‘Shall we depart?’ Mr Devere turned straight to me once the pleasantries were over and offered me his arm.
‘I am ready.’ I was very pleased to take told and be led out of there. I had no desire to sit around taking tea, while my mind pondered the discussion we had to have.
‘I must apologise, Miss Granville,’ he said as soon as we’d left the house. ‘I had planned to come alone. However, it seems that no one is prepared to wait to hear the outcome of our meeting one moment longer than they have to.’
This was a subtle way of letting me know that our families expected an outcome by the end of our walk. ‘You would think that they have enough cause for excitement.’
Mr Devere stopped to give me an assessing look. ‘You don’t seem distant.’
I smiled. ‘I do believe you made that impossible at our last meeting, sir.’
He gave a broad smile in return. ‘It does seem that I owe you another apology, for taking such a liberty…but at the time I feared I would not get another opportunity.’
‘I feel one only needs to apologise when one has something to be sorry for.’ I let him off the hook gladly. ‘I know that I was not offended and I am not remorseful, Mr Devere. Are you?’
‘No, but I have found my forthright manner can be too much for some to tolerate.’
‘That is what I like most about you,’ I assured him, and he was much relieved to hear it.
We crossed the street and entered Hyde Park.
‘Were you serious about travelling,’ I got straight to the point, ‘or were you merely aiming to sweep me off my feet?’
‘Name the destination and I will take you there,’ he offered grandly.
I struggled to suppress my enthusiasm, sucking in my cheeks to keep from yelling out my joy. ‘And why should you go to such lengths to secure my happiness?’
‘To tell you the truth, Miss Granville,’ he said lightheartedly, ‘I don’t have anything better to do with my life at present. As you do have things you wish to achieve, then I shall help you achieve them.’
‘In return for your future lordship,’ I concluded.
‘Your title and estates can pass straight to our children, for all I care.’ He stopped still to look at me earnestly; his given name obviously suited him well. ‘All I want from this arrangement is the pleasure of your company for the rest of my life. And if that means that I have to follow you to the ends of the earth, then, so be it.’
My heart was touched, but I kept my head. ‘I fear that my company is not always as pleasurable as you suppose.’
‘We are none of us perfect,’ he replied.
How much did he know about my talents? Only what Lady Charlotte had told him all those years ago? Father certainly wouldn’t have mentioned them, for fear of scaring off a perfectly good suitor. ‘But you must understand that I
‘I know you are a very powerful psychic,’ he whispered, and we resumed our stroll. ‘Lady Charlotte implied you would be. Simon also told me the tale of how you saved the Cavandish family from certain ruin at the age of eight. I can’t imagine what you are capable of now, but I would feel very privileged to know.’
Was he perfect in every way? Was there nothing about me that would scare him into retreat? It was a dream come true—I kept waiting for some small difficulty to bring the whole fairytale crashing down. ‘I could reach into your mind at any given moment and know your thoughts, search your memories…do you not find that daunting?’
‘Did it scare Lord Hereford?’ he asked in good faith and then realised his query could be taken the wrong way. ‘I didn’t mean to imply that the news might have been the cause of his—’
‘I understood your meaning.’ I set him at ease. ‘Lord Hereford had already tarnished his reputation in the House of Lords and so my pursuits could do him no harm.’
I do believe Mr Devere was beginning to see why Lord Hamilton had been my first choice of husband. ‘I have no desire to be remembered for who I was.’ Mr Devere wanted to put my fears to rest on that count also. ‘I’d much prefer to be remembered for what I achieved.’
I was moved. I felt like I was staring at Lord Hamilton, forty years ago. ‘Then we are agreed, Mr Devere.’ I smiled in encouragement, to confirm my acceptance of his proposal.
‘And, after we see your father, I may make the announcement?’ he asked, to be sure that he understood me correctly.
‘Personally, I don’t care what my father thinks.’ I tested Mr Devere to find out how much he cared about the money.
‘I’ll just make the announcement then, shall I?’
He didn’t even blink at the prospect of offending my father.
Susan had taken the liberty of seeing to all of my wedding arrangements, just in case. The dress, she’d never cancelled from my first- planned wedding. Mr Devere and I had all the same guests as those couples we were to marry alongside and they didn’t even have to add two seats to the wedding table, as we had been in the wedding party in any case. Susan and her Lord Devere had booked an extra coach and two extra first class ferry tickets from Dover to Calais in northern France as their wedding gift to us.
There had only been one problem with marrying at the same time as our kin, and it was that the date was not the best day in the month we might have wed, if we intended to exercise our marriage vows on the night of the wedding. I had never thought to broach such an issue with a man before, but as I was to be a wife, I considered that I would have to get used to it. My betrothed took the news awfully well, claiming that he would never press me on that front. Still, I assured him that by the time we reached the chateau my time would have passed. I had no desire for him to think I was opposed to the idea of my wifely duties and I felt mature to have confronted the issue
