Page 41 of A Sporting Chance (The Chances #8)

After all, had not his own been repaired?

Had Lady Romeril herself not declared, in that rather direct way of hers, at her dinner just days ago that she thought the whole thing around his betting had been blown out of proportion, that a losing streak one night was hardly evidence of cheating on other nights?

That perhaps, anyone with sense would take it as evidence of the opposite—that he usually enjoyed luck and employed skill but had had one terrible evening at the tables?

He’d even received an invitation from her for a card party this afternoon. He wouldn’t be going. He had a far more important engagement.

“So, are we all ready?” Leopold’s father’s voice carried over the chatter of the room as he looked at his son.

Leopold nodded his head. “I believe so.”

“Ready?” Kathleen looked confused. “Ready for what?”

Ah, yes. He hadn’t told her.

Well, he had not been sure whether he could get the whole family on board. Maude had been easy. Alexander had agreed but clearly had decided not to turn up, the rogue. His mother had been willing, and Thomas had argued his corner, thus convincing his father.

That agreement had only been made that morning.

“Ready for the wedding, of course,” Leopold said lightly.

Miss Andilet put her gloved fingers to both cheeks. “I… I really will have to leave soon if I am to make it to the church on time.”

“Nonsense,” said William Chance sternly.

Silence fell around the room as Leopold’s ribcage tightened.

Oh, please. Please, Father , he silently begged him. Please do not do anything to shame me. Please do not bring judgment on a bride’s happy day.

“You can’t be on time,” continued his father, his face breaking into a slow smile. “A bride is always late. It is her right to keep the man waiting. You will take our carriage, needless to say.”

Leopold’s jaw fell open.

Kathleen was tugging his sleeve. “Leopold, what is going on—take your carriage? But that would be tantamount to approval! That would be almost marrying Angela from this house!”

“So it would,” Leopold said with a croak.

He had not taken his gaze from his father, who smiled faintly and inclined his head with a shrug, as if to say, ‘Who says I cannot be beneficent if I wish?’

“Leopold Chance, I want you to explain what is going on right now!”

Pulling Kathleen to the window as his family started moving to the hall, chattering excitedly, Leopold said in a low voice, “Look, I knew that there would not be many people at your sister’s wedding.”

Pink tinges appeared in Kathleen’s cheeks. “The scandal was just a misunderstanding, yet my parents still refuse to approve of the nuptials.”

“I know—I know your friends cannot travel from the country, and that you and your sister have made few friends here so far,” Leopold said in a rush, taking her hand.

“You want your family with you on a momentous occasion such as this, and I knew you would not have all your family, but…but we are to become family.”

Her eyes were shining and Leopold did not know whether he was doing a particularly good job at explaining this—but he had to try.

“We will be family, and that means my family will be yours. I wanted to support you. I wanted your sister to get married before a full church, a church of people who admire her and respect her. She and her betrothed agreed—and agreed to keep it a surprise from you. Father procured a special license for the couple. And I invited my family. All of them.”

Kathleen’s eyes widened. “All your siblings?”

“Rather more that.”

“Not… Not all of the Chances?”

“What is the point of having twelve cousins if you cannot get a crowd together?” Leopold said with a smile.

For a moment, she just stood there, frozen to the spot, as though he had spoken Dutch instead of English. Then Kathleen threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.

“You didn’t have to do that,” she said in a muffled voice into his neck.

Leopold returned her tight embrace. “I wanted to support you.”

“We all do,” came a stiff and slightly awkward voice.

Breaking apart, Leopold turned to stare at his father, who was now wearing his top hat and carrying a cane.

William Chance smiled. “Come on, then. Let’s get the two of you to the church.”

In the carriage, Kathleen was doing her best not to cry with happiness, and Leopold was doing his best not to notice.

This was what he’d wanted. It wasn’t just a connection, though that was certainly the bedrock of what they shared—it was a determination to share life together, to love each other, to care about each other beyond what was needed or expected.

To go beyond, to give everything one could with no expectation of return.

When the carriage pulled up outside the church, there was a bit of a crush to get inside.

“Careful now!” Maude grinned as she stepped down from the carriage. “Lilianna, you rogue, what are you wearing!”

“Has anyone seen Alexander?” asked Leopold’s mother, looking around outside the church with a worried expression. “He most definitely promised me he’d be here.”

“Lord, what a crush,” Thomas said with a laugh, punching Leopold on the shoulder. “Goodness, they managed to force Frank into a dress—you do mean business! And there’s Lucy, and Gwen, and Benjamin. You really know how to organize, little brother!”

Leopold hit his brother back, only a mite harder. “Do you think you can organize this rabble into the church and turn them into a congregation?”

Thomas winked. “I’ll see what I can do. Come on, Victoria. Time to put this family in order.”

It took a startling amount of time to shepherd the Chance cousins into the church, his Uncle George sobbing into a lace handkerchief as he always did at weddings, even when he’d never met the bride or bridegroom before, apparently.

It was only when a hand slipped into his that Leopold realized he had been most remiss.

“I do apologize,” he said quietly as he and Kathleen slipped into the pew right behind where Sir Paul, a rather lanky and tall man, was standing. “I have been ignoring you.”

“You have been doing so to give my sister a wedding she can be proud of,” she returned with sparkling eyes. “Thank you. Thank you, Leopold.”

And although he knew that one should absolutely not do things merely for the thanks one received, he could not help but smile in delight at the way she looked at him.

She was so beautiful—so kind, so unexpecting of kindness. And that was why he was going to spend the rest of his life making sure that she was adored, and quite rightly so.

“I only wish our mother and brother could have been here,” Kathleen said, biting her lip as she arranged her skirts. “And our father. To give her away. She will have to walk in alone now.”

Organ music sounded, filling the church with a cacophony of sound, and Leopold smiled as they rose with the rest of the congregation. “I thought of that, too.”

Kathleen opened her mouth to say something—presumably to ask him what on earth he meant—but she was saved the trouble of doing so when the doors opened and Miss Angela Andilet appeared in the doorway, arm in arm with William Chance, the Dowager Duke of Cothrom.

She gasped. “Oh, Leopold.”

It was rather a challenge to keep from tearing up himself. The bride was beautiful, the groom looked ecstatic, the whole Chance family—all his uncles, aunts, and cousins—had turned up as a show of force. Alexander, the rascal, was the only one missing.

And as Miss Andilet finished giving her vows, and the vicar had declared them husband and wife, and the crowd started clapping—

“Leopold!”

The low hiss was just behind him. Leopold rolled his eyes. “We’re just finishing up a wedding, Maudy.”

“You know I hate that nickname,” came the hiss from behind him. “I’ve got to tell you something or I’ll burst.”

He shouldn’t have been surprised, really. “And that is?”

“I’m getting married.”

Leopold’s ability to breathe and speak and cough at the same time was sadly lacking, so he spluttered for a moment, gaining dark looks from those around him.

Maude—married?

“I don’t want to tell the rest of the family yet. I’m keeping it quiet,” came the entirely calm whisper of his sister from behind him as she clapped her hands. “But I had to tell someone. Keep it to yourself, won’t you?”

Leopold’s eyes were bulging and he was in half a mind to get up, turn around, and demand answers, but Kathleen grabbed his arm then, squealing and drawing her attention back to the baronet and his new baronetess.

The rest of the day was a blur. The Chances had invited half the neighborhood for the wedding luncheon.

Oh, Leopold shook a great many hands, and directed the footmen as they passed around a good number of silver platters covered with delicious things that Cook had concocted, and made sure not to drink more than a single glass of wine.

Maude, who would not stop for even a second to explain more about her shocking, secret news, was having a ball of a time, constantly followed by their mother trying to keep her in check, and Alexander appeared at one point, most distressingly leaving with a young lady whose name Leopold could not quite remember…

though her father was shouting it most profusely as he looked for her an hour later.

It was going to be another awkward day for the Chance family when that caught up with them.

By the time the bride and groom had left, Leopold had hidden himself away in the library and was lolling on an armchair, wondering how on earth he was going to survive his own nuptials.

“You look exhausted.”

He looked up and felt his heart flutter. “I am.”

Kathleen closed the door behind her. “Weddings are a great deal of fuss, aren’t they?”

“I’m not an expert, though I have been to a few family weddings recently, and they were all very much a to-do,” admitted Leopold with a chuckle as he held out a hand.

His beautiful future bride stepped across the room and took his hand, slipping elegantly onto his lap and making parts of him sit up and take notice. “I don’t suppose we could elope.”

“We certainly could,” said Leopold, kissing her shoulder and reveling in the way she shuddered with delight in his arms. “We haven’t had the banns read yet. We don’t have a special license. That might mean Gretna Green—Father has some property in Scotland. But it would be an awful scandal.”

“Scandal?”

“My mother would be upset, is what I mean,” he clarified with a chuckle as he trailed kisses up Kathleen’s shoulder toward her décolletage. Dear God, but she was delectable.

Kathleen leaned back to allow him to bury his face between her breasts and moaned, which did absolutely nothing to help him calm his manhood. “Leopold…”

“If you’re not careful,” he muttered in a low voice, his hand trailing along her leg and caressing her thigh, “I shall be tempted to do something absolutely terrible.”

“Why do you think I locked the door?” Kathleen replied, her teasing smile so seductive, Leopold was tempted to slip his hand under her skirts immediately. “I had to give you a sporting chance to seduce me.”

He groaned and twisted her round to straddle across his hips, fingers fumbling at the buttons of his trousers. “God, I love you.”

“Good,” she said quietly, lowering her lips to his and kissing him firmly, her fingers running through his hair. “Because you’re about to make me love you even more…”