Page 44 of Denying a Rakish Duke
Vanessa nodded somberly. “This has gone on quite long enough— whatever the true reason for her running away so recklessly, she should have expressed her emotions to me. I cannot allow this rift between us to grow any further.” Vanessa placed her hand gently on her belly. “I cannot stand the idea that my child might be born into a world where he would not know the love and warmth of his aunt. Whatever needs to be said— whatever conversations need to be had, we will have to have them. Enough time has passed for her to vent her frustrations.”
Petunia nodded and with that she was on her way.
Left by themselves, Joseph sat on the bed beside his wife. “Are you recovered well enough to travel? I should hate for the uneven motions to make you queasy.”
Vanessa sighed, and her eyes rolled. “I am not some fragile little thing simply because I am with child. The doctor has cleared me for carriage rides. Women have been carrying about their business while heavy with child for generations before me, and they shall continue to do so long after I am gone. I can do this— I have followed each and every one of the instructions. You never would have left me alone had I deviated in any capacity,” she said finally.
“Fine. I shall leave the topic alone for now— but what do you plan to tell your sister?”
Vanessa contemplated for a long moment. “The truth,” she said finally. ‘I shall tell her the truth of things— we fell in love. Neither of us planned it. You even actively attempted to push me away, and I was not exactly the most warm and inviting of brides to begin with. If she will speak to me, she will understand. If not, I shall explain it to her in a way that she must. No promises between you two were made.” Her tongue felt heavy saying so, but she hoped that the time and distance that Amanda had given herself would bring some clarity to the uncomfortable situation.
“Very well. I shall send up your maid to attend to you.” Joseph leaned over to press a chaste kiss into Vanessa’s temple and excused himself out of the chamber. They were quickly readied. As Vanessa was assisted into the carriage, she already missed the ability to easily ride Apple across the town as she wished. After the first two weeks of her pregnancy, the aches and pains had started to subside. The continued bedrest had been to appease those around her.
Now that Amanda was to return, Vanessa could stop placating them and their nerves. Only Amanda did not return that day or the one after.
* * *
Both Petunia and Vanessa agreed that she ought to remain at Evans Manor until Amanda and Thomas arrived. Joseph was happy to oblige but spent most of his time attending to his business ventures only to return in the evening time. Were it not for her absentee sister, Vanessa would have been able to enjoy the lack of the Dowager hovering just over her shoulder all of the time.
However, if she were being truly honest with herself, the tension between her mother and the Earl of Evans had everybody on edge.
On the third day, Tobias Farbridge had had quite enough of waiting. He felt that he had been more than patient enough with Petunia. The three of them had gathered for breakfast where they had been eating silently since Vanessa had seen Joseph off for the morning. Petunia had hardly slept at all and was not of any mind to hold civilized conversation.
As far as the obtuse Earl of Evans was concerned, this quiet that had consumed his breakfast table was the perfect audience for him. He stood suddenly and lifted his nearly empty cup of juice to the two women seated at his table. “I have an announcement to make,” he began. “Let it be known to all in the present company that I have decided to remarry.” Tobias spoke as if he were addressing a massive crowd of people. He smiled broadly in a way that pinched his lips into his plump cheeks awkwardly. He paused a moment as if waiting for some grandiose response from the only other two people in the room. When he did not get anything at all from either of them, he continued quickly. “I have decided that the time has come for me to complete my familial obligations and to do justice to the title which I have been granted.”
Vanessa desperately wished to interject that he was not even supposed to have such a title in the first place, but she refrained.
“I have decided that the best way for me to accomplish this goal is to take a wife, my brother’s wife. It is the moral and just choice— and I have also come to realize that in our time together I find myself more and more attracted to the frame and countenance of my late brother’s tastes. I have also taken great effort to procure a special license in order for us to be wed this very evening!” Tobias lifted his glass higher as he spoke. “The church was able to squeeze us into a small opening before evening services, and I assured them that we should not need much time! We should be married quickly so as to move even more swiftly into wedded bliss. Now, of course, my first marriage was a disaster, but I was blessed with a perfect son— and we are not yet at such an advanced age that I could not have another!”
Tobias continued to speak. He lamented his first marriage and started to list all of the qualities about his first wife that he did not agree with. He followed that by listing all of the ways in which he found himself a very agreeable person that any woman should be overjoyed to have. Vanessa could hardly breathe. The notions that he implied were grotesque— and her mother had not even given him an answer! Her bright blue eyes flickered over to her mother. Petunia would not meet her gaze.
“Such fortuitous timing!” Tobias exclaimed as he drank the rest of the contents of his glass happily. “We shall have all of your daughters safe and accounted for, and there is no reason to delay our union any longer! Dear Petunia, what ahappywoman I have made you!”
Petunia lifted her glass solemnly and forced a smile that did not reach anywhere near her eyes. “Such a happy woman indeed, My Lord.” Petunia eyed the contents of her glass speculatively and desperately wished that the drink was something far stronger before she took a tentative sip.
Vanessa could not bring herself to lift the glass in celebration because she did not feel that this was something that ought to be celebrated. She felt as if mourning might be far more appropriate, given the circumstances.
In fact, Vanessa found herself furious with the things happening in front of her. He had not even asked for her mother’s hand properly— and having been robbed that experience herself, she knew how bitter that sting was. Petunia had never wished to remarry. Vanessa understood that a woman would not hold the same power as a man would in such a position, but Petunia had loved her husband so fiercely that it had warmed her whole family … and to take another man without her heart agreeing—something bitter swirled in Vanessa’s stomach.
“I suppose that you will wish to make a trip to the shops to have one of your gowns modified for the occasion— perhaps you and the Duchess should do that at once. You do not have much time. Oh, listen to me prattle on and on. I am beside myself with excitement. I do not think that I have been such in a very long time!”
ChapterTwenty-Six
“You look beautiful, Mama,” Vanessa said softly. Petunia’s lady’s maid twirled the last tendrils of hair up and out of the way. Intricately laid pins and pearls adorned her hair. She wore a simple white dress without much in the way of decoration. Everything had been so rushed that there had not been much time to dress up or alter any of Petunia’s gowns. Vanessa had nearly suggested that they find a way to have her own wedding dress let out to accommodate her mother.
Yet, Vanessa had always been the most slender out of all of the sisters. She lacked Seraphina’s womanly curves or Bridgette’s pleasant hips, but Joseph certainly did not seem to mind. A small arrangement of flowers had been sent up to Petunia’s chamber by Tobias not even an hour ago— they were still sitting on the table where they had been left. Petunia had attempted to speak more than once since breakfast this morning, but each time that she attempted it … emotion seemed to threaten her voice so strongly she was unable to get any further than nonsensical strings of sound. Vanessa had not left her mother’s side. She could only hope that the letters sent to her sisters regarding all of this news had reached them. She hoped that one or both of her sisters were on the way here now—she felt so wholly out of her depth as to how best to soothe Petunia.
As if that were even a possible outcome.
One of the servants held a small mirror in front of Petunia so that she might inspect the way her hair had been adorned and styled. Petunia took the small mirror and looked this way and that. She reached up and touched the design softly and exhaled a slow stream of sadness through her barely parted lips.
“I knew that it would be impossible to put this off indefinitely,” Petunia said finally. “I had hoped that after Amanda was married— that I might be able to come up with another excuse so that I might bide my time. I consoled myself with the hope that should this come to pass— it would be a reason for all of my daughters and sons-in-law to return home to me. I thought that if nothing else, I could convince your uncle to make this union a grand affair. I wished to have a party so lavish to mark the beginning of a new union so remarkably that I could forever look back on it. No matter if things became ugly with Tobias, I would always have that memory to look back on. I do not think that I have ever been able to enjoy all of my grandchildren under the same roof for longer than a couple of hours … and now I am to have a rushed ceremony without my daughters to witness.”
“I understand that it is less than ideal. Perhaps I could come up with something?” Vanessa offered as if she had not been doing that exact thing for the last couple of hours. “I could pretend to be ill once more? I could have to send you out to fetch the Duke to attend to me perhaps? I know that it is not the honest thing to do … but I could and would be more than willing to do so for you, Mama,” Vanessa joked.
Petunia smiled and shook her head. “No, I am a grown woman, and I have handled far worse than this in my many years … I know that I have been more severe on you than your sisters, and for that I apologize again. You did not deserve it. The greatest joy that I know as a mother is that, despite all of the obstacles you all faced, my daughters have all married for love. Your sister will take one look at your much changed husband and see how he has come to dote on you … and she will understand.” Petunia placed her hand to cup Vanessa’s cheek. “She will come to find love just as the rest of you have. I had my marriage for love, and now, I shall have one of obligation to our family. All will be well. I will endure this. Perhaps in time … the Earl and I will come to better understand one another.”
Vanessa wanted to think that was true … but she did not see how any person could come to understand that self-centered man. It was a wonder that his son had become the kind man that he had. Perhaps if her cousin were here now, she could have an audience with him in private to implore him to speak sense into his father. Loneliness did not mean forcing a woman into marriage because she had no other options.
