An Earl of her Own (Saints and Sinners 3)

Her father stood quickly and held out his hand to her. “Let me look at you, Rebecca.”

Ignoring her father’s request was impossible so she put her hand in his.

Rebecca had not wanted to talk about the accident or those few moments where she had been in danger of losing her life. If she had fallen, the carriage would have crushed her, and the earl, too.

Father gently manipulated her wrist, and she winced when he bent it in such a way that caused pain.

“It is only strained, your grace. Lord Rafferty grabbed me to pull me back to safety, as did the grooms helping me out of the carriage. I’m sure by tomorrow, any discomfort will be gone.”

Father’s eyes widened. “You should have had the housekeeper look at it.”

“I’m quite capable of looking after myself. Besides, Lord Rafferty’s injury was much more severe and he deserved all the attention.” She pursed her lips. The man had saved her life then tried to seduce her while drunk. Good manners dictated she at least ask after him once. At the most. “How is Rafferty today?”

“Fine. Fine. Rafferty has suffered no lasting harm.” Father shrugged. “He ate a hearty breakfast with me earlier and has gone off to call on Whitfield.”

“You should have told us you were hurt,” Jessica grumbled. “I could have been of use to you last night, and instead you let me prattle on about Gideon.”

Being fussed over was never pleasant. That was why Rebecca had not mentioned her injury. She’d learned her lesson well in childhood. When Rebecca was younger, Father had her confined to bed for far less. “I promise you, I am well enough,” she murmured before looking at her father. “You wanted to hear about the plans for the wedding.”

“Indeed.” He reached for a folded sheet of paper and handed it over. “And I’ve written down some early thoughts for the celebrations.”

Rebecca studied her father’s scrawling penmanship, and her eyes widened at his unexpected requests. She sank back into her chair. She gulped at the nonsense written down. “You want all of this arranged by the sixth?”

“We can put off the wedding a bit.” He pointed to the page. “There’s more overleaf.”

Rebecca flipped over the page and saw

a long list of names. “You want to invite all these people, too?”

“Yes.”

Rebecca wet her lips and exchanged a long glance with her sister. The future bride seemed disappointed—by the delay, she thought, rather than the guest list. As a bride, surely Jessica was more interested in claiming the groom than a grand party. “Excuse me, Father, but this is…too much.”

“You feel I should do less for your sister?”

Indeed she did. Father had a tendency toward extravagance where his amusements were concerned. The cost of this wedding would bankrupt a less-wealthy family. Rebecca hadn’t allowed such an unnecessary fuss to be made when she’d tied the knot. “In the time we have before the date Jessica and Gideon hope to be married, it would be impossible to arrange even half as much.”

Her father snatched the list back and looked down at his notes. A frown line instantly appeared between his brows. “What would you suggest be cut?”

Three-quarters of the list, for a start. Rebecca considered what might be the most obviously wasteful expense. “Well, I don’t believe there needs to be two orchestras playing on the wedding day.”

“I thought we’d host a ball and have two playing at once—one outside on the lawn, the other inside as usual. That would be very pleasant for the revelers.”

“May I see the list, Nicolas,” the duchess asked suddenly in a firm voice.

The duke obediently handed it over and then sank down beside his wife.

Rebecca held her breath as the new duchess read her husband’s wishes. The woman’s eyes slowly widened. Was this the first time she’d heard of this nonsense, too?

The duchess straightened after turning over the page. “Really, darling. Mrs. Warner is correct. It would take half a year to arrange most of this properly. I doubt Jessica would be happy to wait so long for her happy day. The sixth is a perfectly reasonable length of time to wait to be married by special license.”

Was her grace going to be Rebecca’s unexpected ally in this?

“But—”

The duchess placed a restraining hand on her husband’s thigh. “Leave it with me. I am certain your daughter and I can figure out a way to celebrate Jessica and Gideon’s wedding day without bankrupting the family.”

The duke frowned again. “I wanted to stay and help.”