Wish me joy, Rupert,

Your affectionate brother

Justin

‘So,’ Rupert said, looking up from the letter at last, ‘my brother is to be married. I’m glad. I’d given up hope of him ever asking poor Kitty. I think they’ll do very well together.’

There was no sign of sadness or disappointment at the news, so Parker thought that perhaps Miss Kitty’s affection for Mr Rupert had been one-sided after all.

Rupert opened the other letters and read them through. They told him little more of what was going on at home, though Fran’s comments about Kitty and the wedding shed a bit more light on the matter.

Kitty seems happy enough with the arrangement and clearly it is a very suitable marriage. I’m to be bridesmaid! Can you imagine me in a new silk gown and an elegant hat?

Mama has sent for a dressmaker from Bristol to fabricate the frills and furbelows, so she and I shall be the height of fashion. What will you wear as best man, I wonder? No doubt Mama will decide for you when you get home.

We miss you, Rupert. Well, I do, anyway. It’s no fun getting into scrapes without you.

Papa has not been well lately and Mama is relying on me more and more about household matters. They’re suddenly older, Rupert. Don’t leave it too long before you come home again.

Your loving sister, Fran

Rupert turned to Parker. ‘How were my parents, Parker? Did you find them well?’

‘Well enough, sir, though I thought Sir Philip a little aged since I saw him last. Your mother seemed much as always, but that is how she presents herself to the world.’

‘You mean you never know quite what is in her mind? Well, neither do I.’

Rupert folded the letters back into their envelopes. ‘It’s time we were in bed,’ he said. ‘You must be tired after your journey and I shall do very well by myself tonight, but I shall want you first thing in the morning.’

Later, as he lay in bed, Rupert considered the news Parker had brought with him. Justin marrying Kitty at last. Well, that was good, wasn’t it? There had been a time when he and Kitty had wanted their friendship to progress further, but they both knew that Sir James would want a better match for his only child. The younger son of a baronet, however well-bred, would not do, especially as there was an extremely eligible elder son in the same family, the son who would inherit the estate which marched with his own. Rupert had remained fond of Kitty, but he had walked away from Pilgrim’s Oak to travel the world, leaving Kitty behind in Somerset.

Now, with Hélène filling his mind, he knew that what he had felt for Kitty was a pale shadow of his feelings for Hélène. It had happened so quickly, completely out of the blue, but despite the speed of his headlong fall into love, he had never felt more sure of anything in his life. Tomorrow he would go to Emile St Clair and ask for permission to address her. He longed to claim her before the world, but he also recognised that she hardly knew him and was very young to be committing herself to any man, let alone one so recently encountered. He remembered how she had confided in him, how she had responded to his kindness, how she had blushed when he paid her a compliment, most of all how she had felt in his arms as they had danced. None of these things necessarily indicated that she felt anything out of the ordinary for him, but he could always hope that, in time, she might come to feel about him as he felt about her – that they should spend the rest of their lives together.