“For you, Esther, anything,” Lord Templeton managed to say.
* * *
“My word!” was all that Percy could say when Edmund and Diana related the same story to him and Jacob a short time later. Sitting up in bed and looking much stronger, Percy was even more astonished than Lady Templeton had been.
“Aunt Henrietta! Of everyone I could think of, she would have been the very last one I’d have guessed for a poisoner and commissioner of murder. I believed everything she said. What a fool I must be! Every single word she said…”
“We all believed her, Percy,” Diana said sympathetically. “It wasn’t just you.”
“Well, I can say that I never liked the woman,” Jacob admitted with a smile. “Or her damned dog. In retrospect, the devoted owner of a pet like Fluffles couldn’t possibly be sane.”
They all laughed a little, and then Percy looked serious again.
“But when I think what could have happened to you, Diana, my blood runs cold. She used me to manipulate you, and I didn’t suspect a thing.”
“Then don’t think about it, silly. Just get well again, please.”
“Apart from anything else,” Edmund added, “Diana may well be needing a brother to escort her through her first London Season if your parents let me make the necessary arrangements.”
“Really? I thought that was all off,” Percy said, brightening up at the thought of a series of summer balls, parties, and other events.
“It doesn’t need to be,” Edmund observed, and Jacob nodded his agreement. “If Lady Templeton agrees, I’ll write to my mother and see if she could sponsor Diana this year, along with my sister.”
“But it’s not just that, is it?” Percy said, exchanging a look with Jacob knowingly, as if both of them could see that Edmund was holding Diana’s hand again behind their backs. “I thought there might still be an imminent wedding?”
“What has Jacob been telling you?” Edmund sighed, turning to smile at Diana sheepishly, but neither of them made any attempt to deny their relationship. He suspected it was probably written in the contentment on their faces anyway.
“Very little, in fact. Percy has observed the two of you and asked me some very searching questions earlier today. I can only conclude that the bang on the head might have finally knocked some sense into him,” Jacob joked.
“I will marry Diana as soon as she is ready,” Edmund confirmed, receiving a beaming smile from his beloved. “But there are some steps we need to take first. The first is getting your parents’ permission. Diana is well under one and twenty after all. The second is giving Diana a taste of the London Season.”
“I would love it if I could do that,” Diana said wistfully. “I looked forward to it for so long.”
With their secret in the open, at least in this room, Edmund brought her hand to his lips and kissed it.
After smiling at them, Jacob’s good-natured face lapsed into a troubled frown. Something was clearly bothering him, although he was reluctant to speak.
“Jake?” Edmund probed. “What is it?”
“What will become of Lady Katherine?” his friend asked earnestly. “From what you say, she is blameless in the whole affair, and yet, she will lose everything. Her family, her home, her dowry. Every prospect and security she’s ever had is gone.”
Diana and Percy looked at one another, each of them considering Jacob’s words in their own way.
“She doesn’t deserve that, does she?” Percy thought aloud. “Kitty’s a good sort, even if the rest of her family are rotten."
“No, she doesn’t deserve it,” Diana agreed, remembering Kitty’s enthusiasm at Diana marrying Andrew and coming to live at Hayward House to make it a home. Despite being Andrew’s sister and Henrietta’s daughter, Diana could not summon any real animosity towards Kitty or hold their deeds against her. “All she’s ever wanted is a proper home.”
“She has no other relatives,” Percy continued, his face now becoming almost as troubled as Jacob’s. “Apart from us, she has no one. I think we must do something for her, even after all this.”
“I’ll speak to Mother,” Diana said quietly but decidedly. “Especially if I will be leaving Fernside soon.” She looked at Edmund with a tender smile. “Perhaps she could be good company here for Mother.”
Now Jacob smiled.
“You’re marrying into a wonderfully brave and generous family, Edmund,” he said.
“I know.” Edmund nodded, feeling his good fortune and love for Diana surge once more.
Diana released his hand and headed towards the door.