struck her that even though Mrs. Arundell may have wanted her to marry Sebastian, it did not mean that Sebastian wanted it.
“You thought she meant my cousin.”
She nodded.
“And now that you know what she meant? What is your reaction now?”
Frannie blinked. “I am quite confounded…I should never have presumed…I am sorry, indeed, for your sake. For I know how you feel and you are perfectly right in it. I cannot conceive why your mama would desire to have me as a daughter in law!”
Sebastian smiled. “Perhaps because she knows her son desires you for a wife.”
Frannie’s breath caught in her throat in a huge lump. But no, he could not possibly mean… “You mean Edward, of course.”
“Do you wish to marry Edward?”
“No!”
“I did not mean Edward. I meant myself.”
Frannie stared at him, her eyes widening with the thought. But this could not be! Blinking, she said, “I heard you tell Edward that no Arundell could align himself to a case like mine.”
He nodded ruefully. “I believed it, too. I think I believed it until a few moments ago. Until you said you had no wish to marry my cousin!”
She said, “But surely you must still believe that I am not fit…you recall that I may have nothing? That my parentage is uncertain, that—”
“Shuussshh,” he put a finger to her lips. He put his arms about her and drew her up to him. He lowered his head and kissed her, at first tentatively, then firmly and more deeply. Frannie threw her arms about him, feeling as though it must be a dream! She wanted to cling to him and never let go!
Their lips came apart and she said, “’Tis only right that a future baronet have a respectable wife; a wife with a dowry.”
He gathered her even closer in his arms. “I want a respectable wife with a dowry only if that wife is you.” He kissed her again, quite soundly. Frannie felt tears of joy on her face, though she welcomed his kiss with equal fervor, savoring his touch, his arms about her, and the affection she felt free to acknowledge now, rushing up to fill her heart.
He broke the kiss lingeringly, his lips warm and full upon hers. Then he murmured, “You will marry me, Miss Fanshawe; my Frannie, won’t you?”
She felt ready to burst. “With all my heart!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
In the great hall, the Charles Fanshawe family sat at one of the many wooden tables lined with merry, laughing townsfolk. Catherine and her father were content to eat, drink, and enjoy the waits, the amateur musicians playing and singing carols and reels; but Mrs. Fanshawe had in mind only that of finding the baronet and securing an audience with him. They’d had a late, slow breakfast at an inn, followed by a long wait to procure fresh horses. Upon their arrival, theyʼd learned that the baronet had been greeting guests earlier but now had gone from the hall. The consolation was an assurance that he should in all likelihood return “afore everyone departed.”
And then he did reappear, standing across the large room, nodding at guests. Mrs. Fanshawe caught sight of him. With eyes blazing, she cried, “That must be him! The baronet. Let us request an audience now.”
Mr. Fanshawe said, “M’dear, allow the man to enjoy the day. I will write to him, I vow.” Her eyes widened for a moment as she stared at her husband. “We must see him betimes, sir! That other creature, Miss Fanshawe, knows not that he has the purse strings of the trust, or I warrant she would not have come to us. But how long can it remain hidden when she has that Arundell gentleman, and solicitors, snooping on her behalf? They’ll settle it all without ye and then they’ll be naught in it for our Catherine.” Her dark eyes flashed at him. “We must reach him before her, and do him the service of reuniting his family before ‘tis done without us.”
flashed at him. “We must reach him before her, and do him the service of reuniting his family before ‘tis done without us.”
Mr. Fanshawe stared at his wife. He rose and headed toward Sir Hugo. But at just that moment Mrs. Arundell came flitting up to the baronet and called him away. By the time Mr. Fanshawe arrived in the vicinity, the man was gone. He asked a footman if he might have a meeting with His Lordship, but when the servant learned that the Fanshawes were not local residents,