Page 49 of The Icy Duke Claims a Bride

“Do you wish to find your father?” Hugh asked as they strolled away arm in arm.

He could not claim to understand his wife’s relationship with Lord Sedgehall. The mixed messages of her expressions and words left him unsure about whether she wished to speak to her father or not.

“I wish to find my sister more,” she replied briefly. “I have little to say to my father.”

“Very well.” Hugh nodded. “Then let us find your good sister.”

Their search was over within ten minutes.

“There,” Catherine pointed out as they passed a refreshments tent on the middle lawn. “She’s with that young captain in the red coat and the lady in the blue walking suit. That’s his mother, Mrs. Wadsworth.”

“You know them well?” Hugh asked, taking in the scene. “Miss Jemima certainly seems to.”

Jemima was laughing happily with the pair, her hand resting lightly on Captain Wadsworth’s arm and her eyes glimmering with true affection.

“They were at Lady Tarleton’s ball,” Catherine said with a shrug. “I didn’t really meet them, but they are friends of Jemima.”

“So I see.” Hugh smiled. “Although I don’t remember seeing them at the ball.”

“You were otherwise occupied,” Catherine snapped.

He sighed irritatedly at this inexplicable bout of ill temper. “Well then, let us both remedy our lack of acquaintance with the Wadsworths, Duchess.”

Taking Catherine’s arm firmly and brooking no protest, he steered them across the grass towards Jemima and her companions.

“Catherine!” Jemima exclaimed, immediately embracing her sister, and then after a second’s hesitation also hugging Hugh. “Hugh!”

Hugh stiffened at first but then relaxed and hugged her back. Jemima’s affection seemed always so natural and genuine that it would be hard to refuse it. He was also glad to think of her as a sister now, even if it did remind him of Rose and the sadness that would always accompany her memory.

“My sister Catherine and her husband Hugh, the Duke and Duchess of Redbridge,” Jemima announced. “These are my good friends Captain Rupert Wadsworth and his mother, Mrs. Wadsworth.”

After greetings and pleasantries had been exchanged, Jemima’s smile grew broader and more conspiratorial.

“I’m also glad to see you both here because I must give you some news. I know Father wished to speak with you at Lady Tarleton’s ball, but you left so early. Well, I shall tell you now, and you may speak to him later.”

Hugh prepared himself to congratulate the happy couple and shake the young Captain’s hand. Captain Wadsworth was looking adoringly at golden Jemima as she spoke and hanging on her every word, much to the approval of his sensible-looking mother.

He and Catherine must choose a fine wedding present for the young couple, Hugh decided. For their engagement would surely be a quick one.

He wondered whether Captain Wadsworth had any fortune to speak of, or whether they would rely on Jemima’s dowry.

After some inquiries into the Wadsworth family, Hugh decided to speak to Lord Sedgehall about this matter himself if necessary and ensure that there were no financial obstacles. By marrying off Catherine without a dowry, surely Lord Sedgehall had scraped together enough money for his youngest daughter’s dowry.

Catherine looked merely resigned to whatever was coming but was still smiling amiably. It might be that this match did not please her, but she would force herself to be happy for Jemima’s sake.

Hugh did not know what to make of his wife’s attitude. She had been inexplicably against their own marriage at the start but now willingly fulfilled all her wifely duties.

“Well, do you remember, Catherine, how often Father used to go out in the evenings just before you were married?” Jemima asked, her eyes twinkling. But there was caution in her expression, too, as if sensing that her sister might not approve of what she would say next.

Catherine shrugged a little impatiently. Hugh guessed that she was, like him, wondering what this diversion about Lord Sedgehall had to do with the main announcement.

“I certainly noticed, but I didn’t want to say anything. After the notice in theTimes,of course, I guessed what had been occupying him…” Jemima continued.

Now Hugh and Catherine both looked at one another, entirely perplexed by the direction of Jemima’s narrative. Hugh supposed that they had been too absorbed in their own affairs in recent weeks to have spotted whatever notice Jemima was referring to. After all, there were all kinds of notices published during the Season.

“But it wasn’t until Lady Tarleton’s ball that the main development came to light. Do you remember how Father vanished for so long in the refreshments room? I thought it was only Lady Tarleton’s excellent dry sherry and ham that kept him there. But then—”

“There you are, both of my girls together!” Lord Sedgehall exclaimed, having suddenly emerged from the nearby refreshments tent, his grey-haired face pink and merry with whatever he had found in there.

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