Unsurprisingly, the observation brought a host of teasing comments down on Toby’s head.
He bore the ribbing with a wide smile, given it was transparently obvious that every one of his familial peers was quietly impressed.
* * *
The wedding breakfast continued,with the entire room blanketed in a hum of conversation, but finally, Toby’s mother, Flick, found Diana and Toby amid the crowd and informed them that, if they wished to take their leave, they would be allowed to do so.
They fell on the suggestion with alacrity.
“While this has been a wonderful day”—Diana grasped Flick’s hands and gratefully pressed her fingers—“I can’t wait to get home.”
Beside her, Toby nodded. “To Fellows Hall, so we can start our new life there.”
Unsurprised, Flick beamed. “With these darling children.” She beckoned, and Evelyn, Bryce, and Roland came forward from where they’d been lurking in Flick’s wake. “They tell me that they’ve had a wonderful time,” Toby’s mother, soon to be the children’s grandmother, said, “but now, they’re tired and want to go home.”
Her face tipped up to theirs, Evelyn asked, “Can we?”
Toby smiled and ruffled her curls. “Yes. It’s time.”
The three brightened, and Diana drew them closer, then waved to Pru, Meg, Therese, and Louisa. Addie was nearby. The five had become Diana’s closest friends, so taking her leave of them spanned some minutes, involving the exchange of promises to write and the floating of possible meetings and visits.
Meanwhile, Toby signaled to his brother and brothers-in-law, and the four men gathered and shook hands, with the others wishing Toby and Diana well. Nicholas and Addie planned to travel down to Fellows Hall in a few weeks so that Nicholas and Toby could review the logistics of Toby managing the Cynster breeding stable from Hampshire, and Meg and Drago intended to visit soon after.
With their personal farewells completed, Toby and Diana found a phalanx of Cynster ladies waiting to usher them to the ballroom door and thence to a room where Diana could change out of her delicate wedding gown and into a carriage dress more appropriate for driving into Hampshire.
The children and Toby waited, not exactly patiently, and as soon as Diana emerged, as a group embarking on their next adventure, they headed for the stairs.
They started down to see a congregation of female connections clustered expectantly on the tiles of the front hall below, and nothing loath, Diana flung her bouquet, which was caught by a young lady whom Toby knew only as a descendent of the redoubtable Lady Osbaldestone.
He smiled and nodded and steered his family past, toward the open doorway that, to him, Diana, and the children, signified the path to their future.
They were surrounded by family as they walked to and through the open doors into mild sunshine.
Beside Toby, Diana paused on the front porch. She glanced at the children, who had halted before them, and saw that all three were beaming, proud, happy, and confident in their new roles.
Family streamed past to take up positions on the steps. A crowd of locals, servants from the great houses surrounding the square, and others who had noticed a ton event being held and had paused to witness the spectacle eagerly thronged on the other side of the wrought iron railings that bordered the paved forecourt before the old house.
At the bottom of the steps, an elegant curricle drawn by four beautiful black horses stood waiting.
The children took one look, then glanced back at Toby and Diana, and at their nods, the trio beamed and rushed down the steps to claim their seats.
Diana was about to follow when Toby, scanning the crowd, put a hand on her arm.
“Wait. Look!”
She glanced at him, then followed his gaze to where, at the edge of the watching crowd, a lady in a familiar topaz-colored coat and matching hat stood arm in arm with a handsome man. The man’s hat brim shaded his features, but the lady had seen them and smiled and waved.
After attracting their attention, Eva waggled the fingers of her left hand, and sunlight blazed off a faceted stone.
“Oh!” Diana glanced at Toby, then smiling, looked back and waved. “They’re engaged!”
Eva laughed and blew them a kiss.
According to Drake, Heinrik and Eva had decided to retire from their previous occupations and had sought refuge in England. After soliciting Toby’s opinion, Drake had arranged for Heinrik and Eva to disappear into the seething mass of London’s population, with the proviso that Heinrik continued to provide certain consultative skills to Drake and his minions in Whitehall.
Smiling delightedly, Toby shook his head. “Who would have thought Heinrik would succumb to Fate, too?”
Diana laughed, but when she looked back, both Heinrik and Eva had vanished.
