Matilda’s laughter came freely now. “Yes, all of that.”
Cordelia clutched her heart dramatically. “He knelt down, didn’t he? Tell me he knelt!”
“He did,” Matilda said, her cheeks pink. “Right there in the courtyard. The abbess even said that if vows were to be made, they ought to be under God’s sky.”
“Oh, how perfectly poetic!” Cordelia sighed, leaning back in her chair. “I could simply swoon!”
Hazel gave her a look of affectionate exasperation. “You would swoon if your husband fetched you the correct shawl.”
“Well, yes,” Cordelia admitted, unbothered. “Mason rarely remembers which is which, so it is a rare occasion indeed.”
Evelyn laughed so hard she nearly dropped her teacup. “Matilda, truly, I am astonished. When you said you would go to the nunnery, I did not imagine you’d return with a proposal!”
Matilda smiled gently at her sister. “Neither did I.”
Hazel poured herself more tea, looking pleased. “You look happy, dear Matilda. In fact, you look happier than I’ve ever seen you.”
Matilda’s gaze dropped to her cup, her smile quiet but sure. “I am. I truly am.”
Cordelia sighed in delight. “Oh, I adore a happy ending. And from a nunnery, no less! It’s as if one of Mrs. Radcliffe’s heroines escaped her tower and married the villain turned hero.”
Evelyn laughed. “Cordelia, only you could compare matrimony to Gothic fiction.”
Hazel nodded. “And yet, I see her point.”
The laughter had only just begun to fade when Cordelia exchanged a conspiratorial glance with Hazel and Evelyn. A look passed between the three women that Matilda caught immediately.
Her brows drew together. “Whatwasthat look?”
Evelyn feigned innocence, taking a measured sip of her tea. “Whatever do you mean?”
“That look,” Matilda repeated, her eyes narrowing. “The one that usually precedes mischief.”
Cordelia set her cup down with a too-innocent clink. “Mischief? Us?”
“Yes,you,” Matilda said, half-laughing. “What are you hiding?”
Hazel folded her hands neatly in her lap, her expression as serene as ever, though a suspicious sparkle danced in her eyes. “Well,” she said slowly, “since the happy ending is already secured, I suppose we can tell you.”
“Tell mewhat?” Matilda demanded.
Evelyn looked as though she could barely contain her amusement. “Matilda, my dear… we may have had asmallhand in your good fortune.”
Matilda stared. “A small hand?”
Cordelia clapped her hands together in delight. “Oh, very small! Hardly worth mentioning. Just a hint here, a word there, an invitation or two?—”
“I knew it!” Matilda exclaimed.
“Cordelia thought it best to arrange a setting where you might both be… reminded of your compatibility.” Hazel admitted, entirely too calm for a woman confessing such a scheme.
Cordelia nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, and I said that nothing sparks romance like a well-timed stroll and a bit of rain!”
“Therain?” Matilda gasped. “You didn’t?—”
“Oh, heavens, no!” Cordelia said quickly. “Even I cannot control the weather, my love. But I might have encouraged a servant to misplace a few umbrellas near the terrace.”
Evelyn bit her lip to keep from laughing. “And I might have mentioned, in passing, how lovely the western gardens are at dusk, knowing, of course, that Jasper was on his way there.”
