‘How can you say that, when you have spent the past month pursuing her?’
‘I put my name to that preposterous wager, but it did not take me long to realise I had made a mistake.’ He glanced down at her. ‘You have no confidence in your own charms, Phyllida!’
She sat up straight, wondering if she dare believe what she was hearing. Could he truly love her? There was no time to consider that now. They were driving into Melksham and her eyes alighted upon a dusty travelling carriage standing before a large coaching inn.
‘There they are!’
Richard drew up behind the carriage and almost before they had come to a stand Phyllida jumped down and ran inside.
‘Where are the occupants of that coach?’ she demanded of the landlord, who was emerging from the noisy taproom. If he was surprised to be addressed so abruptly he did not show it, merely waved his hand towards a door at the far end of the corridor.
‘In there, ma’am. It’s a private parlour.’
With Richard hard on her heels Phyllida burst into the room, only to stop so quickly that Richard all but cannoned into her. She felt his hand on her shoulder, but whether it was to stop himself from colliding with her, or as support for the scene before them, she did not know.
Ellen, a picture in pale blue, was standing by the window and sitting in an armchair beside her was Lady Hune.
‘You see,’ declared Ellen, smiling, ‘I told you they would come.’
Obedient to the pressure of the hand on her shoulder, Phyllida moved into the room. She heard Richard close the door behind them.
‘Perhaps one of you would be good enough to explain what the devil is going on here?’ she demanded angrily.
Ellen moved towards the table at the centre of the room, waving her hands towards the food and drink that covered its surface.
‘Do sit down and take some refreshment with us,’ she said. ‘We made sure you would be hungry after your journey. And we deliberately ordered that the coach should be left outside and not be brought into the yard, so you really couldn’t miss us.’
‘I think, Lady Phyllida, that we have been duped,’ remarked Richard. He guided Phyllida to a chair and gently pushed her down. ‘And very neatly, too.’
Ellen beamed at him.
‘I knew if you saw me running away you would go to Philly.’
‘Do you mean there is no elopement?’ said Phyllida. ‘But what of the fashionable gentleman seen at the turnpikes?’
‘One of Lady Hune’s footmen,’ replied Ellen. ‘It is surprising how easily people can be fooled by seeing a fashionable hat and coat upon a man.’
‘And may I ask where you obtained this hat and coat?’ asked Richard calmly.
He was sitting beside Phyllida at the table, holding her fingers in a sustaining grasp with one hand while with the other he filled two wineglasses. She herself could think of nothing to say. For the moment, relief at finding Ellen safe and well had replaced her anger.
‘We borrowed those from your room,’ explained the dowager. ‘I am afraid I had to coerce your valet into agreeing to help us, but I do not think he was too reluctant, for you have been going around like a bear with a sore head for the past week.’
‘And so will Fritt have a sore head, when I have finished with him,’ he muttered. ‘How dare he allow himself to be embroiled in your hare-brained scheme, Sophia!’
‘Oh, pray do not blame Lady Hune,’ said Ellen quickly. ‘This was all my idea. Ever since we returned from Shrewton Lodge I have been trying to hit upon a way to get the two of you together. I was very much afraid that Phyllida and I would go off to Tatham and you, Richard, would return to London and take up your rakish life again.’
‘Ellen!’
‘I beg your pardon for my plain speaking, Philly, but it is true, and Lady Hune agreed with me. As Mrs Ackroyd says, desperate times call for desperate measures, and I knew if you thought I had eloped you would both come after me. I did think of running off with Mr Tesford or Mr Fullingham, but when I suggested it to Lady Hune she thought that would not be wise.’
‘After what happened with Fullingham in the Denhams’ garden I am very glad you didn’t,’ retorted Phyllida. A sip of the wine Richard had poured for her was having its effect and she was beginning to feel a little better.
‘But then I was not prepared,’ argued Ellen. ‘This time I would have made sure I had my hatpin ready to use, if necessary. However, then Lady Hune suggested we should make it a sham elopement.’
‘I fear we have shocked you, Lady Phyllida,’ said Sophia, smiling a little.
‘Nothing your family does could shock me,’ retorted Phyllida bitterly. ‘After all you are an Arrandale, ma’am, are you not?’
‘I am, and proud of it. And I think Ellen will make a wonderful addition to the family—as Richard’s stepdaughter, of course.’
Phyllida’s breath caught in her throat. Richard was still holding one of her hands and she felt his fingers tighten.
‘Lady Phyllida has not yet agreed to marry me.’
‘But she will,’ replied Lady Sophia. ‘The two of you have been smelling of April and May for weeks. I think she could do better for herself, but if she wants to ally herself to an Arrandale you are amongst the best, Richard.’
He shook his head, saying unsteadily, ‘Great-Aunt Sophia, your encomium almost unmans me.’
Phyllida’s lips twitched as she met his eyes and saw the lurking laughter in his own.
‘Damned with faint praise, I think.’
‘Exactly.’ He lifted her fingers and kissed them. ‘So now you know what my family think of me, will you do me the honour of accepting my hand and my heart? Will you make an honest man of me?’
The world stood still, waiting for her answer. Phyllida knew Ellen and Sophia were holding their breath and she saw the hint of a shadow in Richard’s smile, as if he too was uncertain. She smiled.
‘Yes, I will accept your offer, Richard. Gladly, and with all my heart.’
A collective sigh went around the room. Phyllida kept her eyes on Richard’s face, saw his smile deepen, the flash of fire in his eyes, the promise of desire that set her body tingling.
He pulled her close and kissed her lips. Sophia tutted and Ellen gave a little squeal of delight, but he ignored them both, murmuring for her alone, ‘I will do my best to make sure you never have cause to regret it.’
‘You may wish to use this.’ Sophia’s voice recalled them to their situation. She was holding up a paper. ‘It is a special licence. The church and parson are waiting for you across the road. And we are not twenty miles from Shrewton. Since I went to all the trouble to make the Lodge ready for visitors you might wish to use it for your honeymoon. You need not worry about Ellen, Phyllida. I shall take her back to Royal Crescent with me and send for her maid to join us—after she has packed up your trunk and sent it on to Shrewton, of course. So there is no hurry for you both to return.’
Richard gave a crack of laughter.
‘You have worked it all out between you, have you not?’
‘Of course,’ said Ellen, twinkling. ‘I said when I came to Bath that we might find Philly a husband, although I was very much afraid she would set her heart on one of the dull, worthy kind.’
Lady Hune laughed. ‘There is nothing dull or worthy about Richard!’ She pushed herself out of her seat. ‘Now, shall we go to the church?’
The wedding passed off without incident. Lady Hune had had the forethought to bring a wedding ring, a heavy plain band that she explained had belonged to some distant ancestor and if the reverend gentleman who conducted the service had any reservations he was far too in awe of a dowager marchioness in his church to voice them. Sophia carried Ellen back to Bath immediately after the ceremony, leaving Richard and his new bride to make their way to Shrewton Lodge.
‘Happy?’ he asked Phyllida as they bowled out of the town in the afternoon sunshine.
‘Yes, of course. But it has all happened so fast.’
‘I beg your pardon,’ he said quickly. ‘I have rushed you, I should have waited until we could arrange a more fitting wedding.’
‘No, no,’ she assured him. ‘I have had one wedding with all the pomp and ceremony, I do not wish for another.’
‘Truly?’ He reached for her hand.
‘Truly.’ She smiled, ‘But are you happy, Richard?’
‘Happier than I can say. It has all worked out so well, especially for Sophia. Ellen has helped her to overcome her sadness at Cassie’s elopement, and you have fulfilled her wish that I should become a respectable married man.’ He squeezed her fingers. ‘And I mean to be very respectable, my love!’
Her smile could not be contained. ‘Do you? Now that will be a challenge!’
He grinned. ‘Witch!’ Richard returned both hands to the reins as he said cheerfully, ‘Ellen will live with us, of course. Sophia is already hinting that she will come to London to help with her come-out next year. I hope you will not object to that?’
‘No, no, not in the least! Oh, dear, I fear I should have thought of all these things before I married you.’
‘How could you? When we set out this morning you had no idea that we were to be married. I hope you will not regret it, Phyllida. I shall do everything in my power to make you happy, I promise you.’