Gwen shrugged. “What was there to say? I approved of your plan and saw no need to bring it up. You appeared to have an excellent notion of how to proceed.”
“What of the repercussions?”
“There will be a scandal when it becomes known. That was why you were so adamant that we hold the ball. Because you wanted me to marry before you lowered our status within high society.”
Papa nodded. “Aidan noted there were oddities which led him to believe I might be the man he was looking for. But, now that he has learned the truth, Aidan has arranged for my new venture to be backed. The Duke of Halmesbury, Lord Saunton, Lord Moreland, and Lord Filminster have all pledged to confidentially back me, which means I am assured of success and do not need to commit too much of my funds. It means I can plan something on a much larger scale with far fewer risks. It is more than is required, and he is doing it because he is committed to this marriage with you.”
“He has no choice. He is stuck with me.”
Her father shook his head again. “A man always has a choice, Gwendolyn. And Aidan has chosen you.”
Gwen fidgeted with her skirts in agitation. “I have reflected on what it might be like to be in his situation, and I appreciate the position he found himself in, but that does not change the lies he told me.”
Her father straightened in his chair. “And I think that you have allowed your experiences at school to color your entire life. It is time to let go of the carping of others and accept your worth. It is time because those girls do not matter. What matters is now. What matters is your marriage.”
Tears burned Gwen’s eyes once more, and she swallowed them back with difficulty. She refused to begin crying again. “How can I possibly believe he has chosen me willingly?”
“I think you should allow him to convince you. It is time to apply that astute intellect of yours to observe what is in front of your eyes.”
Papa rose to cross the room, opening one of the terrace doors and standing aside.
Gwen frowned, peering behind her father but seeing nothing but the black sky. Stars twinkled in the distance, but the firmament was very dark without a large moon to light it. Very dark indeed.
Her father bobbed his head toward the door. Gwen clenched and unclenched her fists, wanting to see Aidan, but not wanting to see him. Several moments passed as she considered her options.
“Go to him, Gwendolyn.”
Soughing, Gwen begrudgingly stood up and moved across the room. Pausing in the doorway, she stared down at her slippers, searching for fortitude.
“You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.”
She gave a reluctant smile. “You are not such a terrible scholar, Papa. You recite Aristotle at the strangest times.”
“There is always time for Aristotle,” her father replied in a high-pitched voice, and Gwen giggled despite her trepidation. It was an eerie echo from the past, her mother’s voice traveling down the years as if she stood in the room with them. It was precisely what she would have said had she been here now.
Taking a deep breath, Gwen stepped onto the terrace.
Her father drew the door shut behind her, and she was left alone outside. With some confusion, she looked about for Aidan, before catching sight of something very unexpected.
Down the length of the terrace, close to where she had first met Aidan, hung a lit orb in the direction of the waned moon. Searching about the terrace, she still did not find her husband, so with no small amount of curiosity, she approached the sphere.
It was a large lantern made of paper, lit from within, andit swung above her from the eaves of the house. Gwen realized in amazement that it was a moon. With her head tilted back, she took in the beauty of the lantern in the landscape of the dark night, before noticing that many candles were lined upon the stone balustrade. Their flickering flames were much like the twinkling of the stars, and it became clear that the scene had been set to be reminiscent of the night she had met Aidan in the moonlight.
It was so utterly beautiful. Gwen raised her hands to her mouth, muffling a sob as she understood that this setting had been created for her.
“She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow’d to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.”
Gwen choked back another sob, turning to find that Aidan had approached to take a bended knee behind her. Lord Byron’s words had never sounded so sweet, but Aidan needed to speak words of his own. He had hidden behind the writers of bygone times for too long.
