16. Chapter 16

"Charley? What are you doing here?" Nemity didn't bother to hold in her squeal as she ran across the area in front of the Chinese Pavilions at Vauxhall Gardens.

The musicians in the upper open level of the orchestra had just broken from their last set of music, and her squeal rang out above the crowd, but she didn't care. Charley was here.

She crashed into him, her hands gripping onto his upper arms as he swept her into a hug.

He leaned down to her ear. "I convinced Thomas that I needed to get to London once we heard the news that Susannah was failing. I knew you would need me, Pip."

Her breath hiccupped and she nodded, burying her face into his shoulder for a long moment. "I do. Thank you for coming."

A hand touched her shoulder and Callum's low voice rumbled into her ear. "I'll go get us drinks."

She twisted in Charley's hug to look at Callum and nodded. He turned away and she watched him walking toward the closest bar, the boulder width of his frame moving through the crowd, causing people to jump out of his way.

Damn. He was a magnificent specimen of a man. Especially becoming in the crisp dark tailcoat that fit his frame to perfection. His waistcoat embroidered with the finest silk and his cravat knotted to perfection. He'd had his clothes delivered to her townhouse from his house on Seymour Street two days ago, and he'd dressed for her benefit tonight—dressed to impress Lady Agnes. Proving his prowess at becoming exactly what she wanted—needed—all without her even asking.

Charley squeezed her hard. "Of course we came. Once we arrived in town, I learned that Susannah had already died. You must be devastated." He pulled back from the hug to look at her. "We stopped by your townhouse to see you, but we were told you were here tonight."

"We?" She released her hold on his arms and straightened.

"Thomas and I."

"Thomas came down as well?"

"He did." Charley flipped his long fingers in the air. "I did not think he even knew who Susannah was."

"He did, actually." She nodded. "Don't you remember? When we were younger. Before Thomas left. That summer when we would all spend time together at the country parties in Norfolk? But that was in the before times."

Charley's eyes rolled up, a sigh exhaling from his lips. No one knew better than Charley how his brother had changed during his time away. "Now that was a different time, a different world."

She smiled, memories of those years flooding her mind. "It was. There was so much laughter and just…freedom. Riding in the fields. The games. Swimming. We were all rather innocent and carefree then, weren't we?"

Charley nodded, sadness twinging the outer edges of his hazel eyes that matched Thomas's. He cleared his throat and looked around at the gaiety surrounding them. Hundreds of people in their best dresses milling about, chatting, listening to the music the orchestra had restarted, some dancing. "I am surprised you have come out tonight."

She nodded, looking around and trying to avoid his eyes.

She never could lie to Charley very well, but she couldn't tell him what she was really doing here with Callum.

If Charley decided to get involved with her convincing Lady Agnes that she and Callum were engaged, the plan could very well go to a steaming pile of rubbish. Charley loved a good scheme. And he was loyal to her and would want to help, but when he had too many drinks in him, he lacked a proper filter on his mouth.

She could already smell the Burgundy on his breath.

She couldn't risk him slipping up and saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Lady Agnes already had her doubts about what Nemity had told her about her engagement, or she never would have asked for this second meeting with her and Callum.

No. As much as she would like him by her side, she needed Charley firmly out of the way tonight.

She gave him a sad smile. "I didn't think there was any better way to honor Susannah than to show up for fireworks here at the gardens. She always loved them, and she always loved an extravagant party. She would be disappointed with me if she knew I was sitting in the house, crying and moping about."

Charley nodded, his face serious for once. "She would hate that for you."

Nemity glanced about. "Did Thomas come with you?"

"No."

Thank the heavens. Only one of her cousins to get rid of.

"My brother stayed at our townhouse." His attention waning, Charley looked around them, his gaze suddenly captured by a group of ladies standing near the far end of the Pavilions. "You know he doesn't come out to events like these. Much less know how to have fun at one. Is that Lady Prosswan?"

Nemity squinted, searching under the light of the lanterns at the group of ladies Charley hadn't stopped looking at. "I am not sure. I think so." Her lips pulled to the side and she looked to Charley. "Didn't your association with her flame out in the most dramatic way a few years ago?"

"Yes." He didn't look at her, his stare directly on Lady Prosswan who was laughing, setting her gloved hand on a friend's forearm, completely oblivious to Charley stripping her naked with his eyes from across the way. "But that was one marriage and one dead husband ago. She's had plenty of time to recover from our scandal."

"The same scandal that drove her into the baron's bed?"

"She never liked the man, much less loved him." He shrugged. "Besides, I don't hold grudges. She shouldn't either."

Callum appeared in front of them, balancing three glasses of wine in his hands—claret it looked, by the deep red hue. He also consciously or unconsciously blocked their view to the group of ladies. He'd been quick. Though he probably was quite good at getting a waiter's attention.

Callum held out the claret to them.

"Thank you, my good man." Charley took the glass and gave Nemity a slight bow. "I am off to see how scalded she still is by my presence."

Nemity scoffed a laugh as she grabbed her glass of wine from Callum. "Good luck with that."

Charley moved off, weaving his way through the crowd to Lady Prosswan.

Thank the heavens.

With any luck, Nemity wouldn't see Charley the rest of the night. Something she would usually be miffed about, but tonight, she needed Callum by her side and no one else.

She glanced at Callum and then turned her attention to Lady Prosswan and her friends. "Charley's chances are slim to none with Lady Prosswan, but she looks surrounded by plenty of beautiful friends, which is probably what my dear cousin is truly after."

Callum took a sip of his wine. "He does love flinging up skirts."

She chuckled and looked to him, pressing the edge of the glass to her lips. "And you haven't? Not in all the time you've spent around him?"

His face scrunched, offended. "I have far more discerning taste in the company I keep." He looked down at her and winked.

The wink looked so out of place within the hard lines of his face that she burst out laughing and started to choke on the wine. He lightly thwapped her back between her shoulders a few times.

Throat cleared, she looked up at him. "I don't know that you should wink. It is an odd juxtaposition to your usual grumpy fa?ade."

"Grumpy men cannot wink?"

"They can if they want to make me laugh." She leaned into him, grabbing his upper arm with her hand. "I am sorry. It was entirely adorable. It was just unexpected."

His face scrunched up even more. "Adorable?"

Clearly that was the most egregious word she could ever utter about him.

"Winsome?"

He looked like he was about to crack her head in two.

She giggled. "Fetching?"

His nostrils flared.

"Charming?"

He stilled, glaring at her for the longest moment, and then gave a curt nod, though his words were begrudging. "Charming is acceptable."

She laughed, and it felt good. Felt real.

The night air on her bare arms with Callum next to her and she couldn't remember when she had last felt this calm. This relaxed. Her mind not scattering about from one worry to the next while she kept a smile on her face and witty comments on her lips.

Keeping her hand on his arm, she moved a step in front of him to face him fully. "Good. Charming it is. So charming it makes me want to lead you on a merry chase deep into the dark walks of the gardens."

The top of her head motioned to the right, aimed at the allée that led to the unlit lanes and alcoves of the gardens. "I daresay that seeing you in proper attire would have been reason enough for me to escape into the darkness, but your willingness to help me in this endeavor makes me want to disappear into the night with you all the more." She held his look for a long breath, wanting to just dissolve into the moment, even as she knew it had to end.

His eyes closed as his chest lifted in deep breath, then an exhale that looked like it existed merely to gain control of himself seeped from his lips. "While I would gladly take you up on that chase, I saw Lady Agnes in her supper box. Unfortunately, there is the actual purpose of us being here to deal with."

She dropped her hand from his arm and looked toward the row of supper boxes. "We should do this now while Charley is entertained and before Lady Agnes is foxed."

"Foxed at her advanced age?"

"How do you think she got so mean? I don't think I have ever seen her not foxed, her beady little eyes spewing all the hatred she brews in that cesspool of a heart."

He chuckled. "Tell me what you truly think of her." He held out his arm for her to take and she set her gloved hand into the crook of his elbow.

She glanced up at him with a half smile. "Let us do this and be done with it. You remember all we talked about?"

"I do."

She trusted that. Trusted that he had listened to every word she'd said since they'd come up with this plan and that he was taking this as seriously as she was.

She had begun to think Callum wanted Georgette and Jacob out of Lady Agnes's clutches just as much as she did. He liked the children. During the last few days, he'd had the patience of a saint with them. He'd tossed rocks for hours with Jacob into the Serpentine when they had brought them to the park. Listened to Georgette explain in great detail every little line she drew of her animals. Had even suggested they go to the menagerie the next day so Georgette could get a good image in her head of what the lion looked like.

He had disappeared a few times to take care of some "matters" as he put it—leaving her at her townhouse with the children and the four guards he'd hired to watch the front and back of the townhouse at all times.

He didn't tell her where he was going. She didn't ask. She had too much on her mind to pepper him with questions she didn't imagine she'd get answers to anyway.

Dreading the upcoming encounter, they walked toward the row of supper boxes, and as heavy as her steps were, Callum kept propelling her forward. As if to match her mood, the skies opened up as they walked and started spitting drizzle onto them.

Callum leaned slightly toward her as they walked through the crowd. "Remember, Lady Agnes cannot know how much you want this, want those children. She sees that, and she will wield that power over you out of sheer spite. She will take the children away from you just because she can. Because that is what evil people do. Take things away for no rhyme or reason."

He said the words with such an edge that she glanced up at him. His jaw was set hard, the muscles along it twitching. His eyes haunted. What he had just said meant something more to him than he'd ever let on.

Yet it was clear. He knew the exact type of person Lady Agnes was. And if she were to guess, somewhere in his years he'd suffered under the exact type of person as Lady Agnes.

Not that he'd ever so much as hinted to her anything about it. He dodged most questions about his past. And she had never demanded to know anything about him.

But this. The way he said it, it made her heart hurt for him in some odd way. Silly, and probably just her imagination taking a hold of her.

"Cal—"

"We're almost there." He nodded forward.

Her look shifted forward and she attempted to compose herself. "I'm going to be sick."

This moment, what they did in the next minutes was everything—everything.

"I doubt it. You are going to take a sip of your wine, set that smile on your face that would bore through granite it is so solid, and we are going to convince the old bat we are the perfect home for those children."

She looked up at him, at the determination on his face, and it was enough to convince her that she could do this. His belief in her made her believe it the same as he did.

He knew how much this meant to her, and he made sure she didn't falter in her steps, even when Lady Agnes moved into view. Her face wrinkled as she pointed at them, saying something to her companion on her left and the two of them hackled. The sound ringing cruel over the general din around them.

Evil, bitter woman.

Callum propelled her forward until they came to a stop across the table from Lady Agnes, sitting on a throne of her own making, passing pernicious judgement over the masses.

Is this what happened to loveless old spinsters? They turned into this?

Nemity set a bright smile on her face. "Lady Agnes, thank you for seeing us again. Have you made a decision about your great-niece and nephew?"

"Hmph." Lady Agnes grunted and made a show of pulling up her cane and cracking it onto the table. The glasses of wine sitting atop rattled, one of them nearly tipping over. "Whether or not I have made a decision? That is the first thing you think to say to me? What you want out of me? A fishmonger has more manners than you, you little hoyden."

Nemity almost shattered the glass in her fingers, but Callum's arm tightened around her hand, his bicep pressing into her knuckles.

The slightest movement and something only she would notice, but it was enough. Her fingers on her wine glass relaxed.

Callum stepped slightly forward, his face stern. "I apologize for my betrothed, Lady Agnes. Miss Wheldon does not always remember her place and that was ill-mannered. A habit I am working hard to break her of."

Lady Agnes stared up at Callum, her mouth twisting into a tiny circle, making her lips look like the end of an orange.

"Fine." She lifted her cane off the table. "As long as you are willing to break her of these bad habits. I will not have my kin sullied by the devilry of a wild Pict."

Callum inclined his head to Lady Agnes, his look grave. "That is the last thing I will allow in my household."

Poking the end of her cane onto the floor next to her, Lady Agnes stared up at him. "Sitting with me is Lady Gernstill and Lady Turgh. I will not introduce you because there is no need for them to ever commit you to memory. But I have asked them if they know of you, sir, and neither one has ever heard your name. You are not of society."

Nemity jumped in. "He is?—"

"Nemity, cease." Callum set his hand on her shoulder. "The question was addressed to me. I will answer it."

Nemity clamped her mouth closed, ice slipping down her spine.

This was scary, how easily Callum slipped into this role and how brutally real he made it seem. Like every word he spoke was actually truth and this was really how little he thought of her.

Callum looked directly to both the ladies flanking Lady Agnes at the table, then settled his gaze on the wretched woman. "It does not surprise me that they have not heard of me. I have never lived in London, and it was only happenstance that I met Miss Wheldon in Edinburgh. She was at the Royal Museum at the university looking for the Chamber of Rarities and had found herself lost in the geological records. I walked her to the correct area."

Lady Agnes's ancient, colorless eyes squinted at Callum. "What were you doing in the geological area of the library?"

"I was doing research for an investment that I was to make in a mine in Cheshire."

"I see." Her withered lips tightened. "I may be old, but do not try to outwit me, Mr. Lonstrick. That does not answer the question I asked and my gout will not take long to ache with the drizzle that has started. Hurry with what you need to say, sir."

He inclined his head to her. "My apologies, Lady Agnes. Quite directly, my great-great-great-grandfather was the Earl of Groum."

Lady Gernstill, the elderly woman to the left of Lady Agnes sat straighter, leaning to Lady Agnes's ear. "That was the earl with eight daughters, three sons."

Callum looked to her and nodded. "Yes, and my lineage comes from the sixth daughter, and had subsequently branched off from daughter, after daughter, so I am quite removed from the family. I doubt the current earl even has a handle on who in England is currently related to him at this point."

Lady Gernstill leaned forward onto the table, her look shrewd on Callum. "Which daughter? I do remember my mother talking of the family."

He nodded to her. "Abigail. Sixth daughter, as I said. She married a vicar in Derbyshire."

Lady Gernstill paused, seeming to think for a long moment, and then she looked to Lady Agnes and nodded.

Nemity exhaled a slight sigh of relief. If there was one thing Lady Agnes and her crones did well, it was to know the hierarchy of everyone that had ever stepped foot in London.

"Blood enough, I suppose for Miss Wheldon. Her father was only a baron and Lord Hedstrom has not done his duty to see the chit wed well, as he should have." Lady Agnes shifted her glare to Nemity. "It is good that you have me to help look out for you, Miss Wheldon."

Nemity didn't reply right away and Callum swiveled the tip of his boot until it kicked into her ankle.

She blinked, her mouth opening.

She couldn't do it. Couldn't thank this woman for anything.

Callum pressed down with the toe of his boot, stepping on her foot with just enough pressure to sting.

An instant smile flashed onto her face and she nodded to Lady Agnes. "I am fortunate. Thank you for your generosity."

Lady Agnes's eyes narrowed to slits as she stared at Nemity.

Nemity held her gaze, a smile that couldn't be broken frozen on her face.

Lady Agnes lifted her cane and slammed it down onto the table again. "Very well." She shifted her stare to Callum, addressing him. "I have observed you two from afar tonight, and from up close. It appears as though you have genuine affection for each other, even though I never would have believed Miss Wheldon would choose a man as strict as yourself."

Callum nodded. "I believe that is an honest assessment of the situation. I do not adhere to the nonsense of poetry, but I believe that sometimes the heart knows what one actually needs, instead of wants. And Nemity needs a strong hand at her back. It was fortunate she realized it."

"Yes. Fortunate indeed." Lady Agnes's left, wiry eyebrow lifted. "Lord Hedstrom has approved the marriage?"

"He has," Callum said.

Lady Agnes seethed out an exhale, looking to Nemity. "You may take Georgette and Jacob and raise them. I give my permission."

Thank the heavens.

Everything within her turned to jelly and she lost all feeling of her muscles holding her upright. Sensing her imminent collapse, Callum shifter closer to her, setting his glass of wine down on the table, then taking hers from her hand and placing it down as he grabbed her upper arm with his right hand. Propping her up with the strength emanating from his hand alone.

Tears filling her eyes, her head started bobbing. "Thank you, Lady Agnes. Thank you."

"Lady Agnes does not need to witness your show of emotions, Nemity." Callum hissed out, then sighed in disgust as he moved in front of her, turning her away from Lady Agnes as he did. "My apologies, ladies. Miss Wheldon still has improvement to be made in regards to her overly emotional state."

"Indeed she does." Lady Agnes leaned to the side to see Nemity behind Callum and wrinkled her nose, looking her up and down in pity. "See that you take care of that Mr. Lonstrick."

"I endeavor to do so."

Lady Agnes grunted approval. "Before you take your leave, please note that I would rather do without any visits from the children. A letter every year reporting on their well-being will be sufficient."

"I will see it done." Callum nodded in turn to each of the ladies at the table while simultaneously hiding and propping Nemity up. "Good eve to all of you."

He turned and wrapped his arm around Nemity's waist, picking her up in front of him so her toes only brushed the ground as he walked away from the supper box. Into the drizzle that hadn't dampened the revelry happening about them, he quickly lost them into the crowd and away from Lady Agnes's eyes.

It wasn't until he was on the opposite side of the orchestra and next to the lavishly painted boards on this side of the structure that Callum stopped and set her onto her own two feet.

Her balance solid about her, she spun to him, her breathing rapid and out of control.

He saw it on her face instantly. "Nemity, what is wrong?"