melted: dear, dearest Tom. He would still like to fish, though, if she would not mind it. She gave him her blessing; he thanked her. For he felt a particular peace on the riverbank, with a rod in his hand.
* * *
IT WAS A CHEERFUL PARTY that gathered in the evening. The Austens were always cheerful in the face of whatever life fancied to throw at them. Cheerfulness and good humor were the Austen way.
“That’s a fine pair of sea legs you have there, Tom Fowle, so you need not fret on their account.” Mrs. Austen, who had earlier dispatched a full plate of veal pie and dumplings, was now swelling gently in the chair by the fire. “I merely have to look at a man to judge him a sailor or no. It is a talent I have, never once known to fail me. And you will have no trouble. I shall stake my reputation upon it. You, my boy, are a sailor. I can see it at once.”
“Oh, I assure you I have no concerns on that score.” Tom was also flushed and benign after the feast that had been prepared for him. Cassy looked at him sharply. Since signing up, he had assumed a new masculine swagger—expected in most men, quite ill suited to him. “After all, I have lived by water all of my life.”
She felt quietly mortified. Her sister, beside her, was stifling her giggles. And her brothers just loudly guffawed.
“You live on the dear old river Kennet!” cried Henry, slapping his thigh.
“It is not known for its high tides and breakers,” James added.
“Oh, but do remember, Brother, that day we had punting.” Henry, when he met with an opportunity for comedy, was always reluctant to let it move on. “Those water lilies we came up against were the very devil itself!”
“Well may you tease, boys,” cut in their mother, reproaching. “I went on a punt once on the Cherwell and quite feared for my own life. And my point was,” she went on, determined to get the conversation onto a kinder, happier note, “that Tom will sail there and back with no difficulty. And before we know it, this beloved young couple will be wed and in a house of their own.” She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Cassy feared for her digestion later. “I always knew you would not be a curate forever, dear Tom. Fate never stands in the way of the promotion of happiness. Mark my words: The Lord doth provide.”
“If not the Lord, a lord—my esteemed patron,” Tom replied proudly. “And indeed,” he looked across, smiling at Cassy, “we shall be established—in Berkshire or Shropshire—ere too long.”
“Shropshire?” Jane’s voice came out at a strange high pitch. She looked alarmed, then self-conscious, and shrugged carelessly. “But—oh, please, remove Cassy as far as you want, Tom. Why settle for Shropshire? Surely you can pick somewhere even more wild and inconvenient? Go farther north! You can take her to Ireland, for all it bothers me.”
“Oh, no!” Tom leaped in at once, looking worried. “Not Ireland! I should not like the snakes there. I am really quite fearful…”
At that even the young ladies could only erupt into laughter and—because their mother preferred they did not laugh too loudly in company—collapsed into each other to smother the noise.
“Dear Tom.” Henry slapped his shoulder. “You never fail us. Let me be the first to break it to you: It is said there are no snakes in Ireland! Is that not excellent news?”
James, a parson too now, with a healthy, if ponderous, appetite for preaching, cleared his throat and began in lugubrious tones: “Legend has it that Saint Patrick—”
Henry at once cut him off. “Thank you, James. We are all well acquainted with the saints and their miracles. Ha! All except one of us, that is. Who in this room will claim responsibility for Tom Fowle’s education?”
Mr. Austen, in his seat by the window, looked up from his book. “I did my best,” he said mildly. “We got you to Oxford, Tom, did we not? Fortunately the dons cared less about the geography of reptiles and more for his Latin.”
Tom smiled over at Cassy again. “And you helped me so much with that.” Cassy blushed back at him. They used to work for hours together, after Tom had spent the morning in the attic schoolroom. The gerund would elude him, while she grasped it at once. But how touching of him to speak up and give her