One Night for Love

to anyone else.

It was Gwendoline who vocalized one of the implications of what they had all heard. She clasped her hands to her bosom and her eyes lit up.

'Oh, but this is wonderful!' she exclaimed, smiling warmly at her brother. 'You and Lauren can marry after all, Nev. You can set a new wedding date and we can begin new plans. A summer wedding will be lovelier than a spring wedding. You can carry roses, Lauren.'

Neville's hand closed tightly about the spoon. He drew breath to reply, but Lauren spoke first, her voice breathless.

'No,' she said. 'No, Gwen. The past nine days cannot simply be erased as if they never were. Nothing can be the same as it was before.' She raised her eyes and looked into his. 'Can it, Neville?'

He did not know if she wished him to corroborate her words or if she was begging him to disagree with her. He could only give her honesty. He shook his head.

'The truth is,' he said, 'that I made vows to Lily in all good faith. I fully intended to honor them for a lifetime. Does it make any difference that they are not legally binding? Are they not morally binding? And would I wish them not to be? I consider Lily to be my wife. I believe I always will.'

Lauren lowered her eyes again. It was impossible to know if she was satisfied or disappointed. One rarely did know with Lauren what her deepest feelings were. Dignity always came first with her. She was dignified now—and pale and beautiful. He felt an ache of deep affection for her. And a yearning to release her from the pain she surely must be feeling. But he was helpless to do anything.

'That is absurd, Neville,' his mother said crisply. 'Are you above the state? Above the church? If the church says you are not married, then of course you are not. And it is your duty to marry a lady suited to your station and able to give you heirs.'

Lily was not a lady; she was not suited to his station; by her own admission, she was incapable of giving him heirs. But Lily was his wife.

'The whole thing will be a nine days' wonder, I daresay,' the duke said. 'The ton will be delighted by the story and will forget it as soon as some other sensation or scandal rears its head. Your mother is right, Neville—you must resume your former way of life as soon as possible. Marry someone of your own kind. I do not wish to be unkind to Lily, but—'

'Then do not be, Uncle Webster,' Neville said quietly but so firmly that his uncle stopped midsentence and flushed. 'If anyone has slurs to cast upon Lily, I beg to inform that person that I will defend her honor in any way I deem necessary—just as surely as if the whole world acknowledged her as my wife.'

'Oh, I say,' Richard Wollston said. 'Bravo, Nev.'

'Hold your tongue,' his father instructed him sharply.

'Tempers are becoming frayed,' Elizabeth said, and proceeded to bring up another pertinent point that no one else seemed to have considered—though it had tormented Neville ever since Lily had left him in the library earlier in the afternoon. 'What is to become of Lily, Neville? What will she do? As I understand it, she has no family that she knows of in England.'

'She wants to go to London to look for employment,' he said. 'I dread the thought. I hope she will agree to allow me to make a settlement on her and find her a decent home somewhere. But I am afraid she will not agree. She is a proud woman and a stubborn one, I believe.'

Gwendoline's eyes were swimming in tears. 'I am so ashamed,' she said. 'My first thought was for what this could mean for our happiness—Lauren's and Nev's and mine. I did not even wonder what would happen to Lily. I wish—oh yes, I do wish—that she had not come into our lives at all. But she has come and I have liked her despite myself. Now I feel dreadfully sorry for her. She will not simply run away, Nev?'

'She has promised not to,' he assured her.

'Neville,' Elizabeth said, 'perhaps I can do something for Lily. I have connections in London and a great liking for her even if she did come along to dash the happiness of my poor Lauren. Will you allow me to talk with her?'

'I wish you would, Elizabeth,' he said. 'Perhaps you could persuade her to change her mind? To marry me after all?'

'Do nothing in haste, Neville,' the duke advised. 'You have been given a second chance to choose your countess wisely. You would be well advised to take time to make the decision with your considered judgment rather than with your raw emotions.'

Elizabeth got to her feet. 'Where is she?' she asked. 'In her room?'

'I believe so,' he said. One could never be sure with Lily, but that was where she had been when he came down for dinner. She had been curled up on a chair close to the window, gazing out. She had not turned her head to look at him or responded to any of his questions except to shrug her shoulders in a defensive rather than a careless gesture. She had changed, he had noticed, into her old cotton dress.

'I will go up to her now, then,' Elizabeth said, 'if you will all excuse me.'

Forbes, Neville realized belatedly, was standing silently at the sideboard. But it did not matter. Such a truth as the fact that he and Lily were not married could not be kept from the servants anyway. They might as well learn the full story from the butler as be regaled piecemeal with a mixture of truth and rumor over the coming days.

'Perhaps,' Neville said, getting to his feet too and pushing back his chair with the backs of his knees, 'we should all adjourn to the drawing room. I have no wish to imbibe port for the next half hour or so.'

Derek and his brother William, aged seventeen, looked almost comically disappointed. The wave of humor Neville felt in noticing it felt incongruous with his other feelings. But it served to remind him that somehow life went on through even the worst upheavals to which it was subjected.

He was going to find that pack of Doyle's for Lily, he thought suddenly, if it was humanly possible to do so. Whatever it had contained for Lily might well have disappeared, especially if it was money, but perhaps he could retrieve something. She must be quite without a memento of her father, he realized. He remembered some of the things she had said to him when he showed her the gallery. It must be dreadful to have lost all of one's family, to be unacquainted with any who remained, to have lost everything connected with one's parents.