Page 83 of An Earl's Christmas Seduction
“Not at all. I’ve grown used to your company. But I can’t expect you all to remain here forever, can I? You’re free to go whenever you wish. It’s been quite an eventful few days, hasn’t it?” he said, glancing around the breakfast table. The others nodded.
“But all’s well that ends well,” Lord Thornton said.
“Then we must mark our final night together with a dance and a singalong. What dae ye all say?” the viscount said, clapping his hands together in delighted expectation.
The twins agreed immediately, as did Isobel and Clara, both of them glancing across the table at the respective beaus, both of whom smiled and nodded.
“An excellent idea, viscount,” Harry said, and it seemed the matter was settled.
The idea of a dance brought a sense of excitement to the breakfast table, and the viscount soon had matters well organized in his inimitable style. Mrs. Bennett was pressed into playing the pianoforte, and the viscount appointed himself master of ceremonies. He would sing, and invited anyone else to do so, too.
“Will ye sing for us, Lady Turner? Lady Wells? Lady Thornton? Ah, come on… three beautiful ladies with beautiful voices, I’m sure,” he said, and the three older women blushed.
“I’m not sure our voices are that beautiful, Lord O’Neil. But… if you insist, perhaps we can form a trio,” Nicholas’ aunt said, and the matter was settled.
They would play parlor games and eschew a more formal meal for the newly discovered delights of a shared table.
“It really does make dining so much easier, doesn’t it? I think we’ll eat all our meals like this from now on,” Mrs. Bennett said, even as Sir Samuel looked askance.
But a happy atmosphere prevailed, and as the party broke up for the morning, Amelia caught her mother’s arm, glancing at Nicholas as she did so.
“Mother, there’s something I want to talk to you about,” she said, and her mother smiled.
“I was surprised you came down for breakfast this morning, Amelia. Are you certain you feel well enough to be up and about?” the baroness replied.
Amelia blushed, thinking back to the exertions of the previous evening. She nodded.
“Oh, yes… certainly mother. I just needed to sleep, that’s all. I feel much better now. I just needed… to warm up,” she said, glancing again at Nicholas, who now stepped out into the hallway.
“Let’s go and sit in the morning room. I was in there earlier, before breakfast. It faces south and gets the sun. It’s simply lovely,” she said, and Amelia nodded.
They crossed the hallway to the morning room, the sound of the viscount’s voice echoing from the drawing room.
“We need to practice, Mrs. Bennett; something lively,” he was saying, and Amelia’s mother shook her head.
“He can be quite insufferable, can’t he? I must say… I’m rather looking forward to going home,” she said, closing the door behind them, and Amelia sighed.
Her mother looked at her in surprise.
“Aren’t you, Amelia? I’d have thought the last place you wanted to remain was here. What with your ordeal at the hands of that horrible Constance Kent, spending the night in the stables, then being carried back across the moor…” she said, but Amelia shook her head.
“Mother, I don’t want to go back, and if I must, I want to return very soon,” she said, as tears welled up in her eyes.
Her mother reached out and took her by the hand, a look of concern coming over her face.
“Amelia… you mustn’t upset yourself,” she said, but Amelia now began to cry.
The emotions of the past few days were welling up inside her, and she could hardly control them.
“But I… I don’t want to leave. I love him, mother,” she gasped, and her mother’s eyes grew wide with astonishment.
“The earl?” she exclaimed, and Amelia nodded, pulling out a handkerchief from her pocket and dabbing at her eyes.
“Yes, mother… I know what you’ll say, and…” she began, but her mother shushed her.
“No. Perhaps you don’t know what I’ll say, Amelia. I don’t blame Nicholas for his past. Poor Caroline. She and Nicholas’ father were so in love. And what tragic circumstances prevented their love from finding respectability. Caroline was my dearest friend, and it only seems fitting to think my daughter and her son should share the love we had for one another, too,” the baroness replied.
Amelia had thought her mother would object immediately to the match, but now she was astonished to discover her support for it. She had imagined herself forced to make an impassioned plea as to her love for Nicholas and his love for her, desperately trying to convince her mother to allow heart to triumph over reason.
