The caravan that pulled up in front of Heyrick House the next evening was a sight to behold. Alison and Declan had been delayed due to the birth of a calf, and they had met the Heywoods on the road into Sanditon. Arthur and Georgiana were waiting to see them drive through town so that they could say hello, and they had moved Georgiana's carriage into line after the Heywood carriage, the wagon full of Heywood children, and the Frasers' wagon.
When they reached the front door, the numbers that piled out of all conveyances and into the house had Eva Wheatley running from room to room, making sure that the company was well-accommodated and had all that they needed.
The sun was just setting, and it was a lovely evening, so the family gathered in the garden. Drew wanted Augusta to show Copper to him and to get a tour around the stables, so Charlotte's parents went along as chaperones, tired though they were from the journey. Joseph was as interested as Drew in the horses and Ruth enjoyed having the chance to spend more time with Augusta.
After the last of the sun's rays disappeared, all went inside to the long dining table, where Mrs. Wheatley had set out a feast of cold meats, cheeses, apples, fresh bread and butter and fruit pies right from the oven.
Of course, Leonora had to immediately take Meggie, Sally and Sam up to her room to display her collection of soldiers and to introduce them to Turk, who was beside himself with excitement with so many new visitors to greet.
Charlotte and Alexander were the recipients of a multitude of hugs and so much goodwill for their wedding in less than three days that they hardly had space to turn around. The joy in the house was indescribable, and there were children poking their heads into every room and exploring each corner of the great old house playing hide-and-seek.
The East Wing of Heyrick House, so long silent and still, was given over to the Heywood clan, which also included Alison and Declan, and Catherine's Ralph, bunking in with Drew. An unusual decision was made to have Charlotte also stay there with her family until the wedding, as she could not bear to go to Georgiana's every night with everyone she loved so dearly staying at Heyrick House. She and Catherine were sharing a room and were destined to stay up most of the nights talking with Alison.
Joseph and Ruth Heywood had been given the honor of Abigail Colbourne's room, and they felt they had stepped into another life. It was not a life they could see themselves living in the long-term, as in truth, they missed their cotton quilts and well-worn furniture – but for three days and nights, they felt like a Lord and a Lady, and they were reveling in it.
Alexander and Samuel and the girls were in their rooms in the West Wing, well separated from the Heywoods, so there was nothing untoward about Charlotte living under the same roof, but it did make the soon-to-be-married couple take in a deep breath now and then. The idea that Charlotte would simply move from one bedroom to another after the wedding made it all seem exceedingly real and immediate.
"Three days, Charlotte," Alison said, lying back on the pillows of the huge four-poster bed that would be Charlotte and Catherine's. She was four months pregnant, just barely showing beneath her cotton nightdress. "Three days and you will be Mrs. Charlotte Colbourne. Could you ever have imagined it all those months ago when we were chasing after the soldiers at the Army camp?"
"We?" Charlotte said, laughing. "I seem to recall that I was merely along for the ride, and you were the one so enamored of the men in red."
Alison smirked, "Well, whoever was behind it, I got my man in red." She laughed softly, "Not in red any longer, unless they are long wool undergarments," she said, blushing.
"Alison!" Charlotte said, trying to erase the picture of Declan Fraser that was brought to mind. "You simply say whatever comes into your head. You always have," she said with great affection.
"What is it like being married, Alison?" asked Catherine, a little breathlessly. "Is it everything you dreamed?"
Alison sighed and smiled. "It is nothing that I expected, and more than I could have hoped for," she said. "The farm is hard, and we work from sunup to sundown, but it is good work, and it is building something that we will have for our children and their children." She smiled and closed her eyes, "And then, every night, I get to climb into bed next to Declan and that feeling is beyond description…"
Both Charlotte and Catherine sat wide-eyed, awaiting her next words. Alison opened her eyes and raised her eyebrow. "And not just what you are thinking, which is very nice indeed, but most of all, the warm closeness of it, of holding each other and talking about the day, about the improvements we are making to the house, building on the nursery, how the animals are faring, and the sunset we just witnessed." Her hands went naturally to her stomach and held there. "Declan is most surely the love of my life, but he is also my friend. My best friend."
Catherine nodded. "That is how I feel about Ralph," she said softly. "We talk of everything and anything, and are in such accord about what we hope for the future." She turned to Charlotte and asked, "Is that how it is with you and Alexander?"
Charlotte smiled and nodded back. "Absolutely the same," she said, her eyes glistening. "I spend every waking minute wondering what I could possibly have done to deserve him."
"Yes!" her sisters said in unison.
Alison sighed. "And speaking of my husband, I should be getting back to our room." She made a face. "If I can find it!" She stood up, laughing. "Charlotte, do you even know how many rooms there are in this house?"
Grimacing, Charlotte said, "Sadly, I do not. Yet. But I will make a point of counting and memorizing locations once I am lady of Heyrick House." She put her head in her hands. "I still cannot believe I will be calling myself that."
"In less than three days!" Catherine said.
Charlotte laughed. "Which means we all will need our sleep. I will walk you out and to your room, Alison." She turned to Catherine. "I will be back after I say goodnight to Alexander."
Catherine raised an eyebrow. "In two hours, most likely…"
Affecting a shocked face, Charlotte said, "Not that long!" She tilted her head at her sister. "With whom have you been talking?"
"Augusta!" Catherine said, laughing. "She tells us that the servants make bets on how long it will take for you to get into the carriage at night."
"No privacy!" Charlotte said, shaking her head. "I will not be long," she said, narrowing her eyes at Catherine and walking out with Alison.
Catherine laughed. "I will not wait up."
Ruth Heywood was having a very difficult time staying out of the kitchen. Once Mrs. Wheatley had shooed her out five times, she finally began giving her jobs to do, and their laughter could be heard all through the house. Ruth could not get over the size of the kitchen and the number of people it could feed, and the two women were exchanging recipes for everything from Yorkshire pudding and baked plums to hearty stews and savory breads. Both Ruth and Eva favored what they called simple and honest English food over the imports from the French, though Mrs. Wheatley had begun using saffron in her stews, imported from the East.
"Why on earth you would want to spend your time in a kitchen with the number of mouths you daily have to feed is beyond me," Eva said, as she passed Ruth another bowl of potatoes needing peeling.
"Ah, it is not the cooking that plagues me. It is the choosing, the buying, the planning of meals, deciding how much of what will be needed to feed all those mouths. You are doing all the hardest work, and I simply am able to enjoy helping to make it happen," Ruth said, happily donning her apron. "I think a woman's kitchen tells a great deal about who she is. And yours, Eva, is a fine kitchen." She nodded at the older woman and smiled.
"And I am very pleased to have not only your help, but your company, Ruth," Eva said. "Work always fares better and faster when the conversation is good." Eva turned to the boy she had hired from town to help in the kitchen until the wedding. "Will, if you please, begin bringing in the sacks of flour, and the honey jars. Also, we will need thirty-eight eggs from the basement ice-box, and mind you carry them carefully up the stairs!" She put her hands on her hips grandly and smiled broadly at Ruth. "We are setting out to create a cake."
Eva went to a locked cabinet and reached down for the mass of keys she kept hanging from her brooch. Putting one into the lock, she opened it and looked back at Ruth. "We very seldom drink in this house, but a wedding cake requires it…" She proceeded to pull out bottles of brandy and rum and placed them gently on the wooden table.
In keeping with this being a very traditional wedding cake, it would resemble nothing so much as a fruit cake, made with liberal amounts of strong spirits. With all the alcohol soaked through the enormous single layer made from flour, butter, eggs, nutmeg, currants, almonds, candied orange and lemon – the cake could last a very long time, and pieces could be sent home with family and friends.
Usually a large loaf of raw sugar would be added, but Eva was using honey due to the sugar boycott. It changed the texture of the cake, and she and Ruth worked together to determine how much extra flour was needed to compensate. Having Ruth Heywood in the kitchen with her, after her own recent creation of Alison's wedding cake, was a wonderful added benefit of the early arrival of Charlotte's family.
The traditional almond icing for the cake was also a challenge, as the honey wanted to take down the peaks of the egg whites that both women had worked for so long to beat into a frothy topping. Once they had managed it, they put the large cake into the oven to brown the top and it was done. The icing would harden, which would give it even more longevity for the long rides home with wedding guests.
In two days, it would sit proudly in the center of the table, surrounded by freshly picked cornflowers, and Ruth and Eva would nearly be bursting with the accomplishment.
The last wedding cake Eva had constructed had been when she was a young woman as an assistant in the Colbourne kitchen, for Jonathan and Abigail's wedding. It was one of the last happy affairs she could remember at Heyrick House, as once Alexander was born less than a year later, Jonathan began to complain of his wife's "obsession" with the child. He had begun imbibing brandy very early in the day, and after a highly embarrassing evening when he had roundly insulted each person at the table, including Lady Denham and her then-husband, it was understandable that Abigail had not been in a hurry to entertain again.
One by one, the employees in the house had left, saying that the abuse heaped on them by the Master could not justify any amount of pay. Eva stayed and became Head Cook, as she could not desert the boys, and also, she knew that her life would be much harder outside the walls of the house because of the color of her skin.
So this cake, and the happiness of the house during these days, were balm to Eva's broken heart — the heart she had nursed through so many years of suffering, pain, and silence. Losing Abigail, who was one of the kindest people Eva had ever known, had struck her to her core. Only she knew what she had whispered over Abigail's coffin in the viewing room, when she had snuck in late at night so as not to be seen. I promise you I will never leave your boys. I will watch over them as you would, until my dying day.
Xander's happiness and his return to his true self in the glow of Charlotte's love had answered the prayers that Eva had been saying every morning for more years than she could count. She had hoped for the best with Lucy Montrose, but in truth, she felt them badly mismatched. Lucy had controlled all aspects of the courtship, engagement, and wedding, and had convinced Xander that a man's duty was not to have a say in such things, but simply to squire a lady to parties and balls. And during the few visits that Lucy made to Heyrick Park, she had treated Eva in a way that none other than Jonathan Colbourne ever had – as if she were a slave. Never a conversation, never an acknowledgement that she might be considered a part of the family.
Eva, of course, had not seen any part of Xander's wedding to Lucy, as it was held in London with only the finest people attending. She had asked Xander about it at the time, and he tended to throw his hands up, saying that Lucy was handling all of it, and that she had told him simply to be there to say "I will."
So Eva had enjoyed immensely the discussions around the dinner table of late, during which the entire family talked of how Samuel would be Xander's groomsman, and that Georgiana would act as Charlotte's bridesmaid – with so many sisters, it was impossible for Charlotte to choose just one, and so the Heywood girls had agreed that this was the best solution. Augusta and Leonora talked endlessly of their dresses and of when they would go out on the grounds to pick enough cornflowers not only for the cake and as decorations on the large table for food, but also for Charlotte's bouquet and for the petals they would scatter down the aisle.
Xander had commissioned seamstresses in town to construct lovely robin's egg blue dresses for both of the girls, in addition to Charlotte's white empire dress with small blue cornflowers embroidered from the waist down the length of the skirt, lightly at the top and becoming thicker at the bottom, as if they were falling softly into piles of cornflowers at the hem. Xander had readily agreed to wearing a deep blue waistcoat to please Charlotte – in truth, there was little he would not accede to if it would make her happy.
Charlotte, Georgiana, Augusta and Leonora would wear simple crowns of woven wildflowers, and Charlotte would wear her hair down, in keeping with the outdoor ceremony and the country feel of the entirety of the proceedings.
In short, their wedding would reflect the couple themselves – their love for each other and the land, their love of family and friends, and it would be as unpretentious and unassuming as Charlotte and Alexander were in their happiest moments.
It was surprising how fully and easily the Heywood family was folded into life at Heyrick Park. At any given time during the days leading up to the wedding, the older children could be found helping the younger ones either with the horses in the stables, or climbing Leonora's favorite trees, and even assisting the groundsmen with preparations for the big day in setting up chairs out by the pond. It was all new to them, and so it was all play.
After a request from Augusta, Alexander had quickly and generously agreed to open up the closets with Lucy's dresses for the older girls to choose day dresses for the wedding. Meggie and Sally would share in Leonora's closet, which was already full to the brim of dresses that Alexander had commissioned in London, and she was all too happy to share. The large table in the schoolroom became the location for a sewing circle of sorts, as hems were raised or lowered and bodices taken in or let out.
"You do not mind?" Charlotte asked Alexander.
He had put his arm around her and pulled her close. "I am of a mind to take every painful memory I have and transform it into a happy one." He smiled as yet another of Lucy's dresses was modeled by Alice Heywood. "Why should her clothes hang unused and preserved as if in a museum? They should be worn, and new memories made with them."
Charlotte moved closer under his arm. "Have I told you today how much I love you?" she said softly.
Alexander kissed her forehead and nuzzled into her hair. "Only twice. Not nearly enough."
She smiled up at him. "Would you care to take a turn around the grounds so that I might tell you again?" she said, raising an eyebrow.
"I should like that very much," he said softly. "But the grounds are currently filled with Heywoods, are they not? It might be difficult to find a bit of solitude."
Charlotte laughed. "Well, there are certainly a lot of Heywoods." She took his hand and led him toward the kitchen. "But perhaps Hannibal and Cass can help us find one acre out of a thousand that is still empty?"
Alexander nodded. "You will recall that I know all the best hiding places…"
As they walked through the kitchen, Eva looked up, for once alone as Ruth was helping with the sewing. She raised an eyebrow. "Charlotte. Xander," she said, with a knowing smile.
"We are going for a short ride," Alexander said, taking a half-loaf of bread, a square of cheese and some ripe peaches and wrapping them in a large linen napkin.
Not in the least fooled, Eva asked, "Without a chaperone, I assume?" She set her mouth. "We are no longer alone here, Xander, and some rules must be followed for propriety, do you not agree?"
Alexander walked to her and kissed her on the forehead playfully. "If we have managed to survive through the time up until now, Eva, you may certainly trust us for the last two days. I will get the horses and meet Charlotte in the woods so we cause no gossip."
Eva smiled and shook her head. "What with Ralph and Catherine, and Augusta and her young Drew, keeping an eye on the unmarried couples the last few days has been somewhat akin to herding cats," Eva muttered.
"You should have no worries with us…" Alexander started, then he turned back. "Wait, what of Augusta and Drew?" he suddenly said, his face a mask of confusion.
Eva laughed and looked at Charlotte. "Ah, now the bridegroom takes notice," she said, going back to kneading her bread.
Charlotte put her arm through Alexander's. "Well, he has been understandably distracted…" she said, looking up at him and leading him out the door. "I shall tell you on our ride, my love."
Alexander managed to saddle and lead out Cass and Hannibal without the notice of anyone but one of the stable boys, who was too busy mucking out stalls to care. He met Charlotte under the trees where they had kissed that day so long ago, and it took all of his willpower not to do it again — but for now they had been undiscovered and they needed to get on their way.
They heard children in the trees and rode quietly and swiftly until they reached the edge of the property that ended at a spot in the cliffs that could take them down to the beach. Then they let go, riding like the wind and laughing together as the salt spray flew into their faces and the horse's hooves kicked up the sand and water.
Breathless, they finally stopped and found a cove that was protected from the wind but still had a beautiful aspect of the sea. "No one will find us here," Alexander said, as they loosely tethered the horses to an outcropping branch. He laid down the blanket on the sand after pulling their small picnic from his saddlebag.
Charlotte's hair was completely disheveled, and she strove to make some sense of it until Alexander took hold of her fingers and held them gently.
"No, please leave it," he said softly. "You have never looked more beautiful."
He pushed back a lock of her hair that was covering her mouth and let his lips find hers. The exhilaration of the ride had put a chill on their cheeks, and they were quickly warmed by the touch of the other's skin and their deepening kiss. They could taste the salt air and the sea, and their fingers threaded tenderly through curls that had been dampened by the spray of the waves.
As they fell together into that world that only they knew, they moved closer and pulled each other more tightly, their breath quickening. Without thinking, Alexander's thumb moved from Charlotte's neck, then just lower to the hollow of her throat, and he stopped suddenly. Both knew it would be so easy to simply lie back on the blanket and feel the length of the other pressing close, but they were so near to finally being married, so near to being able to lie not on a blanket in hiding, but in Alexander's large bed as a married couple — and both pulled away at the same time.
As Alexander had said just now in the kitchen, they had lasted this long — and both wanted nothing more than to do this as it should be done, to be truly each other's for the rest of time, declared in front of all those they loved and under the grace of God. After what had felt like such a long time, of course they could wait two days and one night.
Leaning up against a rock in the small cove, Alexander pulled Charlotte under his arm as they both watched the sea and caught their breath. After a few minutes, he pulled out the food he had brought and gave Charlotte a piece of the bread and broke off a chunk of the cheese. "So, tell me of Augusta and Drew. And pray convince me how she is not too young to be having such thoughts."
"Augusta will be nineteen this winter, and Alison was twenty when she married," Charlotte said. "And there are those who feared spinsterhood was my only future at three and twenty." She looked up at him. "At what age did you marry Lucy?"
"Nineteen," Alexander said. Then ruefully, "And do keep in mind how that turned out."
"That is a fair point, but if I may, would you not say that Augusta has been matured by circumstances more than Lucy might have been?"
Alexander nodded. "Most definitely, that is true. I sometimes feel Augusta is older than I am."
Charlotte laughed. "And I. Her mind is enviable, and for her to have remained as sweet as she is, and as compassionate, and loving, after all she has been through, is quite remarkable."
Pulling Charlotte closer, Alexander said, "And as you know all too well, she was not always so. Eva has told me of her cruelty to you when you first began as governess. Though I am certain you know that she was only testing you. So many had come and gone."
"She needed to know that I would stay before she invested her heart in another adult who might leave her. I remember saying to Eva that I did not want to punish Augusta, I wanted to understand her. When I acted from that position, and from love, she was able to give her heart again."
"I only recall thinking that you were a miracle worker," Alexander said softly. "When she came downstairs dressed for the Garden Party, she took my breath away. So grown up, and wearing the dress I had last seen on Lucy." Alexander thought for a moment, and then turned to Charlotte. "I will endeavor to express this correctly, but please allow that I cannot always say exactly what I feel."
"I will listen until you are satisfied, then."
"I had seen that blue dress on Lucy at a ball in London once, and I remember thinking that she looked very nice, but nothing else. When I saw it on Augusta, I was aware of the difference between the beauty of a woman with little substance, as Lucy was, versus that of Augusta, who brings spirit and intelligence and a depth of thought to her beauty. In that moment, I understood what you had tried to impress upon me about what qualifies a woman as marriageable. Not meek submission, nor simply outward grace and beauty, but a lively intellect and that spark that only a confident mind can bring."
"Yes!" Charlotte said, tears glistening in her eyes. "Yes, that is exactly what I meant. And I am so grateful that you had an open mind to listen because I, too, wonder sometimes at my ability to make myself understood." She leaned up and kissed his cheek. "When I first saw you at the party, I felt something entirely new. My heart was racing at the sight of the two of you, so elegant – Augusta so beautiful and you, so very handsome."
Alexander smoothed her hair, gazing at her. "You must have seen how I stared at you. I kept telling myself to pull my eyes away, but I could not." He kissed her lips, gently, quickly. "I thought you the most beautiful woman I had ever seen."
Charlotte laughed softly. "You should have heard Georgiana. She asked who you were and I told her. To which she replied, 'That is Mr. Colbourne?' I had yet to describe you to her, in large part because I did not trust myself to be calm and clinical about it. She looked at me as if she knew exactly why I had never mentioned your deep brown eyes," Charlotte touched the space between Alexander's brow and his eyelid gently, and then proceeded to touch each part in turn as she spoke, "Your full lips, your strong jaw, the way one single curl persists in separating from the rest and falling over your forehead, here…" She nuzzled her nose into his neck, "And the intoxicating scent of sandalwood that I noticed from my very first day of work, walking behind you through the hallway to the schoolroom." She looked up at him. "Brace myself, indeed. I assure you, I was attempting to."
Smiling, Alexander said, "So Georgiana thought me a middle-aged, pot-bellied, bald man who smelled of pine tar and camphor oil, did she?"
Laughing, Charlotte said, "I doubt that, but she assuredly did not expect to see you across the way at the party."
Alexander shook his head lightly. "What a day that was. My first foray into society in a decade and I was not only contending with my nearly overwhelming attraction to you, but also with Lennox and his barbs."
"What barbs?" Charlotte asked. "The archery contest, you mean?"
Taking a deep breath, Alexander said, "Yes, that, but he also mentioned Lucy in asides to me more than once. When he caught Augusta, he said it was like having Lucy in his arms again, and when he made a show of a handshake after the contest, he said that all was fair in love and war and he had enjoyed both, while I had had neither." Charlotte could see Alexander's jaw clench at the memory, and she put her hand softly on his cheek to soothe him.
"He is a vile man." She frowned and looked into his eyes. "So he spent the entire day throwing poisoned arrows at you." She tilted her head and gazed at him. "It is no wonder that you finally lost your temper. And you had not yet told me about Lucy, so you could not let me know why the day had been so difficult." She put her arms around his waist and hugged him closer. "I am so sorry."
"You could not have known," he said, holding her tightly. "And I already knew that ordering you about was not going to achieve the desired result. As I said, it was a sort of madness in me." Alexander sighed. "He no longer holds power over me. I hope you know that. I can be upset by it, but it will never take hold of me the way it did."
"It is behind us," Charlotte said softly.
"Perhaps," Alexander said, thoughtfully. "I cannot shake the feeling that we are not finished with Lennox yet. Now he is enmeshed in Georgiana's story as well."
"Not today, my love," she said, pressing her lips against his neck. "Not today, nor tomorrow. For tomorrow is our wedding day, and nothing will be able to penetrate the love that will surround us. Not even Francis Lennox."
Samuel was surprised to find that Sanditon had no barrister, and of course it began a sequence of possibilities in his head. He had gone into town assuming there would be an office that he could visit, and ended up at Arthur's door, which led to a long discussion with Tom Parker about what a boon it would be to the town to have its own advocate. And once Tom got hold of an idea to further Sanditon's popularity, he was not likely to let it go.
Finally, Samuel had been rescued by Arthur, who needed to check in at the Royal, as rehearsals were starting for The Merchant of Venice. Arthur had managed to bring in a stellar cast with the promise of the health of the seaside and the gentility and sophistication of its audiences. For a group of actors accustomed to the dirty streets of London and the often-drunk audiences in the pits of the city's theaters, a performance without the possibility of thrown fruit had its distinct advantages.
The two men entered the theater through the front doors and slipped into the rear seats, which were slightly shaded by the overhang of the gallery.
"I love this play," Samuel whispered. "Such a pleasure to see a lawyer being portrayed in a flattering light. I certainly would not want to face off with Portia in her robes. I continue to think that women would make fine barristers – they spend their entire lives at it, just in an effort to make their way in a man's world. It has always felt unfair to me."
"A noble sentiment, Samuel, to be sure," Arthur whispered back. "And I am in agreement. I have watched Mary over and over as she has achieved her aims with Tom, using highly-reasoned arguments and presenting evidence when necessary. She surely has all the skills of an advocate."
"The fact that Shakespeare allows a woman to plead a case so brilliantly tells me that he shared our sentiment, Arthur. It takes a very talented actress to not only play a man, but also to plead the case as a barrister would."
"And we have the best Portia there is. I happened to see Marie Branscombe's Juliet in London and there is none better."
From Portia's entrance onto the stage, Arthur and Samuel were silent, transfixed. The honey-haired beauty was not in costume as a man yet, as this was an initial rehearsal. She held the book in her hand, though she seldom referred to it, and the director managed her blocking on the stage with a wave or a word here or there, but for the most part she was entirely in character.
Marie had lowered the register of her voice to that of a man's, and her movements were less graceful and more ungainly than a woman's would be, making her performance mesmerizing. To Arthur, it was the presence of an actress he admired – to Samuel, it was something entirely different that had him spellbound. By the time Miss Branscombe reached the climax of her final speech, Samuel was fairly certain he had fallen completely in love.
The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
Arthur looked over at Samuel, in an effort to ascertain if he was still breathing. "She is lovely, is she not?" he whispered. When Samuel did not respond, Arthur gave a small laugh. "You appear to be quite smitten, young Sam. Are you quite alright?"
Samuel exhaled. "I must meet her, Arthur."
Arthur nodded and smiled. "And so you shall. At the break, I will happily introduce you."
"I wonder if she is otherwise engaged tomorrow," Samuel asked. He turned to Arthur and smiled broadly. "Perhaps she would like to attend a wedding?"
When Samuel left Arthur to his work, he walked down the main street of Sanditon in somewhat of a trance. Not only had he been introduced to Miss Marie Branscombe, she had been thrilled to learn that he was a barrister from London. She had never played Portia before and she had multiple questions about his profession.
Samuel said that he was presently required back to a rehearsal of his own, that of the wedding ceremony of his brother, for which he was acting as groomsman, but would she like to meet more of Sanditon's finest at a country estate on the morrow? Marie had said enthusiastically that she would love it, and she and Arthur determined they would arrive together at Heyrick Park the next day.
Samuel felt he was walking on air. She had the voice of an angel, and eyes bluer than he thought he had ever seen. Unlike her Portia in rehearsal, she was grace personified, and even lovelier in proximity. Best of all, she exhibited great wit and intelligence in her conversation, and had asked him more relevant questions about the practice of law than he had heard from some first-year students.
It was in this state that Samuel was met by a stranger on the street, wearing a large felt hat and a velvet jacket over a brocade waistcoat. Samuel guessed he might be one of the actors from the play, but when the stranger asked him to step into an alcove so he might talk with him, the stranger explained that he had information that could be valuable to the case of Miss Georgiana Lambe.
The man said that his name was Charles Lockhart, and he wished to sign away his rights to Miss Lambe's fortune.