Nicholas heard the love that thrummed so strongly beneath that simple statement and felt an answering chord vibrate inside him.
Then Merriweather arrived to announce that luncheon was served, and the entire party adjourned to the dining room, where the meal turned into a joyous celebration, with numerous toasts—to the two affianced couples and to their successful journey culminating in the retrieval of The Barbarian and to the exposure and rousting of those behind his removal—before, inevitably, the countess turned the talk to the two impending weddings.
To Nicholas’s mind, Phillip and Viola got off lightly, with everyone agreeing that a small private ceremony in the Grange’s chapel would allow Viola to feel her way into the role of future countess without having the spotlight of the ton shone upon her too soon.
For Nicholas and Adriana, however, there was to be no escape.
“After all,” the earl said, “you are your parents’ elder son, and Adriana is my elder daughter. You’re a Cynster, and she’s a Sommerville. The ton will expect a major event, and in light of Phillip and Viola’s quiet affair, your nuptials will need to generate a great to-do to satisfy the hordes.”
The countess smiled up the table. “Not the hordes, dear. It’s the hostesses these two will need to placate.” Her twinkling eyes met Nicholas’s. “Especially as dear Nicholas numbers several of the ton’s most senior hostesses among his close relatives.”
Sadly, there was no arguing with that.
By dint of pointing out that, as yet, his family knew nothing about his impending nuptials, Nicholas managed to put the question of their wedding to one side and turn the conversation to The Barbarian and the sale of the horse to the Cynster Stable.
“Yes, indeed.” The earl beamed at Nicholas. “I’m entirely content to see the beast pass into your hands, and I daresay the horse will be only too happy to be going with Addie, to whom he seems quite attached.”
“There’s an understatement,” Dickie murmured.
With the fruit platters decimated and the meal at an end, the children asked if they might be excused, and the earl and countess smiled and waved them away. The younger trio left the room, leaving the earl, Adriana, the countess, Dickie, Phillip, Viola, and Nicholas to discuss the details of the sale.
Somewhat to Nicholas’s surprise—perhaps because of them having to chase after the horse and reclaim him—the others evinced real interest in hearing about how the huge stallion would be used at the stud and what options that raised in terms of the conditions of his sale.
The earl, Phillip, Adriana, and Dickie were, predictably, most invested in the details, and all contributed to the arrangement on which Nicholas and the earl eventually settled.
With the sale agreed and all details defined, the earl and Nicholas shook hands on the deal.
Joining in the toast Dickie subsequently proposed, Nicholas felt a weight he hadn’t known was there lift from his shoulders. What with all the excitement over chasing and reclaiming The Barbarian compounded by the distraction of falling in love with Adriana and securing her hand, he’d actually forgotten just how much, in terms of the Cynster Stable, had rested on him buying the stallion.
His gaze drifted to Adriana, the biggest distraction he was ever likely to meet. He smiled, sipped, and when she glanced his way, raised his glass to her and drank.
Pru will cackle herself into fits.
Later, after the company adjourned to the drawing room, Nicholas found himself standing with the earl at one of the long windows that looked out over the rolling fields.
For several moments, they drank in the sight, then without looking at Nicholas, his voice quiet, the earl said, “One thing, my boy, that you really have to promise me is that you’ll watch over my Addie in the years to come.”
Nicholas comprehended that the request was prompted, at least in part, by the earl’s acceptance that he would, very likely, not live all that long. “On my honor, I will be her strength and shield throughout the rest of our lives. Until death do us part truly means that to me. I will never let anything harm her.”
The words had come readily to his tongue.
The earl cast him an assessing glance, then gently smiled and looked back at the view. “The vow of a Cynster. I couldn’t ask for more. Thank you, my boy.”
His gaze on the green fields, Nicholas softly replied, “Living up to that vow will be my life’s pleasure.”
On the other side of the room, Addie found herself standing with Phillip and watching her mother and Viola, seated side by side on the sofa.
“They’re getting on like a house on fire,” Addie murmured.
Phillip had been smiling more than she’d ever imagined he could. “Your mother is…very motherly.”
Addie smothered a snort. “Well, she’s had five of us to practice on. If you’d come home earlier, she would have practiced directly on you as well.” She met Phillip’s gaze. “As it is, she’s being very cautious with you, but Viola is a lady of a type Mama recognizes and knows how to deal with, how to support and encourage her. And she will.”
“For which I’m extremely grateful.” After a second more of watching his wife-to-be and his stepmother, Phillip turned his gaze on Addie. “But what of you?”
When, uncertain what he meant, she looked at him questioningly, he went on, “At no time in the recent days have you behaved as Viola or I imagined Miss Flibbertigibbet would.”
“Ah.” Addie nodded. “That’s because, when Nicholas first arrived here, he found me dealing with a minor disaster involving flying flour bombs. I didn’t have the option of donning my alter ego, and”—she shrugged—“once he’d seen the real me, there was no point in doing so.”
