ming down to marry him. You’re making me late.”
“I wasn’t the one dragging her feet,” Fanny reminded Rebecca as she slipped the note into her glove for safekeeping until she could return to her room later that day.
“Well, I can’t blame myself,” Rebecca said with a haughty expression. “What would people say if they thought I had any doubts?”
Fanny threw up her hands in resignation and hurried to beat Rebecca out the door, managing to slip into the hall ahead of her to hold out her arm. “Shall we?”
“Indeed, we shall.”
They moved briskly toward the staircase but started down more slowly.
Before too long, they heard the low murmur of dozens of voices from the drawing room. Father was pacing the hall.
“Finally,” he cried when he spotted them descending, but then his face went soft and adoring. “Becca.”
“Hello, Papa. How do I look?”
His eyes filled with emotion. “So much like your mother that for a moment, I thought you were her come back to life.”
Fanny’s own eyes welled with happy tears to hear that, but she quickly dashed them away. Rebecca was the only one who resembled their mother in any fashion.
She even had her volatile temper.
A footman was waiting at the doorway and, at Father’s signal, the man stamped his cane on the floor to announce them. The crowd inside was immediately silenced.
Father bent to murmur in Rebecca’s ear, whispering something meant for her alone. Fanny turned away to give them privacy, experiencing a touch of resentment, too.
Fanny’s wedding day had been darkened because her father had not truly approved her choice the first time. Perhaps that was why from time to time he suggested she reconsider her solitary life but married to someone he approved of. She could be happily married if she wanted to be. If she ever found a good man, someone she could trust, she might consider it one day. But all the gentlemen she had encountered in society since becoming a widow were not remotely interesting and coveted her fortune.
She moved to the doorway and paused, taking stock and smiling at everyone assembled in the drawing room looking back at her. There were lords and ladies, locals, and many who had traveled to honor the couple on this special day.
People had traveled miles for her, too, and she’d loved every moment of the fuss.
But it was no wonder Rebecca had been nervous about today. This was the biggest wedding that Stapleton Manor had ever hosted, including Fanny’s and Jessica’s.
From the corner of her eye, she spotted Jeremy Dawes standing at the back of the room. The sight of him, so handsome, so appealing, made a flush of warmth—lust, if she were honest with herself—sweep over her skin.
She had to admit she’d like a kiss from him…and maybe quite a bit more besides, if he was agreeable.
Fanny squared her shoulders when Rebecca murmured her name, and she swept down between the rows of guests toward Lord Rafferty and the waiting vicar.
It would be some hours now before she was released from family obligations. Perhaps by that time she’d have relegated her longing for masculine company to the back of her mind again.
She moved to the side, ready and willing to be a witness to the nuptials about to take place.
She lifted her face to see her sister approach. Any trace of pre-wedding nerves had vanished from Rebecca’s demeanor. She was radiant again as she took the groom’s hand, and Rafferty’s face was so full of love it was hard to witness. Father nodded to her as he took his seat beside his new wife.
As the vicar spoke, Fanny was constantly reminded of her own distant wedding day. She had loved her husband dearly, until his last breath and beyond. But she had to admit that her life felt so empty of late. The work she did for the poor, managing her investments, helping the family when she could, did not satisfy her as much as it once had.
Perhaps she did need someone in her life from time to time.
Not a husband, surely. A temporary companion only. A husband would take over her financial affairs and leave her life emptier than it was now. Perhaps Rebecca was right, that an affair with a discreet lover might just be what she needed. For now, Dawes was an amusing companion, and she was enjoying their little performances together.
Rafferty slipped a ring on Rebecca’s finger and the pair were wed.
They turned to face the wedding guests as man and wife to wild applause from family and guests.
Fanny thanked the vicar and fell in behind them, standing beside Wilks as the guests swamped the grinning couple.