Mary Balogh: First Comes Marriage

He conversed with you while you danced." "Because I forced him into it," Vanessa said. "He told me that I was quite ravishingly beautiful." "Nessie!" Katherine exclaimed. "And then he went on to say that so was every other lady in the room without exception," Vanessa told them. "Which effectively negated the compliment, would you not say?" "Was that when you threw back your head and laughed?" Margaret asked. "You had everyone in the room smiling, Nessie, and wishing they could eaves-drop. You /forced /him into speaking such nonsense? How do you do it? You have always had a gift for making people laugh. Even Hedley when he was… very ill." Vanessa had used the last reserves of her energy during those final few weeks, making him laugh, keeping him smiling. She had collapsed afterward. She had scarcely been able to drag herself out of bed for two whole weeks after the funeral. "Oh," she said, blinking away tears, "but it was Viscount Lyngate who made /me /laugh." "Did he explain," Katherine asked, "why he is in Throckbridge?" "He did not," Vanessa said. "But he did say something very peculiar. He asked me about the /third /Huxtable sister, having been presented only to the two of you. Did Papa-in-law mention my existence when he presented Viscount Lyngate to you last evening?" "Not that I recall," Margaret said, looking up from the pillowcase she was mending. "He did not," Katherine said decisively. "Perhaps he said something after they walked away from us, or when he was presenting Stephen. Did you answer him?" "I told him /I /was the third sister," Vanessa said. "And he commented that he had not been informed that one of us had been married. Then he changed the subject and asked me about Hedley." "How peculiar indeed," Katherine said. "I wonder," Vanessa said, "what Viscount Lyngate /is /doing in Throckbridge - if he is not just innocently passing through, that is. But he told Papa-in-law that he has business here. How did he know there were /three /Huxtable sisters? And why would that fact be of any interest whatsoever to him?" "Idle curiosity, I daresay," Margaret said. "Whatever does Stephen do to split the seams of every pillowcase I put on his bed?" She picked up another and tackled it with her needle and thread. "Perhaps it was /not /idle curiosity," Katherine said, jumping suddenly to her feet, her eyes fixed beyond the parlor window. "He is coming here now. They /both /are." Her voice had risen to something resembling a squeak.

Margaret hastily set aside her mending and Vanessa turned her head sharply to look out the window and see that indeed Viscount Lyngate and Mr. Bowen were coming through the garden gate and proceeding up the path to the front door. Her father-in-law must have had an uncharacteristically short visit with them. "I say!" They could hear Stephen clattering down the stairs, calling as he came, obviously glad of any excuse to escape from his books for a while. "Meg? We have visitors coming. Ah, are you here too, Nessie? I daresay the viscount was smitten with your charms last evening and has come to offer for you. I shall question him very sternly about his ability to support you before I give my consent." He grinned and winked at her. "Oh, dear," Katherine said as a knock sounded at the door, "whatever does one say to a /viscount/?" The two gentlemen had come here to Throckbridge, Vanessa realized suddenly in some shock, because of /them/. /They /were the business the viscount had spoken of. He had known of them before he came here, though he had not been informed that one of them had been married. What a strange and intriguing mystery this was! She was very glad she had come here this morning.

They waited for Mrs. Thrush to open the front door. And then they waited for the parlor door to open, as if they were presenting a silent tableau on a stage. After what was only a few moments but felt like several minutes, it opened and the two gentlemen were announced.

It was the viscount who entered first this time.

There was no concession to the country in his appearance this morning, Vanessa was quick to see. He wore a calf-length heavy greatcoat, which must have sported a dozen capes, a tall beaver hat, which he had already removed, tan leather gloves, which he was in the process of removing, and supple black leather boots, which must have cost a fortune. He looked larger, more imposing, more forbidding - and ten times more gorgeous - than he had appeared last evening as he glanced around the small parlor before bowing to Margaret. He was also frowning, as though this were a visit he did not relish. He looked far from joking and flirting this morning.

Why had he come here? /Why on earth?/ "Miss Huxtable," he said. He turned to them each in turn. "Mrs. Dew?

Miss Katherine? Huxtable?" Mr. Bowen bowed to them all, smiling genially. "Ladies? Huxtable?" he said.

Vanessa told herself quite deliberately, as she had the evening before, that she was /not /going to be awed by a fashionable greatcoat and costly boots and a title. Or by a darkly handsome, finely chiseled, frowning face. Gracious heavens, her father-in-law was not a nobody. He was a baronet!

She /felt /awed nonetheless. Viscount Lyngate looked quite out of place in Meg's humble, not-quite-shabby parlor. He made it look many times smaller than usual. He seemed to have sucked half the air out of it. "My lord? Mr. Bowen?" Margaret said with admirable composure as she indicated the two chairs that flanked the fireplace. "Won't you have a seat? Will you bring a tray of tea, please, Mrs. Thrush?" They all seated themselves as Mrs. Thrush, looking decidedly relieved at being dismissed, whisked herself out of sight.

Mr. Bowen complimented them on the picturesque appearance of the cottage. He guessed that the garden was a picture of color and beauty during the summer. He commended the village on the success of last evening's assembly. He had spent a decidedly agreeable evening, he assured them.

Viscount Lyngate spoke again after the tray had been brought in and the tea poured. "I am the bearer of news that concerns all of you," he said. "I am afraid it is my sad duty to inform you all of the recent demise of the Earl of Merton." They all stared at him for a moment. "That is sad news indeed," Margaret said, breaking the silence, "and I am much obliged to you for bringing it in person, my lord. I believe we do have a connection with the earl's family, though we have never had any communication with them. Our father discouraged any talk of them.

Nessie may be better acquainted with the exact relationship." She looked inquiringly at her sister.

Vanessa had spent a great deal of time with her paternal grandparents as a child and had always listened enthralled to their endless stories of their younger years while Margaret had been less interested. "Our grandfather was a younger son of the Earl of Merton," she said. "He was cut off from the family when they objected to his wild ways and his choice of our grandmother as his bride. He never saw them again. He used to tell me that our papa was first cousin to the current earl. Is it he who has just died, my lord? That would make us his first cousins once removed." "I say," Stephen said, "that really is quite a close relationship. I had no idea, though I knew there was /some /connection. We are indeed obliged to you, my lord, for coming. Did the new earl ask you to find us? Is there some question of a family reconciliation?" He had brightened considerably. "I am not sure I would /want /one," Katherine said with some feeling, "if they all turned their backs on Grandpapa because he married Grandmama. We would not even exist if he had not." "I shall nevertheless write a letter of condolence to the new earl and his family," Margaret said. "It is the civil thing to do. Would you not agree, Nessie? Perhaps you would take it with you when you go, my lord." "The earl who recently died was a mere boy of sixteen," Viscount Lyngate explained. "He survived his father by only three years. I was his guardian and the executor of his estates after the demise of my own father last year. Unfortunately the boy was always in precarious health and was never expected to live to adulthood." "Ah, poor boy," Vanessa murmured.