Chapter Twenty-Four

Twenty-Four

The upstairs parlor in the Finchleys’ house in Half Moon Street was a cozy sanctuary, filled with overstuffed chintz sofas and chairs, tassel-trimmed ottomans, and dark wood tables that held towering stacks of leather-bound books and assorted trinkets from the Finchleys’ travels to India and beyond. A small pianoforte sat in the corner, heaped with sheets of music—the works of Chopin and Brahms mixing freely with the latest popular music-hall tunes.

A fire had been lit for the evening. The coals glowed merrily in the grate, casting off more heat than a wood fire.

It had begun to rain again late in the afternoon, not long after Teddy had returned Stella to Brown’s Hotel, the two of them largely at a loss for words after the kiss they’d shared and the agreement they’d come to.

“Shall I write to your brother?” Teddy had asked at last before bidding her goodbye.

She had met his suggestion with a look of alarm. “What on earth for?”

Jennings had cocked his ear from his place in the back of the wagonette, hanging on every word.

Teddy had shot the manservant a quelling look before replying to his newly minted fiancée. “I had the antiquated notion that I should ask his permission.”

“You needn’t,” she had said. “He’s made it very clear that he’s no longer part of my life.”

“But if you wanted me to—”

“I don’t,” she’d stated firmly.

As Teddy sat in his wheeled chair beside the fire in the Finchleys’ parlor, he vaguely wished he might enjoy the same option. He didn’t want to upset his sister again, and he had no great desire to enter into another quarrel with Alex.

But needs must.

“Your maid and valet already have you packed, I see,” Jenny said, sipping her after-dinner cup of tea. “I’m impressed. It takes Tom and I weeks to get ourselves sorted before a journey.”

The Finchleys sat next to each other on the sofa, close enough that the skirts of Jenny’s silk dinner dress spilled partially over one of Tom’s legs. The tea tray was arrayed on a low table in front of them.

“They’ve had ample practice,” Alex replied from his place on the sofa opposite. Like Tom, Alex was seated beside his wife with what many in society would deem an unseemly level of closeness.

Fashionable married couples were meant to keep a polite distance from each other in company, whatever they might feel for each other in private. It wasn’t the thing to display affection for one’s spouse, even among family. Indeed, it was considered common.

Not that either of the couples in the parlor ever cared. Since Laura had married, Teddy had witnessed endless displays of mutual affection between her and Alex.

Was it any wonder that Stella didn’t want a marriage of convenience? That she wanted love? Tenderness?

“I’d always hoped I might marry for love,” she’d told him.

But it was no longer a hope. It was an intent. She’d told him that, too.

A small private part of him, deep beneath his cynical armor, thrilled to recall it.

“We’ve been the veriest vagabonds these last months,” Laura said. “From France to London, then to Hampshire, and from there to Devon and back to London again. The servants have had to pack and unpack our things I don’t know how many times. I daresay they can do it with their eyes closed.”

Alex took his wife’s hand. Raising it to his lips, he pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “Had I known we might be in anticipation of a happy event, I’d have insisted we forgo our travels this year.”

Laura briefly stroked his cheek with the edge of her finger. “I’m not at all sorry we came. I’m only sorry we must leave early. And without Teddy, too. That is…if he’s decided to stay.” She turned to Teddy with a look of guarded expectation.

Returning his teacup to its saucer, Teddy balanced the painted porcelain dish on his knee. “I have,” he said. “If Tom and Jenny won’t mind my inconveniencing them for a time.”

An expression of relief came over the Finchleys. There was relief in Laura’s eyes, too, albeit mingled with a distinct shimmer of regret that he wouldn’t be accompanying her back to France.

Teddy wasn’t unsympathetic. For years after the scarlet fever had come, it had been just the two of them, with Laura bearing the full weight of responsibility for his health and welfare. It was a hard habit to break.

Tom returned his own teacup to the tea tray. “It’s no inconvenience. We’re happy to have you. I hope that goes without saying.”

“Indeed,” Jenny agreed. “And Maiden Lane isn’t so far that you can’t travel there and back each day to work on your paintings.”

Laura gave Teddy a wobbly smile. “I won’t claim I’m not heartbroken to leave you, but you staying with Tom and Jenny does help to set my mind at ease.”

Only Alex remained silent. A former sharper, he knew when an opponent wasn’t laying all their cards on the table. He watched Teddy from across the room, a frown in his eyes.

Teddy had no intention of bluffing his brother-in-law. What would be the point? “Yes, well, the fact is,” he said, “I won’t be staying here for long. I intend to remove to my new house as soon as the renovations are completed.”

Tom, Jenny, and Laura went still.

But Alex didn’t appear at all surprised by Teddy’s plans. The frown in his eyes took on a dangerous edge. “We’re not arguing about this again. I’ve already explained our position.”

“Yes, I know,” Teddy said. “You don’t want to risk me living alone. You want me to be properly looked after.”

“Exactly,” Laura said. “I thought you understood.”

Teddy looked at his sister. He loved her dearly, and he owed her more than he was worth. But he didn’t owe her his life. He refused to feel guilty about claiming it for himself. “What if I was married?” he asked abruptly.

This time, four stunned faces fixed on him in unison. Even Alex was temporarily struck speechless.

But only temporarily.

“But you’re not married,” he said in a voice of perilous calm.

“You’re only four-and-twenty,” Laura added lamely.

Teddy didn’t know why she must continue to harp on his age. He may not be as old as Alex or Tom, but he was no lad just out of the schoolroom. “Prince Albert was but twenty when he married the Queen.”

A muscle flexed in Alex’s jaw. “If I hear one more word about the late, lamented Prince Albert, I vow I shall not be responsible for my actions.”

Teddy ignored him. Laura was the one Teddy had to convince. It was her well-being that was making Alex behave unreasonably. “You said that you never worried about Neville leaving the Abbey because he had Clara with him,” he reminded her. “Do you remember?”

“Yes, but—”

“If I was married, you’d have no more reason to object to me setting up a household of my own, would you?”

Her brows pulled into an uncertain line. “I suppose I wouldn’t.”

“Not unless you tied yourself to some artist’s model for hire who’d rob you the instant you fell asleep.” Alex narrowed his eyes at Teddy. “That is what you’re contemplating, I presume.”

Teddy didn’t answer.

For an instant, his brother-in-law appeared genuinely furious. “If I thought for a moment that you were going to do something that stupid, that bloody reckless and foolish, all so you could remain in London in that godforsaken house you’ve let—”

“Alex—” Laura’s fingers curled around his hand. “He wouldn’t.”

“My sister’s right,” Teddy said. “I’d never marry a girl who’d be so vulgar as to rob me in my sleep.” He raised his teacup back to his lips. “I’ve chosen someone wholly respectable. Indeed, you’ve both met her.”

Laura gaped. “Not Miss Hobhouse!”

“Why the tone of shock?” Teddy’s wry question was threaded with an unmistakable edge of challenge. Didn’t they believe a respectable lady would have him? Didn’t they think he had enough to offer?

“Are you serious?” Alex asked.

“I am,” Teddy said. “I proposed to her this afternoon, and she did me the honor of accepting.”

Saying the words, Teddy still couldn’t quite believe it. Nor could he believe the romantic nonsense he’d murmured to Stella after kissing her. The way he’d held her face in his hands and gazed into her eyes, his breath coming quickly, and his voice sinking deep. My beautiful shining star, he’d called her.

Marriage of convenience? Like hell. He’d only offered such antiseptic terms to persuade Stella to accept him. But she hadn’t wanted that. She wanted something real.

By God, so did he.

“Is Miss Hobhouse the young lady you were corresponding with while we were in Devon?” Jenny asked.

“She is,” Teddy answered. “She’s presently in London, staying with Captain and Mrs. Blunt at Brown’s Hotel. They return home next week. After that, Miss Hobhouse will be stopping briefly with Ahmad and his wife.”

“Ahmad!” Jenny exclaimed. “She’s acquainted with he and Evelyn, too?”

“Miss Hobhouse is one of the Four Horsewomen,” Tom explained quietly. “You’ll have seen her in the park, riding with Evelyn, Mrs. Blunt, and Lady Anne Deveril.”

“The gray-haired young lady?” Jenny’s brows lifted. “Well, that’s a turn up. I’d no idea Teddy even knew her.”

“But this is too sudden,” Laura objected. “Only a short time ago, she refused to even let you paint her. And now I’m to believe she’s willing to marry you?”

“She’s not only willing,” Teddy said. “She’s determined.” He held his sister’s gaze. “And so am I. Which reminds me—” He addressed Tom. “Miss Hobhouse will need to consult with you about legal mechanisms to protect her assets. She has her horse, and a small inheritance she’d like to shield in the event the marriage breaks down.”

“What about your assets?” Laura asked, indignant. “Tom must surely act to secure your interests, not hers.”

“No,” Teddy said emphatically, leaving no room for debate. “Miss Hobhouse must have the best. I shall deal with another solicitor. Tom can recommend one to me.”

“I shall do what I can for Miss Hobhouse, of course,” Tom said. “And for you.”

“Thank you,” Teddy said. “I’ll tell her.”

Alex studied Teddy’s face. His frown deepened, but no longer with anger or impatience. He was thoughtful. Amazed. “My God, you are serious.”

Teddy had never been more so. “As soon as the property is habitable, and we’ve had time to publish the banns, Miss Hobhouse and I intend to marry. Depending on the length of the repairs, it could be as early as May. Then again, knowing how stonemasons and painters delay, it may not be until the summer.”

Laura’s face fell. “It would be impossible for us to attend the ceremony. The baby is due in August.”

“It’s no matter,” Teddy said. “I don’t expect it will be a grand affair. A registry office will suffice. It’s the marriage that’s the thing, not the ceremony.”

“Is this what you really want?” Laura asked. “I know you liked her well enough as a prospective model, but…marriage?”

“All the better to paint her,” Teddy answered, far more glibly than he felt. “Once we’re residing under the same roof, she’ll be completely at my disposal.”

“If that’s all that’s behind this,” Alex said, “that, and a desire to break free of us, I’d advise you to think twice.”

“What if she has second thoughts?” Laura interjected. “What if she says something, or does something? Once you marry her— if you marry her—she’ll be in a unique position to hurt you.”

“What if she does?” Teddy countered. “I won’t melt, will I?” He turned on his brother-in-law. “And that’s not all it’s about, obviously. Give me some credit.”

“But what if—” Laura began.

Teddy cut his sister off with gentle finality. “Life is too short to waste time with what-ifs. I mean to be happy, that’s all. Without that, what else is there?”

?Julia’s eyes flashed with triumph. “I knew it!” She sat across the cab from Stella, shoulder to shoulder with Evie as the carriage wheels clattered over the road.

The three of them were en route to Bond Street to have a look at a new milliner’s shop that Evie had recommended. Captain Blunt had hired a carriage for them for the afternoon. Julia’s lady’s maid—a wide-eyed country lass from Yorkshire—rode on the outside with the coachman.

“You can’t have known it before I did,” Stella said. The wide skirts of her mulberry poplin day dress, worn over starched petticoats and a heavy crinoline, pressed against the billowing skirts of her friends, making the interior of the cab a veritable sea of fabric.

“Nonsense,” Julia replied. “I recognized his attraction to you the moment I was introduced to him. The way he smiled at you! I told Captain Blunt directly—‘ Mark my words ,’ I said, ‘ the two of them will soon be sweethearts .’?”

Stella smoothed her dyed kid gloves, embarrassed by her friend’s exultations. Though she’d expressed her intention to fall in love with Teddy (a shocking recollection! What had possessed her?), he’d said nothing about loving her in return.

But she knew what had possessed her.

Seated next to Teddy in his future studio, her hand settled firmly in his, she’d realized that she’d come too far since breaking from her brother to start compromising. She wanted love in a marriage. She’d recognized it at Anne’s wedding. And if Stella must manifest that love herself, then so be it.

It wouldn’t be difficult. She was already half in love with Teddy Hayes as it was. Yesterday’s encounter had only confirmed it. As for Teddy’s own feelings…

He’d said nothing about love. It was a marriage of convenience he’d offered, not a lifetime of romance and adoration.

But he’d kissed her.

Oh, how he’d kissed her!

“Mr. Hayes smiles that way at everyone,” she informed Julia. “Tell her, Evie. You must have noticed it yourself.”

“He is a good-humored gentleman,” Evie allowed. “But in a droll sort of way, as though he were amused by a private joke of some kind.”

“There was nothing droll in the way he looked at Stella.” Julia plumped back in the seat of the cab, a self-satisfied look on her face. “Wait until Anne hears the news.”

A flare of alarm took Stella unaware. “Oh no,” she protested quickly. “Pray don’t tell her.”

“Why not?” Evie asked.

Stella struggled to articulate the reasons for her reluctance. “Because…Anne is on her honeymoon. And because I’d rather wait to tell her myself. Not in a letter, but in person.”

Of all Stella’s friends, Anne was the most likely to throw cold water on Stella’s plans. Not out of mean-spiritedness, but out of an instinctive desire to shield Stella from being hurt.

Yes, he wants you now , Anne would say in her rational, lemon-tart voice. He is in the throes of some sort of artistic mania, desperate to paint you. But what will happen afterward? What kind of life will you have with him when he’s on to his next subject and the next, and you’re still there, in his house, overlooked and perchance unwanted?

Or possibly it wasn’t Anne who would ask Stella those things. Perhaps they were the worrisome questions Stella was already asking herself.

Julia and Evie exchanged an opaque glance.

“It’s not the same anyway.” Stella attempted to explain what she didn’t fully understand yet herself. “It’s not a love match like you and Captain Blunt, or like you and Mr. Malik.”

“What is it, then?” Julia asked. “A friendship? That’s what you called it when first you mentioned him to us in Hyde Park.”

“Friendship can often lead to more tender feelings,” Evie said.

Stella recalled how Teddy had held her face in the cradle of his large, black-gloved hands. How he’d kissed her so warmly. So thoroughly.

Heat suffused her cheeks.

Yes, there were tender feelings in abundance. At least, on her part. And surely on Teddy’s, too. Gentlemen didn’t kiss just anyone, did they?

“It’s not only a friendship,” she said.

Julia was encouraged by the prospect. “Well, that’s something, isn’t it?”

“Something wonderful, to be sure,” Evie said. “It must be. I vow you’re positively glowing.”

“You are,” Julia agreed. “Indeed, you look rather different. More…more…something.”

“It’s your hair,” Evie noticed. “You’re not wearing a silk net.”

Stella touched a self-conscious hand to the simple roll at her nape. She rarely ventured out without masking her hair in a close-woven net. But today she’d refrained. Her gray color was plain for everyone to see.

“Forget being small and quiet,” Teddy had said yesterday. “ I’m asking you to be conspicuous with me!”

The words had awakened something in Stella, as surely as a sorcerer’s spell. They had summoned the boldness in her heart, too long stifled by her fear of society’s censure. In the past, she’d been afraid to expose herself, lest she provoke the sort of malicious cruelty she’d endured during her first season.

But no more.

If she was going to live conspicuously, she must begin somewhere. Her hair had seemed the obvious place to start.

“That’s it!” Julia’s eyes sharpened. “But you always wear a net over your hair when you go out.”

“Does it look dreadful without it?” Stella asked.

“Not at all,” Evie replied. “You’re radiant.”

“Your connection with Mr. Hayes must agree with you,” Julia said.

Stella looked between her two friends. “Then you both approve? You don’t think I’m mad to have accepted him?”

“Would our opinions change your mind?” Julia asked.

“No,” Stella admitted. “I don’t expect they would.”

“There’s your answer, then,” Evie said. “You’ve chosen correctly. If you hadn’t, you’d be looking for any excuse to retract your acceptance of his proposal.”

“I don’t want to retract it,” Stella said.

On the contrary, having accepted Teddy’s proposal, she felt more hopeful about the future than she had in ages. Perhaps that was why she was glowing, if indeed she was.

She hadn’t been lying to him when she’d told him that he was the first gentleman she’d ever liked. And it wasn’t just because of his kisses and compliments. It was because she enjoyed being with him. He was interesting. Amusing. Vexing at times, but never dull.

The fact that he used a wheeled chair hadn’t even come into it. Not until it had occurred to her that his condition might impact her dreams for a family.

Good heavens. Had she really asked him about it outright?

And had he really answered her?

“I’m capable,” he’d said.

Capable. Whatever that meant.

She had some idea, of course. She knew about horses, and about other animals. And she knew something about the marriages of her friends—though neither of them had ever given explicit details, except to share that it was exciting and intimate, and that it involved removing one’s clothes (or sometimes not, as Julia had once confided).

Evie reached across the carriage to clasp Stella’s hand. “I’m glad. I’ve longed to see you happily settled. And Mr. Hayes is an amusing gentleman. Whatever else happens, you’ll never be bored.”

“We must do something to celebrate.” Julia brightened. “I know, I shall buy you an engagement gift! A new hat from the milliner? Or a beautiful new shawl? Anne recently mentioned a marvelous India shawl warehouse in Ludgate Hill.”

The three of them chattered on, talking and laughing together as the carriage set them down in Bond Street. They visited the milliner, the draper’s shop, and stopped to look at the bejeweled trinkets in the window of a goldsmith’s establishment. It was as they were walking down a side street to stop in at a bookseller that Julia liked to frequent, that the door of a stationer’s shop they were passing opened and Laura Archer emerged, stepping directly into their path.

“Miss Hobhouse!” Mrs. Archer came to an abrupt halt. She wore a loose-fitting caraco jacket with a plain skirt—a suitable ensemble for a fashionable lady in a delicate condition. A maid and a footman, arms filled with packages, stood behind her.

“Mrs. Archer!” Stella froze.

She wasn’t prepared to face Teddy’s family. Had he told them yet? And, if so, how had they taken it? Stella dreaded to think.

“Mrs. Malik,” Mrs. Archer said, smiling at Evie. “How do you do?”

“Mrs. Archer.” Evie acknowledged her with a smile in return. “Have you met, Mrs. Blunt?”

Julia and Mrs. Archer bobbed polite curtsies to each other as they were introduced.

Pleasantries dispensed with, Mrs. Archer turned her attention back to Stella. “I was just preparing to stop for tea at the confectioner’s shop across the road. Would you care to join me?”

Evie and Julia fell quiet.

Stella’s mouth went dry. Her friends stood silent behind her, both holding their breaths. It was at once clear that Mrs. Archer knew about Stella’s engagement to Teddy. She likely wanted to warn Stella off. Either that or interrogate her about her intentions.

But there was no point in delaying the inevitable. In Stella’s experience, it was always better to get difficult encounters over with before one’s anxiety about them grew out of all proportion.

Besides, Mrs. Archer was no ogre, was she? She was a kind and sympathetic older sister, who had already been open-minded enough to help her brother in contacting Stella over the winter. If anyone would be supportive of Stella and Teddy’s unexpected engagement, it would be Mrs. Archer, wouldn’t it?

“I would be delighted,” Stella said. She looked to Evie and Julia. “If you wouldn’t mind sparing me?”

“Not at all,” Julia said. “Shall we come back to fetch you in, say, an hour?”

“That won’t be necessary,” Mrs. Archer replied. “I have the Finchleys’ carriage at my disposal today. I shall be happy to return Miss Hobhouse to Brown’s Hotel when I’ve finished with her.”

Finished with her?

Stella swallowed. Perchance Mrs. Archer wasn’t as happy about her brother’s engagement as Stella had hoped. Indeed, as she took Stella’s arm and guided her across the road to the tea shop, Stella began to fear that her future sister-in-law’s feelings were exactly the opposite.