Cloudy With a Chance of Marriage (40 page)

Her brow puckered, and he waited patiently.

“Will you trust me?” he said eventually.

She looked at the ground. Then she looked back up at him. “I’m sorry, but I need more time. I’m so confused.”

His heart clenched. He had so hoped that today, she’d be his again. But he understood. “I’m sure the news about Hector has completely thrown you.”

She nodded shakily. “There’s so much to think about. Can you wait?”

“Of course,” he said, not wanting to burden her with his fear of losing her. She really had had a shock, and he wasn’t going to compound it with his own worries. “Now go upstairs and see Otis. Tell him the wonderful news. And get a cup of tea.”

She gave a shaky laugh. And then for a moment her face was radiant—as if she finally comprehended the truth.

“You’re free, Jilly.
Free
.” He let go of her hand reluctantly and watched her walk to the door in the back. This was one battle he couldn’t win by being aggressive.

She opened the door, turned around, and looked at him one more time.

And then, smiling shyly, she shut the door behind her.

Dear God,
he prayed,
next time it opens, let her come to me
.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Jilly realized that even though there was so much more fun to be had at their new special event now that the lease money wasn’t a problem anymore, they still had the biggest dilemma of all to solve—changing Dreare Street’s reputation.

She was pleased to see that not a single resident of Dreare Street dropped out of the new plan. Everyone, it seemed, still wanted Dreare Street to be known as a place of prosperity and good cheer.

The first thing they did was enact a name change, which they’d achieved with the permission of the Lord Mayor of London. Lady Duchamp blustered only a moment or two when the sign went up at the top of the street:

READER STREET
, it read through wisps of fog.

“It’s the same letters as in
Dreare
but all jumbled around,” Thomas explained to Lady Duchamp. “We’ve got a bookshop here, so it makes sense. Especially because we’re all readers, right, my lady?”

And he held a book upside down to prove the point.

Jilly linked arms with Susan and laughed at that. Nathaniel put Thomas’s book down, picked him up, and swung him around.

Not long after, they enacted the next part of the plan, which was crucial to the success of their mission.

“There must be gossip,” Jilly reminded everyone later that day at Hodgepodge, “
lots
of gossip about a certain tea with, um, certain properties.”

She blushed. Every other woman in the room did, as well. But the men—the men had almost predatory looks in their eyes.

“When can we get some?” an elderly gentleman cried.

“Yes,” said Pratt, “I want some now.”

“I’m making a new batch this evening,” Mrs. Hobbs said, “just for the neighborhood.”

“Don’t worry,” said Mr. Hobbs. “I’m reopening my tea company, right here on Dreare—I mean,
Reader
Street. And we’ll specialize in this particular exotic blend of leaves from a remote corner of China.”

“We’ve had crates of various teas sitting around our house for six weeks now,” Mrs. Hobbs said, “ever since Mr. Hobbs shut down the company. I figured I’d at least
try
to do something with them.”

“I’m very glad you did,” her husband said smoothly. “At any rate, this tea is combined with Lavinia’s special extra ingredients—”

“I only add—” she began excitedly.

“Shush, my dear.” He patted her hand. “It must be our secret.”

“Of course.” Mrs. Hobbs looked well pleased. “Although I’m glad to share the final result.” She wagged a finger at the crowd. “And don’t forget, ladies. This tea is beneficial to
all
.”

“It’s what they call an aphrodisiac,” said Mr. Hobbs. “If Hobbs’s special blend doesn’t spark romance between you and the person you love, nothing will.”

All the women blushed again.

And the men pulled at their cravats or cleared their throats.

Jilly tried not to think of Stephen.

“Which is why,” she went on, “we needed to get the word out to the
ton
.” She looked at Miss Hartley.

“It was so easy,” Miss Hartley said. “I told Lady Gallagher about it last night at the Fordhams’ ball. She’s an awful gossip. The whispering began, and all night long, I could see the word being passed. By the end of the evening, I’ve no doubt at all that everyone knew that if they come to Hodgepodge this Friday at noon and say the secret word, the special tea will be made available to them.”

“What
is
the code word?” asked Pratt.

Miss Hartley turned toward him, her eyes wide. “Throb,” she said in a sweet, yearning voice.

Pratt leaned toward her. “You’re much too good for me,
bella,
” he whispered.

“No I’m not,” she cried.

“Miranda!”

Jilly and everyone else jumped.

“There you are.” Sir Ned was at the door with Lady Hartley. “Captain Arrow has said no to Lord Smelling’s offer to buy the house, but he still insists we move into a hotel.”

“Why we must depart is beyond me,” said Lady Hartley. “I showed him the letter from our attorney giving us permission to stay here, and he tore it up, said he’d take us to court to dispute it if he had to. And then he said it would be a moot point anyway. I have no idea what he meant by that, but he has a strange light in his eye. A
very
strange light.”

“Now say your good-byes,” Sir Ned ordered his daughter, “and meet us in the carriage.”

Miranda stood. “No, Mother and Father. I’m not leaving Reader Street.”

Her mother sneered. “It’s Dreare.”

“No, Reader,” Miranda insisted.

“Dreare,” said Sir Ned.

“No, Reader!”
said the whole room as one.

Lady Hartley made an ugly face. “You people can rot on Reader Street for all I care. Come, Miranda.”

Miranda shook her head. “I’ll stay with Susan or Jilly if I have to, but I’m staying. I’m going to marry Pratt if he’ll ask me—and I have high hopes he will after he tries the Hobbses’ aphrodisiac tea.”

Lady Hartley’s eyes lit up. “Aphrodisiac tea?”

Pratt suddenly broke into a big grin. “I can’t wait to try it. Not that I need it with your daughter. She sets my heart racing with
amore
.”

Miss Hartley smiled broadly. “Really?”

Lady Hartley waved a dismissive hand. “Ignore him, Miranda. Love is for the lower classes.”

“And so is this
amooray
you’re talking about!” Sir Ned blustered.

Without a word of warning, Pratt got down on one knee in front of Miss Hartley. “I need no special potion to ask you to marry me,” he said, gesticulating wildly at his heart and then Miss Hartley’s sweet countenance with his hands. “I’m a free man. I can ask any time I desire, no?”

Jilly felt a pang of remembrance. She hadn’t been a free woman for such a long time—

But now she was.

She wished she could be as happy as she’d been when she’d first heard the news of Hector’s fraudulent behavior, but all she could think about was Stephen and how they weren’t talking and about how she was so
confused
. He was being so patient—

Waiting for her.

Gently, Pratt took Miss Hartley’s hand. “Will you marry me, my dear Miranda?” he asked in a ragged whisper.

“Ye-th!” she said, and burst into happy tears.

“She shall
not
marry you!” Sir Ned cried.

“You can’t expect our daughter to marry a nobody,” Lady Hartley snarled.

“He has a name, Mother,” Miss Hartley gritted out. “It’s Pratt.”

Her mother rolled her eyes. “He must have another name to go with it.”

“Of course he does!” Miss Hartley said hotly, then blinked confusedly at her new love. “Don’t you?”

Pratt lifted his chin. “Yes, I do. It is no one’s business but mine and Miranda’s, but I am Lucio Basso, Conte di Cavour. Your daughter has made me very happy.”

“Conte di Cavour?” Sir Ned stumbled over the title.

“Indeed,” said Pratt coolly. “I go by the name Pratt when I travel with my friend Captain Arrow. Until now, I preferred the vagabond’s life and enjoyed seeing the world incognito. But now that I’ve met you, my love”—he cast a doting glance at Miss Hartley—“I’d like to take you home. To my castle.”

Miss Hartley gasped. “Oh, dear! You’re not really Pratt?”

Lucio shook his head. “Are you disappointed, dearest?”

She looked a trifle worried. “Not really. Not if it means you’ll still fry eggs for me each morning.”

“Of course I shall. I am an Italian count, my love, of excellent family, and I can do anything I want. Even serve as cook on a ship if I so choose.” He turned to Sir Ned and Lady Hartley. “I suggest you two depart. We will talk to you at some other time. Perhaps when you become kinder, I shall invite you to my home in Sardinia.”

He turned his back on them and kissed Miss Hartley to much applause.

“Miranda?” Lady Hartley called weakly.

Miranda lifted her head for just a moment. “Later, Mother,” she called breathlessly.

And she went back to kissing her count.

Sir Ned and Lady Hartley’s mouths dropped open, and then they turned quietly away and left.

When Lucio finished kissing Miss Hartley, his gaze roamed around the room until it landed on Nathaniel. “I am a great collector of fine art. Your paintings bring me much happiness. Would you care to sell me your entire collection? We have many rooms in my home.”

Nathaniel beamed. “I’d be glad to.”

Lucio smiled at Susan. “And before I take my bride back with me, I would love for you to sew her trousseau. I pay very well and shall spread word of your great talent throughout my country and to any expatriates who live here in London.”

Susan blinked rapidly. “Of—of course, Lucio. I mean, Count. Thank you very much.”

“You must call me Lucio,” he said, and was about to open his mouth to say more when there was a mighty rumble and groan that literally shook Hodgepodge.

Some women screamed, and there were shouts from the men.

The crowd gathered at the window. And then there were more cries, this time of astonishment.

Jilly almost fainted when she saw what was happening. Stephen and his friends, including Lumley and Lord Harry Traemore, stood outside in the street with a team of four large draft horses. Several ropes led from the horses’ harnesses to Stephen’s house. They ran through the front door and several windows and now—

Now a portion of 34 Reader Street had fallen to the ground. The rest was leaning very precariously. Jilly could see it wouldn’t take much more to pull it all down.

Otis threw open the door and ran outside. All the people in Hodgepodge did the same. Jilly was caught in the crowd, but she was desperate—
desperate
—to get to Stephen.

Finally, through all the chaos, she was able to reach Stephen’s side.

Everybody was talking, yelling, pointing, gesturing, and some were simply staring in awe at the destruction.

Stephen grinned when he saw her, and his eyes lit up like a little boy’s, as if he’d just played a prank and was laughing at the results.

She’d never been so confused in her life.

“What have you done?” she cried. “Your house! You worked so hard on it. And—and you had a buyer. You could have sold it and taken the money and—”

“Stop, Jilly.” He took her by the shoulders and stared into her eyes, his own filled with so much strong yet tender feeling that she had to burrow into his chest and cling to him because it was too, too much. Her own raw emotions were about to burst from her, but she couldn’t let them.

Not now, not in front of all these people.

He held her close and stroked her hair. “It’s what I want to do,” he said softly into her ear. “I read Alicia Fotherington’s journal. And I figured out why Dreare Street—I mean, Reader Street—is so filled with fog.”

She looked up at him. “Why?”

He chuckled. “It was the perfect storm. First, it has to do with where the house is situated on the street in relation to the prevalent winds.”

She laughed. “Always the sailor, aren’t you?”

“It will never quite leave me,” he said with a grin. “And it also has to do with all the wings Lyle Fotherington built on. He made the house so big that it blocks in all the fog that would otherwise blow away. The journal made it clear that the street never had such a preponderance of fog until he built those wings.” He paused. “We must face the truth, Jilly. My house is the reason for the fog.”