It was better to simply give Papa the facts. He didn’t need long explanations. “The only dry clothing was my nightgown and my wrap. I gave him my wrap.”
“Evelyn,” Mama said with a gasp. I shrugged. It was the truth and I helped the only way I knew how. I wouldn’t be ashamed of it.
“Would it have been better for me to leave him shivering in his wet clothing? He could have died. I suppose I could have removed his clothing and kept my wrap and my nightgown for myself. What do you think, Papa? Would that have been a better solution?”
Papa’s eyes turned steely. John put a hand to his face. It seems I wasn’t arguing this quite as he would have, but he didn’t know my parents like I did. Logic and truthfulnessalways prevailed with them. Papa might bluster, but he wouldn’t actually explode.
“I left his breeches on,” I finished. That should be a point solidly in our favor.
A bird sounded outside and the clock ticked on unconcernedly above the fireplace.
A furrow I’d never noticed before made a deep V between Papa’s brows. My comment about the breeches might not have been as helpful as I’d thought.
“General Blackwell, Mrs. Blackwell.” John looked at each of them in turn. “Evelyn and I may not have had the most conventional introduction, but I love your daughter, and that has nothing to do with the storm or the darkness or what we may or may not have been wearing that night. I want to marry Evelyn, but not because Mrs. Wickerton overheard our conversation. You both know exactly how extraordinary your daughter is. I see it in your faces every time she walks into a room. You asked how I could come here seeking to court one woman and end up falling in love with Evelyn so quickly instead.” John placed both of his palms on Papa’s desk and leaned forward. “I ask you—how could I have resisted doing anything but that?”
I sat back in my chair and closed my eyes, letting John’s words wash over me. He was extraordinary, just as everyone had tried to tell me time and time again, and somehow I was fortunate enough to be loved by him.
I opened my eyes to find Mama’s hand over her heart, tears forming in her eyes.
Papa was not so easily convinced. He narrowed his eyes and mimicked John’s stance, palms on the desk leaning forward. “Do not use my love of my daughter against me.”
John lowered his head. “I’m not trying to use it against you. I’m trying to use itforus.”
“You and Evelyn?” Papa asked.
“No. You and me.” He pushed himself off the desk and stood back at attention. “You came into my life just as my father left it. I don’t want to lose your respect. And I do want to marry your daughter. It may be selfish of me, but I hope I can have both.”
“Papa, please.” My voice cracked slightly. I knew how much John cherished his relationship with him. “Before he came here, I only heard the best of stories about your Captain Calder. Does one unfortunate bout of the ague make him a less worthy man?”
The room went silent. Papa was wavering. We could all see it, but I didn’t get my stubbornness from nowhere.
“No.” Mama’s voice was soft beside me, answering the question I’d proposed to Papa. “No, it shouldn’t. In fact, your father and I had hoped you would form an attachment for one another. Hadn’t we, James?”
He pushed himself off the desk. “Not like this,” Papa muttered.
“You what?” I asked. I couldn’t have heard that right.
Mama sighed. “Do you think we said so many wonderful things about Captain Calder for our own sakes? We hoped for a match between the two of you.”
I shook my head. That couldn’t be true. “But the men you invited here were for Hattie.”
Mama shrugged. “She didn’t mind.”
“She didn’t mind?” My voice rose at least an octave. “She knew?”
All that time I’d tried to keep her away from John she was only too happy to oblige? The way she smiled at the idea of John and me playing shuttlecock and battledore together, the moment she told me to shoot with the men on my own, andthe library.I dropped my head into my hands. Of course she tried to push John and me together. How could I have been so blind?
“She helped us,” Mama said, confirming my suspicions. “If we’d simply known about that night in the rain this all could have been much simpler.”
I shook my head. “No, it wouldn’t have been.” I threw my hand out in his direction. “He was still in love with Hattie that night.”
He put his hands out in defense. “I wasn’t in love with her. I was in love with the idea of a family and a wife.”
Papa stopped pacing and placed both of his hands on his desk. “How do we know that isn’t what you are feeling now?”
“James,” Mama sighed, putting both of her hands on the arms of her chair. “This is Evelyn. No one would pick her only because they liked the idea of a wife.”
“Mama,” I said, affronted.
