Never Land the First Fish

Chapter Thirty: Part 1

"Well then. I am pleased to have that unpleasantness behind us."

"For the most forthright woman I know, Aunt Bella, you have a remarkable talent for understatement."

They were finally home from the hotel restaurant. Julia would have preferred to go straight up to the room Sally had ordered prepared for her, but she had agreed to join her host and hostess, Aunt Bella, and Gills for a drink before bed. Just a brief night cap, Sally had assured her. Toad and Sally Wellbridge and Aunt Bella would repair to Longford Court to join the mourning at first light, while Gills and Julia... she knew not what; she knew not where.

She hadn't even considered it until her parents raised it over dinner. She hadn't thought about what might happen if she weren't consigned to gaol directly following the inquest. She'd thought she would be in custody by now.

"It is a fine thing, to see justice done," Wellbridge proclaimed, raising his glass, everyone else following suit. Sally followed up with, "Not that there was ever any doubt." No, no doubt at all, Julia thought, mentally rolling her eyes. Sally Wellbridge's eternal optimism was one reason they had never been close friends.

She was certainly not going to visit with her parents in her childhood home. It would be better to see the Marquess and Marchioness of Firthley sparingly for a time, until she could do a better job of forgiving them leaving her in Athol's hands all those years. And, for that matter, allowing her to be taken in by him in the first place when she was too young and naïve to know better.

She could go to the estate Aunt Bella had given her, but it was rather closer to her parents than she liked, particularly if they were to repair the rift between them, and she wasn't at all sure the house was ready to be occupied.

She listened with half an ear, contributing an occasional "uh huh" or "quite" as Gills self-effacingly explained his grand plans to create spectacles in England for money, the Wellbridges' making semi-concerned noises of befuddled support.

Gills would probably go to London to start his new venture. If he were planning to go to the Coventon country house, he would have left with his brother and his wife. He hadn't his own establishment, outside his bachelor rooms in London, for he had been waiting to come into his trust. Until he used it to buy the estate he wanted, she knew, he had only the flat in St. James's Place his brother paid for. She was astonished they had never discussed what either of them would do next. They had been too busy measuring their own necks for the noose.

She could go to London herself, with or without Gills, but the gossip would be unutterably unbearable, and there was every chance she would be cut dead by everyone in the first ballroom in which she danced, if she received any invitations at all. Worse, Gills would still be received by a good many of his former acquaintances. He would still have his club and his gambling hells and an open invitation from half the widows of the ton. No, anywhere was better than London. The only place worse would be a royal palace anywhere.

She supposed she would be welcome to remain at Brickdale at least a few more days—she would miss the place when she left—though she hardly wished to impose upon the Wellbridges' generosity any more than she had to. And Gills could hardly return there with her without a chaperone of some sort, now that the Coventons and all the guards had left. Even if he stayed in the village—perhaps especially if he did so—it would cause no end of talk she could nary afford, still being the black widow accused of killing her husband, and probably, as the countryfolk said, no better than she ought to be.

"So, Julia," Sally asked as the plates were removed, "what would you like to do next?" With a small laugh that came out more as a squeak, Julia answered truthfully, "I haven't given it a moment's thought."

"Of course not," Toad agreed. "With the trial looming, how could you?" The Wellbridges were being far too accommodating. Something was looming this minute, now that the trial was over. Surely, they would now tell her there had been a mistake with her trust, or all the money had been lost. Or that she must vacate Brickdale immediately. Or that Athol hadn't been killed after all and was waiting to escort her home. She gave another tortured giggle at that and took a sip of her wine to cover her sudden irrational fright.

Gills set down his glass and dropped his hand under the table to take hers, steadying her without being asked, as he always seemed to do. She was going to miss this man when they went their separate ways.

He cleared his throat and said quietly, "I am still very much hoping Lady Julia will consent to be my wife, though I would not be so bold as to speak for her."

"As it should be," Aunt Bella piped up before Julia could take Gills to task for once again speaking publicly of his intentions. "The House of Wellbridge is of one mind on this, Lord Joseph, and I will not have you mistake it. Lady Julia will not be rushed by you or anyone, nor ever be in a position where she must marry. She will pay a heavy consequence among the social set if she does not." Everyone looked away from Julia then; she knew better than anyone what spiteful gossip could do. "But if she chooses a quiet life somewhere as a widow, she will remain in perfect comfort the rest of her life, husband or no."

"Which is what I wished to speak of before we all retire for the evening," Wellbridge intoned. Good heavens, but he could make anything sound like a lecture in her father's study. Surely, he had learned that at his father's knee, but while Uncle Wellbridge's disapproval had been immobilizing, Toad's was merely disconcerting.

Now would come the death blow. It would not be financial; Aunt Bella had seen to that. But they would unleash something else unpleasant in a matter of moments, immediate removal from Brickdale the most likely. At least she had not made the mistake of making herself truly vulnerable to them. Gills grasped her hand again under the table.