Page 59

“ S t. Teilo’s toes, it’s hot.” The Viscountess Penrydd pulled off her bonnet and fanned herself. “Are you hot, Anne?”

“I think it perfectly pleasant,” Anne remarked.

The sun shone in a sky lazy with autumnal blue, and a warm breeze wafted through the garden behind Penrydd Castle.

That towered edifice, built for pageantry and not for defense, lay snugged at the foot of the great forest of Wentworth, the gray bricks gleaming with the same air of contentment that mantled its mistress.

Anne pointed at Gwen’s belly, outlined by the Welsh shawl knotted at her waist. “Perhaps the future viscount is the issue. You’re growing quite fat, Gwen.”

“Don’t let Pen hear you speak that way,” Gwen said lazily. “He’s determined we’ll have a daughter. And I’m not as fat as Mathry.” She waved a hand at the third woman of their foursome, out gathering flowers to decorate the table for the evening’s dinner.

“Mrs. Ross to you.” Mathry giggled and tapped her cheeks with a handful of comfrey. “Finally brought my Scotsman up to scratch, I did. Had you lost all hope of me, Mrs. Evans?”

“I never doubted the man was tripping over his feet for you.” Dovey smiled and heaped her basket with hydrangea. “Much like Sir Hewitt the first time he saw our Anne.”

“Sir Hewitt,” Gwen marveled, sending Anne a triumphant grin. “How was the knighting ceremony at St. James?”

“Terrifying,” Anne said frankly. “I was certain I’d trip over my train and fall at the King’s feet. Or forget to walk backward out of the Queen’s chamber when she held her drawing room to honor us wives.”

“But now he’s a Knight Bachelor, and you are the new Lady Vaughn,” Gwen said. “How is the other Lady Vaughn adjusting?”

“I have no say in the menus or the entertainments at Greenfield,” Anne admitted.

“But I am so busy learning from Eilian and Mrs. Evans here, I have little leisure at any rate. And she has put me in charge of the staff, so I might at least hire maids, now that Calvin has decided to take an extended tour of Italy.” Anne laughed and shook her head.

“And I am summoned to sing all the time for her friends. Her ladyship does adore music.”

“Your parents must be very pleased by Hew’s elevation,” Gwen observed.

“They were more pleased to discover he has powerful friends. The Duke of York, the commander of the Royal Navy and Commander-in-Chief of the Army. Commodore Smith, who was with him at Acre. Viscount Howe, the Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance—he oversees the Artillery,” she explained for the other women, “and the Master-General, the Marquess Cornwallis, one of the most senior military officials in the country—they all spoke in Hew’s favor.

Not to mention the Earl of St. Vincent, who once sailed with our mutual friend the Viscount Penrydd.

And I suppose Pen wrote a letter for him as well? ”

“He may have done, once or several times,” Gwen admitted, pulling a stem of hellebore through her fingers. “ I have not yet been bidden to one of the Queen’s drawing rooms.”

“Yes, well, you’d only been a knight’s daughter for a moment before you wed a viscount, and then he carried you away on a wedding trip to explore your mines and count your riches,” Anne reminded her.

“I don’t doubt you’ll have your chance to wear your ermine tails and your coronet with its sixteen pearls when Parliament opens its next session.

And the Queen only had me, I think, because the Duke of Beaufort was in London as well.

Hew is very much in his pocket planning improvements to Newport, now that General Napoleon is confirmed to be back in France. ”

“And what of your brother?” Mathry dared to ask.

Anne pursed her lips. “Still being held for the assizes. I think the evidence will show he could not be the Black Hound, or at least not responsible for all his crimes. But Mr. Darch has suddenly turned into an honest businessman, while Daron was only too eager to make everyone around Newport and its environs aware he meant to take over his operations. So I think Daron can only be pardoned if Hew speaks for him, and even then, there is like to be a hefty fine.”

“Aye,” Mathry said seriously, “but did you get to keep the brandy? Because a certain housekeeper of a certain castle has a brace of hard-drinking men to keep, and?—”

“Peace,” Gwen laughed. “I hope all our stores are got by honest means, Mrs. Ross. If we’re to have a future magistrate and Member of Parliament in our family, which I think we will.”

“Good heavens.” Anne blinked. “Would I be spending the season in London too, in that case?”

“What fun we’ll have when you are!” Gwen walked the gravel path to where Anne stood peering under the blowsy petals of the dog roses.

“Ah, you’ve found the hips. Good for digestion and for passing water.

” She plucked one of the red-orange berries and rolled it between her fingers.

“Mother Morris swears they are good for the eyes.”

“And the skin,” Dovey called.

Anne smiled, though her eyes smarted as she helped Gwen place rose hips in her basket. “There is so much to learn.”

“But you have good teachers. I like this Mrs. Lambe.”

Anne nodded. “That’s not even her name. She’s just pretending to be a widow. I don’t think she’s been any closer to a man than I was before I married.”

“I wonder if she’d like to be close to the vicar?” Dovey snickered. “For certain he’d like to be close to her.”

Anne dabbed the corner of her eye with a gloved finger. “Don’t let Mr. Stanley hear you. He likes to pretend he treats her like any other member of his flock.”

Gwen reached out and took Anne’s hand. “Are you feeling low over Daron?”

“Yes.” Anne sniffled. “And outraged that he turned on me, when why should I be? He turned on you. I suppose it is his just deserts for abandoning you.”

“I only hope you will not let what happened to me—with my other child—frighten you away from something you want.”

Anne blinked away the tears. “I won’t. Hew has said he can wait until I am ready to have children.

I think in time I may be. And until then, I have a wonderful cunning woman who knows the herbs to keep me from catching.

” She turned her hand and clasped Gwen’s palm.

“Besides, I have you, and Dovey, and Mrs. Ross to help me when the time comes.”

“We are fortunate in our marriages, aren’t we?” Gwen remarked. She glanced at Dovey, her face softening. “And in our friends.”

“The wisest of women, we are,” Dovey agreed, sauntering over and allowing Gwen to take her other hand.

“Amen to that,” Mathry said, and blew them a kiss. “Ah, the moment’s ruined. Here’s one of the husbands come to fetch his bride—and it’d be the most newly wed among us, wouldn’t it?”

“I won’t be ashamed for wanting the company of my lovely wife over the coarse lot you call husbands,” Hew said.

“Oh, high in the instep now he’s got his knight’s badge, is he?” Mathry laughed.

“I manage to tolerate him.” Anne’s whole being grew soft and warm, watching her husband walk toward her down the gravel path with a smile meant only for her.

The other men turned out into the garden, continuing some heated discussion.

“Hewitt’s right. End the trade first,” the viscount was saying to Evans.

“Then you cripple the economic engine, and the landowners have less grounds to object when the whole business is abolished. Of course it might take years to bring the Lords around?—”

“We ought to be supporting the revolution in Haiti, like the American president is,” Ross argued. “Milord, tell your military friend here?—”

“We’ve lost him, he’s a man in love,” Penrydd said, going to the side of his own lady. “Can’t say as I blame him.”

Hew tucked Anne’s hand over his arm and walked the paths with her. She smiled up at him, enjoying the calm blue of his eyes, the cornflower hue of the sky, and the firm, solid warmth of his arm beneath her palm. Here was where she felt most at home—beside him.

“All’s well with the viscountess?” he said softly. “I know you were nervous about her invitation.”

“We’re friends again. It feels good to have things repaired.”

“And does she approve of me?”

“As long as you are making me this happy, I think she approves.” Anne gave him a twinkling smile. “And only look at me! Capturing a knight. Higher than my mother hoped. Sir Hewitt Vaughn, hero of Acre.”

He brought a hand to her lips. “I only hope I might give you the life you deserve. You were meant for grand things.”

Anne stepped close to him. “This is the life I want,” she whispered. “With you.”

After a moment he lifted his head and held her gaze as if he would seek out every corner of her being. “Do you finally trust me, then? To take care of you. To never turn from your side.”

Anne smiled up at him. This man. He was beyond what she’d ever thought to dream of. All those years of lonely longing, when nothing else had felt right, she’d been waiting for him.

He was worth the waiting.

Anne twined her arms about his neck, sifting her fingers through the silken hair at his nape. “I should like above all things,” she said, “if we were to take care of one another.”

“As my lady wishes,” he said, and bent for another kiss.