Page 74 of Better Off Wed

Laura’s bafflement must have shown on her face, for when he was gone, Jeremy reached over and tugged the man’s greatcoat more snuggly around her. “He’s my—my father, Laura.”

“Oh.” Suddenly, she understood the nature of yesterday’s conversation with his mother.

Some of the familiar pain rose in Jeremy’s eyes. “Does it matter?”

“To me? Not in the slightest. But does it matter to you?”

The answer seemed to require a moment of reflection. “It did,” he said at last. “A great deal. For many years, I thought him a scoundrel. But it seems I was wrong.” He glanced toward the other room. “And now my mother has another chance at happiness.”

Her hand came up to cover his where it still curled in the coat’s lapel. “As do you. I love you, Jeremy Addison.”

Just as he leaned forward to answer her with a kiss, Julia appeared at her elbow, draping a woolen blanket around Jeremy’s shoulders. “If you love her in return, dear brother, you’ll let her sit down.”

“My God, yes. I’m sorry, dearest.”

She had to protest when he made motions to carry her into the sitting room. “I’m fine, honestly. My ankle hardly hurts at all.” She glanced warily toward the walking stick, still lying on the floor between the rooms, half expecting it to be bloodstained, though in fact it looked exactly as it always had. Nevertheless, she shuddered at the sight of it. “I think you can get rid of that entirely.”

Julia picked it up by her fingertips with her arm straight and carried it away, while Laura let Jeremy lead her to a chair, the one in which he’d been sitting last night. The chessboard was still laid out, though some of the pieces had toppled over in the scuffle. He began absently to set them to rights, then bent and picked up the knight that had fallen from his hand and rolled under the table.

As he reached to place it in its proper place, he froze, looking from the board to the piece and back again. “Could it be?”

“Could it be what?” said a voice behind him.

Laura looked up to see Colonel Millrose standing there. “I apologize for walking in. The door was open, and I don’t think anyone heard my knock.”

“Sir,” Jeremy said, startled from his reverie. “We’ve got Thornton.”

“Yes, I know. One of the guards alerted me that he’d been captured.”

“No, I—I mean, we’ve got him,” he said and held up the black knight. “The cypher for the letter—it’s The Noble Game of Chess.” And he began explaining what he had discovered to Colonel Millrose, something about the pattern, alternating moves, the reversal of the board.

To Laura it might as well have been Greek, but Millrose looked impressed. “By God, I see what you mean,” he exclaimed. “Excellent deduction, Addison. But you’ve just made us a hell of a—forgive me, Miss Hopkins—a great deal more work. We’re going to have to turn Thornton’s library inside out, and—”

“I beg your pardon, Colonel Millrose,” she said. “But I’m afraid Lord Sterling is going to be busy. We’re getting married this morning.”

“This morning? Well!” The colonel stretched out a hand. “My felicitations to you both. Scott’s going to have my head, you know,” he said, and laughed as Jeremy shook his hand. “Does that mean you intend to give up your commission?”

“I—I don’t know,” Jeremy said, giving her a bewildered look. “We hadn’t really discussed it.”

She smiled up at him. “There’s time for that decision, I hope. But more immediately, we’ll be on our way to Bath, my dear.”

“We will?” Jeremy said.

“Yes, to call on my Aunt Mildred. I think she deserves to hear the announcement in person. We can stop on our way to Everham.”

His eyes widened further and his lips parted, though he did not speak.

“My goodness, is that Arthur Remington I see over there?” said Colonel Millrose. “I haven’t spoken with him in an age.”

As the colonel slid away to allow them to talk, Jeremy sank down in the chair opposite and leaned toward her to say in a low voice, “And why are we going to Everham?”

Nervously, Laura picked up one of the chess pieces, realized she might have disrupted whatever arrangement had led to Jeremy’s revelation regarding the cypher, and just as nervously put it back. “Well, I had an idea. I’ve wished for some time that there was somewhere I could send the girls and women that Lady Sterling rescues, a safe place, where they could heal their spirits, lie in if necessary, even receive training to find new and better posts. And from what you said, Everham sounds ideal for such a purpose, just sitting there in the middle of nowhere, empty…”

As she spoke, he reached for her hands and surrounded them with his, his knuckles as battered as his jaw. Chafing the delicate skin on the back of her hands with his thumbs, he listened patiently to every word, a growing amazement on his face. “As a practical matter, would we be staffing the household entirely with women?” he asked, when she paused.

“Oh. Well, I hadn’t really thought about—”

“Because,” he continued, “if menservants are permissible within your scheme, it occurs to me that Mr. Remington might know of some former soldiers in need of a similar place to recover from their war injuries and learn new trades in the bargain.”