Page 55 of Snowy and the Seven Doves
“I would hate to wait a minute longer,” Snowy assured her.
A shadow crossed his face. Margaret had no more decided that he had doubts when he expressed them. “My concern is, by marrying you or even expressing my preference for you, I make you a target for my cousin. But I did that when I spoke out last night, and I cannot change it. If we are married, at least I have the right to protect you.”
“You think he will attack Margaret?” Pauline asked.
Snowy shrugged. “Perhaps not. Not now he knows we are wise to him. Better for him to focus on killing me first, since he will have to go through me to get to Margaret.” He grimaced. “I’m not a very good bargain, Margaret.”
“I will take my chances,” she told him.
“Then we get a common license and marry after a week?” he asked.
Margaret nodded.
“I will go to the bishop,” he said. “I will need the name of your parish and your own full name and date of birth, Margaret. Also, the name of the church where we will wed. St. George’s?”
“I generally attend St. Martin in the Fields,” she told him.
“Shall we visit together and arrange a date?”
My goodness. This is really happening.“Yes. That would be best. The Archdeacon knows me, and I can introduce you.”
“Today? If we take your carriage, after meeting the vicar you can come home, and I will go on to the bishop.”
“Archdeacon Potts is the vicar,” Margaret told him.
He squeezed the hand he still held and smiled down at her. “We will have everything arranged before you have to face the ton at whatever entertainment you have planned for tonight. And may I escort you tonight? We will show Society a united face and dare them to make anything of it.”
Margaret almost demurred again, but he must be sick of her asking if he was sure. Instead, she gave him the truth. “Yes, I would like that.”
*
Margaret had acceptedthree invitations for the evening: an exhibition by new artists being sponsored by the Duchess of Haverford, Mrs. Worthing’s musicale, and an appearance at Lady Mathers’ rout.
It was an evening of congratulations, best wishes, and questions, some unspoken but obvious, others direct. All three of them gave the vague answer they had agreed on beforehand. Yes, Snowy and Margaret were betrothed. Yes, they had set a date. It would be a quiet wedding. It would be soon.
Snowy enjoyed the first event, endured the second, and wondered what on earth the purpose of the third was, as he said to Margaret and Pauline on the way back to Margaret’s house.
“We came into such a crush of people we could barely move unless everyone in the place cooperated. We greeted the hostess, allowed ourselves to be carried by the current through the rooms, and farewelled the hostess. No food. No music. Nothing but people shouting the most trivial of comments at one another.”
“The purpose of a rout is to see and be seen,” said Pauline. “Or at least to ensure people know you were there. Tonight, the number of people there made our appearance a rumor to most.”
Snowy shook his head in bewilderment. “I will never understand,” he declared. “How often do you go to such events?”
“As seldom as possible,” Margaret told him. “But Lady Mathers has been a powerful ally in supporting me to the ton. She knew my mother’s mother, and I would not offend her for the world.”
“That makes sense,” he told her. “I can understand doing things for family. The rest of it wasn’t so bad. Most people were polite.”
“Most people generally are,” Pauline commented dryly. “At least to one’s face. But truly, Snowy, apart from the man fromThe Teatime Tattler, I thought it went very well.”
“You handled him well,” Margaret said, and Snowy agreed. Pauline had told the man that he was not getting an exclusive interview; nor would he be told where or when the couple planned to marry. She’d told him, “However, be assured they have set a date. Now go away and leave Lord Snowden and Lady Charmain alone, and they may agree to give you a notice after the wedding.”
Snowy and Margaret had nodded. “With a description of the bride’s dress and a list of the witnesses?” the man had bargained, with one eye on the footmen approaching to throw him out of the musicale.
They had agreed for, as Pauline said, while Mrs. Worthing’s men were quick to chase off the intruder, he might approach them again anywhere, anytime. This way, they could go out with only the harpies of Society and the threat of Snowden to worry about.
*
It was perhapsthree in the morning three days after the betrothal when Snowy and Rahat approached the back of the House of Blossoms. Margaret offered Snowy the carriage to see them home, but Snowy saw no reason to keep Margaret’s poor coachman and the two footmen from their beds just to save him and Rahat a fifteen-minute walk.
