On the night of Brad’s dinner party, Ava was a bundle of nerves. What if she said or did something to embarrass him? What if she tripped and took him down with her? Or, what if his family didn’t find her interesting? She wasn’t just marrying him. When she thought about it, she realized she was marrying into his family. He already wasn’t all that interested in her. If it turned out that his family didn’t like her, it would make things much worse.
She tried to push aside her fears as she, her aunt, Timothy, and Dinah took the carriage over to his residence, but the more she tried to push the fears away, the more powerful they seemed to get.
Her aunt, seeming to read her mind, reached over to squeeze her hand in a motherly gesture. “You are a lovely girl. You have a charming way about you. They’re bound to notice that.”
“It’s not easy to be charming when you’re nervous,” Ava replied.
“What do you have to be nervous about?” Dinah asked. “You’re already betrothed to him.”
“There’s more to a relationship than getting a betrothal,” her aunt said. “The real work starts after the wedding.”
Ava wished her aunt hadn’t said that. Up to now, she had assumed once the wedding was over, everything would be a lot easier. “Just what kind of work does a lady have to do after she’s married?”
“Well,” her aunt began, “your husband is a titled gentleman, so he’ll have a lot of people to impress. He’ll want to throw dinner parties to entertain his friends and potential friends, and you’ll need to help him by entertaining the wives of these friends. You’ll also have to go to social activities with him. The Ton will judge him by how you behave. You have nothing to worry about, though. You are a lovely lady. People know that you’re charming and witty.”
The Ton also thought she had soiled her reputation by spending an afternoon in Brad’s bed. She didn’t see how she could easily bounce back from something as dramatic as that. She didn’t know if she could impress the Ton at all, much less the wives of his friends. Gentlemen were allowed a lot more indiscretions than a lady was.
The carriage pulled up to Brad’s townhouse and her aunt offered her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry. Everything will be fine. Just be yourself.”
Her aunt meant well, but all the kind words in the world weren’t going to change that article in the Tittletattle.
They got out of the carriage and went up to the door. Since Ava was too nervous to knock, her aunt did the honors, and right away, the footman opened the door and welcomed them in.
“I hope it’s all right that we’re early,” her aunt said.
“Lord Youngtown prefers it when people are early,” the footman replied. “He will be pleased by your punctuality.”
Her aunt chuckled. “In that case, it’s good that we came when we did.”
They went into the drawing room, and to Ava’s surprise, and apprehension, Brad’s brother was sipping on some brandy. He jumped up from the chair and gave them an elaborate bow. “Welcome to your future home, Miss Baynes. I see you brought your family with you.”
Because it was expected of her, Ava offered a curtsy then introduced, “This is Aunt Grace, my brother Timothy, and my sister Dinah.”
“A lovely family. We have no children here. It’s just me and my brother.” Stephen took another sip of his brandy. “Speaking of which, he says the wedding will be in four days. Do you know why it’s going to be in four days instead of three or five?”
Unsure of where he was going with this, Ava shrugged. “That’s when the vicar agreed to marry us?”
He chuckled. “One would think that. It makes the most sense. But when it comes to Brad, nothing makes sense. He chose four days because it’s an even number. He doesn’t like odd numbers. To marry at three days or five days would be marrying on an odd day. It also helps that four days from now will be an even date on the calendar. It will be the fourteenth. The fact that the number fourteen has a four in it is a bonus. You will come to learn how important even numbers are. It’s why he likes everything to be symmetrical in a room. That means there are two of everything.”
Then Stephen gestured to the walls. Ava recalled the design in the ballroom. This room was just as exact as the other room was. She had briefly noticed it on the day she’d come here under the assumption Brad had asked her to visit. She’d been too nervous and excited to pay much attention to the room then, but she studied it now.
As Stephen had said, the room was perfectly symmetrical. There was a balance to everything in it. Even the furniture was positioned in such a way as to give the proper balance to the other side of the room.
“Sometimes I move things around just to see if he’ll notice,” Stephen said. With a pointed look at Ava, he continued, “He does notice. He notices everything. Every little detail. Nothing gets past him.”
“Except a strange looking maid who is looking for a rat,” Ava blurted out before she had time to think over what she was saying.
He gave her what he probably thought was a charming smile. “You don’t hold any ill will against me for that, do you? I saw the two of you at the ball. It was obvious that you liked him. I was simply giving fate a nudge.”
Her cheeks grew hot. That wasn’t why he had done it. He had done it because she had embarrassed his brother.
“I see nothing wrong with even numbers,” her aunt spoke up. “And I see nothing wrong with a symmetrical room. If that is the greatest of Lord Youngtown’s sins, then Ava is very lucky to be marrying him.”
“You would say that since you haven’t been subjected to his idiosyncrasies every single day of your life,” Stephen said. “I assure you, after a while, it gets very annoying.”
“So, you thought you would annoy him by choosing me to be the object of the scandal?” Ava asked.
Eyes wide, Stephen grinned at her. “I had no idea you had a spark in you. You seemed like such a timid thing when you were here the other day.”
Ava was about to respond, but then she saw Brad coming into the room.
Brad went over to his brother, hands clasped behind his back. “I thought I told you to be gone by the time the guests arrived.”
“I was under the impression this was a dinner party for the entire family,” Stephen said. “I am your younger brother. Therefore, I am a part of this family. I have every right to be here tonight.”
“You didn’t listen to my exact words. I gave the invitation to welcomed members of the family.”
“And where would you have me go? I have no money.”
“I expect you to go to your bedchamber.”
“My bedchamber? There’s nothing up there of interest.”
“Read a book.”
“A book? You can’t be serious. There’s nothing more boring in this world than a book.”
“Then why don’t you find one of your friends and mooch off of them like you’ve been mooching off of me all of these years?”
“The allowance is rightfully mine. Father’s will says that you have to take care of me.”
“The will says that I have to take care of you as long as it’s practical for me to. I have decided that you are too wasteful to handle the money.”
“He did not put that in there.”
Brad nodded. “He did. But you had to read the will carefully in order to understand that. Perhaps it’s my careful attention to detail that is your undoing.”
Stephen finished his brandy then set the glass at the edge of the desk. “Very well. I wasn’t all that interested in staying. Most of you are bound to be boring anyway.” With his nose in the air, he strode out of the room.
After they heard him depart from the townhouse, Brad went over to the desk and placed the glass in the center. “Please forgive my brother,” Brad said. “I wish I could say he’s not always like this, but he is. The rest of the family members are much better. My younger sister, Loretta, will be coming with her husband, Tad Darken, the Duke of Lambeth, and their baby girl, Rosamond. They should be here any minute now.”
Noting the way her aunt looked at her expectantly, Ava hurried to introduce her brother and sister. Once the introductions were made, Brad gestured for everyone to sit, and Ava couldn’t help but notice that he was instructing who should sit where. If Stephen hadn’t made it a point to tell them how much Brad liked to position things around the room so that everything was even, she might not have noticed this. She wondered if Brad was like this in every single area of his life.
“Ava,” her aunt called out, “won’t you have a seat?”
Aware that everyone else was already in their assigned seat, she hurried to sit in hers.
“Do you really like even numbers more than odd ones?” Timothy asked Brad.
Ava shook her head at her brother. Surely, the last thing Brad wanted to talk about was the very thing his brother had been mocking him for.
But Brad spoke up, saying, “I don’t mind answering his question. It’s true. I prefer even numbers.”
“Does that go for everything?” Dinah asked, joining in on the topic.
“Yes, it does. It’s why I like symmetry in architecture and art. I find that even numbers bring about a certain balance to them. I know not everyone agrees. Some think I’m somewhat odd for thinking that way, but I have been like this ever since I was a child.”
“My favorite number is ten,” Timothy said.
“Ten is a fine number,” Brad replied. “It makes counting money a lot easier.”
“I hadn’t considered that,” Aunt Grace joined in. “But I can see how that’s true. If I have fifty farthings, it’s easier to remember than if I have something like thirty-three.”
“It’s interesting you should mention the number three,” Brad said. “I never cared much for that number. I know between me, Stephen, and Loretta, there are three of us, but I try to avoid the number three whenever possible.”
Dinah chuckled. “We have three in our family, too. Ava, Timothy, and me.”
Timothy’s eyes lit up. “If you put us all together, we make six. That’s an even number.”
Brad nodded. “That’s true, and it’s such a keen observation from someone your age.”
Timothy looked pleased by the compliment, and Ava thought it was sweet that Brad was taking the time to talk to her younger brother and sister. Since they were so young, most adults had a tendency to overlook them. But Brad was paying attention to them, and she couldn’t help but like him even more for it.
“I don’t like the number thirteen,” Timothy said.
Ava looked at her brother. She hadn’t known this. Before tonight, he’d never even mentioned not liking the number. In fact, before tonight, she didn’t even know he had a favorite number.
“I don’t blame you one bit for not liking that particular number,” Brad replied. “I don’t like it, either. Of all the numbers out there, I would say that it’s my least favorite.”
Aunt Grace’s eyebrows furrowed. “What’s wrong with the number thirteen?”
“I don’t consider myself superstitious by nature,” Brad began, “but for some reason, that particular number seems to have bad things associated with it. For instance, a gentleman I know was doing well with a certain investment until the thirteenth gentleman joined the group. After that, he lost all of the money in it.”
“There could be many reasons why he suddenly lost his money,” Ava spoke up. “It didn’t necessarily have to be because the thirteenth gentlemen joined in the investment. Maybe it was a coincidence. Maybe the investment was about to take a loss anyway.”
“That may be true,” Brad allowed. “But I have heard other stories from other gentlemen who have said the number thirteen hasn’t been good to them, either.”
Her brother nodded emphatically. “Thirteen is an unlucky number. There was a story about a gentleman, and all the bad things that ever happened to him happened on the thirteenth day of the month. For all of the other days, he was a lucky fellow. But for some reason, on the thirteenth day, he had nothing but bad luck.”
Ava laughed. “I know that story. I read it to you. It was fiction. And not only that, but it was supposed to scare you. That’s why all those bad things happened to him. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have been scared.”
“Of all the scary stories you read to me,” Timothy began, “I can’t remember any of them mentioning any number besides thirteen.”
“That’s because there’s an element in truth in all fiction,” Brad replied.
It was on the tip of Ava’s tongue to continue with the argument, but what was the point? If they wanted to believe there was some magical quality to the number thirteen, who was she to stand in their way? They were here to get acquainted with Brad and his family, not to have a pointless discussion about numbers.
Ava settled back in her chair while Timothy proceeded to tell Brad the details about the story she had read to him. Once Timothy was done telling Brad about the story, Dinah chimed in with a few of her own favorite stories.
As she was telling them, Ava noticed that Brad kept looking over at the clock above the fireplace mantle. Wondering what fascinated him so much, she took a good look at it, but she didn’t see anything unusual. It looked like any other clock, except that it was a perfect circle that matched the circular mirror on the opposite wall.
It took her a couple of minutes to realize he wasn’t fascinated with the clock so much as he was the time. His invitation had stated that dinner would be served at seven, and right now, it was 6:38. He had requested that everyone arrive by 6:30. Given the way he kept shifting in the chair and glancing at the clock, she deducted that he was wondering when his sister and her family would arrive.
Loretta and her husband didn’t show up until 6:41. Ava noticed the relief on Brad’s face as soon as the footman led them into the drawing room. Ava couldn’t make out whether he was relieved because they had finally shown up or because he was worried he would have to entertain her and her family all by himself for the entire dinner. She recalled the footman’s warning that Brad liked people to be on time for things, so that could very well be it. But considering this marriage wasn’t based on ideal circumstances, it could very well be the other reason.
Loretta, who was holding her infant daughter in her arms, offered an apology as she sat on the settee with her husband. “Rosamond decided she was hungry right before we were due to leave, and after we fed her, she soiled her diaper.”
Aunt Grace laughed. “Isn’t that the way of babies? They don’t mind anyone’s schedule but their own.”
“Yes, well, I know my brother gets anxious when people aren’t exactly on time for his dinner parties,” Loretta replied, giving Brad another apologetic smile. “We had planned to be here early. It really wasn’t our intention to be late.”
Brad offered her an understanding smile. “I know things happen that make people arrive late. You have no control over what Rosamond does. I’m just glad you’re all here tonight. It’s important to me that our families get acquainted with each other.”
He proceeded to make the introductions, and from there, the topic turned to the baby and before long, the butler announced that dinner was ready.