Page 98 of Duchess Material

“Dad, way to be a misogynist,” Natalie scoffed.

“I have no intention to leave my post currently. We don’t yet have a wedding date or venue or anything. Winston and I both intend to keep working. I love my job.”

“Good. She needs you. I was mostly panicking. Apologies if I assumed.”

“She will thankfully still be here. She will just be Lady Lucy,” Vanna tried to smooth her husband’s bad behaviour over. Lucy still looked confused.

“Well, we shall need to know when the nuptials are scheduled so we can attend, right, Vanora?”

“Of course. How could we not attend Winston’s wedding? Our dear godson.”

“Two weddings in one year, Duchess. How should you keep up?” Lord Hewlett wondered.

“Oh, we can make it work.”

“Lucy, I haven’t seen the ring yet,” Vanna tapped the table, demanding a look.

Natalie could tell her father was losing control of the meeting as well as his mind. He wanted the wedding talk to end desperately. George’s wedding was enough of a nightmare to deal with.

Lucy offered up her left hand.

Rita said, “It was Mummy’s, as you well know.”

“Yes. Oh, it’s exquisite on you.”

The King cleared his throat. “It is lovely, Miss Chandler. Now, can we please proceed? Full agenda here.”

“Of course. I didn’t mean to disrupt it all.”

“No, of course not. It is happy news,” Robbie said. He sounded understanding for once.

Lucy nodded and focused again on work. There was something so strange about your best friend getting married. And, in Natalie’s case, both her brother and Lucy were getting married. A year ago, she had assumed they would marry each other. This year, they were marrying different people. Natalie marvelled at how fast the world turned. She wondered if the universe had new plans for her as well. Either way, she knew that Lucy and Winston would be happy. The unexpected trail worked for them. Natalie thought about whether she’d want to do this with Ed. She was open to it but had no grand plan in mind. Marriage seemed so far off. She was happy loving him for now, but maybe someday?

18

RICHARD THOMAS STEPHENS

Winston did not anticipate the news of his engagement would break before his mother made an announcement. Unfortunately, Winston’s father heard by way of the press. Lucy was still a hot commodity in the news cycle. The press caught on as Lucy accompanied Natalie to a charity summit. In the photos, the women chatted briefly while Natalie handed Lucy her handbag. Lucy tucked her blonde hair behind her ear the way she always did when she was thinking about something. The paps saw her hand, now decorated with a hell of a ring, and pounced.

The headline on Express ran, “Duchess Material?”

Ah, duchess material.

Winston’s father must have seen it and rang him. The messages continued incessantly. Winston had long divorced himself from his father’s opinions and did not care what Richard Thomas Stephens had to say. In fact, when he was twenty and Gerry was eighteen, they both elected to drop their hyphenated names of Ferguson-Stephens and go only by Ferguson, their mother’s maiden name. It wasn’t only about their father. Bernadina also primarily went by Ferguson. She was technically Sanchez Ferguson, something handed down to her by her Swiss-Mexican father. Their new names brought the siblings closer together, but angered Richard.

Gerry stopped talking to Richard. In fact, Gerry wouldn’t have invited the man to his wedding at all if Sheena’s parents hadn’t seen his invite as mandatory. Gerry referred to his father as a sperm donor. Richard had the emotional maturity of a sponge and Gerry had no tolerance for it. Winston continued to talk to his father—superficially— a couple of times a year. They were not close. However, Winston would have preferred to have broken the news to Richard before it was released. Naturally, Richard considered this a slight.

“Hi, Dad. I’m sorry I missed your calls. I was meeting with our sponsor company and—”

“Winston Keir Stephens, what on Earth were you thinking?”

“Look, I didn’t realise what happened was going to go public but, yes, I’m engaged to Lucy Chandler.”

“George’s sloppy seconds? Well, that’s if you believe the papers.”

“Please don’t refer to her as such. She will be my wife. There is nothing second-best or sloppy about her. She’s wonderful. She did date George. They broke up. She works for Natalie now. She’s worked for the family since she left uni.”

“Oh, she’s the help?”

---