Page 91 of How to Wed a Courtesan

‘Lord Westix?’ Mrs Williams brows shot up. ‘The Earl who bought Huntly Manor some time back for...?’ She covered her mouth with her hands. ‘For the woman he loved. That was you, my girl?’

There was that lovely flush on Lottie’s cheeks again.

‘Indeed, it was,’ Evander said, stepping forward.

‘Evander,’ Lottie said, ‘this is Mrs Williams—the owner of Notions, the haberdashery.’

Mrs Williams curtseyed, and Evander inclined his head respectfully to her. ‘It’s a pleasure to meet you,’ he said.

‘The pleasure is mine, my lord.’ Mrs Williams’s chest swelled with pride. ‘Our Lottie—a countess!’

Lottie beamed at the older woman. And it was that look on his wife’s face that made Evander so glad he’d convinced her to come to Huntly Manor with such haste. In London, there were too many members of the ton eager to throw their scorn at her feet. Here, she had only ever been loved.

Mrs Williams waved over several friends, of all whom greeted Lottie with the same enthusiasm. These people were the ones with whom Lottie had been acquainted before being faced with the choices she’d been forced to make. These people knew her in her truest form—for her kind nature and for how she always thought of others before herself.

It was his hope that the affection she felt here would bolster her courage for when they returned to London, as they would eventually have to do. He wanted her to keep it in her heart that she was loved, that she was as pure and wonderful a person as there could be.

Once they had met nearly all of Mrs Williams friends—at least the ones she could pull aside with a wave of her hand, which proved to be a good number—Lottie and Evander continued on their way and placed an extravagant order at the confectioner’s.

They returned to Huntly Manor. Upon their return to their new home they found the staff settled, albeit flush-faced and breathless, and the entire manor available to explore.

‘Would you like to see your new home?’ Evander asked.

‘Oh, yes, please.’ She gave a bashful smile. ‘I loved to come here and look at this manor when I was a girl, imagining what a grand place it would be to live.’

‘Now it’s yours to make entirely your own.’ Evander offered his arm to Lottie.

‘Our own.’

She slid her hand into the crook of his elbow, but it did not remain there long. As they went room by room she ran about with unfettered delight, exclaiming at the painted ceilings, the plaster ornamentation surrounding the chandeliers, at each carved mantle and gilded sconce.

Evander had stayed at the country estate when he’d first met Lottie, borrowed from his university chum. At the time he had not appreciated its finery, seeing it as simply another aristocratic residence—a place to lay his head at night.

He experienced it now through Lottie’s eyes, and respected the grandness of the home. It made him all the more grateful for these weeks they had set aside to enjoy a quiet life in the country, without the meanness of the ton and the cruelty that Lottie would face when they eventually made their return.

All the money in London wouldn’t protect Lottie from that harshness, but in this lovely place she would at least be shielded from the vitriol.

If only for a while.

Two weeks passed swiftly. In that time Lottie had the opportunity to see nearly everyone she remembered and visit all her favourite spots—with the exception of her former house, as the vicar who lived there now was in Yorkshire, seeing to his ill father.

Even with him out of residence, Lottie could not bring herself to go to the vicarage that had been her home for so many years.

Every day she walked with Evander on that small path between Huntly Manor and the old cottage, and every day they stopped at the corner where he’d met her so many years ago. And every day, he asked if she wished to go further, towards the vicarage.

She never once hesitated as she shook her head.

Their time in the country was precious. There were no fears of running into women like Lady Cotsworth or Lady Norrick, who would greet her with kind smiles and then hurl insults at her back.

Going to the cottage where she had lived with Lily had been difficult. There was a place inside her that was still raw with the effects of that emotional day. As such, that same place inside her harboured a fear that seeing the vicarage might hurt just as badly.

On the last day of their stay at Huntly Manor, however, Lottie hesitated before declining to go further than the corner.

‘I’ll be with you,’ Evander said encouragingly.

Lottie looked at him as she vacillated over her decision. Being in the country had been as good for Evander as it had been for her. The lines on his brow had been smoothed away and there was a lightness in him that made his smiles ready and left his eyes sparkling. He looked as happy as she felt.

Did she truly want to put an end to their happy time together by seeing the old vicarage again?