Both men turned to Hudson, who shrugged. “I just want to make sure I know the story before I go share it with my wife.”
“You aren’t tired of saying that yet?” Aaron asked.
“Not at all.”
A ripple of laughter sounded from the row of stalls.
Hudson grinned. “Never mind. She’s already heard. Never try to keep secrets in this stable.”
Bianca came running around the corner. Unfortunately, she wasn’t alone. Oliver and Graham were on her bootheels. Why had no one told these people that aristocrats were not supposed to tarry in stables? Collect the horse, drop off the horse, stay out of the horse trainer’s business.
“You’re going to London, aren’t you?” She clapped her hands. “Should we all come?”
“No,” Aaron said firmly.
Her face fell. “You aren’t going to London?”
“Oh, I’m going to London, but you aren’t coming with me.” He turned to Fitzroy. “Tell me what you know.”
“They’re staying at Clarendon Hotel.”
Aaron nodded and turned back to his friends, all of whom were smiling like lunatics. He sighed. “You are enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“Immensely.” Oliver grinned. “I just wish Fitzroy had told me instead of you so that I could drag you off by the ear like you did me.”
“The situations are completely different.”
“The lady loves you, you love the lady but think she wants more than you can offer, so she runs off to supposedly get it, and if you don’t follow her, you might lose her forever?” Oliver shrugged. “You’re right. I don’t see the similarities at all.”
“You win the award for most irritating.” Aaron looked to Graham. “How is your wife?”
The question surprised him. “I . . . believe she’s doing well?”
“Good. You can come with me. I still feel strange going to your parents’ home without you.”
“You know Oliver’s coming too, right? It’s always been the three of us. Just because we have wives doesn’t change that.”
Aaron opened his mouth.
Graham cut in. “Nor does the fact that you currently find him annoying.”
Aaron sighed.
Oliver clapped him on the shoulder. “What was it you told me?”
“Stop being a chub and fight for the woman you love.”
“Ah yes,” Oliver said. “I remember now. Is it my turn to say that to you?”
As Aaron considered the ramifications of hitting a man who would one day be an earl, Oliver scampered away, laughing.
“You know,” Graham mused, “Father knows the archbishop. We might be able to make a case that Miss Fitzroy doesn’t have a parish and get you a special license.”
“If you get married without me, Aaron Whitworth, I’ll be very upset.” Bianca crossed her arms and frowned.
“And I’ll be upset if you make my wife upset.” The grin on Hudson’s face took the threat out of his statement.
Not that Aaron cared. His mind was stuck on the idea that he could come home from London with a wife and not just the promise of one.
He looked at Fitzroy. “I won’t have anything but a one-room cottage for at least a year.”
“She spent two years sleeping under a wagon. I don’t think she’ll mind.”
“Am I to assume, then, that I have your blessing?”
“I wouldn’t have told you where she was if you didn’t. But if you think to marry her without me there, I’ll retract it.”
He looked at the group of people surrounding him. There were varied qualities of clothing, varied levels of stable grime, and an absurd conglomeration of pasts that never should have brought them together, yet here they were. With him. Including him. Supporting him.
“Gentlemen,” he said, his chest feeling warm and full for the first time in days, “load up every carriage we have. We’re going to London.”
SOPHIA STOOD AT the window, staring down at the street. By her calculations, today was the day. If he didn’t arrive today . . . well, then she’d be at this window again tomorrow and every day after that, until Jonas wrote her and told her he wasn’t coming.
Behind her, Harriet was happily scribbling away on a letter to the new Lady Stildon, detailing her decision to stay in London instead of go on a grand adventure. Harriet was depending upon her ladyship’s gossiping about that news so the information would filter down to Aaron. “Just you wait,” she’d said as she pulled out her pen, “he’ll be here shortly after the new year.”
Sophia wasn’t waiting that long.
On Christmas morning, it had occurred to her that she was taking advice from someone who was not married and had not, as far as she knew, ever been close. Harriet had never even claimed to be in love.
Counting on her plan seemed foolish, and Sophia no longer wanted to be a fool. So, she’d gone to her brother, who had also never been married or in love but was, at least, a man, and they’d made a plan.
It was a version of Harriet’s plan, in that it still gave Aaron a way to reject her gently and maintain the friendship. It did not, however, rely on speculation and gossip.
Jonas was to give her two days to get to London, then mention to Aaron that was where they’d gone.
Coming after her was then Aaron’s choice to make.
If he’d come on the mail coach, he could have been here two days ago. If he rode his own horse or took a carriage, the earliest arrival would be today.
What would she do if he didn’t show?
What would she do if he did?
The day dragged on with a visit to the museum, a cold walk through the park, a stop in to see Mrs. Carlton at the school, and a visit to an old friend of Harriet’s. When they returned to the hotel, there were no messages.
WHEN A FOOTMAN delivered a letter the next morning, Sophia’s heart both jumped and plummeted. Was it from Aaron? Or Jonas?
Neither, as it turned out. It wasn’t even for Sophia. Harriet was being invited to tea with Lady Grableton.
Graham’s mother.
The woman Aaron had gone to for assistance.
Hope once more sent her stomach simultaneously up into her throat and down into her shoes.
“She must have heard we were in town from Mrs. Carlton,” Harriet said as she dressed for the day.
Sophia would rather the headmistress had nothing to do with it. She put on her nicest dress and trembled the entire way to Mayfair.
They were shown to Lady Grableton’s drawing room, where the woman was not alone. Lady Wharton, Lady Farnsworth, and Lady Stildon were all in attendance and smiling like loons.
Sophia’s knees threatened to give way.
“Oh!” Harriet said from the entrance. “All of you are . . . here?”
“Miss Fitzroy, dear, I wonder if you wouldn’t mind going to the—”
“Yes!” Sophia’s teeth snapped together, and she cleared her throat. “I mean, I would be happy to.” They’d be sending her to Aaron, wouldn’t they? They wouldn’t all be here if Aaron hadn’t come for her.
Would they?
Although why Aaron had brought them all she couldn’t fathom.
“Good, good.” Lady Grableton handed Sophia a piece of paper. “Please give this to my coachman. Ask him for the package in the coach earlier today.”