Page 66 of No Ordinary Lady

“I just wanted it to be us again.”

“They didn’t like being dismissed,” Granny warned.

“I know, but I am no longer concerned with how the Wilsons feel about what I do like I originally was when I came home.”

Granny studied him and then chortled with laughter. “Music to my ears, lad. I only wish your mother had been here to see how fast you showed them to the door. Wilson has always been insufferable.”

“I’m glad she wasn’t here, actually. She’ll be disappointed in me again, no doubt,” he confided.

“There is nothing new in that, though, is there?”

“No, I suppose not.” He took a sip of sherry and decided he needed something stronger. He returned to the sideboard and filled a glass with whiskey instead. The burn down his throat was good and reminded him of all the things he’d missed in London. Being true to himself and his own nature most of all. He’d forgotten how vital that was to his sense of self-worth when he came home. He loosened his cravat and then threw off his coat, too.

He returned to sit down again and undid a few buttons on his waistcoat, too. “I had hoped the years away would have softened her toward me.”

“She loves you. Loves us both, but it’s not easy for her to show it. Never has been. She’s not at all like the pair of us. If not for the promise ring when she was younger, I think your mother and father might have circled each other for forever, never saying what was in their hearts.”

Granny held up the ring, and then offered it to him.

This ring had caused him so much anxiety. “I’ve always felt I couldn’t propose to a woman without it.”

“Why, because of your father?”

“No, because of mother, actually.” He held up the ring before his eyes. “It’s rather plain and not at all the prettiest ring in existence, but it’s true. Given with love and received with the same. Father could have given her riches to wear beyond her wildest dreams, but this was enough for mama. A secondhand ring that had once graced your finger. Mother stopped wearing it the day papa died.”

“Yes. Her heart was broken. She begged me to take it back to make the pain go away.”

“Did it help?”

“You cannot forget the one you love just by giving up a bit of jewelry. The sentiment remains long after the one you love is gone. When your father asked to give her this ring, the ring my Edmund had given me, it was with my blessing. He was a good man, your father. A bit like this ring, too. Not much to look at, but of vast sentimental value. He committed himself fully to your mother despite the difficulties her past presented him with.”

“That is what I intended to do,” he promised.

Marian had become important to him, perhaps the most important person in his entire life, and he could only imagine offering it to her.

He turned to look at Granny again. “Those stories you told about Marian. Was there any truth to them?”

“There might be. I sensed a distinct familiarity the moment I saw her crouched outside the window of the drawing room, staring up at you as if you were everything she ever wanted and couldn’t have. That impression has only grown stronger since she agreed to stay.”

Daniel nodded, fighting a blush over Granny’s description of Marian at the window. “So, based on your impressions of her, you believe you know her family.”

“Oh, yes. I knew them very well indeed,” Granny insisted. “Why, her grandmother and I were the best of friends for nearly twenty years.”

Daniel gaped, shocked to his toes that Granny had kept that nugget of news to herself all this time. “Tell me about her family.”

“Well, there’s so much to say. Her grandfather owned a shop and bought and sold trinkets and such to anyone who came to call. A very enterprising old rogue. His son, I hate to say, was only fortunate in his looks, not his business acumen. If I recall correctly, the business was struggling when I left Portishead to come here when your father died.”

“What happened to him? The wife too? You believe those were her parents?”

“I don’t rightly know if they were or not, or what happened to them. I think I heard his wife died soon after a stillbirth, and I think his affairs went downhill soon after that,” Granny said with a sad shake of her head. “I could write to the friends I still have there and make inquiries about her inheritance, if you like.”

“Her inheritance?”

“The family was once very wealthy and may still have some money set aside for Marian’s dowry,” Granny confided. “I should inquire, because it will be useful to have it confirmed for when we go to London next year.”

“You don’t need to go to London.”

“Oh, yes, we do. Since Marian and Gabby got along so well, I don’t see why they couldn’t experience the season together, under your mother’s supervision, of course. It can be a competitive sphere and they’ll need a good friend they can rely upon not to steal the other’s beau and share secrets with. I should think they would support each other through almost anything.”