Matthew silently congratulated himself . . . until Gareth’s next words registered.
“I’ll just have to send Charity to stay with Trevor and Grace for a while.” He clapped Matthew on the back. “This is exactly why I wanted you to come into Town from Rothmere. Thank you, my friend. I’ll just go up and discuss it with my wife. Can you see yourself out?”
“Of course,” Matthew replied, stunned by how quickly his impromptu plan had backfired. He walked slowly to the door then turned to watch Gareth’s back as the man made his way upstairs.
He retrieved his hat and coat from the stand, and then, feeling helpless, glanced toward the stairs, wishing he could take back the entire conversation. A soft smile worked its way across his face. Amity was making her way downward.
“Were you leaving so soon, Dr. Meadows?” she asked.
Was that a note of disappointment in her voice? Matthew hung his coat back on the hook, and then tried to do the same with his hat while still keeping an eye on Amity. He missed, and the object fell to the carpet with a soft thud.
“Oh, you dropped your hat,” she said, and rushed forward to pick it up just as Matthew did the same. They bumped their heads together and straightened, laughing softly,
Amity with the hat in her hands. “Here you go,” she said, holding it out. Suddenly shy, she couldn’t look up to meet his eyes.
He reached out to take it. When his fingertips touched hers, he threw caution to the wind and took her hand instead. “Amity,” he said.
Her heart pounding, Amity closed her eyes and bit her lip. “Yes?” Tingles worked their way up her arm, and she shivered delicately.
“Look at me, please.”
Amity lifted her face, her eyes shimmering with newly awakening feelings. It was more than Matthew could take. Dropping his hat, he gathered her close and lowered his head to take her lips in a tender kiss.
“This is a disaster!” Charity swept into the room and threw herself across Amity’s bed. Most of her curls had escaped the ribbon she’d used to tie them back that morning and now fell forward around her face, obscuring her view of Amity, who was seated on the window ledge. She impatiently pushed the hair back and peered at her twin.
Amity was staring off into space, wearing a dreamy expression. “He kissed me.”
Despite her dramatic entrance, Charity felt herself soften. She pushed upright into a sitting position. “Dr. Meadows? Kissed you?” Her smile widened. “Well, gracious me. I didn’t think he had it in him to make a move so soon.”
Amity hugged her knees to her chest and blushed, then belatedly realized what Charity had said as she came in. “What’s a disaster?”
Her sister blew at another errant curl. “Oh. Um.” She looked sheepish. “I’m being sent off to Grace and Trevor’s until after the baby comes.”
Amity uncurled in alarm, her feet hitting the floor. She leaned forward, her eyes wide. “This
is
a disaster!”
“I know!”
The twins looked at each other for a long moment. Amity stood and started pacing between the window and the bed. “Well, I’ll just have to spend a lot of time visiting you when Asheburton typically comes to call.”
“Definitely,” agreed Charity. “He doesn’t know Trevor all that well, except through the Duke of Blackthorne, so it would look odd if he followed you there.”
Amity sighed. “But if I’m over there too much, that means I won’t get to spend much time with Matthew.”
Both girls fell silent, Amity contemplating ways to maximize her encounters with Dr. Meadows while minimizing those with the Marquess of Asheburton. Charity, however, was thinking about kissing.
She slanted a glance at her sister’s bemused profile. “What did it feel like?”
Distracted from her thoughts, Amity regarded her with confusion. “What did what feel like?”
“Kissing.”
“Oh.” She sat down next to Charity and squeezed her hands. “Like . . . warm and floaty. I can’t find the right words, but it was the most wondrous thing I’ve ever experienced.”
Charity nodded slowly, biting back questions. She wanted to ask if it felt like the floor had suddenly dropped out from beneath Amity’s feet so that she had to hold on to Matthew for safety, or if her stomach felt as though stars had exploded into butterflies of light which then took flight to the most embarrassing places. She wanted to know if it felt the same way it had when Lachlan kissed her in the garden, but of course she couldn’t bring that up.
Amity, though, guessed her sister’s thoughts. “I’m sure that when you kiss someone you love it will be different than when Asheburton kissed you,” she said gently.
Charity nodded. But inside her head, hidden even from the twin sister who was also her best friend, the same thought kept flashing.
What if I don’t want it to be different?
Twelve
For
the next several days, the plan worked beautifully. Amity left the Lloyd town house in the morning, just after breakfast, and she visited with Aunt Cleo or with Charity and Grace, avoiding the Marquess of Asheburton completely. She returned late in the afternoon and spent some time talking quietly with Faith, keeping her sister up to date on the happenings in town. Matthew adjusted his schedule to coincide with Amity’s returns, and after he was finished with his patient they managed to snatch a few moments together before she had to begin preparations for her evening activities. Cleo and Charity would arrive together to pick her up, and they’d go as a group from function to function, the girls keeping an eye out for the marquess. On the odd occasion they did see Lachlan at a ball, they hastily gathered up their aunt and whisked her away to another event before he even had a chance to speak with them.
It worked splendidly until the day the baby came. Faith went into labor in the wee hours of the morning, prompting all the Ackerlys in London to arrive at the Lloyd town house to be there for the blessed event. Trevor Caldwell even came along with Grace to lend moral support to his good friend.
Hours passed with no word from Dr. Meadows or the midwife he’d brought along, and Gareth was becoming more and more agitated. By the time the clock in the hallway
chimed the noon hour, he was beside himself. “I’m going up there,” he announced.
“You most certainly will not, young man,” barked Cleo Egerton.
“She’s in good hands,” said Grace, gently. “If you show up looking so concerned, you’ll only make Faith worry about you. She needs to focus on delivering this baby.” She gave Amity a pointed look.
Without a word, her sister nodded and left the room to go see if she could ascertain how things were progressing. Amity didn’t make it past the foyer, though, because Desmond was just opening the door to the Marquess of Asheburton. Caught, she cast a longing glance between the stairs and the door to the sitting room, wishing she could escape up one or into the other, but he’d already seen her.
Left with no alternative, she walked to the door to politely greet Lachlan. “Good morning, my lord. I apologize, but things are rather busy here this morning.” She smiled. “The baby has decided to come today.”
“Well, that’s wonderful news!” Lachlan stood uncertainly just inside the door, not wishing to intrude on a private event. “I’ll just come and pay my respects another time.” He turned to leave.
“Amity!”
Both looked to the stairway and saw Matthew Meadows coming down, his face glowing with happiness. Forgetting completely about the marquess, Amity met the physician at the foot of the stairs. “The baby’s here?” He nodded, and they both went into the sitting room.
Desmond, tired of standing and waiting with the door open, closed it with a bang and strode off, leaving Lachlan standing awkwardly in the foyer with his hat in his hands.
A moment later he heard cheers and congratulations, and then he watched as Gareth sprinted from the sitting room and up the stairs.
Trevor Caldwell appeared in the doorway and spotted him. “Ashe!” He crossed the foyer, his hand outstretched.
Lachlan shook it. “I understand congratulations are in order.”
Trevor nodded. “Gareth’s just become the father of a little girl. Come on in!”
The marquess shook his head. “It’s a family moment,” he said. “I’d have left sooner, but that wretched butler Roth employs left me standing here. I’ll just see myself out.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re Blackthorne’s cousin, which makes you nearly family—or will, anyway, if little Mercy manages to bring him up to scratch.” Trevor laughed and led Lachlan into the sitting room.
As soon as the two men appeared, Amity and Charity exchanged worried glances, and then both girls looked at Matthew, who grew notably grim.
Seated on the settee in the middle of the room, Cleo Egerton watched all three, and what she saw made her smile turn from happy to gleeful. She thumped her cane on the floor. “Well, Asheburton, I thought you’d forgotten all about our little Amity, here.”
The room fell silent for a moment, and then everyone started talking at once in an effort to cover Cleo’s embarrassing statement. Charity gasped, Amity blushed, and Lachlan looked even more uncomfortable than he already had. But Cleo wasn’t finished. She could tell there was something going on between Asheburton, the handsome young doctor Gareth had brought from Rothmere, and the twins, and she was bound and determined to discover what it was.
She watched them a moment longer. Amity was looking
uncertainly toward Dr. Meadows, who raised his eyebrows at her. As if answering an unspoken question, she shook her head at him.
Charity, though, was the one who intrigued Cleo most. She was staring at Lachlan with an expression of such hopeless longing that Cleo was tempted to go over and thwap her in the head with her walking stick. Fortunately, nobody was paying attention.
She waited for the next lull in the conversation and then addressed Dr. Meadows directly. “I suppose you’ll be happy to get back to Rothmere, young man,” she said slyly, watching Amity out of the corner of her eye. Her niece’s mouth formed an O of surprise.
Matthew hadn’t thought that far ahead either, but he managed to maintain his composure. “I’ll be in London for a few days yet at least, to make sure everything is going well with Lady Roth and the baby.”
“Bah!” Cleo waved a hand. “That’s what the midwife is here for, isn’t it? I’m sure you’re missed in that little village up there.” She pushed herself up off the settee with the help of her cane. “Amity, I wish to go upstairs and see my new great-niece. Come, help me up the stairs.”
Unable to protest without it appearing odd, Amity gave Charity a last look of despair and did as she’d been asked.
As they passed Trevor and Lachlan near the door, Cleo stopped. “You may resume your visits to Amity tomorrow, my lord,” she said imperiously, as if informing him he had been invited to an audience with the Prince Regent himself.
Trevor grinned but then glanced at Grace. She narrowed her eyes at him, and he quickly composed himself. Lachlan, on the other hand, merely nodded. Amity kept her eyes carefully averted until Cleo began walking again and they left the room.
When Charity finally arrived at the Lloyd town house the following day, she was met by an extremely agitated Amity. “What took you so long?
Charity finished hanging up her pelisse. “Grace stopped by Amanda’s before she dropped me here,” she explained. “What happened?”
“Oh,
everything
.” Amity twisted her hands together. “Nobody expected Matthew to stay after the baby came, especially since everyone just adores the midwife, so Gareth and Faith told him he’s free to go back to Rothmere whenever he wants. And since he doesn’t have any other patients in London, it would look ridiculous if he stayed.”
“Well, okay.” Charity remained calm. “So you’ll ask Faith if you can go to Rothmere with them after the Season.”
“I won’t have to.” Amity began pacing the foyer.
“Good gracious, will you please stay in one place so I can talk to you?” Charity put her hands on her sister’s shoulders and stopped her perambulations. “Faith already asked you to come with her?”
“No.”
“Then what is it?”
Amity touched her forehead to her sisters so they were eye to eye. “Matthew asked me to marry him,” she whispered.
Charity’s eyes widened. “Seriously?” She pushed her twin away and held her at arm’s length, tilted her head, and then smiled. “You’re serious.”
Wordless, Amity nodded.
Charity glanced around the foyer, and though she didn’t see anyone, tugged Amity into the sitting room and closed the door. “So, you said yes, of course.” Amity nodded again. “And is he going to speak with Papa?” Amity shook her head. “With Gareth?” Again, Amity shook her head. “Oh,
good Lord, you’re eloping, aren’t you?” Charity dropped into a chair and looked up at her twin.
Slowly, Amity nodded. “There’s just so much going on with the baby here now.” She looked down. “Matthew is worried that, because he is not titled, he won’t be viewed as a suitable match for me, especially since Lord Asheburton has paid me such attention.”
“But you know that’s ridiculous,” protested Charity. “Nobody cares about that. Papa would be happy for you to marry a pauper, if he knew you were loved.”
“I know. I wish I could convince Matthew of that, but he’s convinced he’ll lose me if my family disagrees with the match.”
Charity gave her sister a long look. “All right, out with it. What’s the plan?”
Amity looked up in relief. “I
knew
you’d understand. We’re going to need your help.”
Charity gave her a dubious look.
Amity took a deep breath. “While you were being held captive at Amanda’s, the Marquess of Asheburton stopped by.”
Charity made a wry face. “Well, how could he not after Aunt Cleo practically ordered him to do so?”
“Exactly. And Gareth was upstairs with Faith and the baby, so it was up to me to entertain him, and of course he asked me to go to a ball with him tomorrow night.”
“Of course.”
“So, you know I can never think of a good reason to get out of something when I’m put on the spot like that. And then Matthew came in later and kissed me, and I told him he couldn’t kiss me because I had to go to a ball with the marquess. He didn’t like that at all and told me he’d be damned if he was going to stand around and watch while I
glided out the door on Lord Asheburton’s arm again. And that’s when he asked me to marry him and we decided to elope.” The torrent of words finally stopped pouring from her mouth, and she eyed her sister with guilty eyes. “Tomorrow night.”