Page 43 of Hold Me Fast
“Perhaps you should do both,” Tammie declared. “You need a new gown to be married in. You also need several new gowns, in brighter colors than you currently wear. As Mrs. Hughes, wife of the steward and sister-in-law to Trethewey himself, you will need to look prosperous.”
Evangeline started to chuckle, then looked at Bran for reassurance. “She is joking,” she said.
Bran shrugged. “Dress however you like, Evie. You always look lovely.”
“Jowan?” Evangeline asked.
“Tammie is not wrong,” Jowan offered, cautiously. “Men are judged by the appearance of their ladies. If you look like a lady of the prosperous gentry, that will reflect well on Bran. And on me, too.”
“Mostly by the women,” Tammie clarified. “They are the ones doing the judging, I mean.”
“Right. A new dress, then. I will if you will, Tammie.”
Tammie nodded. “I will need a few new things. I will have to see how much the jewelry fetches. I want to buy a piano for the cottage.”
“You can continue using mine,” Jowan assured her. “Nobody else is doing so. I can have it moved to the cottage if you wish. After all, I did buy it with you in mind.” He lowered his voice and leaned closer. “And if we do end up together once you’ve had the time to fully recover, we won’t need two pianos.”
*
The following morning,Jowan received three pieces of mail. There was a report from Wakefield and Wakefield and a letter from Drew Winderfield. The third letter proved to be a note from the mail receiving office in Launceston reporting that a letter from Plymouth awaited him and would need to be paid for.
“Shall we take the carriage and the ladies into Launceston, pick up the mail, and do some shopping?” Bran suggested when Jowan read out the note.
Jowan hesitated, but the report from Wakefield and Wakefield set his mind at ease. “Coombe has left London,” he said. “He is believed to be heading for France. Wakefield says he has annoyed several powerful people, including the king, who was upset when certain dukes mentioned that Coombe has been terrorizing Miss Lind and had attempted to corrupt the second son of a powerful duke. His Majesty gave Coombe the cut direct and Coombe must have decided discretion was called for.”
He handed the report to Tammie to read and opened the letter from Drew.
“Drew has much the same news.” This letter he passed to Bran, thinking the details of the type of corruption that young Lord David Versey had confessed to his father was not a topic for a breakfast table or for two ladies.
“Let’s get ready for a day’s outing. One of the inns in Launceston has a sort of tearoom. We could have lunch there if you wish.”
“You realize that Tammie experienced the kinds of practices that had Coombe kicked out of England,” Bran pointed out to him as they waited by the carriage for the ladies.
Jowan shuddered. “Not something I want to dwell on too hard,” he responded. “The things she has been through horrify me!” He braced himself for another attempt by his brother to persuade him that Tammie was the wrong wife for him.
“She is a strong woman,” Bran commented. “The better I get to know her, the more impressed I am.”
Jowan waited for the “but”. After a moment’s silence, he said, “That’s it? You are not going to try to tell me not to rush into anything?”
Bran shrugged. “First, Tammie is doing a good enough job of that herself. Second…” He pointed to Jowan and then to himself. “Pot. Kettle.”
Fair.“She says she needs time to find out who she is, whatever that means.”
“It means she has been out of her mind for the past five years, is what it means. This must all be very strange for her. When you think about it, she was a child, and then she was Coombe’s… whatever. She is an adult woman who has never been allowed to be an adult.”
Bran was right. When Jowan looked at it like that, Tammie’s insistence on living in her own cottage made sense. “I’d find it easier to let her go if I knew she would come back to me in the end,” he admitted.
“She will,” was Bran’s unexpected answer. “Trust the connection between you, Jowan. It is obvious to everyone else. Which is another good reason for her to move to her own cottage, if she is not going to marry you straightaway. People around here are inclined to be proud of her stage career, but there are a few ready to say like mother, like daughter.”
“Who?” Jowan asked, his fists already clenched in preparation.
“I’ve only been told by people who claim not to believe the stories and who won’t say who is passing them around. You know how gossip is. Best not to take any notice of it except to make sure that nothing you do gives it credence.”
The ladies exited the house, then, and their moment of privacy was over. Jowan supposed he was going to have to give in on the cottage. Coombe had been his last argument with any chance of success and the man was gone. At least until the king forgave him.
Jowan smiled at Tammie as he handed her up into the carriage. He could wait until she was ready. He had waited seven years, and a few more months would not hurt him. Or, at least, not hurt him mortally.
*
