Lady Bridget's Diary(92)
“And he needs me. And I love teasing him—I’m the only one who does. It’s such a trifling thing, but it isn’t really and—” Fortunately James cut her off. She was rambling, trying to find a way to explain that she and Darcy fit together, and balanced out their strengths and weaknesses.
“You know what this means, don’t you?” James asked.
“I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”
“We need the rest of the family.”
He found a maid who could go find Amelia and Claire and tell them the duke had summoned them for an emergency meeting in the kitchens. Meanwhile, James and Bridget ate cake and drank tea while she tried to guess What This Means.
Finally, her sisters arrived, stomping loudly down the stairs, bickering over something or other.
“Oh, cake!” Amelia exclaimed.
“Is there any more tea?” Claire inquired.
James cleared his throat. “We have an important matter to discuss.”
“Yes, yes, Your Grace,” Claire said dismissively. “If it’s important, then I need some tea.”
“And I need cake or I shall perish,” Amelia replied.
James sighed wearily and did that thing where he gazed toward the heavens (or in this instance, the first floor) and muttered a request for the Lord to save him from his plague of sisters. Finally everyone was seated with slices of cake and hot cups of tea.
“Bridget is in love and wishes to marry,” James declared.
“I think that was made quite clear last evening,” Claire said. “The entirety of English society knows that she is in love and wishes to marry.”
“Darcy was here this morning requesting permission to wed her. Of course I have granted permission because I’m not an ogre. But . . .”
“If she marries, she stays in England,” Claire added.
“And we must stay together,” Amelia finished.
“But I could never choose between you or Darcy,” Bridget cried.
“We wouldn’t ask that of you,” Claire said, resting her hand over Bridget’s.
“But,” James said, pausing dramatically. “Do we all wish to stay in England, or does someone wish to return home?”
There was a long moment of silence as each one considered it. They had come to England expecting perhaps nothing more than an extended visit, for it was laughable that James would be a duke. But he was growing into the role more and more each day. If they stayed, it meant goodbye to America and hello forever to life in England.
Bridget wanted to be everywhere at once, and she wanted her siblings and Darcy by her side. She did not wish to choose.
She loved him, loved him in a way that was so right and good that nothing else mattered. And no one else would ever love her as Darcy did, completely and just the way she was. And he needed her. They balanced each other out, perfectly so.
“We could always take trips back to visit,” Amelia said in a small voice, breaking the silence.
“That is always an option,” Claire said.
They would stay.
“So it’s decided then,” James said, glancing at each of them.
And that was when Josephine arrived, resplendent in a rose silk dress that contrasted greatly with her simple and dim surroundings. Of course the sight of her down here stunned the siblings into silence. With her was Lord Darcy, looking perfectly out of place but determined to fit in, all the same.
“We have a vast house full of proper meeting rooms and I find you all in the kitchens,” she said.
“Cavendish family tradition,” James said. And then to Darcy he stood, offered his hand, and said, “Welcome to the family.”
Darcy gave a half smile and nodded, and was clearly out of sorts to be below stairs. Bridget found it adorable.
“Well you weren’t wrong about our informality,” she said to him. “Though we shall see if it is the downfall of civilization.”
He smiled, and took her hand, and kissed her palm. “As long as we’re together for it.”
Claire interrupted the moment with an offer of cake.
“Don’t mind if I do,” the duchess said grandly. And then to their surprise, Josephine joined them at the table for tea and cake and chatter about wedding plans. In the kitchen. With servants milling about.
“I do believe this occasion calls for champagne,” the duchess declared. James rummaged around and found a bottle and some flutes.
They all toasted to family and love and happily ever after.
Epilogue
It was the morning after their wedding and, as one would expect, Darcy and Bridget were to be found in bed. Tangled up in soft white sheets, tangled up in each other. There were kisses and soft sighs, quiet moans and gasps as they made love in the lazy, leisurely way of a couple who had the promise of a lifetime together and no need to rush.