Improper Miss Darling

by Gail Whitiker

‘I shall not fit into any of my gowns if you keep on feeding me like that,’ she complained good naturedly.

  ‘Ah, but you’re eating for two again, my love,’ Alex said, adding a spoonful of potatoes, a helping of roast parsnips and a generous portion of Cook’s excellent bread stuffing. ‘And I would not wish to see my lady go hungry.’

  Emma sighed as she eyed the plate, knowing that despite her protestations, she would most likely finish off every delicious bite. ‘I wasn’t this hungry when I was carrying Michael. I must be having twins.’

  ‘Or a girl. Remember how ravenous Linette was when she was carrying Mary? I swear Peter had to bring her food at all hours of the day and night. Made it devilishly hard for him to finish his sermons.’

  Emma laughed. Oh, yes, she remembered well her tiny sister’s unusual preoccupation with food. Once she had recovered from her initial bout of morning illness, Linette had gained a very healthy appetite and six months later had been delivered of a beautiful baby girl: a pink-and-white angel who charmed everyone she met, including, and most particularly, her two doting grandfathers.

  ‘Would you mind if this baby was a girl, Alex?’ Emma asked as they left the tent and strolled out into the golden autumn sunshine.

  ‘I would be delighted if it was a girl, but would be equally pleased if it were another boy.’ He glanced down at her, his eyes darkening as they lingered on the lush fullness of her breasts. ‘Knowing how much you want a daughter would give me an excuse to keep on making love to you.’

  Emma blushed at his blatantly sensual tone. ‘You hardly need an excuse for that, my lord. Given the frequency of our lovemaking, I’m surprised it took as long as it did for me to conceive again. It took so little with Michael.’

  ‘Ah, yes, but I had all those weeks of pent-up longing and frustration to get out of my system.’ Alex leaned over to nuzzle a kiss into his wife’s neck. ‘The first time we made love was very powerful.’

  Emma felt the familiar sense of urgency, aware that the memory of their first night together still had the power to move her. The intensity of their passion had caught both of them unawares and Emma still blushed when she thought about all they had done and how wantonly she had responded to her new husband’s caresses.

  She blushed even more when, upon approaching the group seated on chairs in the shade of the big elm tree, she caught Linette watching her and saw her begin to smile.

  ‘I swear Linette had developed the ability to read minds since becoming a mother,’ Emma murmured. ‘She always starts to smile whenever I’m thinking about you.’

  ‘Then she must be smiling all the time.’

  ‘Odious man. Are you insinuating you are all I think about?’

  ‘Of course.’ He stopped and drew her against him, mindful of the well-laden plate he was still carrying. ‘God knows, you are all I ever think about.’

  ‘All right, you two,’ Ridley drawled. ‘Need I remind you that there are others present, including two young and highly impressionable children.’

  ‘You need remind me of nothing, brother-in-law.’ Alex kissed his wife soundly on the lips, then turned to grin at Ridley. ‘I just wanted to make sure no one questioned the depth of my love for this woman.’

  ‘I doubt there’s ever been any question on that score,’ Lord Widdicombe said drily. He was bouncing his granddaughter on his knee, but turned to glance fondly at his younger son. ‘Or on your brother’s.’

  Peter smiled, looking completely relaxed and at ease as he stood behind Linette’s chair, gently rubbing her shoulders. He was now the vicar of St Anne’s in the neighbouring parish and it was clear from the look on his face that church life suited him. He and Mr Tufton had become fast friends and Linette had taken to her role as a clergyman’s wife like a duck to water. They had set up housekeeping in the old manse, a lovely stone house reminiscent of Dove’s Hollow, and were already well loved by their parishioners.

  ‘Thank you, Father,’ Peter said now. ‘I am the first to admit that I’ve never been happier and that it is all due to Linette being my wife.’

  ‘And what more could a father ask than to see both of his sons so happy?’ Lady Widdicombe commented with a smile.

  ‘I venture to say your sons’ choices have made you a happy man as well, Widdicombe,’ Lord Leyland observed. ‘You’re in far better health than you were when they met and not nearly as cantankerous. You haven’t stopped grinning since the day Michael was born.’

  ‘Don’t forget that Mary has him wrapped around her pretty little finger,’ Lady Widdicombe added.

  ‘Guilty as charged,’ the earl said. ‘But wait until it’s your turn, Leyland. You have no idea what holding your first grandchild in your arms is going to do to you. I certainly didn’t.’

  ‘Well, I’m definitely looking forward to finding out,’ Lady Glynnis said weakly. ‘Given the way I’m feeling today, it cannot come soon enough.’

  ‘Never mind, dearest,’ her mother murmured. ‘Like you, I suffered dreadfully in the early days of my pregnancies, but it does eventually pass. It just means everything is proceeding as it should.’

  Emma’s heart went out to her sister-in-law. Glynnis and Ridley had been forced to endure much more in the early days of their marriage than either she and Alex or Linette and Peter had, and when Glynnis had miscarried in the early weeks of her first pregnancy, no one had been overly surprised. So when Ridley made the announcement a little over four months ago that his wife was pregnant again, the news had been received with great joy and quiet prayers that all would be well. Emma knew how anxious they were to start a family.

  ‘Uncle Ridley,’ Michael said, abruptly getting to his feet after obviously having had enough of adult conversation. ‘Have you brought me a present?’

  ‘Michael!’ Emma gasped. ‘It’s not polite to ask people if they’ve brought you something.’

  ‘Why not? I did it all the time,’ Ridley said, ruffling his nephew’s blonde curls. ‘And of course I’ve brought you something. In fact, if you ask your grandfathers nicely, they might just take you down to the stables and show it to you.’

  ‘The stables!’ The little boy gasped. ‘You bought me a pony?’

  ‘I didn’t say that.’

  ‘But you said my gift was in the stables! That must mean it’s a pony!’

  Mr Darling got to his feet and reached for his grandson’s hand. ‘Well then, young man, I suppose we had best take a walk down there and see if you’re right.’

  ‘You come too, Grandfather Widdy,’ Michael said. ‘And you, Mary.’

  Lord Widdicombe, who seemed not to mind that his revered name had been shortened in such an unseemly fashion, gently set Mary on her feet and then stood up to take her hand. ‘Come along, my dears. Let’s go see what all the excitement is about.’

  As the two men and their grandchildren started in the direction of the stables, Emma glanced at her brother with an expression of mingled affection and annoyance. ‘Have you really bought him a pony, Ridley?’

  ‘I have. In fact, I’ve bought ponies for each of them.’

  ‘What?’ Linette squeaked. ‘For Mary as well?’

  ‘Well, I wasn’t here for her birthday in April and when I was down at Tat’s and saw these two little gems, I knew they would be perfect. And I did clear it with your respective husbands first.’

  ‘That doesn’t justify your continuing to spoil them,’ Emma said.

  ‘Of course it does. Spoiling is the prerogative of uncles and grandparents,’ Ridley said. ‘Besides, given that I’m such a rich and successful artist now, I can well afford it.’

  That was another unexpectedly happy conclusion to a situation about which Emma had harboured serious doubts. After Ridley and Lady Glynnis’s secret marriage in the neighbouring parish, one arranged by special licence and witnessed by Alex and Emma, the pair had returned to London, only to be met by the stony disapproval of Glynnis’s father. Alex had done his best to try to smooth things over, but the earl had been intractable, refusi
ng to acknowledge the marriage or even to receive the pair in his house.

  It had been a heart-wrenching time for all of them and a situation for which Emma had seen no hope of a happy resolution.

  Until Lady Leyland had taken the matter into her own hands. Daughter of a marchioness, she had refused to be denied access to her own daughter and, secretly delighting in the news that Glynnis had married for love, she had set about re-establishing the pair in society. She had called together several of her closest friends, all of whom were very highly placed and all of whom had married for love, and told them the truth of Glynnis and Ridley’s situation by also telling them of Alex and Emma’s.

  She had explained that it was Alex who had released Glynnis from her promise because he was in love with another woman, only to discover that she was in love with another man. The countess had also stressed that no improprieties had taken place and that surely four such good-natured and well-intentioned people should not be cut off from the company of others, simply because they had chosen to follow their hearts and marry for love rather than obligation.

  Her strategy had worked. Doors that had been closed in the newlyweds’ faces slowly began to open and the invitations had started arriving again. At that point, the countess had turned her attention to her husband, knowing that his approval mattered far more to Glynnis than society’s ever could. And using every stratagem she could think of, the countess had slowly begun to chip away at his anger.

  Naturally, there had been resistance. Even when society had begun to welcome Glynnis and Ridley back, the earl had refused to back down. But when his wife had gone to him with the tragic news of Glynnis’s miscarriage, concern for his daughter had driven all other thoughts from the earl’s mind and he had immediately gone to see her. In the following days, all had been forgiven, the marriage had been accepted and, as a result, Ridley’s popularity as an artist had soared.

  ‘Speaking of gifts, there’s something in the house for you, Emma,’ Ridley said casually. ‘You might like to take a look at it before the grand unveiling after dinner this evening.’

  ‘Before the what?’

  Emma looked to her husband for an explanation, but he only smiled and drew her up out of her chair. ‘I think that’s an excellent idea, Ridley. You don’t mind if we leave all of you for a few minutes, I trust.’

  ‘Not at all. Just don’t forget to come back,’ Ridley warned. ‘I don’t want to be the one to explain to Michael why you’re not here when he gets back from his visit to the stables. Or for some time after that!’

  * * *

  Her gift was hanging on the drawing room wall. It was a large canvas, beautifully framed, and the moment Emma saw it she knew how special it was. ‘Oh, Alex!’

  It was her stone angel, even to the smudge of blue over her heart. But it was a painting within a painting. Arranged around the stone angel was a portrait of her new family. Alex standing tall and proud, dressed as he had been on their wedding day and gazing at her with so much love that anyone looking at the painting would have to be able to see it. Emma was standing next to him, wearing the gown she’d worn the night the two of them had met, and she was holding Alex’s hand. And there in front of them was Michael, his bright blonde curls reflecting the warmth of a late afternoon sun. It was an incredibly moving portrait of a family bound together by love.

  ‘Oh, Alex, it’s beautiful!’ Emma whispered, touched beyond words by what her brother had done.

  ‘Happy birthday, darling,’ Alex said, drawing her into the circle of his arms. ‘I knew you would like it.’

  She looked at him in wonder. Her birthday? But of course! In all the preparations for Michael’s birthday, including the week-long visit of Ridley and Glynnis and all the grandparents, Emma had completely forgotten that it was her birthday as well. She turned back to stare at the painting in wonder. ‘You asked Ridley to do this for me?’

  ‘Yes. He’s been working on it for quite some time.’

  ‘He must have been.’ Emma moved closer to the painting, lightly touching the canvas. It was truly remarkable the way Ridley had combined her painting into his so that it was almost impossible to see where one canvas had ended and the other began. ‘I don’t know how he did this,’ she murmured, ‘but I can see why he’s gained such a reputation for brilliance. He has managed to incorporate my painting of the stone angel perfectly into his own.’

  ‘Yes, because the painting wouldn’t have meant nearly as much to either of us if Ridley had painted a new angel. It would have been…imperfect.’

  ‘Imperfect?’ Emma glanced back at the painting. ‘Ridley would have painted the statue a hundred times better than I ever could.’

  ‘Exactly. Your flawed stone angel means more to me than…than a flock of perfectly painted angels ever could. And you know why.’

  She turned her head to meet his gaze and felt the familiar longing begin. ‘Yes, I know.’ Her voice grew husky as she stepped back into the warmth of his arms. ‘Because only our angel knows how much we went through to be together.’

  The kiss was slow and thoughtful and when at last Alex raised his head, his eyes were dark with desire. ‘I love you, Emma. You know that, don’t you?’

  ‘Yes, and I love you. But…I’m not sure you can refer to a group of angels as a flock, my lord,’ she whispered against his throat. ‘It makes them sound like sheep. Or pigeons.’

  ‘Then what do you call a gathering of angels, beautiful lady?’

  ‘Perfection.’ Emma closed her eyes and felt the thrum of desire as his lips brushed over hers again. ‘Exactly like my life here with you.’

  ISBN-13: 9781460349649

  IMPROPER MISS DARLING

  © Gail Whitiker 2011

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