The sun was high in the sky and the fire was nothing more than a pile of embers when they finally emerged from the summer house.
Gregory didn’t think he’d ever witnessed a more lovely morning. There had been a heavy dewfall in the night, which made even the dank shrubbery sparkle as though it was bedecked with jewels. The gloss didn’t even fade as he caught sight of Hugo, pacing up and down the terrace. Nor even when, upon catching sight of them, he came jogging down the steps and headed across the lawn to intercept them.
‘Good morning, Halstead,’ said his cousin. ‘Miss Carstairs.’
Gregory didn’t have to look at Prudence to know she was blushing at being caught outside. Everyone must know they’d spent the night together in the summer house. Especially since she had the quilt wrapped round her shoulders, across which he’d draped his own arm. And with that glorious abundance of hair rioting all down her back she looked thoroughly loved this morning.
‘Need a word,’ said Hugo, completely unabashed.
What a pity he didn’t have the tact to consider sparing her blushes.
‘Last night, what with all the...er...fireworks between you two,’ he said with a grin, ‘we never did get round to settling up.’
‘You need to confront me about that now? Is the case that urgent?’
Hugo’s face fell. ‘You must know it is—or I would never have lashed out at you the way I did. Fact is, I was jolly glad to have the excuse to get out of Town and hide away up here.’
‘If you had only explained I would have bailed you out, you young idiot. And I shall, of course, settle all your debts—as agreed in the terms of our wager.’
‘You’d have bailed me out anyway?’ Hugo planted his fists on his hips. ‘I wish I’d known that. I would have wagered on something worth having.’
‘Such as?’
‘A commission with a good regiment. In fact it would probably be to your advantage to get me into one which is serving overseas anyway. Then I won’t be able to do your reputation any damage by letting the cat out of the bag about all this.’ He waved his arm in a way that encompassed the pair of unmarried lovers and, by implication, the way they’d met. ‘Inadvertently, of course,’ he said, going slightly pink. ‘When I’m in my cups, say.’
Gregory narrowed his eyes and hardened his jaw. ‘You have first a more pressing duty to perform.’
‘Oh?’
‘Yes. I need you to go and procure a licence, so that Miss Carstairs and I can be married as soon as possible. And then to stand as my groomsman.’
‘Of course,’ said Hugo, standing a bit straighter.
‘Only then will I purchase your commission. Not because I fear anything you might inadvertently do to my reputation,’ he pointed out, ‘but because this past week has taught me that every man deserves a chance to find out what he’s made of.’
Hugo whooped with glee, darted forward and kissed Prudence’s cheek.
‘What was that for?’ She tried to clap her hand to the spot where Hugo had kissed her, but he grabbed it and pumped it up and down.
‘To thank you for agreeing to marry him. For putting him in such a mellow mood. Welcome to the family, Miss Carstairs,’ he said, and then, with another whoop of delight, went haring off back across the lawn in the direction of the stables.
‘You don’t think badly of me?’ he said, after they’d walked a little further across the dew-spangled lawn. ‘For agreeing to purchase him a commission? You understand why I did so?’
‘Of course.’ She smiled up at him. ‘In fact I was thinking only last night that it would be the making of him.’
‘There—you see.’ He smiled down at her. ‘We are of one mind already. How can our marriage fail to prosper?’
* * *
Prudence could still think of plenty of ways their marriage might fail to prosper. If, for example, she ever decided to find his dictatorial manner objectionable. For he had decided they would get married within two days at the local parish church, had set Lady Mixby to arranging their wedding breakfast, Mrs Bennet the local dressmaker to furnish her with suitable clothing, and Benderby to organise their subsequent departure for London.
All without asking her opinion once.
But since he had made it clear that he needed her at his side every moment of the day, and she had no wish to stir from that position, it was hardly worth mentioning. And anyway, did she really care where they married so long as it was soon? And wasn’t a quiet country church preferable to a grand society wedding where a lot of strangers would come to gawp at her?