The Reluctant Duchess (35 page)

Annabelle insisted on going to London alone. Not only would she look forward to the reunion all the more, she wanted to give mother and son a final chance to be together, before everything changed.

The journey back to London took its toll on Annabelle’s ribs and by the time they got there, she went straight home rather than to the coffee house, and begged a dose of her mother’s laudanum from Jones. She wasn’t fit for much after that and decided to put the talk with the coffee house staff off until tomorrow. Instead she went over her household accounts, updating everything. She received a report on the coffee house when the staff arrived home, so she knew things had run smoothly.

The next day she behaved as usual, enjoying her baking all the more because this would likely be one of the last times.
After she had done her afternoon deliveries, she headed to her lawyer’s office to see how difficult it would be to transfer her business to someone else, and was relieved to hear that it would be easy. She had to sign her lease over to the new owners and a contract would be drawn up, detailing the exchange of the business and its assets, just in case there were problems at a later date.

When they were nearly finished for the day with just two customers left, she
asked Frank and Minnie to come into her office. They both looked worried.

“Cheer up, I'm not about to fire you,” Annabelle teased and they made an effort to at least appear happy. “You may have guessed that something has been developing between
the Duke of Hampshire and me for some time and he has proposed.”

“It’s about time!” Minnie said, trying to sound enthusiastic about the news.

“Well, he asked a long time ago actually, I was the one who refused, but that is water under the bridge now. Obviously I won’t be able to keep the coffee house on after my marriage.”

Their expressions were sombre again and seemingly unconsciously, Minnie had reached out for Frank’s hand.

“I was wondering if the two of you would be interested in taking over?”

“You mean managing it?”
Frank asked.

“No, I mean owning it,” Annabelle smiled.
“I know how much you care for each other and my only regret whilst we have lived in London, is that I couldn’t afford to pay you a wage that would allow you to have your own home and get married. This is my way of saying sorry for that.”

Both Frank and Minnie seemed to have been rendered speechless.

“My lawyer is drawing up the papers but they should be ready to sign in a day or two. I will leave you the accounts and obviously, you already know the details of the day to day running. This place is actually a little money spinner and if it hadn’t been for paying household staff and Mothers medical fees, we could have lived nicely from the profits. You two won’t have my expenses, so you should be able to afford a very good life, and perhaps even a pay raise for some of the staff.”

“But I can’t cook!” Minnie exclaimed.

Annabelle laughed. “You don’t have to cook. I will copy all of my recipes for you and you can learn to cook, or hire a young girl to be your cook. Perhaps Ruth would like the job?”

“But we can’t steal your staff!”

“Of course you can. I am keeping the house because I don’t want to have to move Mother; I don’t think she could stand it, but Sal can manage the rooms, especially since even the study and my bedroom can now be closed off. I can easily hire a woman to come in and cook a few meals each day. Perhaps a retired lady, or a widow with children would appreciate such a position. Besides, I would rather you took my staff than anyone else, because I know you will treat them well.”

Minnie nodded, seemingly not having considered that option.

“Richard is also converting the house above into two smaller apartments, one of which he believes will be in your price range. It will take him some time to do the conversion though, but you’re welcome to continue living rent-free in my home. I hope that will give you a chance to build yourselves a little nest egg.”

Min
nie was gripping Frank’s hand so hard that her knuckles were white.

“I don’t know what to say,” Frank said.

“Say thank you, then see if you can find a nice wedding band for Minnie here.”

“Thank you,” Minnie had tears in her eyes.

“Yes, thank you, Ma’am. Frank repeated, seemingly a little choked himself.

“Oh, none of this
‘ma’am’ business anymore!” Annabelle grinned, “In a few short days, you will no longer be my employees, but businessmen.”

“How can we ever repay you?” Minnie asked.

“By loving this place as much as I did. It may only be a coffee house to most people but to me, it was my salvation. Our salvation really, because I couldn’t have kept you all on if it hadn’t been for this place.”

“Trust me, we’ll take
good care of it,” Frank assured her. “We love this place too.”

When Annabelle had finalised the details for the transfer of the coffee shop and her London house, making sure that the bills were all paid up and redirected to St James Square from now on, she only had one thing left to do.

She had
a gift for each of her coffee shop employees and her servants, as she did every year but this year she added a small hand-written card, thanking them for their years of loyal service and asking them to contact her if they should ever have any problems in the future, whether they were in her employ any longer or not. Into each card she placed an equal share of the money she had left from pawning her pendant.

She gave the gifts to Jones to hold until Christmas Day and after wishing everyone a merry Christmas and a tearful goodbye, she headed out to Richard’s carriage, which was patiently waiting to take her to her new life.

The journey back to Hampshire was cold and Annabelle was wrapped up warm in her coat, cloak, gloves and scarf. She could only imagine how cold the driver was but he assured her that he was fine.

The pain in her ribs was now just a dull ache most of the time, which was a good thing, because she was planning to do some very unladylike things with Richard.

She had packed everything that she would need to begin a new life, wh
ich wasn’t actually that much. The heaviest trunk was her books but she hadn’t had the funds, nor the time to create much of a library in the last six years.

It had snowed again last night and the world seemed blanketed in white. Annabelle had always loved snow
, because it took the familiar and made it unfamiliar for a short while. She gazed out of the window as they travelled, enjoying the bright white landscape.

As they drove the long driveway to the mansion, Annabelle could see Richard waiting for her on the front steps and as soon as the carriage drew to a halt, she jumped out and ran to him with abandon, throwing her arms about him
and kissing him passionately as he swept her off her feet.

“Did you miss me?” he asked as he held her tightly.

“Maybe, just a little”

“I missed you too.”

Before she left, they had talked about her staying in the cottage until the wedding but Annabelle had been firm that she didn’t want that. She didn’t care if they ignited gossip. That wasn’t entirely true, she did care but she knew she would miss Richard more than she would be bothered by gossip. Besides, they were about to be married, so what did it matter if there was a little gossip beforehand.

Lavinia came out a few moments later and ushered them both inside
, where she had hot tea and a warm fire waiting, which Annabelle was grateful for.

“It’s often colder in the country than in the cities,” Lavinia said as Annabelle slowl
y thawed, “so I have ordered you some warmer clothing, fur lined cloaks and boots, things like that.”

“You didn’t have to,” Annabelle blushed. She had often wished that she could afford such things but her budget never stretch
ed that far, so she began to think of such things as unnecessary extravagance.

“Of course I did. I can’t have you freezing to death on one of Richard’s rambling walks now, can I?”

“Annabelle is used to living on a budget, Mother, you must give her time to adjust.”

“Of course,” Lavinia nodded. “Just so long as she adjusts quickly. One of the ways I show affection is with
my little gifts, and you know that I don’t like to be told ‘no’.”

“I’ll do my best,” Annabelle assured her.

“Good. And now that you have warmed up, you are probably tired from your journey, so why don’t you go to your room and rest for a while.”

“Good idea.” Annabelle agreed, getting to her feet. As
she left the room, she heard Richard remark that he thought he might adjourn to his room to read for a few hours.

Annabelle locked the main bedroom door behind her and headed straight for the dressing room. She still had the key from last time and she opened it to find Richard standing in front of the door, waiting for her. His lips claimed hers in an ardent kiss, as he swept her into his arms and carried her over to
his bed.

Despite his mother having spoiled his plans of proposing to Annabelle on Christmas morning, he still presented her with the ring whilst they were in bed. It was simple in its design, a cluster of diamonds about a larger central stone, but it was immensely beautiful.

“It’s beautiful,” she said, taking it from the box to examine it more closely.

“And free. Sorry to land you with a hand-me-down ring and all, but mother was insistent.”

Annabelle knew he was teasing her for her financial prudence but she didn’t mind. She did elbow him gently in the ribs though.

She made to slip the ring onto her finger but Richard snatched it back.

“Oh no, if you want this ring, you have to say ‘I do’ first.”

“I do.”

“A
t the right time, and to the right question, asked by a priest.”

Annabelle laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’ll say it as many times, in as many ways and to as many people as you want me to,” she assured him, kissing him. “And thank you. I know you were joking, but the fact that this was your
mother’s means far more to me than its value.”

“I know. Just be glad that my father didn’t pass on until all my sisters were safely married; I don’t think she could have parted with it
whilst he was still alive.”

Annabell
e silently hoped that they would have such a marriage.

“It originally belonged to my paternal grandfather, you know. It was given to him by his mother but he was already married by then, but he promised to pass it to his first born son.”

“So it’s seen two marriages already then.”

“I suppose it has.”

“Was your great grandmother’s marriage happy?”

“They died before I was born, but I think so.”

“So it has two happy marriages to its credit. Do you think we can make it three?”

“I sincerely hope so.”

After lunch the family gathered in the parlour to open gifts.
Richards’s three sisters were there again and would stay through to the New Year to see the wedding and this time, they had brought their husbands with them. Only the two daughters who were in America were absent, although they had sent gifts and long letters to everyone.

Rather than being a free-for-
all, gifts were given one at a time. There were a few thoughtless but expensive gifts but on the whole, everyone seemed to try and find meaningful or amusing gifts, which Annabelle thought a fine idea. In her house, only her Mother took the time to choose each gift carefully. Her father usually looked at it, thanked her in a perfunctory way, then Annabelle never saw the gifts again.

Many of Lavinia’s gifts seemed to be hand
-made by her daughters; a sketch from Charlotte, an embroidered pillow from Louisa and a sampler from Caroline, each tailored to her tastes. Richard had bought her a first edition of her favourite book.

Having little mone
y to spare for extravagant gift-giving, Annabelle had also hand made her gifts, with a box of sweet treats for everyone. Lavinia had told her what everyone’s favourite kind of cake was and Annabelle had spent all day perfecting her treats. She had also baked a plum pudding for the family to share, and a yule log, which had been particularly tricky. She had used her rolled sponge recipe but baked a chocolate sponge and used cream filling, so it resembled the rings of a log when cut. She had then iced it with chocolate butter cream and cracked caramel, to create a bark effect.

She had thought that she would
feel like the poor relation but everyone seemed to genuinely like the thought behind her gifts, not to mention their taste.

Annabelle had agonised for hours over what to get for Richard; a cake just didn’t seem to be enough,
although she baked for him too. Finally she had opted for a teasing gift and written to Lavinia to get the name of Richards London tailor.

He opened the coloured paper to reveal a pair of fawn britches and laughed as he realised what they were.