to have included the announcement of his betrothal to Lady Freyja Bedwyn.
Just before dinner Kit and his viscountess came down from the nursery, and there was the painful moment of coming face-to-face with them. Kit was wearing the somewhat wary smile he always wore in Freyja's presence. The viscountess was wearing her corresponding bright, warm smile. Freyja smiled dazzlingly. What varying thoughts and emotions must be turning over behind those three smiles, she thought.
'I must congratulate you both on the birth of your son,' she said.
'Thank you, Freyja,' Kit said. 'And thank you for coming.'
'We are so very delighted that you came home from Bath in time to join us today,' the viscountess said-surely lying through her teeth.
'May I present the Marquess of Hallmere, my betrothed?' Freyja said. 'Viscount and Viscountess Ravensberg, Josh.'
'Lady Freyja's betrothed.' The viscountess smiled with warm pleasure at Joshua. 'How pleased I am to make your acquaintance, Lord Hallmere. And how happy I am for you, Lady Freyja.'
She took one step forward and for a horrified moment Freyja thought she was about to be hugged. She raised her eyebrows and lifted her chin, and the viscountess hesitated and contented herself with another warm smile.
'Hallmere?' Kit shook hands with him. 'You are a fortunate man. I hope you realize that you have won a treasure.'
Freyja's knuckles itched as she curled her fingers into her palms.
'And Freyja.' Kit set both hands on her shoulders. 'I knew you would find happiness one day soon. My sincerest best wishes.' He did not hesitate as his wife had done. He kissed her warmly on the cheek.
Fortunately dinner was announced at that moment and so there was no need to make further conversation. Freyja took Joshua's arm and smiled dazzlingly at him.
'What fun we are having,' she murmured.
Joshua did not stay at Freyja's side all through the afternoon. It would have been bad form, and it seemed to him that once dinner was over the terrible tension he had sensed in her body earlier despite her smiles and seemingly perfect composure had dissipated. She was circulating among the guests, bright-eyed, poised, and sociable and looking remarkably fetching in a muslin dress with loose, floating skirts in varying shades of turquoise and sea green.
He was not at all sure she had not loved Jerome Butler very much indeed. Certainly today seemed very hard for her.
He mingled with the guests too for most of the afternoon. But eventually he sat down on the window seat in the drawing room beside the Earl of Redfield's youngest son, Sydnam Butler, who had been sitting there for a while. The man's right arm and eye were missing, and the right side of his face and neck were disfigured with the purple marks of old burns.
'War wounds?' Joshua asked.
'Right,' Sydnam Butler said. 'I was captured by a French scouting party when I was on a reconnaissance mission in Portugal. I was out of uniform.'
Joshua grimaced. 'It was my greatest fear for five years,' he said. 'I was in France doing some spying for the government, but in an entirely unofficial capacity. No commission, no uniform, no rescue had I been caught. You were not given the honorable treatment your uniform would have ensured, then?'
'No,' Butler said.
They chatted for a while about the wars and about Wales, where the man was now living on one of Bewcastle's estates in the capacity of steward. Then Butler nodded in Freyja's direction-she was in a group with Rannulf and Judith, Lady Muir, and a Butler cousin whose name had escaped Joshua's memory.
'I am very glad indeed to see Freyja happy again,' he said. 'You are obviously good for her.'
'Thank you,' Joshua said. 'Today has been something of a strain for her, though. I believe she must have been deeply attached to your brother when she was betrothed to him.'
'Oh, they were never actually betrothed,' Butler said. 'When Kit came home last summer he brought Lauren with him as his fiancee, and there was an end of the match Bewcastle and my father had arranged.' He paused briefly and Joshua was aware that he grimaced slightly. 'I do beg your pardon. You were speaking of Jerome. Yes, of course. They were always fond of each other. But I would not worry if I were you. That was a long time ago, and she looks happy today. Very happy.'
Ravensberg and his wife, who had been absent from the room for a while, came back into it at that moment. The viscountess was carrying the baby, no longer in his christening robe but wrapped cozily in a white blanket. Two little hands were waving above its folds. They proceeded to move from group to group, showing off their treasure while the ladies cooed and smiled over him and several of the gentlemen looked faintly sheepish.
They were a remarkably good-looking couple. And they were still in the throes of a deep romantic attachment to each other, if Joshua was not mistaken.
He also had not mistaken what Sydnam Butler had just said before he had realized his mistake. A marriage had been arranged for Freyja and the present Ravensberg. It made sense. If the two families had planned the alliance with the eldest son from the children's infancy, would it not be natural a suitable time after his demise to revive the plan with the second son as the projected husband? But the second son had brought home a bride of his own choosing and so had spoiled the plan.
Had it been deliberate? Had he known of the marriage his father and Freyja's brother were arranging for him? Had he-rather like Joshua himself in Bath-rushed into a betrothal with someone else in order to avoid a marriage he did not want? Or had he not known?
Either way Freyja would have felt spurned.
She would not have liked that!
