James made them all wait at Corbin House for nearly a fortnight while Burke recovered his strength well enough to withstand the bouncing carriage ride back to Alcott Hall. Rosalie was beside herself with joy to see how quickly Burke was recovering. He’d regained most of his feeling down his arm and across each finger of his hand. He had mild complaints about numbness, but that was expected to fade as he continued to heal. Three doctors had seen him, and each said all they could prescribe for him now was time.
The gossip maelstrom swirling about the ton meant that no one left the house unless absolutely necessary. Even the servants were being accosted on the streets, the hungry vultures desperate for more details of what the papers were calling the Corbin Affair.
It didn’t help that the house was embroiled in yet more gossip the day after the wedding-turned-investiture-turned-shooting. But the nature of this gossip filled Rosalie with so much happiness, she could hardly stop herself from smiling. The house woke that Saturday morning to the shrill shrieking of the marchioness.
“She’s gone!”
Rosalie emerged from her wing of the second floor, Tom and James on her heels, to find the marchioness standing in the middle of the ladies’ wing still in her nightgown and ribbon curls. The other ladies were spilling out of their doors, eyes wide with confusion.
“Lady Deal, are you hurt?” James called, springing into action.
“She-she left!” the marchioness wailed. “My baby. My darling girl!” She sank to her knees right there in the middle of the carpet, a letter clutched in her hand.
Rosalie and Elizabeth rushed forward, putting comforting arms around her shoulders. “Where is Olivia?” said Rosalie.
“Gone,” the marchioness sobbed. “She’s ruined herself on that man at last.”
A few of the other ladies gasped.
Rosalie’s eyes shot up to James and Tom, her heart pounding in her chest. In all the horror of the previous day, she may have forgotten to mention her bit of meddling. She glanced down at the trembling marchioness. “Can I read the note?”
The marchioness shoved the piece of parchment into her hand and Rosalie read:
My Dearest Mama,
If you have found this, then you know that I am gone. Please don’t hate me for claiming my own happiness. I have decided to marry Captain William Hartington, whom I have loved these long years, and who loves me. Love, mama; it is a gift we all must cherish.
We are on our way to Gretna Greene. Once we are married, we intend to return to his family estate in Derbyshire before he is recalled to his ship in the new year. If you can find it in your heart to join us for Christmas, I would dearly love to see you and Papa before we take up his new position in Jamaica.
All my love,
Your Livy
A swell of relief filled Rosalie, warming her from head to toe. Burke would live. James and Tom were safe. George was happy. Olivia would be married. All was well. All was as it should be.
When it was clear Burke was not only well enough to leave London, but desperate to do so, James finally relented. The morning of their departure, she was surprised to find George waiting for them in the entry hall.
“Are you sure you won’t return with us?” James said, taking his hat and gloves from the footman.
“You know how I hate country life,” George replied. “Oh, I almost forgot.” He slipped the signet ring off the smallest finger of his left hand and held it out to James. “Here, this is yours now, I suppose. In all the drama, I quite forgot to give it to you.”
Rosalie couldn’t help the tears that filled her eyes as she watched James swallow down his own emotions and reach out to take the ring from his brother’s hand.
“Thank you, George,” he muttered, slipping it on his finger. He quickly put on his glove, curling his hand into a fist.
Rosalie smiled up at George. “What will you do now?”
George tucked his hands in his pockets. “I don’t know. Town feels too confining while all the gossip swirls about. I was thinking I might go on my honeymoon.”
Burke snorted. “All alone?”
Rosalie cast him a warning look. It was one of the great mysteries of her life that she found herself feeling so protective of George Corbin. But she still remembered the moment they shared in his studio where he admitted to her being his only friend. It was an odd sort of friendship…he was an odd sort of person…but she intended to cherish it all the same.
“I think that’s a lovely idea,” she told him. “The world is a big place. It would be a delight to see some of it.”
“Do you have a mind to travel, Rose?” Tom called, crossing the entry hall towards them, hat in hand. “I could always help with that. I’m rather good at sailing, you know.”
“Perhaps you should take me on your ship,” George said with a grin.
Tom donned his hat. “Perhaps I’ll teach you to swab decks.”
George crinkled his nose. “Not a chance.”
“We must be off,” called James from the doorway. “If we’re doing this in one go, I want to keep the light.”
“Mama still won’t join you then?” called George.
“She says she wants to be in Town for all the Christmas parties,” James replied. “She’ll return to us sometime in the new year.”
“And…that is agreeable to everyone?” George flashed Rosalie a knowing smile.
“Alcott is her home,” James replied. “If it is her wish to return, I welcome it.”
George crossed his arms. “Yes, but does your duchess feel the same?”
Rosalie stilled, her fingers on the buttons of her pelisse.
“I have no duchess,” James replied, cuffing George on the shoulder.
“Yet,” George added with a wink.
James sighed, dropping his hand away. “Well, until she is in being, I will make all the decisions about where our mother lives on my own.”
“You are never on your own. Not when you have such faithful shadows to left and right,” George replied, giving a nod to Burke and Tom.
“We promise to keep him out of trouble,” said Burke, offering George his good hand.
George looked at it, almost surprised by the gesture. Slowly he reached out and shook it. Tom shook his hand next, following Burke out the front doors.
“We really do need to go,” James said at Rosalie.
She nodded. “I will be right there.”
With a final nod to his brother, he followed Burke and Tom.
“Well, Cabbage, I suppose this is farewell then,” George said, looking oddly vulnerable.
She paused, glancing at the door to make sure the others were truly gone. “I must know…did I ruin your life? Did my words cause you to make a decision that you now regret? Will you come to hate me for it?”
George smiled, reaching out to wrap his arms around her. It felt odd to be in his embrace. He pulled away, holding her by the arms. “Cabbage, I meant what I said before. You are the only person who has ever liked me for me, saw me for me, listened to me as me. You are my one success. If I have only one, it is a good one. For however brief a time, you were my ward. I was your benefactor, and I was good at it, I think,” he finished with a shrug.
She smiled, wiping the tears from her eyes. “You were…you are. Even if I am not your ward, I can still be your friend.”
“I’d like that,” he replied.
“Make me a promise?”
He raised a curious brow. “I’ve never been very good at those.”
“Come home occasionally?” An idea struck her, and she smiled, knowing it was right. “The Michaelmas ball. You should come home for it. It is a celebration of the Corbin family. You are a Corbin. You should be there. James would like it if you were there.”
He smirked, stuffing his hands back in his pockets. “Fine. A promise for a promise.”
She gave him a wary look “What can you possibly ask of me, sir?”
His smirk widened, flashing his white teeth. “If I return to Alcott for the next Michaelmas ball, and you are yet unmarried…you will marry me.”
She gasped. “Sir, that is madness. We are the worst possible match on God’s green earth.”
“And yet I shall be unmoved in my determination. Marry…or marry me.”
“Are you threatening me with matrimony, sir? Daring to cage me in?”
“I am freeing you, Cabbage.” he said with a laugh. “Get out of your own damn way and marry my brother already, or I will return on swift wings and woo you and together we shall beat our wings against our matrimonial cage until we are weary and broken things. Now, doesn’t a life of bliss with my brother and his lovers sound infinitely more enjoyable?”
She crossed her arms. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Of course, you don’t,” he replied, giving her shoulder a pat. But then he leaned in, a wicked grin on his face. “But know this: if you expect me to keep my silence, you’ll name your first child George. Now go, Cabbage. You can’t keep your men waiting forever.”
