Twelve Days in December: A Christmas Novella (4 page)

“I came to see if you might consider going to the church now,” he said. “I realize it is almost a full hour earlier than was planned, but with the change of brides, we will need to talk to the bishop, and there will be paperwork to fill out.”

“Of course. I hadn’t thought of that.” Worry creased her brow a moment, causing her to look older than Marsali, and older than she likely was.

I don’t even know her age, and we are to marry.

“Please give me a minute, and I’ll get my cloak.” She closed the door, practically on him, leaving him standing in the hall alone once more.

I don’t know her age or much of anything about her— beyond what Marsali has shared with me.
Which was likely more than she had shared about him with Charlotte.
We are the both of us mad to do this,
he concluded.

A moment later Charlotte reappeared in the doorway, a coarse brown, homespun cloak covering her dress. He noted that she looked no less pretty in the worn garment than she had in the wedding gown and silently agreed with Lady Cosgrove that Charlotte and Marsali did look a great deal alike. Perhaps those in the congregation would not notice that he had acquired a different bride.
At first.
But at the wedding breakfast after there would be explanations to give.

The least of my worries.

She glanced back at the bed where her son slept. “I think it would be best to leave him here while we go to the church. If we wake him early, he will cry for an hour.”

“We can send Ellen up to sit with him and stay with him when he wakes,” William suggested, recalling that the little boy had seemed to take to Ellen, more than some of the other maids he had interacted with.

“Yes, please,” Charlotte said. “That would be best.”

He held out his arm, she placed her hand lightly upon it, and they were off, with a quick stop to advise the housekeeper to send Ellen to watch over young Alec.

I will need to employ a nanny,
William thought absently as they left the house.
And later a governess.
He would supply any sort of tutor Charlotte desired for her son, if only she went through with this today.

The brief carriage ride to the church was mostly silent, each busy with their own thoughts. He would have paid far more than a penny for hers but found himself too fearful to ask what she was thinking.
Will she refuse to get out of the carriage when we arrive? Or will I be waiting at the front of the church alone when she changes her mind?
He was not certain he could live through such a scenario again, though if that did happen, at least this time his heart would not be injured. He had learned to guard it well after Daphne. And watching Charlotte’s calm, almost serene expression as she stared out the window, he had the feeling she had learned to guard hers also.

William wondered what her husband had been like.
Is she thinking of him now? How could she not be?
He suddenly wanted nothing more than to distract her from whatever sorrowful reflections she must be having.
How could they be anything other?

The carriage turned the corner to the eastern side of St. John’s Park. The trees lining the walk were bare now, dusted with a light layer of snow that had fallen the night before. “In summer this is a very popular spot for walking,” he said, disrupting the silence in the carriage. “We could stroll there if you like.
When the weather is warmer,” he added, feeling unexpectedly foolish. It was a little late to be thinking of courting his bride now. Like all else that should have happened prior to this day, that would have to wait until after they were married.

“I would like that very much,” Charlotte said and bestowed a kindly smile upon him. “Alec would like it too. He enjoys being out of doors. Oh, is that the church?” She leaned in toward the window, attempting a better view.

“Yes. St. John’s Chapel. Quite a fine building.”

“I can see that.” Her smile broadened.

“It cost an absurd amount of money. The organ alone was over $5,000. It came from Philadelphia.”

Charlotte clasped her hands together. “I had no idea that America had such buildings as this. I can’t wait to see the inside. The outside is perfectly grand.”

William looked out his window as well, following her gaze from the Corinthian columns up to the double-height portico, topped by a tower that rose more than 200 feet. He’d been one of the men invited on an exclusive tour of the building when it had neared completion. The architecture had so impressed him, along with the added value the church brought to the upscale neighborhood, that William had easily agreed to put it at the top of his yearly donation list. He hoped the bishop would remember that today.

“I wish my mother was here— to see me wed in such a fine place and wearing a beautiful gown. And marrying a kind man.” Her eyes flickered briefly to his before she turned her face, and a shy smile, away again. “She would be pleased.”

He was pleased at Charlotte’s assessment of the situation and felt his hope grow brighter.
Perhaps she
won’t
change her mind.

Now he had only to change the bishop’s. Thankfully they were not in England, where a couple had to post banns. But still there would need to be new paperwork and, no doubt, money exchanged to accomplish that quickly.

The carriage stopped before the church, and they alighted. The steps had the same dusting of snow on them as the trees, so William put his arm around Charlotte’s waist lest she slip. Given his poor luck with brides, he was taking absolutely no chances on anything happening to her. At least anything he could control. They reached the top step without incident and paused, turning to face her.

“I must ask you just once more. Are you
quite
certain you wish to go through with this?” It was the last thing he wished to say, but past experience bade him to.
Better she change her mind now than an hour from now when the pews are full and the organ is playing.

“Are
you
quite certain?” Charlotte said, turning the question back to him. “You act almost as if you expect me to change my mind.”

I do.
“It is simply that I do not wish to force you to something you may regret later. You have not even had one day to reflect on your decision.”

“I have had five months to reflect on it,” she said. “Of necessity, I knew I must marry again. That it is to a man I know to be both kind and generous has brought an enormous amount of peace to my mind and heart. But you, also, must be certain.”

On impulse he took her gloved hand in his, brought it to his lips, and kissed it. “Thank you, Charlotte. You cannot know the calm your reassurance brings to me. Once I begin something, I never change course, I can promise you that. Now let us go in.”

He led her inside, watching from the corner of his eye as she took in the equally stunning interior with its towering side columns and sweeping arches. “I imagine you had opportunity to visit similarly grand churches in England,” he said.

“Not England so much, but in France, yes. I have many fond memories of both the countryside and the cities.”

“I return to England and the Continent every few years. Perhaps you would like to accompany me on such a trip sometime?”

“Oh, yes.” Her eyes lit up at the possibility, but in the next second her face fell. “Though I am not at all certain I would be able to survive another crossing.”

It was his turn to smile. “Your accommodations would be considerably better than the last time. You came over in steerage, did you not?” He recalled Marsali telling him of her sister’s near-death experience and felt suddenly grateful that Charlotte had survived that trip to be with him at this moment.

She nodded. “A memory I do not wish to revisit.”

“Then we shall not,” he agreed. They walked to the head of the chapel, and he escorted her through a side door and hall that led to Bishop Lewis’s office. They met with him there, and all was accomplished with much more order and efficiency than William would have believed likely. At the end of their meeting, when Bishop Lewis shook Charlotte’s hand with an exuberance that matched his unusually jovial countenance, William realized he had Charlotte to credit for their good fortune in getting through the particulars and paperwork with such ease.

She is a pleasant woman to be around
, he noted happily. Marsali had not been unpleasant, but neither had she been wholly happy. He did not understand how Charlotte could be either, having lost her husband as she had, but she seemed far more resigned to, and at peace with, the idea of a new future than her sister had been. Bishop Lewis had taken to her at once, and upon learning that she was a widow with a small child, he had all but commended William for his good choice in providing for those in need.

William returned to the chapel to take his place at the front, while Charlotte waited at the side door. She would join him after all the guests were seated and the organ had played an interlude. Leaving her for even one minute started his nerves again, and he began to feel physically ill as he stood alone at the head of the pews.

He glanced over to the door and was surprised to see that Charlotte had opened it. She stood slightly back from the doorway so that she would not be visible to most, but clearly to him. He sent her a grateful smile, though she could not know what the simplicity of her action meant to him. So long as he could see her, he was safe.
I
will
be married today.

He kept his gaze focused on her and noted once more how beautiful she looked in the cream gown. Her dark hair curled prettily around her face, and her hands clasped and unclasped in front of her, the only sign of nerves he had yet to note from her. She did not seem to be a woman given to blushing, perhaps owing to the fact that she had been married before.

William thought on this a moment, wondering how that might affect their marriage. According to Marsali, Charlotte’s marriage had been a love match, one that had begun when she was quite young. But something between then and now had turned Charlotte quite sensible, enough so that she would readily agree to this marriage of convenience for them both.

Motherhood,
he supposed. Wasn’t it an innate quality in women that they would do whatever it took to protect their children? If that was true, he supposed he had young Alec to thank for his mother’s being here today. William would have to do right by the child and make sure he was well provided for and educated.

He had enjoyed having the little boy running around the house. It brought a life to the place that had been missing, and William found he rather liked the idea of having more children to fill his vast home someday. He’d grown up in England, with a houseful of brothers, and he missed that.
I will have a wife and family of my own to share with my brothers the next time we meet.
Imagining himself introducing Charlotte and her son to his mother brought a feeling of comfort and pride, and William realized the situation was improving by the moment. To have gone from despair to near contentment and even pleasant anticipation for his future in the space of two hours seemed a miracle.
The day is full of them.

At last the congregation was seated, the pews full of his business associates and friends, the elite of this city and a few who had come from farther away.
My friends.
Except that many were not, but were simply associates. The nature of his business demanded that he be acquainted with a great number of people, but it also meant he was close to none. Not since his relationship with Daphne had he allowed himself to truly trust or get too close to anyone. He had hoped that might change with Marsali. It would be nice to have one person in whom he could confide, one he felt would always be on his side no matter what.

His gaze locked on Charlotte’s as she began to move toward him, walking carefully to match the music from the organ. It was too soon to know if she might be that one. For now, that she had agreed to be his wife was enough.

She took her place at his side, her gaze never wavering. Her expression was neither solemn nor happy, but somewhere in between, where his own emotions lay also. Bishop Lewis announced the reason they were gathered, then asked the required question of those in attendance, if there be any who objected to the marriage. William held his breath, believing this to be the last hurdle. When there was no response, he sighed, perhaps a bit too loudly; Charlotte looked up at him, a knowing smile upon her face.

He took her hand and held it, enjoying the feeling and once more overwhelmed with gratitude that she stood at his side.
How differently this day might have been.
That she had spared him extreme difficulties and potential disaster could not be overstated.

Bishop Lewis blessed them and read from scripture the importance of marriage. When he came to the line about the procreation of children, William kept his gaze straight ahead, though he wondered what Charlotte was thinking. He would like children of his own someday. But that could come later, well after they had come to know one another better.

Bishop Lewis continued. “Marriage was ordained for mutual society, help, and comfort— both in prosperity and adversity.”

Help and comfort.
That was what this marriage was based on. And if it was in scripture, then what he’d done— marrying Charlotte essentially to save his business— could not be so bad, could it? He intended to do his part as well, to comfort and help her and her son in any manner possible.
I will make up for my less than noble intentions,
he silently vowed.

When it came time for speaking the words, his voice was strong. Hers was equally sure, though he caught the quivering of her chin and the unmistakable glisten of unshed tears in her eyes when she promised to love him and cleave unto him and none other. He felt a sudden wish to comfort her, to enfold her in his embrace and promise that he would never take advantage of that promise or her in any way. Another man had loved her truly and loved her first, and William knew he must always respect that.