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The smile on Rees’s mouth was rather grim. “She has a great deal to forgive me for.”
“You’re lucky she loves you so much, then,” Tom said.
Rees’s eyes flew to Tom’s, and then he looked away without comment, standing up. “I need to find Helene and play this phrase for her.”
Tom stood up as well and then, to his utter surprise, Rees pulled him into a rough hug. He didn’t say anything; Rees was never one to use words when there was no need. Tom followed his brother from the room without another word between them.
He was free. Free to tell Lina that she had to marry him. Free to take her away.
As Rees stepped into the hallway, Leke came out of the library. “The countess has just asked for you,” he said, holding open the door.
Tom stopped. “Where may I find Miss McKenna, Leke?”
“In the library,” he replied.
They strode into the room looking, had there been a mirror appropriately placed, extremely like their father. Yet another glance would have revealed that they were far more like to each other, than to their father.
Thirty-eight
Snippets of Conversation Overheard in London During the Week
“It’s your penance,” Lady Griselda Willoughby told her brother with some satisfaction. “If you have to endure a month or so of wretched bibble-babble, it will teach you to be more particular in your attentions. For goodness’ sake, I may find Helene Godwin rather tedious, but I grow faint with ennui if I am unlucky enough to drift into the sound of Felicia Saville’s voice. And believe me, you can hear her voice halfway across a ballroom!”
Her brother’s answer was unintelligible; Griselda just smiled to herself. She had no need for an interpreter when it came to males and their childish dependence on profanity; after all, she had been married for all of a year, God rest his soul.
“You cannot leave the Church. I won’t allow it!”
“For you. Only for you.”
“I won’t allow it!”
“But you said you didn’t wish to marry a vicar.” The said vicar’s eyes burned down at his companion. “It never occurred to me that I could be anything other than what I am. But I could do so, for you. The only person I would ever give up my vows for is you, Lina.”
“My name isn’t Lina,” she said, stumbling a little. “It’s Alina. But my mother always called me Lina.”
“You’re my Lina now,” he said into her ear. “And if what I do for a living would come between us, I’ll do something else.”
“I don’t want you to relinquish your vows. You wouldn’t be happy.”
“The only thing that would make me unhappy is losing you.”
“Then make me a vicar’s wife, Tom.”
There was nothing to overhear for a while and then, “You will keep me from becoming as perfect as your father, won’t you, Lina?”
“I don’t think that’s a problem,” she said with a giggle. “Take your hand away!”
He groaned. “Lord, I wish Rees would return with that Special License.”
“Are you sure?” There was a hesitancy in her voice that rung his heart.
“I’ve never been surer of anything in my life,” he told her. “Never. Listen—I’ll make a vow so that I can break it for you!”
“Don’t be silly!” she scolded, laughing.
“I vow to God himself that I will never kiss your breast.”
And she, whispering, with a rosy blush, “You won’t?”
