loxchester, Sebastian, the best friend of Preston, and a close friend of the family.

The dowager duchess, regal and stately, sat next to his sisters and talked to them with a pleasant expression. Nathaniel’s heart melted as he watched Hazel’s turquoise eyes glimmer with excitement and awe as she gazed upon everything and everyone around her. Despite the rebellious and distant front that she put on every day—no doubt trying to show she did not care about anything—he knew that deep down she missed a female presence in her life. She had no one to look up to, no one to listen to. The same was true for Poppy and Violet.

“What a splendid house,” said Violet as she picked up the fork for the main course to select a piece of cheese. “Do you have a library here, Calliope?”

Nathaniel didn’t care if anyone present thought them ill-bred; he’d put anyone in their place if they dared to point out the holes in his sisters’ etiquette.

Calliope beamed at Violet across the table. “We do, indeed. Do you like reading?”

Violet made a gesture over her nose as though she was pushing her spectacles up. She hadn’t put them on this morning, eager to make a good impression on her new relatives. Poppy and Violet stared at Calliope as though she were a goddess that had descended from the heavens and not merely a woman. Hazel, however, eyed her with skepticism.

“I do!” declared Violet.

“Well then, you have a lot in common with your new sister-in-law,” said Lady Jane. “And with me!”

Nathaniel remembered how, on the day he’d met Calliope at the Royal Navy ball, a scandal had erupted around Miss Jane Grant, as she’d been called then. Her half brother, the infamous Thorne Blackmore, had stormed Carlton House with his band of men to break up Jane and Richard’s engagement and to take her home. Nathaniel thought both Thorne and Richard were quite daring, the former angering the prince regent, the most powerful man in England, the latter angering Thorne, the most dangerous criminal lord of London’s underworld.

“I, for one, don’t,” said Poppy, holding her nose higher than she should. “I prefer adventures.”

“Well, you have that in common with Calliope, too,” said the dowager with a soft smile. “Our Calliope may seem like a wallflower, but that is just one of the covers she likes to use.”

Nathaniel cursed inwardly. Yes, Calliope was brave and smart and didn’t back down from her goal. And he’d be hard-pressed to keep her safe.

“What all three of you need,” said the dowager, “is someone to help you when you come out. With your brother’s permission, I would be pleased to take you all under my wing.”

The twins’ delighted sighs and gasps were like knives through his heart, a reminder of how he had failed them in his duty to take care of them and give them the best future. Hazel, however, said nothing; he saw how hard she was trying to keep a straight face, but her burning eyes gave her away.

“Kelford, we must have a conversation now that you’re my brother…” said Richard. “Which was a big surprise, by the way, sister,” he said to Calliope, “when I warned you to stay away from him.”

“So did I,” said Preston.

“Both of you,” said Calliope. “It’s done. Please don’t stir the pot. Preston, you gave your blessing. Richard, all you can do is be supportive of my new husband.”

“I just wonder about your intentions,” said Richard as he laid his fork and knife down. “Just to clarify, you signed the marriage contract where you won’t touch Calliope’s significant dowry.”

Nathaniel straightened his back, putting his fork and knife down, as well. “Indeed.”

“But your papa was considered to be the richest man in England,” Richard said. “Was he not, Grandmama? Richer than the royal family. Richer than the devil himself. Those were the rumors I heard.”

“That is what I heard many years ago, too, yes,” said the dowager carefully. “But I am not the one to ask. Surely the current Duke of Kelford can enlighten you.”

“What my brother is trying to ask is why did your father lock his fortune away from you, Kelford?” asked Preston bluntly. “Why did the richest duke in England make his own son the poorest one?”

Nathaniel’s body went rigid and cold as the chatter in the room shuddered to a halt, and he felt the attention of every guest on him. The only sound was the music, and even the musicians threw odd glances at him.

But the opinions that mattered to him most were his sisters’. They knew nothing of the true reason the relationship between himself and his father had completely fallen apart. Being too little at the time, they didn’t even remember they had witnessed the same horror he had. No matter how much Calliope’s brothers wanted him to explain, he wouldn’t subject his sisters to the awful truth.

How the highwaymen had stopped their carriage late at night. How he had heard his family’s guards descend from the back of the carriage and fight. How he could have left the safety of the carriage and grabbed a pistol and done something…

Instead, shaking from fear, he had sat inside with little Hazel pressed against him. On the opposite seat, his mother had cradled sleeping one-year-old Poppy and Violet, her rocking movements fast and her eyes wide.

As though feeling his distress, the white cat rose from her place on one of the chairs along the wall between footmen, jumped down, and walked towards him. As before, she hugged his boot with her tail. His nose and eyes itched. Surely it must be a reaction to the cat’s hair, not the emotion that tried to break through.

“My father didn’t think I was a worthy heir,” said Nathaniel.

This was true. Father had always had high expectations of him, and Nathaniel constantly thought he disappointed him. But after that night, Father had simply despised Nathaniel…and rightly so. Nathaniel hadn’t managed to save his mother, the duchess.

“My father thought I was disobedient, irresponsible, and rebellious. He thought I had no place becoming a duke.” Nathaniel swallowed hard. “I believe this will was his revenge and the means to teach me a lesson, to change me from a worthless cad into a family man.”

Hazel’s hand shook so hard, her knife rattled loudly against the plate, and she hastily put it down with a loud clank. Both Poppy and Violet stared at him with wide, sad eyes. He had said too much. They remembered Papa well—he had passed when Nathaniel was twenty-one and the twins were seven and Hazel nine.

“I had dropped out of Oxford,” said Nathaniel. “Or rather, I was politely asked to not show up there again. I drank brandy for breakfast since I was sixteen.”

And I am the reason my beloved mama is dead…

He swallowed the thought like bile.

“And so my papa thought the only way to make me a responsible man was to take away everything unless I married and produced an heir… Unfortunately, by having punished me, he has also punished my sisters. But if an heir or heiress is born before I reach the age of thirty, all our vast inheritance will be restored.”

Silence still hung over the room. Nathaniel felt the shift in the air. The sharp eyes of Preston, Richard, and the Duke of Loxchester softened.

“I know a thing or two about harsh fathers,” said the Duke of Loxchester.

“I sympathize, Kelford,” said Preston. “I understand what it’s like to never feel good enough to be born into the nobility.”

“Or not living up to one’s potential,” said Richard.

Something warmed up right in the center of Nathaniel’s chest. He hadn’t expected these three men to understand him. But he supposed he had spent so many years in isolation, punishing himself for that night, that he didn’t really have friends to talk to.

“However, I warn you not to use my sister as a brood mare,” said Preston. “She is so much more. She is truly remarkable.”

Nathaniel chuckled. “Believe me, Grandhampton, I am well aware.”

Calliope would be either the best thing that happened to him or the worst.

His wife leaned close to him, her eyes shining. “I am sorry to hear your father was so cruel.”

A sweet lightness pierced Nathaniel’s middle. But he didn’t deserve it. They all thought now he was the martyr, the victim. He wasn’t. He was the one to blame. “He had his reasons,” he said, throat tight.

The dowager nodded. “I do remember your papa and mama. He was an important man, but not an easy one by any means. He was very close to King George while the king was well.”

“I wish Spencer were here,” murmured Calliope, who was looking at the portrait again, completely shredding his heart.

Everyone followed her gaze, and silence fell over the room once more.

“I know he would have wanted to see me get married,” Calliope continued. “Would have wanted to meet you,” she said to Nathaniel, and he swallowed, his throat dry.

He should have helped her without asking her to marry him in exchange. Clearly this family was hurting for the beloved brother who was missing.

“What is the situation with the wars?” asked Penelope, her eyes on Nathaniel. “What have you heard, Your Grace? Do you have any inkling where Spencer could be?”

Nathaniel nodded. “If he was sent to the war with Bonaparte, he might be in the Baltics now or in the Mediterranean. Last we heard, the British Royal Navy conducted operations to disrupt French trade and supply lines in the Baltics. In the Mediterranean, we are maintaining control of the sea routes, to support the armies fighting in Spain, and preventing French supply ships from reaching their destinations.”

“So that is good, then,” breathed Calliope. “If he’s there, it looks like we’re winning, so he might be returning home soon!”

“And what if he’s in America?” asked Preston.

Nathaniel let out a long sigh. The American war had started last year, prompted by the dominance of the Royal Navy, the apparent conscription of American sailors to man British ships, and trade restrictions. The first thing the young country had done was try to invade Canada, but those attempts hadn’t brought them success. With so many men currently fighting Napoleon, Britain was in dire need of men for the war in America. And so they had started a series of press-ganging operations.

“If he’s in America,” Nathaniel said, “I’m afraid things are more dire. Fort George on the Niagara Peninsula, which had provided crucial naval support, was lost to the Americans recently. If he was in that battle, I do not envy him.”

“Can you help?” asked Preston, his voice cracking. “You are a member of the family now, and a navy man on the inside. Spencer is now your brother, too. Can you do anything to find him?”

Nathaniel’s eyes prickled, and he nodded. He should have done it in the first place just because he was a decent human, not for his selfish reasons.

Besides, Calliope had been right. Knowing he was just doing his duty as an officer, he hadn’t given a thought to what he was signing: orders to tear men away from their loved ones and send them to fight without their consent. Seeing this family—so affected, so worried, so disturbed by their brother’s disappearance—made his own stomach churn in sorrow and disgust. The Seatons were a powerful, rich family. What about the poor who had been press-ganged without a second thought? What about their families?

“Of course I will,” he promised. And this wasn’t just a promise for Spencer. If he ever regained his fortune and was in a position of power, he should do something about regular press-gangs, too.

“Thank you,” said Richard.

“And I thank you,” said Preston.

He felt her warm hand on his under the table. As conversation swung to other topics, he met Calliope’s eyes.

“And I thank you, too,” she said, and he felt like his heart was soaring in his chest as he looked into her big beautiful eyes. “Did you learn anything from Officer Bartholomew?”

“I’m afraid not, Calliope. He wasn’t there when I went to call on him.”

She frowned, and her warm hand left his. “He wasn’t there? In three days?”

“I could only call once,” he said, annoyance prickly on his neck. “I had a wedding to prepare for in three days.”

“That is more important than the wedding,” Calliope whisper-shouted at him through her gritted teeth. “And what did you really have to do for the wedding besides show up?”

“You are going to move into my house,” he retorted. “And it has to be to your liking, has it not?”

“Oh yes,” ventured Violet excitedly. “We did do a good clean, although there was not much to clean… But the dogs will be happy to have a new mommy!”

Calliope’s face paled. “The dogs?”

“Aren’t you taking Miss Furrington with you?” asked the dowager, leaning towards them.

“Who’s Miss Furrington?” asked Poppy.

But even though Calliope hadn’t told him what the white beast’s name was, he knew it must be the cat.

“My cat,” said the dowager. “You should have someone familiar in the new house, dearest, especially since you’ve always been Miss Furrington’s favorite.” Her pale eyes fixed on Nathaniel. “At least, until now.”