“Then, I shall need a moment to decide,” Anna said, grinning as if she already had her answer.
* * *
“Thisis what you call a ruin?” Anna protested, turning a slow circle in the middle of the entrance hall. “Oh, you have all been deceiving me, all this time! I should have known.”
Percy marveled at his beloved, who seemed to light up the lingering shadows of his childhood home. Her smile, her candor, her cheerful spirit, her enthusiasm; they left nowhere for the darkness and the ghosts to seek shelter. She was too bright, too full of life and love for them to even compete.
“You really ought to see it in the daylight before you form your final opinion,” Dickie remarked, but he, too, seemed delighted by his sister’s radiance.
Anna scoffed. “Nonsense. Considering I was expecting to see no roof, maybe only a wall or two still standing, and everything else taken over by weeds and pigeons, I am very pleased indeed.” She beamed at Percy. “And now that my dear Percival is to have himself a wife, there shall be funds enough to repair anything that is slightly disheveled.”
“You are a luckier gentleman than you realize, Percy,” Dickie teased. “Anna’s dowry is a mighty one. After her first three years of being woefully unsuccessful, it felt necessary to help her chances.”
“Dickie!” Max chided, shaking his head. “That is not something that needs to be discussed at present. Indeed, what we should really be doing is celebrating! Let us open those crates we brought and begin at once, for thisisnothing short of a miracle.”
Anna feigned outrage. “I am glad to discover you had such faith in me.”
“Who says I was talking about you?” Max flashed a wink.
At that moment, two figures appeared at the top of the staircase, rubbing their bleary eyes, looking as if they had just awoken from a deep slumber. Norman and a beautiful young woman with red hair and a complexion almost as ghostly pale as Anna’s. Another woman hurried into position behind them, her eyes barely open.
“Is that her?” asked the red-haired woman, clasping her hands together. Victoria, presumably.
Norman shrugged. “I do not know. Percival, is that her?”
“It is,” Percy replied proudly. “I took your advice. Isthather?”
Norman laughed. “Indeed. Percival, this is my Victoria.”
“And this is my Anna,” Percy said, thrilled beyond belief that he now got to call her that.
“My beloved Norman has been pacing ever since his brother left, praying that it would be good news!” Victoria cried, hurrying down the stairs to greet Anna. “I said she would be exceptionally beautiful, Norman, did I not?”
Norman nodded as he descended. “You did, my darling.”
“Goodness, then you must be terribly disappointed,” Anna jested, putting out her hands to take hold of Victoria’s. “You, however, must have had to fend off the attention of kings and princes. I haveneverseen more beautiful hair in all my days!”
Victoria grinned. “Everyone always says that red hair is very unlucky, but I beg to differ, for I have my beloved.”
“And everyone always says that moles and freckles are unsightly, but my beloved informed me that they bring good fortune, and he is about to be a particularly wealthy man.” Anna winked at Percy and returned her attention to Victoria. “Tell me everything of yourself. Leave nothing out. For if we are to be sisters, it is my fondest wish for us to be close.”
Victoria laughed merrily. “Oh, I am certain we shall be firm friends andcloserthan sisters.” She pulled Anna toward the drawing room. “Come, let us leave the gentlemen to their discussions and begin this friendship of ours. There is wine to be had and stories to be told.”
They disappeared into the drawing room, and though they closed the door behind them, their laughter drifted back through into the entrance hall. The sound warmed Percy’s heart, for he knew that nothing was dearer to Anna than her friends, and if she and Victoria formed a strong bond, perhaps it would encourage Percy and Norman to do the same. Making up for lost time.
“How does it feel to lose your wife before you have even married her?” Dickie teased, as all four men stood watching the closed drawing room door.
Percy smiled. “Everyone knows that no member of the infamous Spinsters’ Club will ever love their husbands as much as their friends. Any man who falls in love with one of their number must be content to play second fiddle.” He chuckled to himself. “As such, I am pleased that she is making new ones.”
“So that you might play first violin sometimes?” Max grinned.
“Precisely.”
Percy was somewhat relieved that Max seemed to have come around to the idea of his sister and his best friend falling in love and getting married. He had worried that it might take weeks, delaying the eventual wedding, but Max appeared to be rather happy about the whole thing after the carriage ride back. Although, that might have had something to do with the contents of Dickie’s hip flask.
“You must come to the wedding,” Percy blurted out to his brother.
Norman’s eyes widened. “I… would be delighted.” For a second, it looked like he might cry. “We could even… have a double wedding?”
