Free First Comes Marriage by Mary Balogh

great deal to all my sisters, but especially to Meg. Of course they must come with me if I go—which I daresay I will. They must come because I insist upon it. I will not go without them, in fact. What would I do rattling around in a large ancestral home on my own, anyway? I take it Warren Hall is large?”

    The viscount inclined his head while Meg gazed at Stephen in some astonishment.

    “And what sort of a wealthy, influential earl would I be,” Stephen continued, “if I left my sisters behind in a cottage like this when they have been prepared to sacrifice almost their last penny to send me to university later this year when I am eighteen? No, Lord Lyngate, Meg and Kate will go with me. And Nessie too if she wishes or can be persuaded. I daresay she would not enjoy being left at Rundle Park if we were all gone.”

    They might all go without her? Vanessa thought, appalled. She might lose her whole family at once? Of course she would go with them.

    “You must admit, Elliott,” Mr. Bowen said, “that it is a sensible suggestion. The boy has his mind made up, and he will have a steady home life if his sisters are with him. He is going to need it. And they are now the sisters of an earl. It would be more fitting for them to live at Warren Hall than here.”

    Viscount Lyngate looked about the room with raised eyebrows and at each of them in turn.

    “In time, yes,” he said. “But preferably not yet. They would all need to be educated and clothed and a thousand and one other things. They would all have to be presented at court and then to the ton . The task would be monumental.”

    Vanessa drew a slow breath. If he had redeemed himself in her eyes just a fraction of a degree last evening while they danced, he had just plummeted to the depths again. He saw them—all of them, even Meg—as a monumental liability. A nuisance. Nobodies. Country bumpkins. She drew breath to speak.

    But Stephen seemed not to have seen or heard anything amiss—or anything at all that the viscount had said. He had asserted himself, tested the wings of early manhood in light of the almost incredible announcement that had just been made to him. But he was still very much an exuberant boy too.

    “I say.” He got to his feet again and beamed around on them all. “We are going to Warren Hall, Meg. You will have a come-out Season in London among the ton, Kate. And you will be back living with us, Nessie. Oh, this is famous!” He rubbed his hands together and then reached out to hug Katherine.

    Vanessa could not spoil the moment for him. But when she glanced at Viscount Lyngate, not even trying to hide her annoyance, she found that he was looking back at her, his eyebrows raised.

    She pressed her lips tightly together.

    But then she did smile and even laugh as Stephen pulled her up from her chair, lifted her off her feet, and twirled her once about.

    “This is famous !” he exclaimed again.

    “Indeed it is,” she agreed fondly.

    “We had better go over to Rundle Park,” he said, “to tell Sir Humphrey and Lady Dew. And to the vicarage to tell the vicar. And to—Oh, Lord.” He sat down abruptly and turned pale again. “Oh, Lord.”

    Viscount Lyngate got to his feet.

    “We will leave you all to digest the news,” he said. “But we will return this afternoon to discuss some of the details. There is no time to delay.”

    Margaret had risen too.

    “We will not delay, my lord,” she said firmly. “But you must not expect us to be ready to leave tomorrow or the next day or even the next. We will leave as soon as we are ready. We have lived here in Throckbridge all our lives. We have roots here as deep as those you probably have in your home. You must give us time to pull them

    free.”

    “Ma’am.” The viscount bowed to her.

    He had come here, Vanessa realized, expecting to use his power and consequence to strike awe into them so that he could bear Stephen off to his new life tomorrow . Without his sisters.

    How