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LORD EDWARD
GILBERT
He was more of a father
to Whitney than her real father. He brought her with them
to France when his father has given up with her and have
loved her like her own daughter.
*********
A month later, she slid
into her chair and flutter a silken fan, eyeing her uncle
with a speculative sparkle over the slats. “Are you
over-warm, my dear?” Edward asked her, already into the
spirit of the inevitable fun.
“A fan is not really for
cooling oneself," Whitney advised him, batting her ling
eyelashes with and exaggerated coquetry that made Anne
burst out laughing. “ A fan is for flirting. It is also
for keeping one’s hands gracefully occupied. And for
slapping the arm of a gentleman who is too forward.”
The laughter vanished
from Edward’s face. “What gentleman has become too
forward?” he demanded tersely.
“Why, no one has. I
don’t know any gentleman yet,” Whitney replied.
Anne watched the two of
them, her smile filled with joy, for Whitney now occupied
the place in Edward’s heart, and hers, that would have
been their own daughter’s.
**********
“We’ll miss you, child.
You have been a blessing and a joy to us both.”
Whitney’s gaiety fled,
and fresh tears stung her eyes. “Oh, Uncle Edward,” she
whispered brokenly, “I shall never love any man as much as
I love you.”
To his acute dismay,
Edward felt his eyes misting. He opened his arms wide, and
his niece came into them. When at last the storm of
emotions had passed, the three of them stood looking
sheepishly at one another, each clutching a handkerchief.
Edward was the first to speak. “Well now, England isn’t
the end of the world, is it?”
“It – it isn’t exactly
next door, either,” Whitney said, dabbing at her eyes.
“You know, my dear,” he
said thoughtfully, ‘you might like to have your aunt come
with you.” He peered over his spectacles at Whitney.
“Would that please you?”
“Yes!” she shrieked,
laughing. “Yes, yes, yes!”
Edward hugged her and
looked over her shoulder at his beaming wife. The smile of
gratitude that she gave him was compensation enough for
his sacrifice. “I’ve been postponing a journey to Spain,”
he said. “When the two of you leave, I’ll be about the
kingdom’s business there. After a stop or two along the
way, I’ll come to England to congratulate that laggard
you’ll be betrothed to, and I’ll bring your aunt back home
with me with I leave.
Now that he had the
satisfaction of outmaneuvering Martin Stone by sending
Anne along to be certain Whitney got off to the right
start, Edward relented on his original decision about the
extravagant sum Martin had sent for Whitney to spend.
Accordingly, his ladies set out on a round of shopping
excursions which began in the morning and ended with just
enough time to dress for the evening’s festivities or
collapse in bed.
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