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Robert still did his best not to laugh at her, but she was being utterly ridiculous. He wanted to revel in the fact that she had finally been put in her place by their father after all this time, but Lord Graham was now looking towards Robert.
“Robert,” he said in his usual gruff voice. It still made his blood run cold, even though he had been away from it for so long.
“Before you chastise me,” Robert said, “I feel that I should be allowed to …”
“I am not going to chastise you, son,” he said severely. Robert stopped in his tracks.
“You’re not?” he asked in disbelief.
Lord Graham shook his head, still looking very serious. “I am not. I think that what you have done here at the estate for the last few months has been just what you needed. It was a very honourable thing to do. And although it loathes me to admit it ... I do apologize for the way I’ve treated you.”
Robert’s eyes widened, and he looked at his brother. He thought that George would look at him as though he had orchestrated all of this, but he seemed as surprised as Robert. When George saw that he was looking at him, they shared a look of confusion.
“And, I must also apologize for how I treated your mother. She was a woman who I was not worthy of at that time in my life, and I have come to deeply regret my actions around her,” Lord Graham said in a quieter, more reflective voice. “I cannot go back and change anything that I did, but I do want you to know that no matter how I felt about your mother at the time, I only wanted her to pull through on the night you were born. I called upon every doctor that I could think of to save her, but …”
“I know, Papa,” Robert said understandingly. “If there is one thing that I have always been certain of in my life, it is that you did everything that you could that night. I do not fault you in any way for her death.”
Robert couldn’t be certain but he could have sworn that he saw a few tears come into his father’s eyes. However, they were quickly banished back to their place, and Lord Graham turned to Anne. Robert held his breath and hoped that this sudden stretch of good behaviour from his father would continue.
“And you are Miss Watkins, is that right?”
Anne nodded and gave him a small smile. “I am, My Lord. We saw each other the other night, but we were never properly introduced.”
“That’s correct. What does your family do, Miss Watkins?” Lord Graham asked his soon to be daughter-in-law.
Anne was quiet for a moment and then responded. “I’m afraid that I am an orphan, My Lord. My mother passed away when I was only three years old, and my father lived until I was eighteen. I have worked in households since then, but this is the first one in which I have truly felt as though I am a part of the family.”
Lord Graham got a funny look on his face, and then, for the first time in a very, very long time, he watched as his father smiled.
“It brings my heart cheer to hear that, and now you shall properly become a part of the family. I am very glad that Robert found a woman as lovely as yourself to marry,” he said contentedly.
Robert couldn’t hold it in anymore. “Father, these are such lovely things you are saying to all of us, but I must ask: what has brought on this sudden change of behaviour?”
Lord Graham chuckled to himself, and Robert was stunned by the sound that his father made when he laughed. It almost sounded ... happy.
“I had a feeling that question would come about. I wanted to tell the two of you in private, but I suppose that here is as good as any place.” Lord Graham adjusted in his seat, and Robert couldn’t help noticing that he was beginning to look a little red in the cheeks.
“While you have been absent from the house, I have met a woman whose company I greatly enjoy. She has encouraged me to become a less ... guarded person, which is part of the reason why I wanted to say what I’ve said to you today. Her name is Miss Frances Lockwood, and I do hope that she’ll do me the honour of marrying me very soon.”
There were sounds of joy around the table, and George was the first to respond. “I am overjoyed to hear of this news, Father. However, I must say that I am surprised that she is a ‘Miss’ as opposed to a ‘Lady’ or a ‘Countess’.”
Lord Graham laughed a little harder than he had before. “I was surprised by that myself, but Miss Lockwood is such a remarkable woman that I cannot hide my feelings for her anymore.”
“That is wonderful to hear, Father,” Robert said honestly, “and thank you for all that you have said this morning. I know that in the coming years we will still have to work to undo everything that transpired in the past, but this is an excellent start.”
Robert smiled at his father, who nodded earnestly and then to his wonderful brother and his fiancée.
That is just the right thing to say. This is an excellent start.
***
Two months after that fateful breakfast, Robert and Anne were married in a lavish ceremony on the estate. Robert could hardly believe his eyes when Anne walked down the aisle to him. Her gown was a golden off-white that made her look as though she was glowing in the sun.
She beamed at him with all the love that they knew they both felt for each other. Robert did not look too poorly himself: he wore an even finer suit than the one he had borrowed from his brother on the night he had proposed to Anne. Alfred walked Anne down the aisle, and Robert was sure that he cried far more than himself or Anne combined.
George and Andre stood up at the altar with Robert, and Anne had Eponine and Margaret up there with her. Amelie had been the flower girl because even though Anne had asked her to stand up with all of them, all she wanted to do was throw flower petals around.
Lord Graham and his new wife, Lady Frances Lockwood, looked on from the audience so proudly. Robert was so happy that Frances had had such a positive influence on his father, and he was also pleasantly surprised to find that Lord Graham began sharing fond remembrances of his late first wife and Robert’s mother now that Frances was around.
That only left Louisa. She was still sullen and sour sitting in the audience of her half-brother’s wedding. Her father had been serious when he had suggested taking over for Anne after she and Robert were married, and so Louisa was set to start the very next day when the couple left on their honeymoon.
She couldn’t believe she was being made to take up not only a job, but a job in her brother’s household. Little did she know, however, that the position of governess seemed to have a bit of good luck tied to it, and that in working there, she would also find someone who would make her as happy as Anne made Robert.
“You may now kiss the bride.” With that, Robert leaned in and kissed his now-wife passionately on the lips. He couldn’t have imagined a greater happiness than to be with her for the rest of his life, and he wanted that to get started as soon as possible.
THE END
