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"I told him I would consider it," he replied truthfully. "I have something of greater consequence to take care of."
"What is that?" she asked, gently setting Puppy down. He curled up on the floor by her feet.
Albert took her hand in his and placed a kiss into her palm before saying, "Marry me, Edwina."
Chapter Twenty-One
"Ibeg your pardon?" She looked utterly shocked.
"I want you," he said. "More than I have ever wanted any woman. And after Tommen's request, I thought I could kill two birds with a stone and put in a request for two special licenses."
She opened her mouth to talk but closed it, her face displaying a multitude of emotions. "Say yes, Edwina." He placed another kiss into her palm.
When she opened her mouth again to speak, Chessman’s voice came instead. "Forgive my interruption, Your Grace." The butler bowed. "This missive came in for Lady Edwina."
Albert watched her break the seal and scan through the letter. Her face immediately fell, much like it had when she had read that letter by Glass Blanket. "Are you all right?" He gently squeezed her hand.
"I… I have to go." She shot to her feet, waking up the snoozing pup. And without waiting for another word, she rushed out of the conservatory with her little friend following her closely, wagging his tail.
This was the second time Edwina ran away after receiving a message, and Albert did not like it. He did not need another reason to distrust her. He strode out of the conservatory feeling very confused.
* * *
"Are you certain you are going to be fine?" Kitty asked Edwina from her seat in front of the vanity table where Danny was affixing a pretty emerald hairpin onto her brown locks. She was getting dressed for dinner.
"I shall be all right, Kitty," Edwina reassured her. After a rather eventful late afternoon, she had decided to avoid joining the guests for dinner that evening. She was not in the right state of mind to tolerate outside company. Especially her fiancé’s. And this feeling, she knew, had little to do with his proposal than the letter she had received. It was the most disturbing thing, and she had never been in such a state of utter confusion.
"I shall see to her meal brought up at once, My Lady," Danny told Kitty, putting the final pins into her hair. “I will insure she has a comfortable evening.”
"Very well." Kitty gained her feet once Danny had finished. "Do not wait up for me, Edwina. I might be late." She grinned as she walked to the door. There was a spring in her step this evening and Edwina could not place the reason for it.
For someone whose strength lay anywhere but in social interaction, Kitty seemed overly cheerful as she exited the room. If Edwina did not know better, she would think the girl was up to something. She allowed a small sigh. There was much she needed to think about: the letter, Albert’s proposal, her future… it was all very exhausting.
As Danny went about putting away their cosmetics and the dresses that Kitty had made her bring out and then decided not to wear, Edwina went to the bedroom and removed the letter from her nightstand drawer, sitting on the bed and scanning its contents once more. It had been written in the same hand as the first one. That familiar hand that had never failed to bring a smile to her face all those years ago. Now, they brought her only sleepless nights and endless worry.
Perhaps it was her imagination, fueled by her present predicament, she thought. "You are not yourself, My Lady," Danny observed as she walked out of the dressing room with some towels in her hand. “Did something happen today?”
Danny had been a maid at Mercer House since Edwina was ten, and had become her lady’s maid when she turned six-and-ten. But before she had become a lady’s maid, she and Edwina had been close friends. With Edwina spending more time with the servants than her own family, it was natural that she would become friends with them. Their years together had seen Danny become someone she could trust.
There had even been times in Edwina's life when Danny had to assume the role of an older sister, and she had weathered those trying times owing all the support and encouragement she had received from her. Had it not been for Danny, Edwina would have been all alone before her debut into society and meeting Kitty.
“I don’t know, Danny,” she said, swallowing against the tightness in her throat.
Danny set the towels she was holding down and came to sit beside her. “You can talk to me, you know,” she encouraged, giving her a kind smile.
"I think I am losing my mind,” she confessed what she had been thinking about for several days. The first letter she had received had indeed made her question her sanity after pondering the possibility of it being from a dead person.
"Oh, do not say that, My Lady" Danny admonished. "You are perfectly sane, and one of the bravest women I know."
"But is there strength in clinging onto the past, and even tainting the present with it?" Edwina asked solemnly.
"What do you mean by that?" Danny's brows knit in confusion and concern.
Instead of answering, Edwina gave her the letter in her hand, then watched her confusion turn to dismay. It appeared she, too, could not believe it. "This is John, is it not?" Danny gasped.
John had been the gentleman Edwina had made the promise of a life together with when she was but five-and-ten. They had been neighbors when she was younger, and after the death of his father, Baron Mills, her father had taken him in as his ward. Their friendship had then blossomed into something more, and they soon began to plan a life together. That was until fate had so cruelly taken him away from her.
Once he came of age, he enlisted in the military, and shortly after, Edwina’s family received a letter from his comrade at arms. John was dead, the letter had said. She was seven-and-ten, innocent and hopeful. It had taken her a very long time to recover from the loss.
