What the Fates Decree: The Caversham Chronicles-The Titans of the Revolution (7 page)

Gowrey? He was going to make this an interesting stay in the country. But how was he going to make Penelope better? As the introductions continued, Isabel learned that Gowrey was Doctor Alan Wallace Gowrey, physician at the Royal Hospital in Edinburgh, and cousin to the earl.

They were then introduced to Lady Edgar and Miss Olivia Gordon, the older woman she now understood was the countess’ daughter-in-law, aunt to Miss Olivia Gordon, and sponsor for her Edinburgh season.

“I have been more than a sponsor to my niece,” Lady Edgar intoned in a voice that was most irritating to the ears. A more high pitched, scratchy whine she’d never heard in her life. “Haven’t I, my darling girl?” Turning to Isabel and Charlotte, she added, “She has been my solitary focus for the past two years, preparing her for her season as her mother, God rest her, would have done had she survived.”

Olivia was behind Lady Edgar, standing next to Marcus, and she rolled her eyes at the girls, where her aunts and grandmother could not see. The act caused a tiny giggle to escape Isabel, which she immediately covered with a cough. She shouldn’t laugh at such childish actions, but it was so perfectly timed that she couldn’t help herself.

Isabel glanced up at her brother, almost a foot taller than she, and she noticed something different about him. He stood a little straighter and—oh, goodness!—he stared at the petite blonde with a soft smile she’d not seen on his face since… since he fancied himself in love with Miss Anne Tipton.

And that was when Isabel realized Marcus was taken by the little vixen.
She
was betrothed to another man, and her very own brother was charmed by her. Oh, this was going to be a very interesting month.

While Lady Adina, aunt Beverly, and Charlotte discussed the month ahead, Isabel tried to keep up with both groups of conversations. The more she listened to Miss Olivia speak, the more Isabel thought she sounded incredibly self-centered and vain—which begged the question…
what was wrong with her brother?

She would have to take a moment to speak privately with him later, after dinner perhaps, and remind him of the other girl’s soon-to-be announced marital status. Being betrothed was as good as being married. While Isabel didn’t know if any contracts were signed, just the fact that Lady Edgar had assumed it was a true betrothal so much that she put it in a letter to Aunt Beverly, meant that the girl was as good as wed.

A footman called for dinner, and being the only titled gentleman in the building, Marcus offered Lady Adina his arm, and escorted their hostess into the dining hall. Lady Edgar and Aunt Beverly followed close behind them. Charlotte followed on the arm of Doctor Gowrey. Isabel and Miss Olivia walked behind them to the room across the foyer where an opulent display of china, crystal, and gold flatware was set at one end of table that was easily forty feet long.

“I’m so glad you were all able to make grandmother’s birthday celebration,” the young miss said. “And you shouldn’t feel obliged to hunt if you’d rather not. I don’t. Can’t abide it myself.”

“Thank you, but my friends and I…”

“I know my cousin Penelope is mad for the hunt, as is her mother, and Lady Camden is renowned for her skills with a horse, so I assume Lady Charlotte is as well. But I was hoping I would find a kindred soul with Lord Glencairn’s sister.”

Isabel was shocked, but her upbringing, and her years out in society taught her well how to refrain from expressing the first thoughts that came to mind.

“I’m afraid that I am very much excited for the opportunity to ride with your grandmother during this month,” Isabel said. “My aunts have revered her for years, praising her longevity with
our
favorite sport.”

“I didn’t know my Aunt Beverly was also your aunt.”

“She is my godmother,” Isabel said. “Aunt Beverly is as close to our family as a beloved aunt would be.”

“Oh, I wasn’t aware.” The other girl looked like a puppy that had been corrected. Had Isabel been curt in her explanation? She didn’t intend to be.

“I’m sorry, Miss Gordon,” Isabel said, “I didn’t intend to sound terse. Perhaps I, too, am more tired than I thought after two long days of travel.”

“That is completely understandable, Lady Isabel,” the young miss said. “Why just traveling by coach from Edinburgh is enough to exhaust me!”

They arrived to their seats, and Isabel discovered Miss Gordon was to sit on her right with Charlotte to her left. Across from them, Marcus was seated on Lady Adina’s left, as she was at the head of the table with Aunt Beverly on the hostess’ right, and next to her brother, Lady Edgar, then Doctor Gowrey. Lady Adina shared her seat at the head of the enormous table with Aunt Beverly and the two were deep into their discussion of Lord Huddleston’s whereabouts in his latest letter to her.

Lady Edgar, upset that she was left out of the conversation at the end of the table, brought up the subject that had been been on Isabel, Charlotte, and Penelope’s mind since their arrival.

“When is Rathcavan due to return with Mr. Santiago?”

Lady Adina passed a pointed glance from Lady Edgar, to Miss Olivia, then to the rest of her guests. “As soon as they are able. There has been an accident at the mill, and my grandson has said he will not restart production until the problem that caused the accident has been resolved.” Lady Adina, sipped from her crystal wine goblet.

The older woman met Isabel’s gaze before she turned her attention to her brother seated across from her. Her hazel eyes danced with merriment and pride in the new earl. “My grandson is a charming rake with a singular obsession—industrialization of the country. Several years ago, he and his cousin purchased an iron mill in Glasgow. This was just before he inherited the title.”

Lady Edgar, unsatisfied by her mother-in-law’s reply, pushed the matter again. “Well, surely they will arrive before the festivities are to begin on Saturday? Mr. Santiago has a betrothed here whom he abandoned almost immediately after their agreement—”

Lady Adina, didn’t miss a beat. She jumped into Lady Edgar’s annoying display of false temper. “They will get here when they get here, Margaret. We can hunt without them, my grandson knows this.” She gave Isabel and Charlotte a smile. “Though my grandson loves the hunt as much as I.”

While the talk was now about horses, hounds, and hunting, the footmen cleared the soup bowls away then brought in the next course, a pâté of some sort, on a bed of seasoned vegetables. Isabel wished dinner would end quickly so they could claim exhaustion and return to their rooms. There was much to discuss with Penelope. Isabel was certain their friend waited for them to return and get the gossip from their dinner conversation.

C
harlotte closed
the door behind Isabel when her cousin entered Penelope’s room after dinner. The trio had begged to be excused from the evening’s entertainments because of lingering fatigue from travel.

While they were truly tired, they also wanted to be spared Penelope’s cousin’s pianoforte playing and singing. Charlotte was sure the girl was satisfactory at both, but she had no desire to listen.

And Marcus was acting strange—as though he was interested in the chit. So the girl was passably pretty… it didn’t warrant paying her
that
much attention. Marcus couldn’t take his eyes off her when he thought no one was looking. To make things even
more
strange, the betrothed miss was acting equally as besotted with her cousin. The hussy! She had a fiancé, and she was
flirting
with her cousin!

Charlotte could not see Olivia as Marcus’ marchioness, and forced the image trying to form out of her head. She’d have to talk to him, maybe shake some sense into him. Get him to see through the helpless miss act.

But first, she had to share with Penny the interesting behaviors of the countess, Lady Edgar, Olivia, and Marcus. Then she’d tell her friend about the handsome doctor. The cousin to the new earl.

“I find it interesting that the very morning after he decided he would marry Miss Olivia, he left Rathcavan for Glasgow with the new earl.” Isabel spoke in a hushed tone, as she sat opposite Charlotte on Penny’s bed. The three of them gossiped about the dinner, and all the interesting discoveries. “And Miss Olivia! Her behavior!”

“You noticed, too?” Charlotte whispered. “I was hoping I wasn’t the only one who saw that. Your brother must be careful.”

“I was thinking that same thing,” Isabel replied. “I’m planning to talk to him.”

“Miss Olivia is a prodigious flirt,” Charlotte added. “Indeed, she is of the first order. I know she is your cousin, Penny, dear, but she is unlike anything I’ve ever encountered.”

“I am curious why he left so suddenly after becoming engaged to marry?” Penny mused.

“From what I overheard when Miss Olivia was talking to Marcus,” Isabel said, “the new earl received a note regarding the accident at his iron mill and he and Mr. Santiago left immediately to set things to right again.”

“He went to help his friend, and not run from Olivia,” Penny said. “Is she making it sound to Marcus that Mr. Santiago abandoned her?”

Isabel nodded.

“That is suspicious. Why would she do that?” Charlotte asked to no one in particular. Was he running from Olivia? Could it be because he still cared for Penny? And if he did, why did he not write to her?

Penny, and Isabel also, were her two best friends. Charlotte would do anything for them, including protect them from men whose only intent is to hurt her friends. She wouldn’t even have to ask them to know instinctively that they would do the same.

“I don’t know what to make of it,” Penny said, her voice flat and hollow-sounding. When her friend sat up on the bed, eyes glazed over with shock of the evening’s revelations, Charlotte realized she was still in a great deal of pain.

“Why would Olivia say she didn’t wish to marry him, and then give the impression that she cared about him leaving and being away for so long.

“I also have questions,” Isabel mused. “But it would be considered ill mannered of me to ask directly.”

Charlotte agreed. “Could it be that he is still on his mission, and is that why he hasn’t written to you?”

“I was under the impression that he was to leave the country,” Penny said. “That he had to
go
somewhere to do this translation work for the government.”

“Scotland
is
technically another country,” Charlotte added. “But what is he translating, Gaelic?”

“His specialty is the various dialects of the Arab countries,” Penny said. “I was under the impression that his mission was very secret and dangerous. But that doesn’t explain—”

“—What he’s doing with your cousin in Glasgow,” Charlotte finished.

“Do you think if you went directly to Lady Adina,” Isabel said, “and asked her what brought Nathaniel to Rathcavan that she might tell you? It seemed to me that she knew much and intentionally divulged little.”

“I got that same feeling, too,” Charlotte said. She thought about the countess’ treatment of her granddaughter, and added, “Did you get the impression that Lady Adina just… tolerates Lady Edgar and Olivia? She didn’t seem to take seriously Lady Edgar’s claim that Olivia and Mr. Santiago are betrothed. She deflected any mention of it later, during dessert.”

“You are right, Charlotte,” Isabel said. “I don’t understand why she isn’t happier for her granddaughter’s betrothal to Mr. Santiago. Does she not find him an appropriate match?”

“He’ll be arriving soon,” Penelope said, her voice cracking, which meant her friend was going to cry again. “What will I tell him? What if he really does wish to… marry… Olivia?”

As her friend began to cry, Charlotte took the kerchief from her pocket and handed it to Penny.

“He cannot possibly want to marry her Penny,” Isabel said. “I spoke with her, and she has a brain filled with goose feathers. All she spoke about was shopping, her season in Edinburgh, and how handsome Marcus is. She specifically said she was not fond of riding, and Mr. Santiago sits a horse like he was born on one.”

“What on earth can they possibly have in common?’ Charlotte asked.

“I know that I will have to participate in the festivities when they begin,” Penny said, “but until they do, I wish I could stay in my room.”

“We haven’t yet told you about doctor Gowrey,” Isabel said.

“Oh, Penny,” she tried to warn, suddenly remembering. “Lady Adina has asked him to come see you tomorrow if you are still ill.”

“This doesn’t have to be a bad thing you know,” said Isabel. “The young doctor from Edinburgh is handsome. And Mr. Santiago just might realize what he’s passing up by remaining betrothed to goose feathers.”

Penelope laughed—a nervous sounding titter—through the tears. This freed Charlotte to laugh, then Isabel.

Before Charlotte left Penny’s room for her bed, she resolved that she would confront Mr. Santiago for the pain he caused her friend. He owed Penny an explanation, and an apology.

And Charlotte was going to make sure he did both!