Page 49 of Charming Artemis

“Only when arriving from a rooftop.” Even the vicarly brother was participating in the teasing.

How could Charlie not enjoy this? Her family had been weighed down by death and poverty for so long that they struggled for these kinds of moments. Linus was better at it than the rest of them. Artemis tried her best, but her heavy heart made even her most earnest efforts more forced than natural.

Charlie did arrive in the room a moment later, looking as uncaring as his outdated and worn clothing would indicate. He was inarguably handsome. She could not understand why he didn’t even try to dress a bit neater and more flattering. There were so many valets at Lampton Park just then that he might have had all the help he wanted simply for the asking.

Was being married to her so miserable an experience that he couldn’t bring himself to look anything but... miserable? She didn’t want him to be. The Charlie who had shown her such consideration during their journey, who had been so loving to Oliver and Hestia, who had kindly listened to her painful memories of her father, deserved a measure of happiness.

The family promenaded informally into the dining room, sitting not by rank but by preference. All of Charlie’s brothers, those present at least, chose to sit by their wives. It was sweet, really. Their mother sat at the head of the table, watching them all with such fondness.

Would Artemis’s mother have felt that way seeing her children now? Artemis wanted to believe the mother she’d never known would have loved her if she’d lived. And that she would have wanted Artemis to be happy, just as the Dowager Countess must surely want Charlie to be.

A picture of unity. An impression of happiness.It really wasn’t too much to ask.

All around them, his brothers showed their wives easy and natural affection. The way it manifested varied from one couple to the next. Philip and his wife bantered. Layton and his wife smiled at each other almost ceaselessly. Lord Cavratt regularly lifted his wife’s hand to his lips for a tender kiss. Corbin and his wife had what appeared to be silent but fully understood conversations. Jason and his wife occasionally slipped into Spanish, something Jason sounded as though he’d only recently learned but spoke relatively well, no doubt having taken up the study of it specifically for her benefit. Harold and his wife exchanged glances of warm friendship and affection that no one could possibly miss or misunderstand.

Charlie mostly ignored her. She tried to keep up the pretense of ease and contentment between them. Perhaps he was simply too accustomed to being a single gentleman amongst his married siblings. Perhaps it was too easy to forget the role he was now meant to play.

The gentlemen did not remain behind after the meal but chose to forgo their port in favor of remaining in the ladies’ company. They walked in a convivial clump, all grins and laughter. Artemis liked being among this family. They were joyous. Being with Charlie’s brothers was good for him, no matter that he took a little exception to their teasing. Even with that, he was more content here than he’d been at Brier Hill. If ever there was a chance for something positive between the two of them, it was now. Here. Among his family.

“Fight for it,” Persephone had said. Artemis would do what she could.

“Philip has proposed parlor games,” Lady Lampton said. “As he will be impossible if he does not get his way, I suggest we indulge him.”

“What game?” Lord Cavratt asked.

“Snap dragon?” Philip suggested.

“No.” The dowager quickly put paid to that suggestion. “You and Layton always get carried away, and someone ends the night injured.”

“Perhaps when we were eight,” the second-oldest son objected.

“Twenty-eight,” their mother returned.

Teasing was nearly universal, at that.

“What about questions and commands?” Lady Marion suggested.

“Provided the forfeit is not something terribly embarrassing,” Clara, the most reserved of the sisters-in-law, said. “Or the questions or tasks.”

Philip tossed her a look of empathy. “None of us will embarrass you. My word of honor. Your husband, on the other hand, is fair game.”

“I have a suggestion for the forfeit,” Mariposa said. “If the question or command is made between a couple, the forfeit will be a kiss.”

A chorus of agreement filled the room.

“And if not a couple?” one of the brothers asked.

“A heart-felt compliment from the one refusing,” Lady Marion said. “I daresay we will enjoy watching you brothers struggle to say something kind to each other.”

Quick as that, names were scrawled on bits of paper and tossed into an obliging hat, and the game began.

The Jonquil family were genuinely hilarious. Their questions ranged from confessions of childhood misdeeds for which one brother had blamed another to social missteps made in adulthood. The commands involved everything from sneaking into the kitchen to nip off with a biscuit to requiring the vicar, of all people, to climb the bannister of the grand staircase, which he did with both ease and finesse.

What an utterly fascinating family. And she had a chance to be part of it, to be one of them. If only she could find a means of carving out a place for herself.

Fight for it.

Her name was pulled from the hat as the next person to require either a question or a command. Here was an opportunity to prove herself a welcome and fitting addition. The person to whom she would direct her requirements was drawn next.

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