‘You must promise me,’ she said, her voice getting weaker.
‘Yes, anything,’ Henry said. ‘Whatever you want.’
Gram-Gram stared directly at Libby. ‘Both of you.’
Libby’s heart was pounding. What was going on? She nodded at Gram-Gram.
‘Good,’ Gram-Gram sighed and closed her eyes as if the matter were now settled.
Henry glanced at Libby and pulled a questioning face.
She shrugged, as bewildered as he was.
‘Gram-Gram?’ Henry asked, tentatively.
Her eyes re-opened.
‘What can we do for you?’
She coughed. It sounded like a death rattle.
‘Before I die,’ Gram-Gram began, her gaze sharper than her voice. ‘I want to see you both married.’
Silence.
Oh my god. Libby couldn’t breathe.
‘Promise me.’ Gram-Gram gripped their hands tighter. ‘Promise me.’
Henry glanced at Libby, wild-eyed with panic.
‘Henry?’ Gram-Gram croaked.
Henry had frozen.
What the fuck could they say?
Improvise!
‘Yes, of course,’ she said to Gram-Gram. ‘We will make that happen.’
A collective gasp of relief ran around the room.
‘Somebody fetch Eveline,’ Gram-Gram said. ‘We need to start making the arrangements.’
Libby stumbledthrough the next half hour on autopilot, smiling and agreeing with everything anyone said like she was a nodding dog on the dashboard of a car. Luckily, Eveline wasn’t answering at the rectory, so they agreed to find her the next day and left Gram-Gram with a subdued Marie.
On the walk back to the Manor, Henry’s parents alternated between concern over Gram-Gram’s condition, and excitement at the prospect of Henry and Libby getting married.
Henry was mute.
All Libby wanted to do was speak to him in private, to apologise and let him off the hook. Seeing how decrepit Gram-Gram was, she’d panicked and given the Dowager Duchess the answer she wanted. But Henry’s shocked silence clearly said her save was the opposite of what he wanted.
Nearing the grounds, she spotted Duke running free in the park.
‘Must have slipped the bally stables,’ said Arthur. ‘Henry, can you go and fetch him?’
Henry looked at Libby. ‘Can you tell Estelle?’
