After the Wedding (The Worth Saga #2)(27)
“I’m sure it’s a good idea.” The coffee scalded his throat. “And I absolutely want to hear it. I’ve inquired; it will take me an hour or so to go into Lackwich. That’s the nearest town where there’s a telegraph office. I can get everything taken care of in practically no time flat. Information and consultation really ought to be our first priority.”
Her lips flattened, but only for a moment. “I see. Of course.”
“You don’t mind staying here until this afternoon?”
She stilled, looking at him. “You’ll come back?”
For a moment, he felt a flicker of annoyance. Then he remembered that she didn’t know him, and what she did know of him was that they’d met when he was pretending to be a valet. She didn’t have to believe him.
“I’ll come back,” he said. “Before noon. Hopefully, my uncle will tell us to come down to Gainshire on the evening train, and we can get this all sorted out by tomorrow. You’ll never have to see me again.”
Her lips flattened once more. “Right,” she said. “Lovely.”
He wasn’t sure why her teeth were gritting or why she’d stopped meeting his gaze, but in the long run, it really didn’t matter.
“You’d best be on your way,” she informed him, and after a long moment, he decided that he agreed.
* * *
The telegraph was one of the most amazing inventions of modern society, Adrian reflected as he waited outside the office in Lackwich. Grayson had plans to lay telegraph wires everywhere in the world that was not yet connected—across the expanse of the Pacific Ocean, along the African coast. It was already a substantial domestic convenience.
Twenty years ago, there would have been no choice but to make his way back to Gainshire in order to discuss the matter with his uncle. He’d have arrived with a faux-wife in tow, raising questions that he didn’t want answered. He would have been closeted with the bishop for an unconscionable amount of time.
Today, he merely sent a telegram. It traveled near instantaneously, racing over electric wires, repeated by operator after operator until the message arrived in his uncle’s hometown a scant handful of minutes or so after having been sent. His uncle’s office was a fifteen-minute jaunt from the telegraph office there, and so after the courier was dispatched, he could have an answer, yay or nay, within an hour.
His own message had been sent at nine in the morning, the moment the office opened.
ENCOUNTERED OBSTACLE
SUSPICIONS RAISED
EMERGENCY ANNULMENT REQUIRED
PLEASE ADVISE
He hoped that this terse explanation of the last dizzying day of his life would let his uncle know that circumstances had changed drastically for the worse. But no immediate response had been forthcoming. He took to pacing in front of the office as he waited.
“Come back,” he imagined his uncle saying. “I’ll take care of everything.” Or maybe: “Is all well? Tell me how I can be of service.”
Over the last decade, he’d spent more time with his uncle than anyone else in his immediate family. True, he’d never been openly acknowledged, but there was real affection there. Even now, decades later, his uncle would speak of Adrian’s mother, his favorite sister, with a forlorn look in his eyes.
Grayson might think the worst of Denmore, but his uncle was just not a particularly demonstrative man. At least he wasn’t demonstrative in the way that the rest of Adrian’s family had been when he was growing up, with hugs and laughter aplenty. Still, Adrian had seen him prove his compassion to hundreds of people who needed help.
Faith, he thought, was this—believing that the man he’d spent years visiting would say “I love you” in the language that he most often used: “That sounds horrible. Let me take care of this for you.”
He was jolted from his reverie when the woman from the telegraph office approached him from behind.
“Excuse me, sir,” said she. “I know you were waiting on a reply to your telegram. It’s arrived.”
Adrian took hold of the wax-paper envelope and yanked the sheer slip of paper from its container. He read, his heart pounding…
NO TIME FOR OBSTACLES
GET WHAT YOU PROMISED ME
AND QUICKLY
For a moment, his heart sank. Once again, not even an “if you please.”
He stared at the paper, willing the dark ink to change. The letters remained firmly fixed in place.
GET WHAT YOU PROMISED ME
AND QUICKLY
Since the words wouldn’t change, Adrian would. He took a deep breath, then another, thinking, imagining, putting things together.
He shouldn’t make anything of the terse nature of the reply. Telegrams were no place for pleasantries. This wasn’t a letter or a comfortable afternoon talk over tea. One didn’t say “I love you” via telegram.
It also wasn’t a useful answer. Not in the slightest. What was he to do with this?
Well. It was likely Adrian’s fault. His original message had been unclear; he’d left doubt. “Emergency annulment” had seemed fairly straightforward in his own mind, but… Without knowing the circumstances, how would his uncle know he was talking about himself?
His mistake had been in trying to save space. He could be more clear.
“I’ll need to send a response,” Adrian said. The woman handed him a form, and he thought for a moment before scrawling his answer.