She smoothed her gloved hands down the embroidered silk, admiring her reflection in the cheval mirror, and pondered her future as Lord Ellicott’s wife.
Ellicott was possessed of great wit and conversation. They had a great many things in common—mutual friends, a love of London, and other amusements. He had a face to make many a debutant utterly flustered. She could not do better.
Even her sweet old grandfather, the Duke of Rutherford, had agreed with her there was no better man in England when she had shared her hopes of a proposal from Ellicott with him. He had taken the news very seriously and then told her if the right man were to propose no expense would be spared for her wedding this time around. He would give her and her future husband free use of Torre Cottage, the little-used dower house she admired so much on the edge of the estate, as a wedding gift if she would live there for most of the year.
She turned away from the mirror, well pleased with her appearance and the future laid out before her.
A wistful sigh escaped Evelyn. “I will not have to wait as long as you to find a man worthy of my regard. Love is a surety for me.”
Evelyn’s come-out might be a year away still, but the girl never doubted she would marry for love and only that. Sally remembered being so optimistic at sixteen, but that feeling had not survived past her eighteenth year. Sally’s reasons for delay in choosing a husband had been a private indecision on her part. “Well, whatever happens, the wait will seem like nothing once you settle on the right man.”
“I would rather not settle,” Evelyn said before sticking her nose into her book again. Evelyn was not impressed by Sally’s news she was to marry, and certainly not by Lord Ellicott. Not even the fact he was titled, an earl, swayed her into a more understanding frame of mind. “I will only marry a man who loves me madly,” she proclaimed.
Her youngest cousin was decidedly against the match, but she would have to accept it eventually. They might be cousins, but having lived together under the same roof in their grandfather’s homes their entire lives, they were as close as sisters. It was unthinkable that they would be at odds over such a silly thing as her choice of husband, and Sally hoped Evelyn could accept her decision and be happy for her.
“I am sure you will find someone when the time is right.” She turned her back to Louisa. “Unbutton me so I might put the gown away in readiness for my wedding day.”
“I cannot believe how soon that day will come,” Louisa whispered as she slipped buttons from their moorings. “Are you really so sure of him?”
Louisa was twenty and unmarried, a fact that didn’t seem to concern her. However, she had been unusually interested in Sally’s reasons for singling out Ellicott for notice during the season.
“I’m sure enough.” Sally stepped from the frothy white pile of fabric and stood in her unmentionables, rubbing a sudden chill from her arms. “Is that thunder or a carriage?”
Both women flew to the windows in excitement. “Is it William?”
They peered out and then slumped.
“That is not one of our carriages,” Evelyn whispered sadly, then flung herself onto the bed. “It is leaving anyway.”
Louisa cheered up first. “Oh, do say you will wear Grandmother’s star coronet with the gown when you marry Ellicott,” she pleaded, slipping open a dresser drawer and removing the beloved family heirloom to hold it up to the light. The piece, fine silver wire and stunning blue gems, had been Sally’s to wear on special occasions since her come-out eight years ago but now mocked her with its purity.
“That would be too much for the simple wedding I will have now.” She took the coronet and regretfully placed it back into the drawer where mementos of her younger days rested. She had agreed to a short engagement and a ceremony without fuss instead of the grand affair she had envisaged. Ellicott’s relations could not arrive in time for the ceremony anyway.
Sally crossed to the bed, nudged Evelyn so she would make room, and curled up at her side against the headboard. Her cousin’s mind was miles away, and Sally was concerned enough to grasp her hands. “I am sorry William has not come home yet.”
William, Evelyn’s older brother and Sally’s cousin, had been injured in an engagement against a French warship; however, no one would explain the extent of his injuries or why they could not see him.
“It has been so long since he came ashore,” Evelyn whispered as her eyes grew glassy with unshed tears. “Why does Grandfather prevent us from going to London to see him? He is being so unreasonable.”
“We will hear something soon, I am sure. He is alive and we must have faith in him.” Sally was worried though. It had been too long since they had had any news of William. Sally longed to comfort the girl and threw an arm around her shoulders to pull her close. She had hoped news of her marriage might cheer everyone, and it had to a degree. Yet she did wonder at the prudence of considering a wedding when for all she knew one member of the family might be on the brink of death at that moment. “Take comfort that he is on English soil and not aboard ship for his recovery.”
“We should be with him, tending him,” Evelyn protested. “I
t is our right. We are his sisters. It is not our fault he and Father do not get along and would not be wanted. William should not be alone.”
Sally sighed. “He is not alone. Grandfather promised he was in the best possible hands to aid his recovery.”
“We do not even know what is wrong with him.” Evelyn sobbed suddenly, thumping her fist on the bed. Sally rubbed Evelyn’s shoulder, aware this might not be the last time her young cousin threw a fit of temper over a situation they could not control.
The men of the family refused to speak of very much to do with William within their hearing no matter how much they begged for information.
“I am sure they only wish to spare us the details. You know how our mothers will carry on. William never did like anyone fussing over him. I am sure when the worst is over we will be allowed to see him or he will come home to Newberry Park.”
She did not tell her cousin, but the first thing Sally would do as a married woman would be to visit William in London. Her grandfather could not stop her then.
Sally went to her wardrobe to hide her determination from her cousins and considered what to wear for dinner. She had to choose the perfect gown for such a special occasion as her wedding announcement. She fingered a delicate blue silk gown she had ignored for a while, considering if she could bear to wear the color again.
The door opened behind her. “You really are dragging your feet tonight, young lady,” Aunt Penelope Ford chided as she swept into the room. “Lady Ellicott was just remarking about not having seen you as yet.”