Edward's Letter

Drake smiled to find his lord working in the study again. It was another step, Drake thought. The Earl had stopped pacing around at night, too--at least most nights. And he had spent more time with his son, making the nurse breech him so he could be "a little man". Working in his study, which he had done when the Countess was alive, was just another step.
"The post, sir. A letter from a Mr. Farrier in Bath."

"Edward? What does he want? I thought they only planned to be in Bath a week."

"I don't know, my lord." Drake went over to the bookshelf and swiped it for dust. Behind him he could hear the Earl searching for the letter opener, then finding it, and the the slicing of the paper. The Earl was unfolding the paper now, and from the sound of it he was tapping the letter opener on the desk, which was bad for the wood...
Suddenly the tapping stopped.
"My lord?"

"Good God."
There was a definitive silence which Drake seriously hoped could be acounted for solely by one of the Earl's excessive bouts of melodrama. He rather felt he shouldn't ask, however.
"Poor Edward..."
"Is the Gentlemen alright?"
"He's--engaged."
"You don't seem pleased."
"Only worried, Drake. He's engaged to Davina."

"Mrs. Wells?"
"Precisely. It appears they met in Bath."
"She's a bit old for marriage, wouldn't you say, my lord?"
"41. Two years younger than him. But they're both old. I--I suppose he'll lend her his purse, and she'll leave him to his books, and it will be a marriage of the utmost convenience."
"Surely it could be something more..."
"You have not seen the lady, Drake. She's formidable. Edward was probably just crushed by the weight of her presence and proposed as a defence mechanism..."
Drake realized the Earl had indeed gone off on a fit of melodrama after all, and turned to see if the books themselves needed dusting.

"They've invited me to their wedding in the spring. In London. Imagine it!--with Davina's taste it will be an atrocity, no doubt."
Drake wondered if the Earl would really go. "What will you do, my lord?"

"Do? I'll dance at their wedding!Press my best cravat!"