Authors: Brothers in arms 9 -Love's Surrender
hint of an intimate relationship between Oliver and Vanessa. If
they wanted her father to agree to Nick’s proposal he must
believe it was Nick and Nick alone that Vanessa was to be with.
“I am Lord Ambrose Wetherald and I promised Lady Vanessa
that I would marry her, regardless of her past association with
you.” Nick took another step toward them and reached for
Vanessa, but Wetherald knocked Nick’s hand away in disgust.
“As far as I’m concerned you don’t deserve her. What were you
thinking to drag an innocent young lady into debauchery and
ruin? She may be carrying a child, thanks to you. Did you even
think of that? What it would mean for her? Did you even care?”
“Get out,” Lord Carlton-Smythe ordered the staff that had
gathered in the doorway and were openly gaping at the scene.
As one they turned and scurried off.
As one they turned and scurried off.
Oliver’s head was spinning. A child. No, he hadn’t thought of it.
And if he had, he would have ignored the danger, would have
embraced the idea of Vanessa round with their child. He glanced
at Nick, who was staring at the floor.
“Yes, I thought of it,” Nick said quietly to Oliver’s surprise. He
looked up and stared balefuly at Wetherald. “And I wanted it.”
Oliver grew hopeful. If she were pregnant with their child they
would have to let Nick marry her.
“Have you no decency?” Wetherald angrily pounded his fist
against his thigh. “Dammit! Didn’t you think what this would
mean for her? Is that what you want? Do you want to ruin her in
the eyes of society? Turn her into nothing more than a whore?”
Nick growled and ran at Wetherald, ramming him up against the
wal with his arm across the smaler man’s throat. “Don’t ever
cal her that again,” he snarled. “Do you hear me?”
“It is not I who wil say it,” Wetherald gasped. “But society. You
know it. Is that what you want for her?” Nick let him go abruptly
and backed away, shaking his head. Wetherald rubbed his neck.
“I wil marry her, regardless of whether or not she’s carrying a
child.” His voice was hoarse but sincere.
Vanessa was shaking her head. “No.” She was growing more
Vanessa was shaking her head. “No.” She was growing more
agitated by the second. Her head was pounding from her brief
emotional outburst earlier. She realy mustn’t cry again. It was
terribly distracting when one was trying to keep her wits about
her. “This is al hypothetical, my lord. I don’t know if I am
indeed carrying, nor do I know if…” she paused, looking
between Nick and Oliver, “Nick is able to offer for me at
present.”
“Perhaps it would have been wise to ascertain that before
leaping into a liaison?” her father said sharply.
“I did not leap,” Vanessa responded just as sharply. “I did not
entertain the notion that the liaison would last longer than
Christmastide.”
Her father and Wetherald looked shocked. “You gave your
innocence knowing that the connection was to be temporary?
But why?” her father spluttered.
“You would not understand.” Vanessa turned her back on him
and stared beseechingly at Oliver. He could say nothing or he
risked ruining their chances. Couldn’t she see that?
“You presume,” Wetherald said in a clipped tone. “I have
offered to protect you should the need arise. Please show me the
respect I believe justified by that action and reveal your reasons
to us.”
“Fine,” she snapped, whipping around to face him. “I am
suffocating in this life.” She pounded her chest with her fist,
letting her anger out for perhaps the first time in her life. Inside, Oliver was cheering her on. “I am trapped in here. I do not want
this life. I do not want to be a Carlton-Smythe and al that the
name requires and implies. I want to be Vanessa. I want to be
free to come and go as I please, to marry or not marry as I
please, to know that the man who takes me to bed wants me
and not my family or my wealth or my connections. Just me. I
want to laugh and dance and play with children and walk down
the street with my lover without the censorious eyes of society
condemning me. I cannot eat, breathe, blink or think without
someone watching me for the tiniest little mistake, one slight
variation from the path mapped out for me. I am dying inside. Or
I was. Until I met Oliver and Nick I didn’t even realize that
slowly, insidiously, the real Vanessa was dying, becoming a
marionette dancing on the strings everyone else was puling.” She
slashed her hand through the air. “I’m tired of dancing on a
string. I’m done.” She sat down abruptly, breathing heavily,
suddenly exhausted.
Wetherald stood there blinking at her in stunned astonishment.
“Wel,” he said awkwardly.
“Yes,” she agreed wearily, “wel.”
“I am able to offer for you,” Nick said quietly. He went and
kneeled in front of her. Then he reached into the pocket of his
kneeled in front of her. Then he reached into the pocket of his
coat and puled out a smal bouquet.
“Mistletoe,” she whispered as she took it. She grew teary-eyed.
“Thank you.” She looked behind him for Oliver, and he read the
thank-you for him, too, in her face.
“I gladly offer for you,” Nick told her. “I love you, Vanessa.
Marry me. Walk down the street with me. Play with our children
and dance every day. I don’t care about your family. We wil
walk away from here right now with nothing but each other. Say
yes.”
Oliver felt the pain of not being able to speak cut through his
chest. Vanessa turned tearful eyes to him and he nodded, trying
to say without words that he felt the same. Her father intercepted
the look.
“Who are you, sir?” he asked suspiciously.
“Oliver Gabriel, my lord, at your service,” he said with a
respectful bow of his head.
“Mr. Gabriel is a dear friend,” Nick said as he stood up, stil
holding Vanessa’s hand. “We served in the war together. He is
here to support me.”
Her father turned to her. “And these are the men we heard
about? The ones you were carrying on with while we were in
about? The ones you were carrying on with while we were in
Kent?”
“We met Vanessa at the Shelbys’ Christmas Eve dinner, sir,”
Nick answered, making an obvious effort to be respectful.
“Perhaps it was wrong, but as soon as I saw her I began my
pursuit without waiting for your return or permission. I beg your
indulgence. My only excuse is that I fel in love with her soon
after we met.”
“My indulgence?” her father sputtered. “You blithely inform me
that you have ruined my daughter, debauched her and left her
carrying your child, and you have the effrontery to beg my
indulgence?”
Oliver winced. Nick took a deep breath, his eyes narrowed in
anger. “I did not leave her carrying my child. I am here to marry
her. I want to marry her. I love her.”
“Mr. Wilkes is far from an il-advised match, sir,” Oliver argued.
Since Lord Carlton-Smythe had brought him into the
conversation, he would say his piece. “He served valiantly at
Waterloo, was injured in the line of duty and was decorated for
his service. He has an income of seven thousand pounds a year
and a smal estate in Oxford. More than enough to take care of
Vanessa and a family.”
“I need to know how Oliver feels,” Vanessa said suddenly. She
“I need to know how Oliver feels,” Vanessa said suddenly. She
worried her lower lip for a moment, while Oliver’s gaze clashed
with the confused one of her father. Wetherald appeared
stunned.
“Why?” her father demanded.
Wetherald cleared his throat. “Might I suggest that a simple
explanation is preferable?"
“Yes,” Oliver said. “A thousand times yes. This wil work. Is it
what you want? Say it is.” He hadn’t even considered that
Vanessa would want a normal marriage to Nick, that she might
reject the idea of the three of them together.
“It is,” she said fervently, holding out her hand to him. He
crossed the room quickly and took it, kissing her palm, not
caring what her father or Wetherald thought of it.
Her father suddenly sank down in the nearest chair. He slumped
over, his elbows resting on his knees. Wetherald rushed to cover
the awkward silence. “Let us al remember that whatever
happens in the privacy of the home is between a man and his
wife and no one else.”
“Yes,” Nick agreed from Vanessa’s other side. “Thank you.”
“I did not choose Wetherald without thought for your wishes,
Vanessa,” Lord Carlton-Smythe said wearily. “Is he not in favor
of expanding women’s rights? My lord,” he addressed
Wetherald, beseeching him with a raised hand. “Did you not tel
me you wanted a wife who would devote her energy to
charitable causes?” He turned to Vanessa. “And isn’t that
orphanage the only thing that seems to make you happy?”
Vanessa looked at Oliver and then Nick, searching for guidance.
By unspoken agreement, they remained silent. Whatever
happened here would set the stage for Vanessa’s future
relationship with her family, and it was up to her to settle it.
Finaly she rose and went to her father.
“Thank you.” She caught his attention, although his eyes met hers
for only a second before focusing over her shoulder. “And you
were correct. Wetherald was an excelent choice for me.” Hope
sprang to life in her father’s expression but her next words kiled
it. “But that was before I met Nick and…and fel in love.” She
glanced at Oliver and he knew she’d almost said the one thing
that her father might not forgive if it was spoken aloud. “Please,
Father.” She placed a hand over his on his knee. “Please
understand. Al those things are important to me. But I can have
those and love if I marry Nick. Isn’t that better? Isn’t that what
you want for me?”
He sat there for a moment, staring at her hand on his while Oliver
held his breath. Then he briefly squeezed her hand, let go, sat
back and looked at Nick. “I want assurances her dowry wil be
set aside for Vanessa’s use. You’re not to touch it. Any
set aside for Vanessa’s use. You’re not to touch it. Any
expenditures of that money wil require prior approval from my
man of business, who wil manage the funds.”
“Of course,” Nick agreed immediately. “Whatever you wish.”
“She must have adequate pin money,” her father insisted. “I’l not
have her looking shabby. She’s a Carlton-Smythe.”
“Absolutely,” Nick agreed. “She may have as much as she
needs.”
“Come from trade, do you?” Her father stood up. “As long as
you didn’t crawl from the gutter, I can spin a tale that wil keep
the tongues from wagging too viciously.”
“Hardly the gutter, sir,” Nick replied stiffly. “Gloucester.”
“Humph,” her father grunted, making it clear he thought the two
were located very near each other. “Let’s have done with this,
then,” he ordered. He turned unexpectedly on Vanessa. “How
far along are you?” he demanded, clearly shocking her.
“I am not at al sure I’m going to have a child,” she confessed
sheepishly. “I never should have mentioned it.”
“Yes, you should have. If there is even a possibility, measures
must be taken. You know this is true,” her father said briskly. He
turned to Wetherald. “I trust we can rely on your discretion in
turned to Wetherald. “I trust we can rely on your discretion in
this matter, sir?”
Wetherald bowed. “Of course, my lord. Lady Vanessa,” he said
bowing to her as wel. “As I told you, this would have been an
advantageous match for me. And as you may have guessed, my
heart is not engaged elsewhere.” The smile he gave her was
rueful. “The fact is, Lady Vanessa, that I’m fairly sure, given the
chance, my heart would gladly have engaged itself to you.”
Vanessa laughed a little tearfuly while Nick put his arm around
her shoulders. “Then I pity your heart. I would make a poor
anchor for it, I think.”
Wetherald smiled gently. “Nonsense. I don’t think Mr. Wilkes is
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“Thank you, no,” Vanessa’s father said. “I’m sure I shal have no
trouble.”
Wetherald saluted Nick and then, after a brief hesitation, turned
to Oliver and inclined his head. “Good afternoon, gentlemen.”
From his expression it was clear Wetherald had a very good
idea of what was going on.
After Wetherald left, her father sighed. “Good,” he said,
nodding. “The sooner we have the wedding the better, then. The
timing wil work. How long do you need to prepare?”
Vanessa quickly calculated in her head. “Two days,” she told
him. That would mean she would marry on Twelfth Night. She
smiled at how fitting that was. This marriage was the greatest gift
she would ever receive. To be Mrs. Nicholas Wilkes by
Epiphany was the perfect end to this magical holiday season.
She looked over at Nick and Oliver. They were looking back at