“You…I would not want you to simply…” Her mother did not seem entirely sure what she was trying to say, until she burst out with, “Well! I would not want you to simply throw yourself at the first gentleman who asked you!”
Priscilla smiled gently. How like her mother to assume she had accepted Charles out of desperation. It had not occurred to her that the closeness they had experienced as children then adults could possibly be something more.
“Mother, you are worrying yourself over nothing,” she said gently. “Please, listen to me carefully. I am happy. Charles makes me happy – happier than I think I have ever been. Being with him, being his wife, will bring me greater joy than I could ever know.”
A light blush tinged her cheeks at these words. She was not going to mention the pleasure she knew she would experience that evening. It had been a challenge, restraining herself from Charles’s tempting whispers for the last four weeks, but her self-possession would be worth it.
In just a few short hours, she would be his wife – and he could do whatever he wanted to her.
“Hmm.” Her mother did not look entirely convinced, but she threw up her hands. “Well, you are old enough to know your own mind, Priscilla. Just know that you have no need to marry if you do not wish it. Your home here, and your fortune, will protect you.”
Priscilla smiled. She rarely saw this protective instinct in her mother, and it was rather lovely, in a way, to experience it one last time before she ceased being Miss Priscilla Seton and became…
She swallowed. Priscilla Audley, Duchess of Orrinshire. It rolled off the tongue, but it did not sound like her. Priscilla Audley, Duchess of Orrinshire, was a great lady. Not someone who had attempted to catch the eye of her husband at his engagement picnic to another, and eventually been proposed to in an alleyway!
“Please, do not worry,” she said. “I am happier than I ever knew was possible, and it is Charles who makes me feel this way. He is the one I want, Mother, and I would not choose to leave you unless I was absolutely sure I had found someone perfect.”
Mrs. Seton nodded. “And no bridesmaids?”
Even on this happiest of days, it was possible to feel a shadow of sadness. Priscilla swallowed. She had promised herself she would not permit her emotions to overwhelm her.
“No bridesmaids,” she said shortly, her heartstrings tugged by sadness. “No, I had…well, I had always wanted Mary to be my bridesmaid. We had agreed to it years ago when little. Now that she is not here… I am not going to try to replace her. No one could replace her.”
Mrs. Seton stepped across the room and cupped her daughter’s cheek. “I just wish your father was here to give you away.”
Priscilla swallowed, feeling the softness of her mother’s love just as close as her hand. She nodded, unable to control herself, unwilling to attempt to speak. She would not cry today, of all days.
Her mother straightened, and if Priscilla did not know her mother rarely showed her feelings, she would have said there was a tear in her eye.
“When you are ready, come downstairs,” she said briskly. “We can walk to church, for there is no threat of rain.”
Priscilla nodded, and before she had turned back to the looking glass, she was alone.
“Now then, Priscilla Seton,” she said sternly to her own reflection. “Do not lose your head.”
“What an excellent idea.”
Priscilla turned quickly to see who had disturbed her privacy, but she relaxed as she saw the ton’s matchmaker leaning against the doorframe. It was impossible to feel discomfort around Miss Ashbrooke for long. She had a way, somehow, of putting one at ease.
“Oh, ’tis just you,” she said aloud.
“I am going to decide not to take offense at that,” said Miss Ashbrooke with a smile, stepping inside the room and closing the door behind her. “I am never just anything!”
Priscilla could not help but laugh. It would take a great deal of force to prevent Miss Ashbrooke from getting her own way; she could see that. It was fortunate; indeed, Miss Ashbrooke was working for her rather than against her.
“Nothing can dim my joy today,” she said aloud. “And I did not exactly mean it that way.”
“I know what you meant. I must say it is a joy to see your joy,” said Miss Ashbrooke, good-naturedly, walking to the window and looking out at the sunshine. “I must congratulate you, you know. Few ladies of any age are able to ensure the gentleman of their choice, and you have done so against tremendous odds.”
Priscilla smiled. Against tremendous odds. Miss Ashbrooke was right. “For a while, I never thought I would be happy. I thought Charles was lost to me forever.”
“Nonsense. I had everything perfectly under control.”
She could not help but laugh at the certainty in the matchmaker’s words. “Miss Ashbrooke, I will not deny you are skilled at your craft, but I do not believe you can claim complete omnipotence in this matter!”
Miss Ashbrooke’s eyes twinkled as she looked at Priscilla. “A matchmaker never reveals her secrets – I would hardly want to put myself out of business! Suffice it to say, you did very well on your own for a while, but a few pokes and prods in the right direction did not hurt.”
Priscilla did not know whether to laugh or thank her. Miss Ashbrooke was such a strange lady; few friends, not married herself, and yet an expert in the ways of matrimony.
But before she could think of a response that would not offend, Miss Ashbrooke sighed heavily and left the window. “And now I must depart, or I shall find myself late to your wedding. Let me be the last to say, good day, Miss Seton.”
She was gone with
