Epilogue

EPILOGUE

A s Patience was no traditional miss, neither would her wedding be. As a matter of fact, she'd been so taken with their encounter and proposal on the barge that they decided to marry on a yacht.

There would be no grand wedding at St. George's Hanover Square for her. A small private ceremony was just the thing. Too bad her family did not agree. Were it not for the size restrictions of the yacht, Patience was quite certain there would have been hundreds of people, regardless of her wishes.

Carew's yacht was still available, and there were still nigh thirty people, not including the crew.

There were five sisters, after all, plus the dowagers, the aunts, the new husbands, babies, and all of their closest friends in the troop…and yes, even Xander, Freddy and her kittens had to be brought along. It was smaller than a St. George's affair, but certainly not calm and quiet on board. Thankfully, the weather was mild for a late fall day. If the cold had set in, it would have not been a pleasant affair.

Thankfully, it was a short sail for the day from the Taywards dock out into the North Sea then back.

Somehow, the Dowager had persuaded her cousin, the archbishop, to perform the ceremony. Whilst she appreciated the sentiment and originality of such a wedding, she could not abide a common law ship's captain performing her grandson's wedding ceremony.

Miraculously, their vows were said amidst Xander lunging at the seagulls and the rocking ship. Due to the archbishop's seasickness, it was blessedly short.

The dowager viscountesses still somehow arranged a full wedding breakfast fit for a queen.

"I think it is time we began with a toast," Westwood began as the footmen handed out champagne. "To my baby brother, I am happy to see you've been well and truly caught. Welcome to the bonds of marriage, where a shackle never felt so good."

"Hear, hear!" everyone shouted to laughter.

Renforth stood to follow with his own toast. "I suppose if anyone was to break apart our little troop, you could not have found a better lady."

"Let us not look at it as breaking apart, but adding to," Patience suggested to more laughter and more echoes of, "hear, hear."

As everyone settled to a place to eat their food and converse, Patience and Ashley stood at the bow of the ship together in the first moments of privacy they'd had together in days. Ashley stood behind her and put his arms around her with his chin settling on her shoulder. The wind blew against their faces with the occasional spray of water as the ship cut through the sea.

"You are certain Devil and Billy will be alright?"

"I saw them on to the ship myself with enough funds for them to start over in Virginia."

She sighed happily.

"Are you pleased with your wedding?" he asked.

"It was perfect. The only negative—if one could even call it that—is there will be no escaping early."

Ashley chuckled in her ear, the deep sound reverberating through her.

"I will have you to myself soon."

"Not soon enough."

"Are you certain you do not wish to take a wedding trip?"

"There will be time enough later for that. Perhaps after Christmas, when the weather turns in London, we can go somewhere warm."

They were to take Westwood's bachelor house in Berkeley Square, London, as he no longer had need of it, and Patience and Ashley hardly wanted to live in his rooms where the rest of the troop did.

"As you wish."

"I like the sound of that," she teased.

"Baggage," he muttered as he turned her head to punish her impertinence with a passionate kiss.

By the time the ship docked at Taywards, it was afternoon and Patience was eager to be off to London. There were carriages, carts, and horses waiting to help everyone back to the house. The servants quickly cleared away all traces of the wedding breakfast as Carew had decided to return to Ireland and would sail with that evening's tide.

Montford and the Cunninghams were also making their way to London, and Patience assumed her sisters would leave when Hope and Rotham did. Frankly, all of her attention was on her husband, on the wedding, and packing her belongings. Therefore, three hours later, when it was time to pull away and no one had seen Grace, they began to grow concerned.

"When was the last time anyone saw her?" Westwood asked the group as they stood around, ready to load into carriages.

"She was not feeling well during the breakfast this morning, so I sent her to a cabin to lie down," Faith explained.

"She must've fallen asleep," Patience said with dawning realization.

All of the sisters exchanged panicked glances. Grace could sleep through the second coming.

"Oh, no!" Faith's hand flew to her mouth. "We must return to the docks to see if we can catch them before they sail."

"Ashley and I will go. The rest of you can go on to London if you wish before dark," Westwood said.

Patience could sense the hesitance, but Rotham took charge. "Even if she is on that ship, there is little for any of us to do. Carew will bring her back."

Patience did not wait to see what the others decided. She was not about to be left behind. She ran to the stables and helped saddle another horse before they all took off towards the docks.

As they dismounted from their mounts, tied them to a post and ran out on the pier, they all stopped, their breaths heaving. There was no ship there.

"We're too late," Patience stated the obvious as Westwood uttered a curse.

"Do we follow after them?" Ashley asked.

"No," Patience answered. "What's done is done."

"Carew will bring her back unharmed," Westwood said with conviction.

But none of them asked the question that was heavy on all of their minds. What would happen to her reputation? There was no secret that Grace was enamoured with the Irish earl, but he'd shown her no more attention than mere solicitousness. Not the type of connection anyone would want for their sister. Especially not now that three of them had found true love.

They stood there staring at the water, as if they could beckon Carew's yacht back by sheer willpower.

"The tide is strong, and who knows how long it will be till he even realizes she is a stowaway?"

"She did not do it on purpose." Of that, Patience was certain. Grace was not bold enough nor confident enough in her feminine wiles to ever do such a thing.

"I trust him implicitly," Westwood said with a hand on her shoulder.

Patience nodded. It was of little comfort to know Grace's fate was out of their hands.