Page 44 of An Accidental Elopement

As soon as Miss Wilkins was out the door, Cecilia gently opened the letter. Her heart hammering in her chest.

“Archie, I need to see you today. Urgent change of plans. I have reserved the private parlor where we usually meet. Lavinia.”

Cecilia’s mouth went dry, and her throat constricted into a tight knot that made it almost impossible for her to swallow. She wanted to scream. She wanted to tear the message into a million pieces if it could somehow prevent the words on the page from being true.

But there was no time for any of that. She had to meet Archie and Gregory downstairs in fifteen minutes to head to church. She gripped the dressing table as she gulped down large breaths of air in an attempt to hide all emotion from her face.

When her insides felt like the sea being swatted around by a brisk breeze and not a torrent storm, she rose from the chair and found the tinderbox on her nightstand. She lit the candle and heated the back of the seal over it, waiting for the seal to be just warm enough to stick to the letter again. It was not a bullet-proof method. If one looked more closely it was evident that the letter had been opened before, but she hoped that Archie would not notice. Her brother David and she had practiced it quite often when they were children, and David had gone through a phase where he thought he was going to be a spy.

When she joined Archie and Gregory in one of the downstairs parlors, she handed Archie the note as if it was nothing of import.

“This came for you,” she told him and even managed a smile as she handed Archie the letter. His eyes widened a little and his mouth gave an involuntary twist as if he was not certain whether to smile or speak or perhaps was simply hiding another emotion that would have been even more revealing. It told Cecilia in any event that he knew the handwriting. This Lavinia had said that it was the parlor where they usually met. Since the letter was not franked, Cecilia assumed that it was a private parlor at the local inn.

“Thank you,” Archie told her and tucked the letter into a pocket in his coat. As always, he was impeccably dressed in black jacket and trousers and looked so handsome that it might hurt her eyes.

“Should we leave?” she asked.

“We are waiting for Rosie, Lady Granville,” Gregory said and glanced between them. Cecilia tried desperately to keep her senseless face a blank mask and not have the corners of her mouth fall as she realized that Gregory knew who this woman was. It made her body even more rigid that everyone but her knew that Archie was not being faithful. She could not even be amused that she had been right about Rosie riding with them.

Rosie strode into the salon a moment later in a burgundy gown that enhanced all the best features of her curvaceous body. It made Cecilia instantly jealous, but new dresses would hardly solve any of her problems.

“I can’t wait to see Hester in her wedding dress,” Rosie told them as they sat next to each other in the carriage.

“I hardly think she has given the dress much thought,” Gregory stated amiably from the other side of the carriage where he was seated next to Archie.

“Oh, I’m sure she has not. But I can just imagine the look on her face. She will be like a scowling owl.” Both Archie and Gregory smirked at the comment. “I can’t believe how your mother has persuaded her to have such a large wedding,” Rosie went on.

“I don’t even think Millie had to do any persuasion,” Cecilia told her before she thought about it. The visits that Millie and Hester had paid to the Cottage were clear before her inner eye. “I suspect that Hester would have gone along with practically anything to marry in haste.”

She immediately knew how her words could be viewed and tried to will herself not to blush. But from the curious look on Rosie’s face, she was not sure that she succeeded.

“I mean, because she and Flint are so in love,” Cecilia quickly amended, feeling that she had only made it worse.

There was a moment’s awkward silence. Cecilia refused to look at her husband and dared not look at her new brother-in-law to ascertain whether he had interpreted her words the way she feared. Rosie just beamed at her.

“All the better then,” she said and patted Cecilia’s arm. “If Hester has had no say in the dress whatsoever, we can be certain that she will probably be scowling even more now that she is wearing it.”

Cecilia had no time to respond, as Rosie immediately went on.

“Now Lord Lambourn, what’s he like? You must know him rather well since you were to marry him.”

Cecilia opened her mouth but had no idea how to describe Flint’s character in only a few brief sentences. Nor was she certain what exactly Rosie was hoping to hear.

“Now Rosie, you can’t ask questions like that,” Archie chided. He was seated diagonally from Rosie but leaned forward to swat her shoulder in a brotherly fashion. The movement made his leg brush against Cecilia’s, and she hastily drew her feet back.

“Like what?” Rosie demanded, completely unperturbed by Archie’s scolding.

“Like you have known Cecilia all your life,” Archie said with a good-natured smile as he leaned back again.

Cecilia allowed herself a glance in his direction. He was sitting comfortably against the back of the carriage, eyeing Rosie with a slight smile around his lips. There seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary with him.

“Well, she is your wife,” was all Rosie countered as if that explained everything. Her eyes narrowed as if she wanted to start a fight.

“I heard Mother and Hester have chosen dahlias and roses for the wedding,” Gregory told them before Archie had a chance to speak.

“Yes, Millie told me that they had picked several kinds of flowers from the hot houses,” Cecilia offered.

“I would never have left the planning of my wedding to my mother,” Rosie said, apparently accepting that the subject needed to be changed although not that it needed to be about flowers.