There’s a new part of this story that just dropped in the September Saturday Broadsheet, which means that last month’s part should have had it’s own post so it could be found more easily…BEFORE the Broadsheet went out. But no. This task got missed yesterday. So, here it is. A day late, but here.
This is the part of the story where I realized I had a timeline error. I had the first part of the story set in summer, but it was supposed to have fit with a section of Oxford Cottage that takes part in early October, so I will have to go back and edit that once I finally get around to putting it altogether into some sort of eBook format. For now, it’s staying as it is and we’re shifting to October here with this chapter.
Find previous chapters (to previous Harriet and the Colonel stories) here.
Chapter 3 (Part 1)
Two days later, Samantha and Harriet, along with her husband, Julian, who had joined them just that morning, were returning from a walk in the garden when a rider approached the house.
“Who do you suppose that is?” Julian asked with a laugh, since Harriet was already nearly running toward the garden gate that would connect her to the driveway. But how could she not hurry when her colonel was nearly at her doorstep.
“I have a message for the lady of the house,” Colonel Fitzwilliam said as drew his horse to a stop near her. “It is an acceptance of your dinner invitation from Mrs. Darcy.” He swung down and withdrew a letter from his pocket. “She is anxious to meet you. Nearly as anxious as I was to see you – which is why I am playing the part of an express rider.”
He swept her into his arm and kissed her soundly before she had a chance to do anything more than say, “You are here.” No other words of welcome were allowed to be spoken. But did she care? Not one wit. Kissing was exactly how she had hoped to welcome him.
“Julian is here,” she said, once her lips were once again free to speak. “He and Samantha are in the garden sitting room.” She added this part after peeking over her shoulder to see if her sister and brother-in-law had followed her. Thankfully, they had not. “I am so glad you came.”
“You will need to thank your brother for that. He thought it would be a good show of things surrounding your returning to town a bit earlier than you normally do.” He wrapped her arm around his, and they began walking toward the gate to the garden. “Apparently, a dinner party has been arranged, since the Darcys will only be in town for a short time, before retiring to Pemberley for a few months. And I have not been granted any extended time away from my post – just a few days to see to the safety of my betrothed as she travels to join her brother. Therefore, we must not dawdle in the country but return to town as soon as is possible and proper.”
“That is a very good plan, and my brother concocted all that on his own, did he?”
Richard chuckled. “How could he have, since it was you who extended the invitation to the Darcys? The rest was all his; although, I do believe Elizabeth had a hand in part of it in an indirect fashion.”
“Mrs. Darcy inspired part of my brother’s story about your arrival and my return?”
“You would have been impressed.” He led her down a path away from the door to the garden sitting room and began to regale her with the story of the mock abduction that he had helped Elizabeth stage at the inn where he was to meet with Lillesley. “It was after this that he decided to have me come here to accompany you to London as a good faith demonstration to Elizabeth that her words about protecting those in need of protection had not fallen on dull ears.”
Harriet shook her head as she smiled broadly. “You are correct, as you often are. I am quite impressed with Mrs. Darcy.”
“She is expecting a child, but I am not to tell anyone,” Richard whispered. “Therefore, any scheming you may have in mind to do with your soon to be cousin through marriage will have to wait and likely be confined to safer pursuits that do not involve guns, knives, abductions, or criminals that are more hardened than a young child who steals a cookie or breaks a vase.”
“You do know that will not be easy, do you not?” Harriet almost teased. Her tone was teasing, but the truth that lay in the statement was just that – truth. “These past two months in the country have been rather boring, or at least they were until (name) called on us and Edmund departed for London.”
Richard had slowed his pace to nearly standing still. “What do you mean by that?” Wariness coloured his question. But who could blame him? He knew all to well the sorts of daring schemes she might take on. “What exactly have you been doing while your brother was away?”
“Oh, nothing very out of the ordinary things that women do,” she replied with an air of nonchalance. “Except, perhaps, I believe, that Samantha and I have discovered who is behind the whole operation.” Or, at least, she hoped that what she had discovered from Mrs. Cooper’s visit was the final piece of their puzzle. For she truly wished to be a married woman before Christmas.
“You will need to elaborate on that,” his tone was rather demanding and a trifle dubious.
“Truly, we did not do anything dangerous,” she assured him. “It was merely a bit of tea and all the accoutrements that accompany such a call between ladies.”
“Do you mean gossip? Are you basing your discovery on gossip?”
She shook her head. “It is based only in part on gossip. The information I have gleaned from a bit of community news, which was generously shared by Mrs. Cooper and her daughter, are details that hold a great deal in common with our current assignment. Those details are a flirtatious maid named Muriel, a family who took her to town, who had a son with a dangerously charming friend named George, whose last name likely started with a W, and the head of that family is not at his estate presently. He is, rather, in town.”
“And you discovered this over a cup of tea?” Richard asked in surprise.
“Well, not the part about Mr. (name) being in town. That information was gained at the milliner’s shop. There are two other gentlemen in the area who are not in residence as would be normal, but the one who seems the most likely to be the person in whom we are interested is Mr. (name).” She shrugged. “Edmund would not tell me the name of the gentleman in town that he wished to see.”
Richard chuckled softly. “He did mention that to me, which is another reason he gave for me to come see you.”
“He expected me to discover what he would not tell me?”
Richard nodded.
Harriet smiled. “I find I am once again impressed by my brother, for it seems he is finally realizing that I do possess some skills.”
Richard once again chuckled. “I do believe he has. Although, to be fair, he has always known you were clever.”
“Not that he ever wished to acknowledge it,” she retorted before adding, “That is not entirely true. He did used to think it was a good thing that I was inquisitive and bright, but then, he went away to war.” She snuggled into Richard’s side closer as they walked. “It changed him. And then Andrew died, and that also changed him.”
“That is understandable,” Richard murmured in agreement.
“It is, but it was not just him who was changed by those things. We were all touched by them in different ways. Not one of us was left unmarked by them. I am not certain Edmund has realized that just yet.”
They walked on for four steps in companionable stillness before Richard broke the silence by saying, “You are not just clever, my love. You are wise. And I do think your brother will come to realize that more and more as he settles into his new role. And if he stumbles along the way and it become necessary, I promise that I will help him see how wise and clever you are.”
Harriet laughed lightly. How she loved this man beside her. He knew her so well! “Is that your way of telling me that I do not need to continue to prove my cleverness and wisdom to my brother?”
“You are wise,” Richard said before kissing her fingers. “Now, I do think we should enter the house and discuss our preparations for travel.”
All the Harriet and the Colonel stories such as On the Way to a Wedding are Oxford Cottage companion stories.
