Kisses and Scandal (A Survivors Series Anthology ) - Shana Galen Page 0,36
do, Yer Grace. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I know I’ve caused a muddle.”
“Well, now,” she said, descending the stairs. “That is quite the understatement. This is more than a muddle. This is a scandal.”
“Not if I go to the magistrate, Yer Grace. No one has to know—”
“Oh, my daughter will make sure everyone knows,” the duchess said, waving a hand at Phil. “She has her heart set on marrying you, and I have known her long enough to know that once she sets her mind, nothing can sway her.”
James didn’t know what to say. He stood, looking from mother to daughter.
“Philomena,” the duchess said. “In the past few years, I have lost four sons. I have mourned those losses and clung to my remaining three children. And now you want to leave me as well.”
Phil bit her lips, her eyes turning watery. “I do not want to, Mama, but I must.”
“Because you are in love. Oh, you think I am so elderly now, but I remember what it feels like to be in love. I was in love once.” She looked at James. “But the world is a harsh place. One cannot survive on love. He is right about that.”
“I don’t—” Phil began.
“Hush. I am thinking.” She walked away, paced back, then walked away again. Phil crossed to James, and he took her hand.
“I can see only one way. Banks, can we rely on the discretion of the staff here?”
Banks, who had been standing in a corner, stepped forward. “Of course, Your Grace. Every man and woman in your employ is loyal to a fault.”
“Good. Then, Phil, I will send for your brother and that awful woman he’s married. He and I will go to the prince to petition for a knighthood.”
James frowned. “For who?”
“It’s for whom, and that whom would be you.”
“I can’t be a knight.”
“You needn’t wear armor or joust,” the duchess said. “But it will give you some prestige. Philomena has become quite the storyteller lately. I am certain she can make you out to be a hero.”
“But Patrick and Sean—they’ll tell the magistrate about me.”
The duchess shrugged. “And we will say they are lying. We never employed a James Finnegan.”
“But—”
The duchess raised a brow. “Do you think the magistrate will question me?”
James couldn’t imagine the king himself questioning her. “No, Your Grace.”
“Good, then it’s settled. When the magistrate calls tomorrow, you stay out of sight,” she told James. “After he leaves, I think it best if we depart for Southmeade Cottage. I can think better in the country. When I am there, I will decide what we shall do about James Finnegan. You cannot go by that name any longer.”
“But my sisters—”
“Oh, good Lord. They mustn’t ever know that you married Philomena. Do you send them money now?”
He nodded. “The majority of my wages.”
“We will send them a monthly allowance. You can claim it’s your wages. They will be taken care of.” She turned to Phil. “What say you to all of this, Philomena?”
Phil released his hand and pulled her mother tight against her. “I say, I love you, Mama. Thank you!”
SPRING DRAGGED HER feet, and it seemed to Phil that summer would never arrive. Summer and her wedding. Her mother had separated her from James as soon as they’d returned from London and arrived at Southmeade Cottage. James had been summarily settled in the dowager house. The duchess had told everyone he was James Fillimore, a distant cousin, and even though the servants all knew exactly who he was, they pretended they had never seen him before.
The duchess prodded her brother Phineas to see Cousin James made a knight for the service he had done in rescuing Philomena from her abductors. As Phil had told the story, Cousin James had been passing by and heard her screams. He’d raced into the old shop and rescued her. They had fallen in love at first sight, not having realized they were third or fourth cousins.
The ton devoured the story as though it was an ice at Gunter’s on a hot August day, and though a few whispered rumors about James having been a footman, most people did not put any stock into those outlandish stories.
Now as Phil stood beside James in the church, she wondered if anyone would notice that the vicar had just asked if she would take James Finnegan as her husband, not James Fillimore. She smiled at her Irishman as she said she would, and he smiled back and gave her a