He was finally going to be able to find out.
Chapter 21
Patience held the card in her hand. Was she reading it correctly? Sixteen similar cards stood in a pile on the table in the foyer, waiting to be opened. She assumed they would say the same thing. She grabbed the lot of them and ran to Nicholas’s study.
She threw open the door, nearly out of breath. “What are these?”
Nicholas looked up from whatever paper he had been looking over. “From here it looks as if they are cards.”
“Lady Shirley has accepted our invitation to the ball in honor of General Woodsworth in two weeks’ time.”
“Oh, that is good news. I rather enjoy Lady Shirley’s company, even if all she ever speaks of is her cat.”
“Nicholas, you know full well that is not what I am talking about. Since when are we hosting a ball honoring General Woodsworth?”
“The truth is I’ve wanted to host a ball in his honor ever since becoming the Duke of Harrington. But we have been in mourning.”
“Mr. Anthony Woodsworth will be attending this ball.”
“I should hope so.”
“Nicholas, do not tease me. I’ve spent three months out in society, and I thank you for them. They have shown me that there is no one else in the world like Mr. Woodsworth. But now I must know. Are you going to allow him to court me?”
“The dunderhead hasn’t directly asked me.”
“But assuming he has some interest in me still after all the deceiving I have done, would you allow it?”
Nicholas made a strange face. He pulled his lips together and then covered his mouth with his hand. “If he has interest?” Nicholas mumbled through his fingers just before he burst into laughter. He bent over his desk and grabbed his side. Nicholas was laughing. It was beautiful but also confusing.
“What is so funny?”
“You don’t think he has an interest in you anymore?”
Patience had worried about it. Mr. Woodsworth had seemed genuinely hurt by her deception, but she thought she could convince him somehow. Kiss him if she had to—that had moved him before. But Nicholas’s reaction had her feeling lost again.
Nicholas stood up and went to a cabinet. He opened one of the lower drawers and started pulling out stacks and stacks of papers.
“What are those?”
“Your Woodsworth has been sending me plans.”
Patience dashed to his side. He kept pulling out more and more papers. Sure enough, that was Mr. Woodsworth’s neat writing. Some of the papers had been divided into rows and columns, complete with dates, and others were written letter-style. “How long has he been sending these?”
“The first one came a month after you had been home. Apparently he forgave you rather quickly. This Woodsworth of yours has a very active brain. You should see some of the ideas he came up with. Giving all of his servants large payouts to leave his employ; moving the two of you to Kent for ten years; claiming that you and Miss Mary Smith are cousins and explaining away the resemblance that way . . .”
She slid her fingers along the stacks and stacks of papers. “May I have them?”
“What do you want them for? You will be seeing your Woodsworth in a few short weeks at the general’s ball.”
“It may seem like a short time to you, Nicholas, but for me it will be hard to bear.”
“Take them. I was running out of room to store them any longer as it is.”
Patience gathered as many as she could into her arms. She would have to come back for the rest later.
On her way out the door, she stopped. “Did you ever answer him?”
“Just once.”
“What did you say to him?”
“I told him once he had garnered an introduction, he would be free to come call on you.”
She nearly dropped her precious load. Running back to her brother, she placed a kiss on his temple. “Thank you, Nicholas.”
“Don’t thank me. My name had come up on the betting books at White’s as having a lover because one of the servants must have spread rumors about those letters. I had to put a stop to it somehow.”
“If I ever find that servant, I shall thank him or her.”
“You, of all people, should know that with that kind of indiscretion, the only thanks they would receive would be losing their position.”
She smiled. He was right, of course, but she couldn’t be angry at anyone now. Patience had spent the last three months wondering if there was any chance Mr. Woodsworth could ever forgive her. Now she held proof in her hands that he would.
Chapter 22
Mama pinched Patience’s cheeks one more time for good measure. Patience returned the favor, and Mama laughed. Ever since their early morning together, it was as if Mama had come alive again. Patience knew she had felt extreme guilt over leaving her children, and finding a way to help Patience had eased some of that.
“I’m so happy for you. This man you have found seems like a good one.”
“You haven’t even met him.”
“I learned more about him from those letters you showed me than I could have learned in months of morning calls and card parties.”
Patience couldn’t argue with that. She had read from the letters every day. It was almost like being with Mr. Woodsworth. She wished so badly she could have returned a letter to him, but that had to wait. They weren’t engaged.
She and Mama descended the stairs, and Nicholas kissed them both. He had warmed up to Mama in the past few days, and she had finally let down her walls enough to cry alone in the garden a couple of times.
“I wish Papa could be here tonight,” Patience said.
Nicholas held them each by one shoulder. “He will be.”
Mama grabbed his hand and squeezed it. They all knew he was right.
The footman announced that the first carriage had arrived, and they took their place in the receiving line as the first guests arrived.
It was the Woodsworths, of course. The only family in London who arrived on time to a party.
Patience had been prepared to meet Mr. Woodsworth in a room full of people, not just the two of their families. This felt too intimate and formal at the same time.
General Woodsworth was the first to come through the line. Skipping formalities with no one else there, he and Nicholas shook hands and grabbed each other by the shoulders. Then the introductions began. First Nicholas, then Mama, and finally . . .