Page 27 of Lady Willa's Divinely Wicked Vicar
Miss Esme Harvey
Courtland Hall, Wiltshire
April 26, 1816
Dearest Wills,
I am in receipt of your letter to me of yesterday. Oh, my dear friend, I urge you to attend my wedding to the Marquess of Northington next week and our family May Day Frolic!
Your news that your father demands you wed before your next birthday in January also adds an unsettling aspect to your future, I agree. His further stipulation that you marry one who will bring him political alliance with those of his own persuasion poses a vexing detail to a complicated project. Family importance is of value to your father. But what price do you pay for your papa’s political prowess if you spend your hours—and your years—with one who makes you miserable?
A brief flirtation—as I now serve as example—can indeed engender greater affections. My fiancé and I met by accident in a dark sitting room where I had escaped (alone, champagne in hand) the tedium of men who simpered over me. All for my money, of course. (So tiresome!)
I do beg you to come to the May Day Frolic. You love it so. Each year you’ve found something new to adore. The mummers. The music. This year, perhaps, you will find another man who enchants you. Mama has made a point to invite many new guests. What with the war over, we have so many eligible gentlemen in want of good entertainment—and fine ladies to court.
I do understand your wish not to see our dear vicar once more. What happened between you and Charlie last year was unexpected. Yet despite all, you called it delightful. Your moments together did inspire your faith that you could attract a man who set your heart aflutter. Then too if Charlie’s kisses also swept away that belief in your awful curse, all the better.
Moreover, you write that in this past year you have not found another to compare to him. Does that not speak to the issue louder than any words I can write here?
Our Reverend Charles Compton is a charming man. You cannot deny it. Mama adores him, his humor and his devotion to our tenants and neighbors. Papa declares he brings a bit of youth and boldness to his sermons. Our tenants think him comforting. But he has taken a contemplative turn. Since early April when he returned from a trip to a mysterious destination, I find him sitting alone outside his little vicarage in the Grecian folly and the expression on his face is one of utter madness. I fear for him. I have tried to lure him from this dark wee hour of his soul. But I tell you truly, only when I speak of you, do I see his expression brighten. Whatever you were to each other, he becomes a different man whenever your name is mentioned.
He needs you, Wills. He needs your friendship to sit with him and talk and laugh. He needs you to show him the finest elements of humanity. Friendship, solace, communion of like minds are what he needs. I conclude that only you can bring that to him.
So then, what will you gain from your attendance at my wedding to Northington? You will renew your faith in yourself as a woman who does inspire friendship and love.
Please come to my wedding, Wills. Charlie needs you. I need you, too, more than I have told you here.
With great love for your undying friendship,
Esme
* * *
April 27, 1816
De Courcy Manor
Hampshire
Wills cast another glance at theBrighton Gazetteupon the table. The announcement of Esme’s wedding in that newspaper stirred her blood.
BRIGHTON GAZETTE, Friday 27 April 1816
A special license has been obtained for the marriage of Miss Esme Harvey to the
Marquess of Northington, which is to take place next week.
Lord and Lady Courtland happily welcome a large party of relatives and friends to their annual May Day Frolic to commence Tuesday, April 30, at their home Courtland Hall, Wiltshire. Festivities begin with the Courtlands’ annual May Pole Frolic, May 1, their May Day Ball to follow that evening. The next morning they present their only daughter, Miss Esme Harvey in marriage to her intended, the Marquess of Northington in the chapel of St. Andrew’s.
Nine o’clock. Rev. Charles Compton, Vicar, presiding.
As this day is also that of the joyous celebration of the wedding of our gracious lady, Her Royal Highness, the Princess Charlotte of Wales to Leopold, Prince of Saxe-Cobourg, Lord and Lady Courtland present a wedding breakfast in the house for their guests consisting of every delicacy, and a general Cold Collation, Tea, Coffee, Ices, and Etc.
Those in the parish are welcome. Public service will be laid on the lawn at eleven o’clock.
Wills wanted to go. Badly. News of Charlie sad and in despair drove her desire to attend to frenzy. She crushed Esme’s letter and tucked it into her skirt pocket. What was she to do? Go? See Charlie again? Stir the sorrow once more? What choice did she have, given what she’d committed herself to do in the interim?
Since Charlie had called here three weeks ago, her life had changed dramatically. Her relationship with her father had frozen into a tundra of icy disdain. Her mother attempted to thaw them but at each turn had failed. Her papa had not apologized to her, nor had he written to the Reverend Compton to ask the man’s pardon.
