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"Really, Anne, you cannot expect to hold a wedding before midsummer." Elizabeth let the smallest suggestion of a wrinkle furrow her brow before turning her attention to Mrs. Croft who silently settled her teacup into the saucer and listened with seeming attentiveness.
"The viscountess herself has said that is simply is not done to hold a wedding during Lent or even to post the banns," Elizabeth explained. "There can be no greater affront than to go against her express guidance. Anne must put aside her fancies and do what is best for the family. What is right."
Sophia Croft placed her empty teacup on the table and shot a quick, commiserating look at her future sister-in-law, quietly . "Why, I can see how you do not wish to offend the viscountess-" she began, only to have Elizabeth overrun her words.
"Wish? Wish? She is our cousin and we cannot offend her. There is no one more valuable to the family's consequence although Anne refuses to acknowledge in how great a debt we stand to our noble relation." Elizabeth stiffened her spine.
Anne sighed gently and subtly extended her hand in the direction of their guest, indicating through gesture rather than words that the admiral's wife was not to fret over her sister's crotchets. "I respect the viscountess' feelings but as we will make but a small wedding, with no notice at all, this is hardly the type of wedding ceremony which you discussed in our visit."
Seeing by Elizabeth's elevating eyebrow that the elder Miss Elliot was unwilling to concede, Anne deployed her final weapon. "And this is the decision of my future husband who cannot spend the entire year away from his duties. We are to be wed in short order, quietly, and after a honeymoon at Kellynch, we will depart to Portsmouth where I can take up the life of a navy wife."
Anne smiled, widely and with happy anticipation at the last thought. She could endure all of her family's complaints as long as marriage to Frederick was in the offing. And as their many hours in close company together had shown since his impassioned letter of the week past, her fiance was entirely in agreement.
"But now it is time for our leave-taking," Sophia Croft observed. "The Admiral and I are indebted to you and your father, Miss Elliott, for granting us her company at our small family dinner tonight in advance of tomorrow's return to Kellynch."
Elizabeth waved one hand dismissively as she rose to her feet, ready to escort the other women to the door more out of habit than real courtesy. Anne paused to thank the manservant who assisted her with donning her pelisse while Elizabeth delivered one final lecture to their departing visitor. "Anne is obstinate in her readiness to quit Bath. You will find her quite the most fixed character imaginable. I cannot believe that she would rather spend March at Kellynch, where it is still quite dreary, rather than here with her family. But clearly, that is what she will for she has all of her goods packed since yestere'en, I believe."
Sophia Croft smiled but with enough of an edge that Anne could read her irritation. "We are all happiness that Anne and Frederick are to join us in the countryside. After all, soon she is to be part of our family, so her change of allegiance and venue is perhaps understandable?"
With that, the admiral's wife and Anne swept out of the Elliot's rented townhouse, navigating their way back to the genteel hotel where the Crofts had made home for the past weeks.
"I am all admiration, madam, for your masterful handling of matters there," Anne confessed as they made their way past the elegant stone facades.
Sophia Croft smiled mischievously. "Sophie, please, I insist. And after ten minutes in your sister's company, I consider myself masterful for resisting a direct attack. The Admiral says that I have too impulsive and direct a nature so I strive to temper my temper, as it were. It is a Wentworth failing, you should know, although Frederick would hate for me to tell you all of our secrets."
Anne nodded as the two women picked up their pace in the face of a chilly afternoon breeze. "I will keep our secret close."
***
The women were surprised upon entry to the Croft's comfortable suite of rooms to see Frederick distractedly pacing. "Ah, there you are," he said with palpable frustration. "There is little time to waste!"
Sophia arched an eyebrow at her brother's expostulation before turning to the admiral who regarded the newcomers with far greater restraint. It was to him that she addressed her question. "Whatever is the matter?"
"Sophie, my dear, it is a damnable thing. Napoleon has escaped from Elba!" The admiral appeared to take the former emperor's eluding of his captors as a personal affront, so high was his colour.
Anne stepped quickly over to Frederick's side. "Is it true?" she whispered. At Frederick's tight expression and quick nod, she felt herself blanch.
Her attentive husband-to-be proved himself observant as he guided her to the nearby chaise. Anne perched lightly on the stylish ivory seat and picked at the buttons of her pelisse before she accepted Frederick's solicitous hand upon hers. "Whatever shall we do?" Anne asked.
"Well, the navy will not wait on Napoleon, of that you can be sure," Admiral Croft said. "But we must regroup. Half the fleet is under repair or without crews. We're all at sixes and sevens. We will have to make our way back to Portsmouth in short order. At least Frederick and I will."
Sophia Croft intervened, laying her hand upon her husband's forearm. "You will not go alone." She started to look around their rooms, clearly sizing up how quickly they could be readied to leave.
Frederick looked up from his close regard of Anne's returning colour. "No more shall we, on that point I agree. But first, Anne and I must be wed."
Anne felt for one moment as if the solid chaise had been swept out from beneath her by a rogue tide. Before she could stammer out a question, the admiral intervened. "Yes, while you ladies were over making nice with Anne's family, Frederick made haste to the bishop's residence. He has a special license and downstairs there's a fellow from his staff who's ready to tie the knot."
Frederick gripped her hand all the more tightly, drawing Anne's gaze to meet his steadfast regard. "Will you marry me, Anne? Now?"
The smile that spread across her face was as bright as the sun beginning to lower on the unseen horizon. "Yes," she breathed.
***
After the wedding at which the nervous young clergyman painstakingly officiated, Anne accepted congratulations from her beaming sister and the admiral along with the glass of cordial brought up on orders of the hotelier. Her eyes frequently fell to the chased gold ring encircling the fourth finger of her left hand - it had been hastily dug out of Sophie's jewelry box.
"Our grandmother's," the older woman had explained in the few minutes Anne had to tidy her appearance before the ceremony. "Frederick will not have had the chance to search out a ring for you and, to my taste, he could not find better than this."
Anne had fervently agreed then and she smiled absently now as she turned the metal on her finger after the company had bid farewell to the stammering young canon who had conducted the wedding.
"How goes it, my wife?" Frederick asked as he assumed the seat beside her and took her hand in his own.
"I am all happiness," Anne assured her new husband with an easy smile at the happy knowledge that no one and nothing could separate them now. "My only worry is how my family will take this news."
"We are your family now, Anne," Sophie Croft interrupted. "You need not fear what your father and sister will make of your wedding. We should send one of the manservants here to their residence to fetch your trunks. Why do you not send a note along or Frederick may write one instead if you wish? I have pen and paper here if you will."
Anne paused to consider those options before disengaging her fingers from Frederick's with a regretful sigh. "It is only one trunk, already packed, and a small valise that the maid can quickly prepare. I will write myself although it is tempting to let Frederick take the blame. To be honest, I do not expect either my father or sister to see this until the morrow. They were off to the Dalrymples' this evening for dinner-"
"Then, mark my words, they will not register anything not of the peerage until the morrow," the admiral said with a suppressed chuckle at the mystifying ways of the Elliots.
Anne nodded as she took a seat at the small escritoire and hastily penned two notes. The first was brief directions to the maid, Lucy, who had attended her during her weeks in Bath. In the folded note Anne tucked a small coin from her purse as thanks for the young woman's service. The longer note advised the Elliots that Anne and Frederick had been quietly wed with the bishop's permission and were off to Portsmouth with the admiral and his wife.
"Or we will be, tomorrow morning," Frederick observed as she sanded the letter before folding it for the manservant's delivery. "For the roads are in no fit shape for a hard run by night and I do not believe the situation calls for such a drastic response."
Anne thought back to their fraught return from Lyme in November. That had been a terribly night as they hastened back to Uppercross uncertain about Louisa's chances for recovery. To have come from that dark point to this happy end for all in three short months filled her with a sense of wonder.
"I am grateful for that," Anne said in an unsteady voice.
"As you should be," her new sister advised playfully. "My husband is a seaman and none too fond of rattling about in a coach, particularly not through the night."
The admiral nodded as he offered his arm to his wife. "As usual, my dear, you are right. Now let us take ourselves off for supper. Weddings are hungry work!"
"As if you had anything to do with this one," his wife chided affectionately. "However, I agree, it is past time for our meal, particularly if you hope for an early start on the morrow!"
"Mrs. Wentworth?" Frederick asked and it took Anne more than a moment to realize that he meant herself. With a blush, she nodded and accepted his escort out of the Croft's sitting room to the hotel's elegant dining hall. There the two couples enjoyed a quiet meal that had not half of the circumstance attendant upon the viscountess' table but all of the warmth and true friendship that Anne cherished.
***
"Do you require any assistance tonight? Should we ask for a maid?" Sophie's gentle question as they paused in the hallway prompted an immediate negation.
"No, I shall be fine," Anne replied but she softened her denial with a quick hug offered to her new sister. "Thank you for everything, Sophie."
"It is my pleasure, Anne," Sophie said. "The admiral and I will see you two early tomorrow. We shall be two full days on the road to Portsmouth."
"That's if nothing goes awry," her husband offered darkly. "Which it usually does if one's in a hurry so we will take matters slowly if aught arises.."
With that, the Crofts made their goodnights, leaving Frederick and Anne to what she realized with a thudding heartbeat, was to be their wedding night.
"If you would rather," Frederick offered hesitantly, "I could organize another room for myself. We are to be off early and you have had no chance to prepare yourself-"
His voice died away with Anne's gentle fingers raised to his lips. "You shall not," she commanded quietly. "We have let years roll by. I will not let another night go to waste. Do you understand?"
His sunny grin showed he did but even more convincing was how Frederick swiftly ushered Anne into their rooms. The hotel staff had brought in her valise with the clothes she'd readied in anticipation of their travelling to Kellynch, Anne noticed, even as she registered Frederick's possessions neatly arrayed nearby.
"Should I summon a maid?" Frederick asked as he shucked off his close-fitting navy jacket and slung it easily over the back of a chair. His cravat soon followed and Anne found herself entranced by the glimpse of the warm skin of his throat.
Anne shook her head shyly as she laid her reticule down beside her valise, and reached up one hand to loosen her hair. "I would rather have your assistance."
At that, Frederick was close before her, drawing her into his embrace. "There is nothing else in the world that I would be doing at this moment," he whispered before she rose on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his.
Anne felt his hands slide up the bare, sensitive skin of her arms to finger the lace edging of her forest green sleeves before slipping up further to trace along the bare skin revealed by her neckline. She spread her own fingers against his shirt front and smiled against his lips before losing all track of things in their long-awaited wedding night.
***
The first light of dawn rosily illuminated the drapes covering the curtain of their hotel room when Anne muzzily awoke. Nestled against Frederick's side, she felt his hand, warm and firm, lightly squeeze her hip.
"I regret to say, Anne dearest, but it is morning."
She rolled over at her husband's rumbling observation, arching back her neck so that she could see his loving regard. His face was darkened with stubble and his eyes bore slight circles from sleeplessness. Anne blushed to recall what had kept both of them from sleep for much of the long night.
"Morning and we must soon be off," Anne said. Leaning forward to plant a kiss upon his lips, she rolled slowly away, evading his lazy reach.
"Frederick," she chided. "We will be remarked upon!"
With a sigh, he too rose from the bed, making his way over to the room's side door. Anne let her eyes linger upon his fine form as he passed through into what she assumed was a dressing room. She hurriedly rose and pulled on a chemise before splashing herself liberally with cold water, feeling her skin flush again at the memories of last night.
Soon the bustle of the day was upon them. Anne ducked her head at her new family's light teasing while they made a quick breakfast before departing.
"It will be two days to Portsmouth," grumbled the admiral, as he followed the ladies into the coach. "And that is if we encounter no difficulties."
"True," Frederick said as he followed his brother-in-law into the coach, taking Anne's gloved hand in his as he settled down in the rear-facing seat. "However, this is one journey I will not regret if it is greatly prolonged. There are many comfortable inns between Bath and Portsmouth." His last comment was made with a cheeky grin that caused his sister to fondly 'tsk' and the admiral to guffaw from the opposite seat of the carriage, bouncing into motion.
Anne's radiant smile was all the confirmation anyone needed that, in this belief, Frederick was far from alone.