The Legacy and Other Stories by Edith Layton

Author:Edith Layton [Layton, Edith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Regency Romance
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Published: 2020-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Something Blue

It wasn’t as if she was eavesdropping. It was her wedding they were talking about, after all.

If it was someone else’s wedding it would be eavesdropping, June told herself. And it wasn’t as if she was lurking, or anything like that. Her hand was on the door when she heard her name and she paused, that was all. She’d just stepped out to visit the Necessary and was returning to rejoin the company. And it was her home—her aunt’s house, to be exact, and they were her guests—her aunt’s guests, really—since she herself didn’t know that many people in London yet. But Aunt had said she should consider it her home, and they had all said they were her friends…

But no matter how she convinced herself she was right—the old saying was even more so. She heard ill of herself. Worse, she heard ill of him. And that made her ill.

“‘Something old’?” one female voice said merrily. “Why, our June’s already got that—her name, of course. Her family’s been around since the Conqueror.”

“As has his,” another put in, with a hint of jealousy in her voice.

“‘Something new’ is easy enough too, they’ve ordered up enough wedding clothes to see her through a decade—and doubtless, he’ll buy her anything she likes for that new home of theirs…”

There was a silence as the girls in the drawing room contemplated that. Few brides of their station actually got to move into new homes. They did move into ancestral piles and often shared the family mansion with their husband’s parents or his other siblings. But the gentleman in question was a younger son with no entailed properties who had enough money to buy a new estate for his bride. And he’d gone and done it. A huge place, it was said, with many acres.

“As for ‘borrowed,’ I suppose there’s no problem there, anyone will lend a bride anything,” another voice finally said peevishly.

“Nor does she have to worry about anything ‘blue,’” some one of them snapped spitefully, “for there’s her bridegroom, isn’t there?”

June’s hand flew to her stomach as though she’d been punched and she froze on the other side of the half-opened door.

“Yes! He has had the blue megrims lately, hasn’t he? Did you see his face last night at the theater?” another voice said gleefully. “Everyone was talking about it. Nothing could make him smile. Not even the pantomime!”

“Certainly not the thought of his coming marriage,” one of them added with immense satisfaction.

“He is blue-deviled these days, isn’t he? In spite of the fact she’s got many a sixpence in her shoe,” another girl said with a laugh.

“And there’s our rhyme complete: an old name, new clothes, a borrowed trinket, a blue groom, and all the sixpence she needs! She’s got it all, what a lucky bride,” one of the girls said, giggling.

“It might be just the opposite of what you’re thinking”—a soft voice chided them—“because she didn’t look very merry either. Maybe they’d had a spat, and he was worried she’d change her mind.

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