The Jane Austen Society(84)

Miss Frances sighed. “Mimi is usually so smart. I think she is at an interesting time in her career, and Jack Leonard presented a strange exit plan of sorts.”

“Well, I can certainly relate to that,” replied Adeline. “Still, it would take some nerve to tell anyone this just minutes before their wedding. Besides, outside of all things Jane Austen, we none of us know each other that well.”

“Perhaps,” replied Frances. “But it’s never the wrong time—or too late—to show someone you care.”

They heard a cough from the doorway, and all three turned to see Andrew Forrester standing there. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but it’s best we all get going to the church.”

Frances looked back at the room, filled with the books she had grown up with.

“It must be hard,” Andrew added, “seeing all this here.”

“No, not at all. In fact it’s quite the opposite. They’re so much more appreciated right where they are. The important thing is that they are being loved, and preserved, and taken note of.”

Adam saw Andrew give Frances a curious look, but decided it was best to keep everyone moving. He turned to Adeline to ask, “Do you want a pick-up when I get back from the station, to take you to the church?”

“No,” she said with an annoyed sigh. “I got roped into walking over with Dr. Gray and Liberty, God help me. She’ll talk our heads off.”

“Dr. Gray seems to like that,” Frances said, as the three of them joined Andrew on the upstairs landing and then headed downstairs together. “The high spirits I mean.”

Adeline turned around when she reached the bottom of the staircase to stare back up at her. “What are you saying?”

Frances gave an innocent smile. “Benjamin Gray has been lonely long enough. I think Liberty could be quite a good match for him.”

“Liberty Pascal!” exclaimed Adeline so loudly that Adam, Andrew, and Frances all looked at her in surprise.

“Liberty’s mighty pretty,” added Adam with a wink.

“Don’t you start.” Adeline gave him a playful swat. “You never talk, and then you come out with that?”

Adam held the front door open to let Frances and Andrew pass, then turned back to Adeline, standing arms crossed in the hallway.

“Enjoy your walk,” he teased, as she slammed the door after him.

Dr. Gray and Liberty were heading to the church together, with a quick stop at Adeline Grover’s along the way. Dr. Gray had taken extra care with his bath that morning, tousling up his hair and indulging in some of the eau de cologne that his late wife had bought him in Jermyn Street for what turned out to be their last Christmas together. When he’d dabbed a few drops along his jawline after his shave, he had looked at the bottle, and the memory of that Christmas morning had felt, strangely, at peace with his present life. Not pulling away at it, as his memories had so often done in the past; not draining anything from the moment, but completing it somehow. Reminding him of who he was, and what he wanted, and what he still deserved to have. He accepted that Jennie would have wanted him to keep living, and that doing so would not reflect on his love for her, which he knew to have been infinite and strong. He had no regrets there. And Jennie had loved him just as infinitely. She would want him to be happy and content again.

But he also knew that she would not want him to be with Liberty Pascal.

Liberty talked incessantly while taking his arm as they walked along. As usual, she was prattling on about Adeline Lewis Grover and her beaux. Her preoccupation with Adeline’s love life struck Dr. Gray as both strange and most unfortunate—ever since that night in the garden when he had lost his head, he had been avoiding Adeline, yet Liberty was always right there to remind him of what the young widow was up to.

“Oh, how I love weddings,” Liberty was saying. “There’s nothing like a wedding to stir up some romance, I always like to say, don’t you think, Dr. Gray?”

“I wouldn’t know. I don’t get to too many around here. It’s a pretty small village.”

“Oh, but you must have gone to Adeline’s, last—what was it—only a year ago last February? How sad that all was. And not so long ago at that. Did you?”

“Did I what?” asked Dr. Gray absentmindedly.

“Why, did you go to Adeline and Samuel’s wedding?”

“Yes.” He nodded.

She gave him a hard look. It was like trying to draw blood from a stone.

“Well, I am sure it was a most romantic day. Childhood sweethearts and all that. Although that Adeline, she’s more complicated than she seems. I mean, away at college, we all wondered about the boy back home. He sounded an angel, to be sure, but—I don’t know—it all seemed a little lopsided. On his side, I mean.”

Dr. Gray was looking about him at the crowds of daffodils still filling the front gardens of the terrace houses along this stretch of the street.

“There was this professor, you see.” Liberty’s tone was managing to sound both hushed and loud at the same time.

“Hmm?”

“Oh, well, perhaps it was just cold feet. But we all wondered whether Samuel was more an obligation of sorts, going off to war—didn’t they get engaged right after he got conscripted?”

Dr. Gray was barely listening, just recalling the image of Adeline standing at the altar in her cream-coloured frock, her hair down in waves about her shoulders, a little crown of cream roses setting off the perfect pink of her cheeks.