Charming Artemis, page 27
Charlie was in the midst of it all, grinning as widely as Artemis had ever seen him. Even though he was not the one meant to be chasing down the other participants, he was such a favorite with the children that they seemed to be playing a separate game with him altogether. They would rush toward him, he would pretend to try to snatch them up, and they would run away giggling.
He had continued to dress with great care. Artemis was absolutely certain her husband was the handsomest of the gentlemen present and was the most enjoyable to watch. And she vowed there and then, she would make certain he always had a yellow silk waistcoat to wear, as the one he had donned that day looked quite splendid on him.
Her sisters Daphne and Athena arrived on either side of her. Both looked entirely pleased with the odd way their families were spending the afternoon.
“It is so easy to picture these brothers as children, isn’t it?” Athena said. “This was likely a very happy home.”
“Ours was not entirely miserable,” Artemis said.
Athena set an arm around her shoulders. “I wish we had made it less lonely for you.”
“I am certainly not lonely now.” She sighed dramatically, not bothering to hide her amusement.
Even Daphne, who often had struggled with Artemis’s tendency toward theatricality, smiled. “I don’t know how Adam is surviving this impromptu house party.”
Artemis didn’t know if Adam would want her to share the very personal recollections he’d shared with her. Instead of giving the answer she felt was most accurate—that Adam was grateful to be with the dowager again—she said, “Persephone is enjoying herself. That is reason enough for him to endure it all.”
“No one, though, is enjoying this as much as your husband,” Athena said not to Daphne but to Artemis. “I suspect Charlie Jonquil is destined to be the favorite uncle in more than one family.”
“He is rather remarkable, isn’t he?” Artemis said.
Daphne set her arm around Artemis’s middle. Two of her sisters stood on either side of her, hugging her, smiling with her. She’d needed this all her life but hadn’t realized until very recently that she had been pushing them away.
“Charlie is not at all the husband I pictured you choosing,” Daphne said. “I always assumed you would attach yourself to someone brooding and a little . . . ill-advised.”
“You expected me to marry Lord Byron?” she asked with a laugh.
Both sisters answered with a perfectly serious, completely unison, “Yes.”
“I suppose that’s fair,” she conceded. “Accident chose better for me than my daydreams did, I daresay.”
“Your personalities mesh well, despite how long you were at each other’s throats,” Athena said. “He lightens you. And, merciful heavens, Artemis, the way he looks at you . . . ”
What did she mean by that?
Harry had arrived mere moments earlier but in time, it seemed, to overhear his wife’s comment. “Charlie is a troublemaker. Every husband here is under pressure to make a good showing for himself so that boy doesn’t put us all to shame.” He took his wife’s hand. But before pulling her away, he said to Artemis, “Go join him. I can tell he wants you to.”
An instant later, only she and Daphne remained in their corner of the lawn.
“Harry has the right of it,” Daphne said. “Charlie is enjoying the game, but he keeps looking over here at you.”
“That is what Athena meant by ‘the way he looks at me’?”
Daphne shook her head. “I’ll let you sort that out. It’s terribly obvious to the rest of us.” She even gave Artemis a nudge toward the game. Daphne never used to be one for teasing or being unreserved, even with her family. Life had not been easy for any of the Lancasters, but they were healing from the pain of a lot of difficult years.
Artemis wove her way around the rush of people, careful not to trip over the tiniest of participants.
Charlie called out “Catch us! Catch us!” to Philip, who was the one currently blindfolded. Crispin attempted to hide behind Charlie, but Charlie slipped away. Harry and James, Artemis’s Lancaster brothers-in-law, had added whistling to the game, which led to cries of “foul” from the blindfolded earl.
A wonderful bit of chaos, just as Charlie had predicted it would be.
He spotted her approaching and smiled. She was certain he was pleased to have her nearby. Without even a moment’s hesitation, he held his hand out to her. She set her hand in his, and he threaded his fingers through hers, then lifted her hand to his lips, turning it to kiss the inside of her wrist.
From nowhere, Layton and Linus appeared, snatching Charlie and dragging him away.
“Catch Charlie,” Layton shouted to Philip. “Please! He’s being nauseating again.”
“I am so grateful to be blindfolded right now,” Philip answered.
Laughter rang out from all around them.
Alice, one of the Jonquil granddaughters, snagged hold of Charlie’s leg and began tugging, clearly meaning to free him. Stanley scooped her up and said something that seemed to put her concerns to rest.
It was such a joyous gathering. How often she’d imagined being part of Papa’s family. And now she was.
Embracing the absurdity of it all, she assumed her goddess demeanor and moved with regal bearing directly to where they held Charlie as a friendly hostage.
She looked down her nose at Layton, Linus, Stanley, and James, all of whom were acting as Charlie’s prison guards.
“I am Artemis,” she declared with every ounce of drama at her very experienced fingertips. “Goddess of the hunt. Killer of men. Release him, or I will smite every last one of you.”
Alice watched her with wide eyes. Artemis winked at her and received an immediate smile in return.
“You are saving Uncle Charming?” Alice asked.
“I am.” She looked to him.
Charlie watched her with amusement but something else as well. Something warm and heart-fluttering.
His captors released him with laughs and bits of teasing. Layton paused long enough to slap Charlie on the shoulder and suggest he “make good on his debt to his wife with all possible haste.”
Charlie sauntered to her, not embarrassed, not laughing. The warmth in his look had turned to unmistakable heat. She didn’t look away.
His arm slid around her and pulled her flush with him. His gaze held hers across the ever-decreasing space between them.
“You’ve saved me, Artie,” he whispered, standing so close his breath tiptoed over her lips. “How can I ever repay you?”
“You’re a mathematician,” she answered. “You’ll find a solution.”
“I’m also a Jonquil, and we tend to bungle these things.”
She hooked her arms around his neck, finding she didn’t overly care about the game continuing on around them or the mussing it would cause to his collar and cravat. She wanted nothing more than for Charlie to hold her, to keep looking at her the way he was, to feel his breath dancing on her lips.
“Catch us! Catch us!” Harold called out as he passed.
Artemis removed one arm from her embrace and pointed at him. “Smite,” she warned.
He laughed.
“Excellently well done, dear.” Charlie spun her about with his arms firmly around her waist.
She giggled as he turned in circles. He brought a lightness to the somber Oliver, and he brought such joy to her. The Jonquils worked that magic on all around them.
But Charlie was special. He didn’t merely entertain whomever happened to be nearby. He saw her and noticed her. He’d not been fooled by the well-honed mask she’d worn since before she’d met him. He’d seen her behind her shield and had refused to be satisfied with the role she played.
She kept her arms around his neck. “Thank you, Charlie.”
His grin was filled with laughter. “For what, Artie?”
“For seeing me.”
“You are very difficult to miss, my dear.”
Caroline pulled him away in the very next instant. That happened all the time at Lampton Park. Though he’d struggled to see it during that long-ago house party, his family’s love for him and need for him was obvious to anyone willing to look. She loved being there, surrounded by siblings and siblings-in-law and nieces and nephews. But for the first time since leaving Brier Hill and the unhappiness they’d experienced there, Artemis found herself anxious to return.
The house would feel different now.
It would, she was all but certain, feel like home.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Charlie watched Artemis wind her way around the back gardens a few days after her family’s arrival. She laughed with her sisters, an expression of genuine happiness. The sun set her golden curls aglow. Her smile was as soft and as natural as he’d ever seen it. She was happy, and that did his heart good.
The Lancaster ladies reached the terrace door where he stood, and greeted him in turn. Artemis’s family had begun to feel like his family as well these last days. He felt welcome among them, wanted and needed.
“I know having so many people here is a bit chaotic,” Artemis said. “I’m so grateful Philip and Sorrel have permitted it.”
He shook his head. “This house has always been at its most joyful when things were a bit boisterous.”
She took his hand and walked with him into the house. “I’ve spent so much of my life trying to convince myself that I didn’t need to have family around that I didn’t realize how untrue that actually was.”
“And I have assumed for a long time that my family didn’t want me around,” he said. “I am beginning to suspect that is not true.”
She smiled up at him. “Oh, Charlie, they love having you here. Even the least observant person in all the world would notice that.”
“There are a few members of this vast and complicated family who are actively requesting your company at the moment,” Charlie said. “I’ve been sent to fetch you.”
“Who is asking for me?” she pressed.
“I believe I will keep that a surprise.”
She laughed lightly. “You do that a lot, you know: keep me in suspense.”
“Are you lodging a complaint?”
She bumped him with her shoulder. “Not in the least.”
He took her to the library. Her brothers-in-law and Linus were inside, as were Philip and Mr. Layton.
Artemis eyed them all with obvious curiosity. “This is an unexpected gathering.”
“One I arrived for on time,” Philip said. “The same cannot be said for Mr. Layton. That, I believe, makes me the king of the day.”
“Mr. Layton has always been the king,” Adam said, sitting in a nearby chair with his usual air of irascibility and a well-hidden inkling of amusement. The duke was not one to be crossed or taken lightly, but Charlie was coming to know him better and wasn’t nearly as afraid of him as he’d once been.
“Do find a comfortable seat, Artemis,” Mr. Layton said. “I have my doubts the Odd Earl will cease his dramatics long enough to invite you to do so.”
Philip assumed a very solemn expression. “Brother Adam would not recognize me if I ceased the ‘dramatics.’”
“Stop calling me that,” Adam muttered.
“I cannot call you Brother Bob.” Philip never had been one to let an opportunity for a jest slip by unseized.
“Best take up your business, Charlie,” Linus said, “before these two resort to fisticuffs again.”
“We cannot begin until Rose arrives.”
That brought Artemis’s eyes to him once more. “Rose is joining us?”
Charlie nodded. “Along with Wilson.”
He could see the interest growing in her expression. But Rose and her uncle arrived before Artemis could pose a single question. The two women sat together on a sofa, both eyeing the gathering with interest and confusion.
Wilson, who was privy to the reason for this meeting, sat near Philip and Mr. Layton and waited.
Charlie took a seat as well, the chair directly beside his wife. “Artie, you told me once that you wished ladies were permitted to be proprietresses of fashion houses and modiste shops, as you and Rose”—he glanced to the other woman involved in the scheme he was about to propose—“would be bang-up proprietresses. I’ve wished there were a way of making that happen. I’ve seen the work the two of you do in the sewing room at Brier Hill. And Mr. Layton has told me authoritatively that your work is second-to-none.”
Artemis looked around the room, clearly unsure of what was happening and, if he was gauging her expression correctly, a little nervous. She exchanged a silent look of uncertainty with Rose.
“I mentioned your seemingly unattainable wish to Philip and Jason, Jason being something of an expert in contracts and legal-wrangling. They, in turn, consulted with Mr. Layton and Wilson, who are inarguable experts in the area of and various players in the world of fashion.”
Artemis had grown very still. Hers was precisely the expression she’d worn while Mater had told her of Father’s role in Artemis’s earliest hopes and dreams. Artemis was terrified she was about to be let down.
Charlie took her hand and whispered, “Trust me, Artie.”
She took a shoulder-raising breath and nodded.
“James”—Charlie motioned to the man in question, her sister Daphne’s husband—“has experience protecting one’s reputation in Society whilst undertaking a trade. And your brother-in-law Harry”—he was also present—“has successfully built a profitable venture from virtually nothing. Linus is here mostly because he’s nosy.”
“I suspect the lot of you have been scheming,” Artemis said.
Charlie kissed her hand tenderly. “We have a proposition for the two of you.” He looked at Rose and Artemis in succession. “One you needn’t be afraid to hear out.”
She slid her arm through his. “What is this proposition?” she asked the room.
“A modiste’s shop on Bond Street,” Mr. Layton said. “I know of a property there that could be obtained for a reasonable cost. Further, I am acquainted with a dressmaker who is not only remarkably talented but is also as reliable as a lighthouse in a storm.”
“How does that involve us?” Rose asked.
“This modiste would make, in this shop, the dresses the two of you design, with the invaluable input of Wilson,” James said. “A go-between, which is essential to avoiding scandal.”
Artemis sat up a little straighter. Rose’s gaze narrowed on them.
Mr. Layton retook the explanation. “We would put it about that this new shop, owned by a mysterious proprietress, the name of whom the two of you are welcome to invent, specializes in designing entire wardrobes for the very fashionable as well as one-of-a-kind gowns and dresses for those wishing to make a splash without looking a quiz.”
“We would have our own shop?” Artemis held fast to Charlie’s arm. Her head darted about as she looked to each of them for confirmation.
“There is some degree of risk,” Harry said, “but it has every promise of being profitable. Assuming, of course, His Grace doesn’t storm about the place, threatening to behead your customers.”
As always, the duke ignored the jab. This was, Charlie understood, a long-established pattern with those two men.
“You really think this could work?” Artemis’s eyes darted about, hope warring with caution in her posture. She reached out with her free hand and grasped one of Rose’s. Her friend and abigail looked every bit as cautiously hopeful.
All the gentlemen nodded.
She looked to Rose. “A shop,” she whispered.
“I can hardly believe it.” Rose appeared to struggle with the possibility even more than Artemis.
“We would, of course, not proceed until we were certain both of you could do so without fear of reprisal or difficulties,” Adam said. “But it is more than merely possible, Artemis and Miss Narang. It is within your grasp.”
Rose was never one to appear overset or anything but utterly calm. In that moment, though, she simply shook her head, her expression that of a person entirely overwhelmed.
Artemis looked to Charlie. “We would have to be in London at least half the year. I know you do not care for Town. I want you to be where you will be happy.”
“My dear, wherever you are, I want to be. Wherever you are, that is where I will be happy.”
“If you two keep this up, I will vomit,” Harry tossed out in warning, earning a laugh from the room.
Discussions of the proposed business became more detailed, with Rose and Artemis joining Adam and James as they explained the calculations they’d made and discussing with everyone the complications they foresaw. Charlie watched with joy as Artemis came to life. The lady who had spent a lifetime hiding her pain behind a mask of indifference had growing reasons to be openly and unabashedly optimistic.
Mr. Layton moved to sit beside Charlie. “It is good to see her happy.”
“Yes, it is.”
“Your father would be proud of you, Charlie. I hope you realize that.”
Charlie slouched a bit in his chair, but not in frustration or defeat, as he had so often in the past. “You knew him better than I did. If my calculations are correct, and I’m certain they are, even Wilson knew my father longer than I did.”
Mr. Layton nodded. “Wilson has known all the Gents for thirty years. He was younger than you when we first met him.”
“I think I would have enjoyed knowing Wilson as a young man.”
Mr. Layton laughed. “The Gents had some grand adventures together, though we were as different from one another as night and day.”
“Why is it none of you have been part of our lives until now?” Charlie asked. “It seems so odd that you’ve been playing least in sight for so long.”
“Your father asked it of us in his will,” Mr. Layton said. “He knew our tendency to swoop in and fix things, whether or not they need fixing. He wanted to guarantee that your mother was able to raise you boys as she saw fit, to have the influence and importance in your lives that she needed and wanted to have and that he knew you brothers would benefit from. The best way to assure that was to ask us to tread lightly until you were all grown.”
He had continued to dress with great care. Artemis was absolutely certain her husband was the handsomest of the gentlemen present and was the most enjoyable to watch. And she vowed there and then, she would make certain he always had a yellow silk waistcoat to wear, as the one he had donned that day looked quite splendid on him.
Her sisters Daphne and Athena arrived on either side of her. Both looked entirely pleased with the odd way their families were spending the afternoon.
“It is so easy to picture these brothers as children, isn’t it?” Athena said. “This was likely a very happy home.”
“Ours was not entirely miserable,” Artemis said.
Athena set an arm around her shoulders. “I wish we had made it less lonely for you.”
“I am certainly not lonely now.” She sighed dramatically, not bothering to hide her amusement.
Even Daphne, who often had struggled with Artemis’s tendency toward theatricality, smiled. “I don’t know how Adam is surviving this impromptu house party.”
Artemis didn’t know if Adam would want her to share the very personal recollections he’d shared with her. Instead of giving the answer she felt was most accurate—that Adam was grateful to be with the dowager again—she said, “Persephone is enjoying herself. That is reason enough for him to endure it all.”
“No one, though, is enjoying this as much as your husband,” Athena said not to Daphne but to Artemis. “I suspect Charlie Jonquil is destined to be the favorite uncle in more than one family.”
“He is rather remarkable, isn’t he?” Artemis said.
Daphne set her arm around Artemis’s middle. Two of her sisters stood on either side of her, hugging her, smiling with her. She’d needed this all her life but hadn’t realized until very recently that she had been pushing them away.
“Charlie is not at all the husband I pictured you choosing,” Daphne said. “I always assumed you would attach yourself to someone brooding and a little . . . ill-advised.”
“You expected me to marry Lord Byron?” she asked with a laugh.
Both sisters answered with a perfectly serious, completely unison, “Yes.”
“I suppose that’s fair,” she conceded. “Accident chose better for me than my daydreams did, I daresay.”
“Your personalities mesh well, despite how long you were at each other’s throats,” Athena said. “He lightens you. And, merciful heavens, Artemis, the way he looks at you . . . ”
What did she mean by that?
Harry had arrived mere moments earlier but in time, it seemed, to overhear his wife’s comment. “Charlie is a troublemaker. Every husband here is under pressure to make a good showing for himself so that boy doesn’t put us all to shame.” He took his wife’s hand. But before pulling her away, he said to Artemis, “Go join him. I can tell he wants you to.”
An instant later, only she and Daphne remained in their corner of the lawn.
“Harry has the right of it,” Daphne said. “Charlie is enjoying the game, but he keeps looking over here at you.”
“That is what Athena meant by ‘the way he looks at me’?”
Daphne shook her head. “I’ll let you sort that out. It’s terribly obvious to the rest of us.” She even gave Artemis a nudge toward the game. Daphne never used to be one for teasing or being unreserved, even with her family. Life had not been easy for any of the Lancasters, but they were healing from the pain of a lot of difficult years.
Artemis wove her way around the rush of people, careful not to trip over the tiniest of participants.
Charlie called out “Catch us! Catch us!” to Philip, who was the one currently blindfolded. Crispin attempted to hide behind Charlie, but Charlie slipped away. Harry and James, Artemis’s Lancaster brothers-in-law, had added whistling to the game, which led to cries of “foul” from the blindfolded earl.
A wonderful bit of chaos, just as Charlie had predicted it would be.
He spotted her approaching and smiled. She was certain he was pleased to have her nearby. Without even a moment’s hesitation, he held his hand out to her. She set her hand in his, and he threaded his fingers through hers, then lifted her hand to his lips, turning it to kiss the inside of her wrist.
From nowhere, Layton and Linus appeared, snatching Charlie and dragging him away.
“Catch Charlie,” Layton shouted to Philip. “Please! He’s being nauseating again.”
“I am so grateful to be blindfolded right now,” Philip answered.
Laughter rang out from all around them.
Alice, one of the Jonquil granddaughters, snagged hold of Charlie’s leg and began tugging, clearly meaning to free him. Stanley scooped her up and said something that seemed to put her concerns to rest.
It was such a joyous gathering. How often she’d imagined being part of Papa’s family. And now she was.
Embracing the absurdity of it all, she assumed her goddess demeanor and moved with regal bearing directly to where they held Charlie as a friendly hostage.
She looked down her nose at Layton, Linus, Stanley, and James, all of whom were acting as Charlie’s prison guards.
“I am Artemis,” she declared with every ounce of drama at her very experienced fingertips. “Goddess of the hunt. Killer of men. Release him, or I will smite every last one of you.”
Alice watched her with wide eyes. Artemis winked at her and received an immediate smile in return.
“You are saving Uncle Charming?” Alice asked.
“I am.” She looked to him.
Charlie watched her with amusement but something else as well. Something warm and heart-fluttering.
His captors released him with laughs and bits of teasing. Layton paused long enough to slap Charlie on the shoulder and suggest he “make good on his debt to his wife with all possible haste.”
Charlie sauntered to her, not embarrassed, not laughing. The warmth in his look had turned to unmistakable heat. She didn’t look away.
His arm slid around her and pulled her flush with him. His gaze held hers across the ever-decreasing space between them.
“You’ve saved me, Artie,” he whispered, standing so close his breath tiptoed over her lips. “How can I ever repay you?”
“You’re a mathematician,” she answered. “You’ll find a solution.”
“I’m also a Jonquil, and we tend to bungle these things.”
She hooked her arms around his neck, finding she didn’t overly care about the game continuing on around them or the mussing it would cause to his collar and cravat. She wanted nothing more than for Charlie to hold her, to keep looking at her the way he was, to feel his breath dancing on her lips.
“Catch us! Catch us!” Harold called out as he passed.
Artemis removed one arm from her embrace and pointed at him. “Smite,” she warned.
He laughed.
“Excellently well done, dear.” Charlie spun her about with his arms firmly around her waist.
She giggled as he turned in circles. He brought a lightness to the somber Oliver, and he brought such joy to her. The Jonquils worked that magic on all around them.
But Charlie was special. He didn’t merely entertain whomever happened to be nearby. He saw her and noticed her. He’d not been fooled by the well-honed mask she’d worn since before she’d met him. He’d seen her behind her shield and had refused to be satisfied with the role she played.
She kept her arms around his neck. “Thank you, Charlie.”
His grin was filled with laughter. “For what, Artie?”
“For seeing me.”
“You are very difficult to miss, my dear.”
Caroline pulled him away in the very next instant. That happened all the time at Lampton Park. Though he’d struggled to see it during that long-ago house party, his family’s love for him and need for him was obvious to anyone willing to look. She loved being there, surrounded by siblings and siblings-in-law and nieces and nephews. But for the first time since leaving Brier Hill and the unhappiness they’d experienced there, Artemis found herself anxious to return.
The house would feel different now.
It would, she was all but certain, feel like home.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Charlie watched Artemis wind her way around the back gardens a few days after her family’s arrival. She laughed with her sisters, an expression of genuine happiness. The sun set her golden curls aglow. Her smile was as soft and as natural as he’d ever seen it. She was happy, and that did his heart good.
The Lancaster ladies reached the terrace door where he stood, and greeted him in turn. Artemis’s family had begun to feel like his family as well these last days. He felt welcome among them, wanted and needed.
“I know having so many people here is a bit chaotic,” Artemis said. “I’m so grateful Philip and Sorrel have permitted it.”
He shook his head. “This house has always been at its most joyful when things were a bit boisterous.”
She took his hand and walked with him into the house. “I’ve spent so much of my life trying to convince myself that I didn’t need to have family around that I didn’t realize how untrue that actually was.”
“And I have assumed for a long time that my family didn’t want me around,” he said. “I am beginning to suspect that is not true.”
She smiled up at him. “Oh, Charlie, they love having you here. Even the least observant person in all the world would notice that.”
“There are a few members of this vast and complicated family who are actively requesting your company at the moment,” Charlie said. “I’ve been sent to fetch you.”
“Who is asking for me?” she pressed.
“I believe I will keep that a surprise.”
She laughed lightly. “You do that a lot, you know: keep me in suspense.”
“Are you lodging a complaint?”
She bumped him with her shoulder. “Not in the least.”
He took her to the library. Her brothers-in-law and Linus were inside, as were Philip and Mr. Layton.
Artemis eyed them all with obvious curiosity. “This is an unexpected gathering.”
“One I arrived for on time,” Philip said. “The same cannot be said for Mr. Layton. That, I believe, makes me the king of the day.”
“Mr. Layton has always been the king,” Adam said, sitting in a nearby chair with his usual air of irascibility and a well-hidden inkling of amusement. The duke was not one to be crossed or taken lightly, but Charlie was coming to know him better and wasn’t nearly as afraid of him as he’d once been.
“Do find a comfortable seat, Artemis,” Mr. Layton said. “I have my doubts the Odd Earl will cease his dramatics long enough to invite you to do so.”
Philip assumed a very solemn expression. “Brother Adam would not recognize me if I ceased the ‘dramatics.’”
“Stop calling me that,” Adam muttered.
“I cannot call you Brother Bob.” Philip never had been one to let an opportunity for a jest slip by unseized.
“Best take up your business, Charlie,” Linus said, “before these two resort to fisticuffs again.”
“We cannot begin until Rose arrives.”
That brought Artemis’s eyes to him once more. “Rose is joining us?”
Charlie nodded. “Along with Wilson.”
He could see the interest growing in her expression. But Rose and her uncle arrived before Artemis could pose a single question. The two women sat together on a sofa, both eyeing the gathering with interest and confusion.
Wilson, who was privy to the reason for this meeting, sat near Philip and Mr. Layton and waited.
Charlie took a seat as well, the chair directly beside his wife. “Artie, you told me once that you wished ladies were permitted to be proprietresses of fashion houses and modiste shops, as you and Rose”—he glanced to the other woman involved in the scheme he was about to propose—“would be bang-up proprietresses. I’ve wished there were a way of making that happen. I’ve seen the work the two of you do in the sewing room at Brier Hill. And Mr. Layton has told me authoritatively that your work is second-to-none.”
Artemis looked around the room, clearly unsure of what was happening and, if he was gauging her expression correctly, a little nervous. She exchanged a silent look of uncertainty with Rose.
“I mentioned your seemingly unattainable wish to Philip and Jason, Jason being something of an expert in contracts and legal-wrangling. They, in turn, consulted with Mr. Layton and Wilson, who are inarguable experts in the area of and various players in the world of fashion.”
Artemis had grown very still. Hers was precisely the expression she’d worn while Mater had told her of Father’s role in Artemis’s earliest hopes and dreams. Artemis was terrified she was about to be let down.
Charlie took her hand and whispered, “Trust me, Artie.”
She took a shoulder-raising breath and nodded.
“James”—Charlie motioned to the man in question, her sister Daphne’s husband—“has experience protecting one’s reputation in Society whilst undertaking a trade. And your brother-in-law Harry”—he was also present—“has successfully built a profitable venture from virtually nothing. Linus is here mostly because he’s nosy.”
“I suspect the lot of you have been scheming,” Artemis said.
Charlie kissed her hand tenderly. “We have a proposition for the two of you.” He looked at Rose and Artemis in succession. “One you needn’t be afraid to hear out.”
She slid her arm through his. “What is this proposition?” she asked the room.
“A modiste’s shop on Bond Street,” Mr. Layton said. “I know of a property there that could be obtained for a reasonable cost. Further, I am acquainted with a dressmaker who is not only remarkably talented but is also as reliable as a lighthouse in a storm.”
“How does that involve us?” Rose asked.
“This modiste would make, in this shop, the dresses the two of you design, with the invaluable input of Wilson,” James said. “A go-between, which is essential to avoiding scandal.”
Artemis sat up a little straighter. Rose’s gaze narrowed on them.
Mr. Layton retook the explanation. “We would put it about that this new shop, owned by a mysterious proprietress, the name of whom the two of you are welcome to invent, specializes in designing entire wardrobes for the very fashionable as well as one-of-a-kind gowns and dresses for those wishing to make a splash without looking a quiz.”
“We would have our own shop?” Artemis held fast to Charlie’s arm. Her head darted about as she looked to each of them for confirmation.
“There is some degree of risk,” Harry said, “but it has every promise of being profitable. Assuming, of course, His Grace doesn’t storm about the place, threatening to behead your customers.”
As always, the duke ignored the jab. This was, Charlie understood, a long-established pattern with those two men.
“You really think this could work?” Artemis’s eyes darted about, hope warring with caution in her posture. She reached out with her free hand and grasped one of Rose’s. Her friend and abigail looked every bit as cautiously hopeful.
All the gentlemen nodded.
She looked to Rose. “A shop,” she whispered.
“I can hardly believe it.” Rose appeared to struggle with the possibility even more than Artemis.
“We would, of course, not proceed until we were certain both of you could do so without fear of reprisal or difficulties,” Adam said. “But it is more than merely possible, Artemis and Miss Narang. It is within your grasp.”
Rose was never one to appear overset or anything but utterly calm. In that moment, though, she simply shook her head, her expression that of a person entirely overwhelmed.
Artemis looked to Charlie. “We would have to be in London at least half the year. I know you do not care for Town. I want you to be where you will be happy.”
“My dear, wherever you are, I want to be. Wherever you are, that is where I will be happy.”
“If you two keep this up, I will vomit,” Harry tossed out in warning, earning a laugh from the room.
Discussions of the proposed business became more detailed, with Rose and Artemis joining Adam and James as they explained the calculations they’d made and discussing with everyone the complications they foresaw. Charlie watched with joy as Artemis came to life. The lady who had spent a lifetime hiding her pain behind a mask of indifference had growing reasons to be openly and unabashedly optimistic.
Mr. Layton moved to sit beside Charlie. “It is good to see her happy.”
“Yes, it is.”
“Your father would be proud of you, Charlie. I hope you realize that.”
Charlie slouched a bit in his chair, but not in frustration or defeat, as he had so often in the past. “You knew him better than I did. If my calculations are correct, and I’m certain they are, even Wilson knew my father longer than I did.”
Mr. Layton nodded. “Wilson has known all the Gents for thirty years. He was younger than you when we first met him.”
“I think I would have enjoyed knowing Wilson as a young man.”
Mr. Layton laughed. “The Gents had some grand adventures together, though we were as different from one another as night and day.”
“Why is it none of you have been part of our lives until now?” Charlie asked. “It seems so odd that you’ve been playing least in sight for so long.”
“Your father asked it of us in his will,” Mr. Layton said. “He knew our tendency to swoop in and fix things, whether or not they need fixing. He wanted to guarantee that your mother was able to raise you boys as she saw fit, to have the influence and importance in your lives that she needed and wanted to have and that he knew you brothers would benefit from. The best way to assure that was to ask us to tread lightly until you were all grown.”
