A Bloom in Winter (32 page)

He’d sent a telegram saying he would meet her not at the train station but at home. He didn’t say whether he had passed the exams or not, and Prudence worried about her impromptu party. How would he feel if he didn’t pass? Would he appreciate that his wife believed in him no matter what, or would he be humiliated to have his failure paraded in front of their friends?

She glanced at the clock on the mantel behind the stove and hurried to the window. Mr. and Mrs. Cash stood talking with Katie and sipping their tea. Mr. Cash was finishing up his first year of veterinary school while Mrs. Cash minded babies for a small weekly stipend. “The less money we have to get from my in-laws the better,” she once said with a toss of her blonde head. Apparently they had not approved of their son’s wife.

“There he is!” Katie said, pointing.

Prudence followed her pointing finger and spotted him about a block away. His steps were slow and uncertain, and fear clutched at her heart. He did not look like someone with anything to celebrate.

It’s going to be fine
, she told herself, though inside she was cursing herself for her spontaneous welcome-home party. She just wanted to show him how much she loved him. That even if she had had doubts in the past, she had pushed them aside. Andrew was her husband now. Not only was she building a happy life with him, but she was going to build a family with him as well. He deserved nothing less than her whole heart.

But nerves propelled her down the stairs and street. At least she would be able to warn him about the party.

He spotted her halfway down the block. She tried to gauge his success or failure by his face, but his hat shaded his eyes. He shook his head slowly and her heart plummeted.
Oh, why, Lord? Why couldn’t you just let him pass? He is such a wonderful man
.

She launched herself at him down the street, not caring what she looked like. He caught her in his arms. “Oh, my darling, I am so sorry. Next time. You will get it next time, right, but I have to tell you, I did something . . . ”

She paused and he looked down at her, his eyes grave. “What did you do? Buy a piano in place of a bed? Adopt a pet hippopotamus from the zoo? Tell me, love, what mischief have you been up to?”

She grabbed him by the lapels and shook him a bit. “No, of course not. I’m being serious.” She looked down at the ground. “I was so sure that you were going to pass your exams that I baked a cake and invited some friends over.”

There was a moment’s silence and then he put a finger under her chin and lifted her face to meet his gaze. “You mean you threw me a celebration party before you even knew for sure that I would pass?”

She nodded. To her surprise, tears welled up in his eyes. “I’m so lucky to have you, but you’re even luckier,” he said.

“Why is that?” she asked.

“Because I passed.”

Her heart thudded against her rib cage. “You passed?”

He nodded and she leapt into his arms for a moment before turning to their building and lifting a victorious fist.

Then she turned to him and hit him in the chest. “You’re horrible! I can’t believe you did that to me.”

He grinned, his green eyes laughing at her. “Just imagine. After four long years, I’ll be a veterinarian. Can you wait that long for a real home of your own?”

She nodded, more sure than she had ever been of her decisions. “Wherever you are will be our home,” she told him. Smiling, he took her hand and they headed to their flat.

*   *   *

Rowena sat in the conservatory and watched through the windows as Victoria and Kit strolled through the rose garden. The roses were just beginning to bloom, that moment when every blossom was precious and new, unlike later in June when the garden would be a riot of colors and scents.

Victoria had been home for almost two weeks. When Rowena had first seen her, she had broken down and cried at the number of delicate bones that stuck so prominently out of Victoria’s parchment paper–thin skin. She looked as if a stiff breeze would blow her away to a place where no one would ever be able to reach her again.

She even moved slowly, as if her bones were brittle and she were afraid of breaking. Not like her old self at all. Even Aunt Charlotte had cried, though she tried to hide it behind a handkerchief. Now she and Cook devoted hours planning food to put flesh on Victoria’s fragile frame. The family had never been privy to so many cream soups and rich desserts.

Rowena wondered what kind of changes had been wrought in Victoria that were unseen.

“Do you think he’s going to ask her to marry him?”

Rowena jumped as Sebastian came up behind her. She smiled and indicated the chair next to her. “I’m not sure. I think he would be wise to wait. She needs time.”

“She certainly seems changed, but how long do you think it will last?”

Rowena shrugged. “We can only guess at her experience and how it affected her. I know she’s a lot quieter and much more serious than she used to be.”

“Does she know about Martha and Lottie?”

Rowena took a deep, shuddering breath, tears at the edge of her voice. “I think she took their treatment of her worse than the prison sentence. They knew she was in prison but did nothing. They used her to get money for the cause and then disappeared when she needed them. She is such a trusting person. Or was.”

They sat in silence, watching as Victoria threw back her head and laughed at something Kit said. “You know I was really concerned when those two became friends. He’s such a cynical bastard. I was afraid he would hurt her.”

Sebastian snorted. “Now I’m rather worried it will be the other way around. He’s so smitten with her he can’t even see straight.”

“She always said she would never marry,” Rowena mused.

“If anyone will change her mind, it’ll be Kit. He has a silver tongue.”

Sebastian put his hand over hers and she looked up in surprise. “What about you, Rowena? What are you going to do?”

She laughed, though tears slipped down her cheeks. “Is it that obvious?”

“It’s hard to hide a broken heart.” He looked back out the window, though his eyes seemed blind to the beauty outside. “Trust me, I know.”

She turned her hand in his and gave it a warm squeeze. “We never did break off our engagement.”

He laughed softly. “No. Between Victoria and everything else, there just never seemed to be a good time.”

She nodded. “Well, no need to hurry on my account.” Bitterness laced her words. “It seems as if Jon can’t possibly get over the fact that I’m a Buxton.” She shrugged, her eyes welling with tears. After spending the last few weeks crying over a man who wouldn’t answer her letters, she had decided that she would no longer cry for him. He didn’t love her as much as she did him and that was that. She was just lucky their lovemaking hadn’t resulted in a child.

Sebastian said nothing, so she continued. “My family hurt his family, so apparently, we’re not allowed to be together, even though I told him I would walk away from my family for him.” She shrugged again and watched as Victoria and Kit disappeared behind a hedge of boxwoods.

Sebastian’s laugh echoed the bitterness in her voice. “Prudence wouldn’t trust me because of my position and wealth. Jon wouldn’t marry you or trust you because of your wealth, position, and name. Who would have thought that being rich and titled would cost us both the people we love?”

She shook her head. “Who indeed?”

“There’s no need to hurry on my account either. Prudence has been married for months now. There’s no going back.”

“No, there’s no going back,” Rowena said, though her heart ached at the thought of it.

“So we can just stay engaged, then?” His voice sounded casual, but there was something in it that caught her attention. She turned her head to see his face better. He stared toward the rose garden, his face still.

“What do you mean?” she finally asked.

“I think we make a good pair, Rowena. We have both been in love and have both had our hearts broken because of it, through no fault of our own. As an engaged couple, we’ll get a lot less
harassment from our families, which I’m sure you’ll agree is a bonus.”

He turned to her then. “Right now, I can’t imagine ever feeling about someone the way I felt about Prudence, and I saw you with Jon. Can you ever love someone the way you loved him?”

Her breath caught and she shook her head.

“Do you want to end up alone?”

Again she shook her head.

“Neither do I. I think we could build a good marriage. A good life. Just think about it, Rowena, that’s all I ask.”

She nodded, her throat constricting at his kindness. No wonder Prudence loved him. What had she been thinking when she walked away from someone who loved her so much? Or perhaps she’d never known the extent of his love for her. Rowena prayed that Andrew would make Prudence as happy as Sebastian would have. “I will,” she managed as soon as she could find the voice to speak.

He squeezed her fingers and they sat in silence until she heard footsteps behind her.

“I thought I would find you two out here,” her uncle Conrad said. “Would you mind if I joined you?”

He pulled up a wicker chair and looked out over the gardens. “Your father redesigned the rose garden when he was just sixteen,” he said after a moment. “Our father didn’t want to make any changes to the estate, but Mother saw Philip’s vision and insisted. And it turned out far more beautiful than it had been.”

He was quiet as a maid brought them a silver tray with a pot of tea and cups. Rowena smiled her thanks as the maid handed her a cup. When she had gone, her uncle turned to her. “I fear I’ve rather neglected my duty as your uncle these past few months.” Rowena tried to interrupt, but he held up a hand.
“No, I know it’s true. I’ve been occupied with business and distracted by my own grief. I know you think I’m a hard man and in many ways I am, but I do love my family and try to do what is right by them.”

He paused and Rowena’s eyes widened. Could this be her staid, traditional uncle speaking this way? She turned to Sebastian but he shook his head, as bewildered as she was.

“You have spent most of the winter desperately unhappy and don’t think I don’t understand the part I played in your unhappiness.”

Rowena’s pulse raced. Prudence. He was talking about Prudence. Would he say her name?

“But I rarely waste time regretting my behavior, far preferring to make amends.”

So no. Even now, after Prudence was so helpful with Victoria’s internment, he couldn’t bring himself to say her name.

“I don’t understand, Uncle Conrad.”

He smiled at them both. “I cannot describe how happy I was to find that you two had made the match.” He nodded at Sebastian. “You and Elaine both know your mothers have been plotting your marriage for years, but I feel that you and Rowena are far better suited to each other. You are both far more thoughtful than my frivolous girl and I think you will take your roles seriously, within your modern sensitivities, of course.”

Rowena shifted in her seat. She wasn’t even sure she was going to accept Sebastian’s proposal that they make their engagement real.

“I’d like to think my brother would be happy as well.” He looked at the rose garden, a small smile playing over his lips. “I remember telling you once that your father and I frequently butted heads. Over almost everything, actually, even in how
he brought up his children. But I have come to realize that he wasn’t bringing you up to fit into our world; he was educating you to fit into the modern world. I’ve watched the past few months as both you and Victoria have bashed about, trying to fit into a world that you were never meant to inhabit.”

Tears filled Rowena’s eyes. Her uncle understood far more than she had ever imagined.

“So I spoke to your intended to get an idea of what you might like for an engagement gift, what might make you even just a bit like the happy, cheerful girl who used to spend every summer here. What he told me, young lady, shocked me to my very soul, but in my eagerness to become a part of the new century, I followed his advice.”

She frowned, glancing at Sebastian, who was trying to hide a smile.

“You didn’t have to get us anything, Uncle,” she said uncomfortably.

“Not get my own niece an engagement present? I think not.”

Rowena watched him suspiciously. She’d never seen her uncle show this kind of suppressed emotion before, as if he had a secret he was dying to share.

Uncle Conrad pulled a couple of slender cigars out of his pocket and handed one to Sebastian. After he lit his, he handed his lighter to Sebastian, who did the same.

“Besides, it’s too late. Your very own Vickers biplane will be delivered to Brooklands Aero Club in Surrey in about a month. They have an aeronautic school there that actually admits women. In fact, Hilda Hewlett was one of the founders, as well as becoming the first woman to be granted a pilot’s license.”

Rowena put a hand over her mouth. “How did you know? Why would you do that for me?”

Her uncle picked up her hand and gave her fingers a squeeze. “After talking with Sebastian, I contacted Mr. Dirkes and he told me that you had been spending a great deal of time at the airfield and that you wished to get your pilot’s license. Then he gave me a ten-minute lecture on how the times are changing. I don’t truly subscribe to his motto of adapt or die, but I think I am adapting just a bit.” Her uncle looked smug at his own growth.

“I still can’t believe you’re doing this for me,” she said. She wanted to accept. God knew she wanted to accept. She would be one of how many civilians to own her own aeroplane? One hundred in all of Britain? And surely the only woman!

But though her uncle didn’t know it, accepting the aeroplane meant accepting Sebastian’s suggestion that they make their engagement real, and she wasn’t sure she could do that. Wouldn’t that be the same as admitting that things with Jon were truly finished forever?

She drummed her fingers on the arm of her chair. But in reality, wasn’t that the truth? Could she ever forgive him for walking away from her? For refusing to fight for their love?

She turned to him suddenly, a smile lighting up her face. “Uncle, I thank you so much for your kindness. I can’t even imagine what it must have taken for you to allow your niece to become a pilot.”