Page 97 of The Fortunes of Ashmore Castle

‘Of course it is!’ She felt he was slipping away from her.

‘I love you, too,’ he said. ‘I just want you to be happy.’

‘I am happy! Terribly happy! Shall we go inside and dance? I’m starting to feel cold.’

‘Of course,’ he said, and led her back down the terrace towards the bright lights.

The telegram came in the morning, when everyone was still abed after the exertions of the ball. Afton took it in to Giles with his morning tea.

Giles sipped while he opened it. ‘Damn,’ he said.

‘Not bad news I hope, my lord?’

It was from Mrs Webster. LORD CORDWELL WORSE + DOCTOR SAYS IT IS PNEUMONIA + OUTLOOK CONCERNING++

Giles gave it to Afton to read. ‘She wouldn’t have sent it unless Dr Welkes was really worried,’ Afton said.

‘It isn’t right to leave her alone with the responsibility. I had better go back. Fetch me some hot water right away, will you. And bring me some toast and marmalade on a tray, and I’ll eat it while I’m dressing. Can you pack in time to come with me?’

‘There isn’t much to pack, my lord. I’ll be ready.’

Giles went to Kitty’s room to find her sitting up in bed with her tea and bread-and-butter tray, while Hatto pottered about tidying.

‘Oh dear, I’m so sorry,’ she said, when she had read the telegram. ‘Poor little soul. Are you going back? There won’t be anything you can do that isn’t being done already.’

‘But I think I should be there. For morale, and to make decisions.’

‘Will you come back here?’ she asked.

‘It depends what happens. But I was only intending to be here for a few days anyway. There’s a lot to do at home.’

‘I see,’ she said, with a very small sigh. He hadn’t asked her to come with him. She could simply assume he wanted her and go, of course, but it would be a huge upheaval to get everything packed and ready, for her and the children, and they had engagements for the whole week ahead. And she didn’t want to risk another rejection. She wasn’t sure her heart could stand it.

Sebastian and Dory arrived at the church together, to find Richard standing outside. He grinned at Sebastian’s surprised expression.

‘Couldn’t let you put your head in the noose all alone!’ he said. ‘I am here to be your supporter, if you’ll allow?’

‘I’d be delighted!’ Sebastian shook his hand with vigorous gratitude. ‘May I present—’ he began.

‘We have met,’ Richard interrupted. He bowed over her hand with a smile and said, ‘I give you joy, madam. And may I say you are looking very beautiful on this happiest of days?’

Dory smiled uncertainly, unsure how to take him. She had mended his nightshirt and sewed on his buttons without being his wife, and the situation ought to have been awkward. But he seemed quite relaxed. And she did think, in all modesty, that she looked well, though she would never have said beautiful. Sebastian had approved her wedding outfit. It was a ready-made, but her neat figure was not hard to fit. It was a two-piece in dusky pink crêpe de Chine, and the high-necked, finely tucked blouse underneath had real Alençon lace on it, while her new hat of forward-tilted ivory glazed straw was filled with an extravagance of pink and white artificial roses.

‘You may,’ Sebastian said, ‘and she does. Shall we go in?’

Above them, the church clock began to strike as they walked together down the aisle, and the priest came out of the vestry, with the clerk beside him for a witness. Crooks was already there, sitting modestly in the rearmost pew. The priest looked at the assembly doubtfully, as if wondering whether a marriage like this, with no family or friends attending, was really quite the thing.

‘Shall we begin? Are you quite ready?’ he said, and then his eyes went past them to the door of the church, which had been left open on such a lovely day. All of them looked round.

Grandmère was walking slowly towards them, with the absolute air of a monarch approaching the throne, wearing a black-beaded magenta dress and jacket and a terrifyingly fashionable black hat filled with birds’ wings, and carrying an umbrella, which she tapped at each step so that the metal ferrule made a sound like the knocking of Fate on the door. Reaching them, she gave them a raised-eyebrowed look that dared them to question her on any point.

Sebastian took her hand, and said simply, ‘Thank you, Victoire.’

Richard bent to kiss her cheek, in order to say, for her ears only, ‘You steal the show, as always, ma chère. What changed your mind?’

‘I have been the lover for twenty years of another woman’s husband,’ she murmured into his ear. ‘I know a little about mésalliance.’

Then as he straightened, she lifted the umbrella imperiously and said to the priest, ‘You may proceed.’