Willingden

The bright sunshine tempted Charlotte out of doors, although it really was too chilly a morning to sit in the garden with a book, as she had originally intended. Charlotte decided to take a few turns about the garden instead, enjoying the sensation of the light frost crunching beneath her boots as she walked. Her cheeks turned rosy from the air, and she was debating with herself whether or not to return indoors when Alison came running into the garden.

"Charlotte, he is come! He is come!" she exclaimed, her eyes bright with excitement.

"Who has come?" Charlotte asked, turning to her sister in surprise. For sure, it was early in the day for Mr. Taylor to call, nor did Charlotte think his arrival would cause this flurry of excitement. Certainly Mr. Taylor's visits were now a commonplace enough occurrence that Alison would have no need to come running to tell Charlotte that he had arrived.

"Mr. Parker!" Alison responded, grabbing Charlotte's hand and beginning to tug her inside. "You must come at once!"

"Mr. Tom?" Charlotte began to worry that Tom would only have made the journey if something had befallen Mary or one of the children. "Did he say why he has arrived so suddenly?" Her mind darted from possibility to possibility, each worse than the last.

"No, not Mr. Tom, you ninny," Alison said in exasperation, still trying to pull her sister towards the house. "Mr. Sidney Parker has come." Charlotte froze, rooted to the ground, and not all of Alison's tugs were able to budge her. "Come on, Charlotte. He is waiting in the parlour!"

"Are you certain?" Charlotte could barely find her voice, overcome by confusion. "You are surely mistaken. Why would he come?" She was unable to stop the hope that had blossomed the moment Alison had uttered his name, yet fearing that there must be some other reason why Sidney would have come to Willingden.

"I am not mistaken," Alison insisted. "He introduced himself to Papa and Mamma as Mr. Sidney Parker, and Mamma sent me to fetch you. I heard it all myself. If you need further proof, I suggest you go into the parlour and see for yourself."

Charlotte let her sister bring her inside, but paused again outside the parlour door. She looked down at her brown day dress, and then up at her sister in alarm. Her hands flew to her hair, which had been blowing in the winter breeze. "I cannot go see him now," she whispered frantically. "I must look a fright! Can you stall for me, Alison? Five minutes, that is all. I will be quick."

"You look fine," Alison said, using her fingers to comb through Charlotte's hair and give it some semblance of order. "Your cheeks are rosy, your eyes are bright, and I would be very surprised if he even notices what you wear. Now go!" Alison opened the door of the parlour, and gave Charlotte a nudge. Charlotte turned to glare at her, before squaring her shoulders and entering into the parlour, her eyes on the tall figure seated next to her mother by the fireplace.

It was unmistakably Sidney Parker. Charlotte had not quite let go of her doubt that Alison had perhaps misheard, and that a different Parker brother would be found in the room. There was no mistaking him, however. She heard his voice, saw his profile, his smile as he spoke politely with her mother. His eyes kept flicking towards the door, and he rose from his chair the moment he noticed Charlotte enter the room.

"Good day, Miss Heywood," Sidney said, his eyes locked on Charlotte's and he bowed. "I hope you will forgive my unexpected appearance. I was just apologizing to Mrs. Heywood for giving no notice of my coming." Despite his polished manners, Charlotte could instantly discern that Mr. Parker was not at ease, and this heightened her conviction that he must be there to share news of some misfortune.

"As I said, there is no need for apologies, Mr. Parker," Mrs. Heywood graciously responded. "We are rather secluded here at Willingden, you know, and unexpected visitors provide both news and entertainment. I am sure you have done us, and the entire neighbourhood, a service by not sending notice." Charlotte was unable to say anything, still rather flummoxed at the sight of Sidney Parker standing in her family home. She did not know how to look or what to feel. Sidney's eye, still locked on hers, were bright and intense, and she felt she could not breathe for all the emotions she read in them.

"Charlotte, have you nothing to say to Mr. Parker?" Mr. Heywood's voice cut through Charlotte's paralysis, and she flushed to have been caught staring at Sidney so openly.

"Of course, I…sorry…good day, Mr. Parker," Charlotte stammered, feeling more foolish by the moment. "I hope you have left Miss Parker and Mr. Arthur well? And Miss Lambe?"

"Yes, yes, they are all very well, and desired me to send you their love," Sidney replied. Charlotte was not sure if she had imagined the slightest emphasis on his final word. "I fear I have surprised you too much with my sudden arrival, Miss Heywood. I hope you are not displeased with me." He could not tear his eyes away from her, and was uncomfortably aware that they had an audience.

"Yes…I mean, no, I am not at all displeased. But I am surprised," Charlotte owned, trying to gather her wits about her. If her friends in London were all well, then he had not come to share bad news concerning them. But what other reason could he have to come seek her out in this manner? "I assume you must be heading towards a different destination, and have decided to stop in Willingden along the way?"

"As a matter of fact, Willingden is my only destination. I left London this morning," he replied.

"You must have started your trip early, Mr. Parker," Mr. Heywood said. "Pray, what brings you to come to so remote a place on a blustery winter day?"

"I had hoped for an audience with Miss Heywood, sir," Sidney said frankly. "If she will hear me, of course." There was an immediate silence, as Mr. Heywood looked to his wife, and Mrs. Heywood looked to their daughter. Everything she needed to know was written on Charlotte's face.

"You must have had a cold journey, Mr. Parker, and would be the better for some refreshment. I will go see to it, while you speak with Charlotte. Mr. Heywood, I believe that the lads had been wanting to speak with you this morning about some matter concerning the horses?" Mrs. Heywood rose, and signaled to Mr. Heywood to accompany her from the room.

"What? Yes, yes, quite right, Mrs. Heywood. The horses. Rather urgent, that, so I will go see to it directly." He offered his wife his arm, and the two left the parlour, Mrs. Heywood gently closing the door behind them. Charlotte watched her parents leave, bemused, and then turned back to Sidney.

Within moments of the door closing, Sidney crossed the room to her. "Miss Heywood…" he began, but stopped, suddenly unable to find the words he had rehearsed during the carriage ride. He tried again. "I hardly know where to begin." She opened her mouth to reply, but he cut her off. "I would have come yesterday, but Georgiana advised against it."

"Yesterday? Georgiana? Mr. Parker, I do not understand. Has something happened?" Her earlier fear that some other misfortune had befallen her friends returned, and she searched his countenance for some clue as to why he had come. "Tom? Mary and the children? Are they alright?"

"I am such a fool- I have frightened you. They are all fine!" Sidney reassured her. "My reason for coming has nothing to do with any of my family or our mutual friends. I have come because, quite simply, I could not stay away."

"Mr. Parker…" Charlotte warned, taking a step back from him.

"You promised you would listen to me, Charlotte," he said urgently, stepping closer to her again. "Would you renege on your word?"

"I said I would listen if you were at liberty!" she cried. "Unless that has changed, you should not be here!"

"Of course it has changed!" he retorted. "Why else would I have come?" Charlotte opened her mouth to snap back at him, paused as his meaning sunk in, and closed her mouth. She blinked at him once, twice, and said nothing. He took her hand, and drew her closer to him. "I am not engaged, Charlotte," he said, his voice gentle, "though I sincerely hope that will change within the next five minutes."

"I do not understand," Charlotte said again, though she did not attempt to move away from him. "What are you saying?"

"I have made rather a mess of this, haven't I?" Sidney replied, with a self-deprecating smile. "Mrs. Campion is to marry Lord Hampton in a matter of weeks. She has released me from my obligation to her."

"You are free?" she whispered, her expressive eyes showing a glimmer of tears of relief.

"I am free," he confirmed. "I am free, and I am yours, if you will have me. Charlotte, please tell me that I am not too late, and that you will do me the honour of becoming my wife."

"Yes," Charlotte replied, laughing through her tears. "You know my answer is yes." After a few minutes of reaffirming their love for one another, Charlotte began to regain her capacity for rational thought, and asked Sidney to account for this remarkable change in his circumstances.

"I hardly know how to explain it," Sidney said, showing Charlotte the letter he had received from Eliza. "Not the day prior, she had been energetically describing the flower arrangements, and then suddenly I am told that she will be marrying someone else."

"And is it certain, absolutely certain, that she has released you?" Charlotte asked. After all that she and Sidney had gone through to get to this point, Charlotte was unwilling to leave any part to chance.

"Quite certain. I paid a call on her yesterday immediately after receiving her note," Sidney explained, and then went on to describe his final interview with Mrs. Campion. "It was quite an awkward scene, to tell the truth. What is the proper etiquette when thanking a lady for coming to her senses and sparing you both from the misery of an unsuitable marriage?"

"What did she say to you? How did she look?"

"She looked bored, if anything. She did not say much, and the conversation was not a long one. She said that she had come to realize that she would be happier with a different sort of man, just as she assumed that I preferred a very different sort of woman. I think she must have been alluding to you. I did not ask her how long she had been considering ending the engagement. I only wished to confirm that it was, in fact, dissolved."

"Then you had no prior indication that she was considering Lord Hampton?" Charlotte asked.

"None whatsoever. They had a bit of a flirtation, but that is too common in London society for me to have been rendered suspicious on that basis alone. I would certainly never have assumed that he would have the presumption to make an offer to an engaged woman. Arthur, of all people, has reminded me that Eliza's behaviour should not have come as a surprise. This is, after all, the second time she has tossed me aside in favour of a more advantageous fiancé."

Charlotte, for her part, shared with him the plan devised by Lady Susan, and aided by Lady Babington, and Sidney expressed his deep admiration for the cleverness of both women. He was quick to agree with their assessment of Eliza's character, and perfectly willing to give them as much of the credit for his present happiness as they could have wished. His only regret, he acknowledged, was that their plan had not moved along more quickly.

When Mrs. Heywood returned to the parlour some fifteen minutes later- having found numerous reasons why the refreshments could not possibly have been brought even a moment sooner- she did not comment on how closely Mr. Parker was seated next to her daughter, or that his hand seemed to be holding hers, before Mr. Parker rose. As fluently as he could manage, he expressed his intentions towards Miss Heywood, and asked for directions to where he might find Mr. Heywood. Mrs. Heywood waved him back towards his seat, and handed him a plate of sandwiches.

"There is no urgency in seeking out Mr. Heywood," she explained, taking a seat herself. "For one, he will be along directly. And surely it will not surprise you, Mr. Parker, to learn that in this house it is the opinion of the Heywood women that you need contend with first."

"Mamma!" Charlotte cried, flushing, while Sidney gave her a sly smile.

"They say the apple does not fall far from the tree, Mrs. Heywood," he replied.

"Indeed, it does not, Mr. Parker. Luckily for you, I have already decided in your favour."

When Mr. Heywood joined them in the parlour, he made no difficulty over giving his consent, and the gentleman agreed to discuss the terms of the engagement the following day. It was fixed that Mr. Parker would remain at Willingden for at least three days, to further his acquaintance with the rest of the family, and to enjoy Charlotte's company. They were three days of peaceful bliss for both Charlotte Sidney, utterly free from the strain and suffering that each had experienced over the past several months. They met at breakfast each morning, and scarcely spent a moment apart until it was time to retire for the night, and every interaction and circumstance from the entire course of their relationship was given ample time to be discussed and dissected again and again.

"It occurs to me, Charlotte," Sidney began during one of their walks in the garden, "that I still have never answered your question."

"My question?" Charlotte repeated, mystified.

"Yes, the one you asked me months ago, at the regatta. It was after my stupid remark about Heraclitus. You must remember," he replied. "You asked me what it is that I want from you. I was too slow to respond to you at the time, and have never since told you my answer."

"I remember now. You stood gaping at me, like a very handsome fish," she playfully remarked. "It was rather bold of me to pose such a question. But I think you like my boldness, so I will ask you again. What is it you want from me, Mr. Parker?

"Everything," he replied simply. He stopped walking, and took her hand, raising it to his lips. "I want a home, a family, a life with you beside me."

"Sidney…" she said softly, overcome with emotion, but he was not finished.

"I think that moment was when I first began to know myself," he told her, lowering her hand, but retaining it in his grasp. "The look in your eyes, when you asked me if you were only a jest to me…it struck me like a dagger. I could hardly speak, from the sudden knowledge that you were more to me than any other woman I knew. And just as I was beginning to realize that I loved you, you were demanding that I leave you alone and running away from me. I felt a proper idiot, I assure you."

"I thought you were toying with me," Charlotte explained. "I had already begun to love you, you see, and then you showed up at the regatta with Mrs. Campion. I knew I could not compete with her, given your history."

"How wrong you were, my Charlotte. You had already won, only I was too caught up in my own past to see it. I do not think there was ever any competition. I had long stopped loving Eliza, even before returning to England, and it had already been many weeks since you were the only woman I thought of. At first I thought it was because I found you infuriating, but in truth I think I was captivated by you from the very start."

Charlotte shook her head at that, smiling as she reminded him, "You thought me a silly, frivolous henwit at the very start, and you know it. You cannot expect me to believe that you secretly liked me when we first met."

"It would be more accurate to say that I refused to like you," Sidney confessed. "And yet, I could not walk down the street without looking around first to see if you were nearby. I told myself that it was so that I could avoid you, but the truth is, Charlotte, that I devoted more time to thinking about you than I ever would have admitted."

"You certainly hid it well! You told me that you did not think of me at all, and that you did not care what I think or how I felt."

Sidney winced at the recollection. "I wish you had not such a fine memory for the very many boorish things I said to you. I much prefer when you quote Heraclitus."

"I believe it is a wife's obligation to remember every foolish mistake her husband makes, and to remind him of them as often as it suits her," Charlotte replied, rising to playfulness again. "And in return, you shall forget all of the horrible assumptions that I made about you, and only offer words of praise and love."

"I can see that you wish to build a true Heywood home, my love. I think I am doomed…and grateful to be so."

"And where shall we build this home, Sidney? We can hardly fit eleven children into a London house."

Sidney looked down at her in alarm, but caught the teasing gleam in her eye, and laughed. He had laughed more in the past few days that he had recalled doing in years. "To be honest, my love, I do not see us living in London. I had been thinking that perhaps you would wish to live in Sanditon?" Charlotte's expression gave him all the answer he needed, and they resumed their walk, contentedly making plans for their very happy future.

The news of their engagement did not long stay confined to Willingden. Charlotte wrote joyful letters to Lady Susan and Lady Babington, and Sidney wrote to Tom and Mary, but they could not agree on who would have the privilege of informing Georgiana. They finally decided to share the office, with Sidney telling her in person while also handing her Charlotte's written account of the matter. Not many days after Sidney's return to London, Charlotte received a letter from Mary. Three pages were insufficient to contain her delight at the news, and she had included notes of congratulations from Alicia and Jenny to 'Aunt Charlotte'. Tom could find no better way to show his joy than to send Charlotte a large jar of anchovy paste, tied up with a large red ribbon.

As soon as the banns could be read, Charlotte and Sidney were married in Willingden parish, surrounded by their family and closest friends. The good people of the neighbourhood were finally able to leave off discussing Mr. Tom Parker's overturned carriage, and instead spent the next year sharing recollections of the finery worn by the ladies Babington and Worcester. Mr. Taylor performed the ceremony admirably, and if he suspected that one of the groom's close friends was rather inebriated for that early in the day, he was willing to overlook it.

True to their plans, Charlotte and Sidney chose to settle in Sanditon after they were married. They did not live in the town itself, but built a proper manor house on the outskirts. Georgiana was persuaded to come live with them, so that she could both be part of their family and remain involved in her investment. Charlotte resumed her role helping Tom manage his affairs, and with the involvement of the two ladies, Sanditon soon flourished and gained a reputation as a fashionable seaside resort. Many a young person came to Sanditon in search of adventure. To Lady Denham's dismay, none ever came for the asses milk.