Page 40 of A Duke to Undo her (The Husband Hunt #1)
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Josephine, what have you done?” inquired Madeline urgently, almost running down the hallway at Elmridge House in her unusual haste.
“Your name is all over town! The rumors at the Bedingfords’ garden party were so alarming that Father did not like me to come here alone, especially since no one from your family was there to quash them. He is waiting in the carriage outside.”
Josephine laughed aloud hearing this and embraced her disconcerted friend warmly.
“What have I done? I am betrothed to the Duke of Ashbourne, Madeline. That is all I have done. He pledged himself to me this morning in Hyde Park. Look!”
She held up her hand with its little golden ring, delighting in its display and feeling as though Cassius had left a piece of him with her rather than only an item of jewelry.
“Oh my!” Madeline reacted, the sound she made somewhere between a laugh and a yelp. “Oh Josephine, I do not know what to say! How could this happen? Was it true that he fought all three of your brothers-in-law, wrested you from your sisters and carried you off from the park in front of everyone?”
Josephine descended into giggles at how gossip had already distorted Cassius Emerton’s admittedly controversial proposal.
“I wish he had!” she replied. “How fine it would have been to run away to Gretna Green and be married at a blacksmith’s forge!”
Madeline tried to look scandalized but then laughed too, Josephine’s happiness proving infectious.
“Josephine Thomson!” admonished Vera, emerging from the drawing room on hearing the sound of Madeline’s voice.
“Do not let Constance hear you say such improper things. I know that you are joking and would never hurt your family in such a way, but others may not. Poor Madeline looks beside herself already without you adding to her worries.”
“Do not worry, Vera, I almost never do the things I want to do,” Josephine sighed happily.
“Madeline knows that. Cassius and I shall be married in a church before a vicar like everyone else and Constance will be content. Anyway, Constance and Ophelia are both resting upstairs and won’t hear anything I say. ”
“Indeed you shall be married in a church before a vicar, young Josephine,” remarked Norman, Lord Elmridge having just come in from the front door with a sheaf of papers in his hand.
“The Duke of Ashbourne has already obtained an ordinary license from the Bishop of London. He called on the bishop directly after leaving us this morning.”
At this news, Josephine clapped her hands and jumped for joy.
“I knew Cassius could do it. Constance and Victor were so sure it would take at least a week just to get the license, weren’t they?”
“I can’t imagine the bishop dared offer any objection, given how fierce His Grace the duke looked this morning,” laughed Norman, bowing a greeting to Madeline and then offering sight of the papers in his hand to his wife.
“Victor and the Duke of Ashbourne are still with the lawyers but there seem to be no sticking points in the marriage contract.”
“Oh my,” Madeline gasped again. “How quickly this is all happening, Josephine. I cannot believe you will soon be a married lady with your own husband and home!”
Meanwhile, Vera glanced quickly through the papers, smiling as though pleasantly surprised.
“He has agreed to every single thing we asked?” she questioned her husband who nodded back with the same merry incredulity on his face.
“The duke has been most generous. Josephine and her children will always be secure and well-provided for, in his lifetime and after his death, no matter what. His only stipulation is that the wedding must take place as soon as possible, ideally in a week. That is the only point on which he will not move and I have left them to negotiate.”
“Constance wants them to wait at least until Josephine is of age, and ideally a year longer,” Vera sighed as she returned the papers.
“However, that seems to me a losing battle. I only hope Victor gains us enough time to organize the logistics properly. It would be such a shame to send Josephine off without a proper engagement, or trousseau or wedding party.”
“Cassius told me that he would let nothing stand in our way,” Josephine said with a happy smile that Lord and Lady Elmridge could not help returning.
Josephine had no interest at all in weeks or months of receiving congratulatory calls from friends and relatives, and then having her older sisters fussing interminably over her clothes and hair in the run-up to her marriage, never mind the wedding day itself.
She felt sure that Cassius would understand this.
“Your future husband is a most determined man, but I fear seven days is far too soon, even for the Duke of Ashbourne,” warned Vera. “The wedding breakfast must be organized, the duke must arrange his mother and brother’s living arrangements, and you do not even have a wedding dress, Josephine.”
Josephine waved a dismissive hand at these trivial considerations.
“A wedding breakfast is only really an extended family meal. I’m sure Duchess Nerissa and Benedict may live with us forever if they wish it. As for a wedding dress, I already have dozens of gowns and surely one of them must do. I can be ready as soon as the contract is signed.”
“You would be content to wear an old dress to your wedding?” Vera queried and received an emphatic confirmation from Josephine.
“I would marry Cassius in my nightgown!” she declared, to a guffaw from Norman.
“That you shall not do,” Vera said quickly, wagging a finger but laughing. “As you say, you do have dozens of quite serviceable dresses already. There is no need to resort to nightwear. We shall go through your wardrobe and see what would suit best.”
“Nightgowns and wedding gowns are a matter for ladies to rule on,” Lord Elmridge declared, walking away towards his study. “I have some letters to write while I wait for Victor and Percival to return. We three will all dine at my club tonight, since you ladies doubtless have much to discuss.”
“Let’s settle the wedding dress issue now,” Josephine said to Vera impulsively, clasping her hands. “Constance and Ophelia are here, as is Madeline, and we’ll bring Rose to Elmridge House too. We can all go through my dresses and choose one for the wedding. Then I will be ready to marry, won’t I?”
Vera and Madeline looked at one another and blinked with equal incomprehension of these leaps of logic. Josephine’s sister then shrugged and nodded with a weary laugh.
“Why not? The gentlemen are dining out and this has been a most peculiar day already. What you suggest is certainly no stranger than what has already occurred. I shall speak with Constance and Ophelia shortly.”
“I shall go and tell my father now,” Madeline agreed, her face bright with amusement and relief.
“The carriage can take him home and then I’ll collect Rose and come back.
Father will be most relieved to hear you are marrying the Duke of Ashbourne in the regular way and there is no real scandal, only your usual mischief. ”
As Madeline temporarily departed, Vera put an arm around Josephine’s shoulders and kissed her cheek.
“No scandal, only your usual mischief,” she murmured fondly and then headed towards the housekeeper’s room to rearrange dinner plans.
“I like the pink silk,” Rose offered but Madeline shook her head.
“No, pink silk looks well on you, Rose. It does not flatter Josephine’s complexion. White, cream, green or blue are her colors.”
“Madeline is right,” Vera concurred. “I favor the cream muslin with green trimmings. What do you think Ophelia?”
“Madeline’s colors are right for Josephine, but I prefer silk for a summer wedding,” Ophelia offered. “What about that champagne silk walking suit, with the green sash and bonnet, as Vera says?”
Josephine stood among the multitude of dresses and accessories laid out around the drawing room of Elmridge House, moving from one to another and holding them up with the help of Betsy, Vera’s maid.
For the first time in her life, she was really enjoying being at the centre of this game, perhaps because she sensed it would be the last time her sisters would get to dress her.
“It is a little too…functional,” Vera said critically. “It does not have the air of a wedding dress.”
“I suppose you are right, Vera. Do you remember how beautiful your wedding dress was?”
“So many layers of sheer silk and French lace trimmings,” Vera reminisced, refilling her glass of champagne from the ice-bucket and waving away Betsy’s help as she refreshed other glasses in the room. “It was lovely, but quite a challenge for the wedding night.”
“I remember thinking that it would be,” Ophelia commented opaquely. “So well-fitted but so many buttons!”
The two older women shared a brief humorous glance that made Rose frown in puzzlement.
“Surely, it is best to have one’s wedding dress securely fastened?” she observed innocently, at which both Josephine and Madeline also smiled.
“I’m sure it is,” Madeline reassured their most innocent friend.
At that moment, the drawing room opened and Constance finally reappeared, having excused herself to the retiring room ten minutes earlier.
“Constance, what do you think?” Josephine asked straight away, finding that she still wanted her eldest sister’s approval, regardless of her more staid attitudes. “We have been through ten dresses now and everyone has a different opinion.”
Lady Norfield smiled and entered the room fully, bearing in her arms another dress entirely.
“I wondered whether you might consider this gown? It never suited me well and I never wore it outside the fitting room. We are a similar height and build, and a few alterations would suffice to make it your own, Josephine.”