All Things Beautiful (22 page)

Kimberwood
Christmas 1836

“N
o, I will not speak to your father for you.”

“You have to,” Nan wailed. “If he believes you support David and me, he’ll have a more open mind.”

Julia looked at her daughter with pride and exasperation. At twenty, Nan Wolf had her father’s intelligence and her mother’s beauty. “You involve yourself with a man you know your parents will find unacceptable, and you want
me
to present him to your father?”

“I love him,” Nan reaffirmed. “We want your blessing and I know you’ll give it, once you’ve met him.”

“But an actor, Nan? Running around in the sort of circles where you would risk meeting an actor was not what we had in mind when we sent you to Miss Agatha’s!”

“Mother, you are so old-fashioned. Actually, he is a playwright as well as an actor. He could be another Shakespeare.”

Julia delivered a pointed glare at her daughter for her audacity. “Old-fashioned I may be, but I can promise you this, young lady, your father will never agree to your marrying anyone connected with the theater.”

“Can’t you withhold judgment until after you’ve met him?”

Julia ignored the stifled giggles of the younger children, Anthony, Emma, and Victoria, gathered around the table for the holiday meal. Suddenly suspicious, she ventured a shrewd guess. “He’s here.”

A guilty blush stole up Nan’s cheeks before she confessed. “In the stable.”

Julia choked. “The stable? You’ve stashed your young man away in the stable?”

Nan nodded in wide-eyed muteness.

“And he’s standing there docilely?”

The look in Nan’s eyes grew guilty. She nodded.

Julia didn’t have to say a word. Sixteen-year-old Anthony gave a hoot. “Lor’, Nan, I can’t imagine you married to any man who’d let you play the tune.” The youngest two laughed with him.

“Be quiet, brats,” their sister snapped, completely forgetting the air of sophistication she’d honed during her year of teaching at Miss Agatha’s Scientific Academy for Young Women.

Julia frowned. To think she and Brader had deliberately chosen a school dedicated to the enlightened
education of young women, not just the polishing of French verbs and manners advocated by so many other schools for young ladies. And they had been pleased when Miss Agatha had asked Nan to teach! Now Julia wished they’d sent their oldest daughter to a nunnery.

The beginning of a headache threatened. Furious with Nan for upsetting her favorite holiday, Julia decided to cut through the laughter and bantering of the children and regain control of the situation. But before she could speak a word, Fisher interrupted her with a conspiratorial clearing of his throat, the sign Brader was on his way to join them.

Shooting him a grateful look, Julia motioned for the suddenly silent children to stand behind their chairs at the table to await their father. She had no idea how she was going to present Nan’s declaration of love to Brader.

A second later, he filled the doorway with his dynamic presence. After all these years, he could still take her breath away.

Very little about him had changed. His dark hair, now streaked with silver, remained as thick and in need of the barber’s touch as ever. Julia teased him that he went in and out of fashion with regularity. He countered that he wasn’t a slave to anyone’s whims but hers.

His shoulders were still broad and strong, and he moved with the quiet ease of a man sure of his place in the world.

He’d received his knighthood. Granted it had been delayed, those years long ago after the scandal had broken. However, Napoleon had made his move to conquer the Continent, and Britons had something more to occupy their minds than the Markhams.

Julia had gratefully slipped into the obscurity of being the wife of the man Britain depended upon to negotiate with the world’s money suppliers to finance the war against a tyrant. She loved motherhood. Their oldest, John, had been born the second year of their marriage. Thomas had followed two years later, and then Nan…

Julia sighed, bringing her thoughts to the present. Discretion had never been a part of Nan’s character. She was headstrong and resilient. Brader teased that they had created another Julia. Catching a glimpse of the defiant tilt of Nan’s jaw, Julia feared he was right.

She cleared her voice, gave him her most dazzling smile, and prayed the right words would come to her mind. Brader doted on all his children, but Nan held a special place in his heart.

Before Julia could speak, Nan rose regally to her feet. “Father, I wish to discuss an important matter with you.” Anthony rudely guffawed.

“I imagine you do,” Brader replied dryly, silencing his son with a look before stepping aside to reveal a slender young man standing in the doorway behind him.

“David!” Nan cried, crossing over to him.

Handsome and blond, David blushed and took her hand in his while placing a protective arm around her waist—in front of her parents, Julia noticed in mild surprise. She was even more surprised when Brader accepted David’s action with bemused indulgence.

Together the young couple turned and faced her.

Her mother-in-law’s words of twenty-five years earlier, “You’ll be a magnificent couple,” echoed through Julia’s mind. Not for the first time did Julia wish her mother-in-law could be with them.

Her husband stretched his long frame out in the chair beside her in the place at the table where Nan usually sat. He gave her a conspirator’s wink through his gold-rimmed lenses, which he now wore all the time. “I can’t believe you would order your betrothed to stand in the stables,” he chastised Nan mildly.

David blushed an even brighter red. He lifted his chin, a sign of pride that was not lost on Julia.

“Nan, I wasn’t about to stand waiting,” David was explaining. “I came into the house, begged an audience, and introduced myself to your father.”

Julia caught a suspicious twitch at the corner of Brader’s mouth. She leaned closer to him. “Don’t tell me you’ve known of this?”

Brader raised a brow. “Fuller.”

Over the years, Herbert Fuller had continued to keep his watchful eye over all his employer’s loved ones. It gave Julia immeasurable relief to know that her two eldest sons, John and Thomas, were
even now under the watchful but unobtrusive eye of Mr. Fuller’s crack private police force while they worked for Brader’s interests in the Orient.

“And why didn’t you tell me?”

Brader’s teeth flashed white and strong in his smile. “Because I wanted to know if the puppy could stand up for himself.”

“Is he from a good family?” Julia couldn’t stop herself from asking the question, knowing full well Brader anticipated it.

His eyes crinkled at the corners. “Yes, David Penrose is the youngest son of a prosperous cotton trader, educated at Oxford, and a more than passable playwright. He’s already earned himself a comfortable living and started his own troupe of players.”

“Still, an actor,” Julia stated flatly. “I had no idea you’d countenance an actor in the family.”

“You’re the snob,” he teased.

Julia accepted the teasing but felt the ache of tears. She confessed, “I was counting on you to say nay to the match. I have no quarrel with this young David, but I’m not ready to lose one of our children to marriage. Not yet.”

“But there will be grandchildren,” he reminded her, the brown of his eyes darkening to deep sherry. He lifted a hand to stroke the curve of her cheek, his touch reminding her of all they’d shared over the years. His hands had held her while she sobbed her heart out when her first pregnancy had ended in miscarriage…and it had been her hands that
had held and comforted him when they’d lost their four-year-old Mary to smallpox fifteen years ago.

Through the years they’d loved, comforted, and protected each other. Life was fuller than Julia had ever imagined. No taint of scandal had ever touched their children. She and Brader had ensured their well-being and safety.

Brader interrupted her thoughts, leaning toward her. “Besides, I think he might be the right man for our Nan.”

Julia cast a doubtful look at the couple. “They look so young.” Even as she spoke, she notice that David had managed with a look to quell Nan’s ever-impetuous tongue. Apparently, he was a stronger man than his youth and blushing good looks credited.

“They are young,” Brader agreed. “But David convinced me to give my blessing to the match.”

“You’ve already agreed!”

“Yes, Julia. I like him very much and you will too, once you hear the reason he wants our daughter’s hand.”

Julia gave a small yet still ladylike snort. She’d counted on Brader’s turning down the offer. Nan married? The idea was alien to her.

“Penrose,” Brader ordered, “tell Mrs. Wolf what you told me about why you want to marry Nan.”

David flushed an even more vivid red, making Julia feel sorry for him, especially when she could feel the smiles of the younger children at his discomfort. How in the world did this man keep his
composure on the stage? Well, he’d better get used to his share of attention if he planned on being a member of the family. All members of the Wolf family had to face their share of teasing. Teasing came with the joy and laughter of loving.

David gave Nan’s hand a reassuring squeeze. Nan looked at him with such obvious clear-eyed affection, Julia knew her daughter was in love.

He turned his attention to Julia. “I told Mr. Wolf that when I look in Nan’s eyes, I see all things beautiful in the world. I want her with me all my living days.”

All things beautiful…. Julia knew Brader was right. Nan had chosen well.

She turned to her husband, not surprised to find his lips close to hers. They kissed then, heedless of the giggling children, the stoic servants, or the red-faced young man who would wed their daughter with both their blessings.

The circle would start again, renewed. Brader was right about something else too, Julia decided suddenly. Grandchildren would be very nice. She smiled with happy anticipation and leaned back into her husband’s arm. Life was good.

Life was complete.

Life was beautiful.