He lifted his hand in response to a group of exuberant uniformed schoolchildren. “This isn’t really for you, or for me, either. It’s a celebration of continuity—of a life lived on this land for centuries. Swindon Palace belongs as much to the tenants as it does to the Aubreys.”
She supposed he was right, and certainly the crowd seemed to be having a very jolly time. Nonetheless, her democratic American soul twitched a bit. Trying to look like a duchess, she smiled and waved for the slow two miles to Swindon Palace.
Another crowd waited in the courtyard. After the newly weds had climbed the front steps, Justin turned and gave a short thank-you speech in a voice that carried easily to everyone present. Gavin might have had a talent for grand gestures, but the tenants had had more daily contact with Justin, and they seemed to heartily approve of him.
After one last wave, she went inside with her husband. The greetings weren’t over yet, for a phalanx of Aubrey relations waited with a sea of servants behind them.
As she steeled herself for more introductions and smiles, two huge wolfhounds galloped toward the door, nails scrabbling on the marble floor. The sight of the enormous dogs charging full speed at her made Sunny give a small squeak of alarm.
Before the beasts could overrun them, Justin made a quick hand gesture and commanded, “Sit!”
Instantly the wolfhounds dropped to their haunches, though they wriggled frantically for attention. Justin stroked the sleek aristocratic heads, careful not to neglect either. “These were Gavin’s dogs. They miss him dreadfully.”
To Sunny, it looked as if the wolfhounds were perfectly satisfied with the new duke. It took a moment to realize that Justin’s comment was an oblique admission of his own grief. She was ashamed of the fact that she had not really considered how profoundly he must feel his brother’s death. Though the two men had been very different, the first time she had seen them they had been standing side by side. They must have been close, or Justin would not have chosen to manage the family property when he could have done many other things.
While she was wondering if she should say something to him, the relatives descended. First in consequence was the dowager duchess, Justin’s mother, who wore mourning black for Gavin. Her forceful expression reminded Sunny of her own mother, though Augusta was far more elegant.
After a fierce scrutiny of the colonial upstart, the dowager said, “You look healthy, girl. Are you pregnant yet?”
As Sunny flushed scarlet, Justin put a protective arm around her waist. “It’s a little early to think about that since we’ve been married less than a month, Mother,” he said calmly. “Sunny, I believe you already know my older sisters, Blanche and Charlotte, and their husbands, Lord Alton and Lord Urford.”
Sunny had met all four in London during the season. The sisters were in the same mold as Gavin: tall, blond, handsome Aubreys whose self-absorption was tempered by underlying good nature. They examined Sunny’s furs with frank envy, but their greetings were friendly. After all, it was her money that would keep up the family home.
Next in line was Lady Alexandra, the Gargoylette. She hung back until Justin pulled her into a hug. It was the most affectionate Sunny had ever seen him. “I don’t believe you’ve met my little sister, Alexandra.”
He accompanied his introduction with a speaking look at his wife. Sunny guessed that if she was dismissive or abrupt, he would not easily forgive her.
Alexandra stammered a greeting, too bashful to meet her new sister-in-law’s eyes. Dark and inches shorter than the older girls, she looked very like Justin. There was nothing wrong with her appearance except that her mother dressed her very badly.
Following her instinct, Sunny also hugged her smallest sister-in-law. “Thank you so much for your letter,” she said warmly. “It was good to know that I would have a friend here.”
Alexandra looked up shyly. Her gray eyes were also like Justin’s, but where he was reserved, she was vulnerable. “I’m glad you’re here,” she said simply. “I saw you when you came to the garden fete last spring, and thought you were the loveliest creature in the world.”
A little embarrassed at such frank adoration, Sunny said lightly, “It’s amazing what a good dressmaker can do.”
Then it was onward to sundry Aubrey cousins and shirttail relations. After that, the butler and housekeeper—two very superior persons—welcomed her as their new mistress and presented her with a silver bowl as a wedding gift from the household. While Sunny wondered how much the poor servants had been forced to contribute, she was paraded past ranks of maids and footmen as if she were a general reviewing troops.
Finally it was time to go upstairs to prepare for dinner. Justin escorted her to her new rooms.
The duchess’s private suite was rather appallingly magnificent. Eyeing the massive, velvet-hung four-poster bed, Sunny asked, “Did Queen Elizabeth sleep there?”
“No, but Queen Anne did.” The corner of Justin’s mouth quirked up. “I know it’s overpowering, but I didn’t order any changes because I thought you’d prefer to make them yourself.”
Sunny thoughtfully regarded a tapestry of a stag being torn apart by a pack of dogs. “I don’t care if it is price-less—that tapestry will have to go. But I can bear it for now. How long do I have until dinner?”
“Only half an hour, I’m afraid. There’s more to be seen, but it can wait.” He gestured to a door in the middle of one wall. “That goes directly to my bedchamber. Don’t hesitate to ask if there’s anything you need.”
“I’m too confused to know what I need, but thank you.” Sunny took off her hat and massaged her throbbing temples. “Should you and I go down together for dinner?”
“Definitely,” he replied. “Without a guide to the dining room, you’d probably get lost for a week.”
After Justin left, Antoinette emerged from the dressing room. “While everyone was welcoming you, madame, I had time to unpack your clothing. What do you wish to wear tonight? Surely something grand to impress the relations.”
“The butter-cream duchesse satin, I think.” Sunny considered. “I suppose I should also wear the pearl and diamond dog collar, even though it chafes my neck.”
The maid nodded with approval. “No one will be your equal.”
After Antoinette disappeared to prepare the gown, Sunny sank into a brocade-covered chair. It was hideously uncomfortable, which was fortunate, because otherwise she might fall asleep.
It was pleasant to have a few minutes alone. In spite of the wretched chair, she was dozing when Antoinette bustled back. “Madame, I have found something wonderful! You must come see.”
Sunny doubted that anything was worth such enthusiasm, but she obediently rose and followed her maid into the dressing room. Two doors were set into the opposite wall. Antoinette dramatically threw open the right-hand one. “Voilà!”
Sunny’s eyes widened. It was a bathroom that would have impressed even Augusta Vangelder. The mahogany-encased tub was enormous, and the floor and walls had been covered in bright, exquisitely glazed Spanish tiles. “You’re right—it’s the most gorgeous bathroom I’ve ever seen.”
“And the next room over—” the maid pointed “—is a most splendid water closet. The chambermaid who brought in the towels said that Monsieur le Duc had all this done for you after the betrothal was announced.”
Amused and touched, Sunny stroked a gleaming tile. It appeared that she would not have to suffer the country house horrors that Katie Westron had warned her about. “Perhaps later tonight I will take advantage of this.”
Wanting to give credit where credit was due, she went to her bedchamber and opened the connecting door to the duke’s suite. “Justin, I have found the bathing room and—”
In the middle of the sentence, her gaze found her husband and she stopped dead. She had caught him in the middle of changing his clothing. He had just taken off his shirt, and she blushed scarlet at the sight of his bare chest.
Though his brows rose, he did not seem at all di
scomposed. “Having seen the wonders of modern American plumbing, I knew that you would find Swindon rather primitive,” he said. “Making some improvements seemed like a more useful wedding gift than giving you jewels.”
Though she tried to look only into his eyes, her gaze drifted lower. He was broad-shouldered and powerfully muscled, which was why he didn’t have a fashionable look of weedy elegance. She wondered how the dark hair on his chest would feel to her touch. Blushing again, she said hastily, “Your idea was inspired. I’ve always loved long baths, and I’d resigned myself to having to make do with a tin tub in front of the fire.”
“Speaking of fires, I decided that it was also time to install central heating.” Justin casually pulled on a fresh shirt, though he didn’t bother to button it. “It will be a long time until the whole building is completed, but I had the workers take care of this wing first, so you would be comfortable. I know that Americans like their houses warm.”
Only then did she notice that the rooms were much warmer than she should have expected. “Thank you, Justin. I think you must be the most considerate husband on earth.” She crossed the room to her husband’s side and gave him a swift kiss.
It was the first time she had ever done such a thing, and she wondered belatedly if he would think her too forward. But he didn’t seem to mind. His lips moved slowly under hers, and he raised his hand and massaged the back of her neck. He had a tangy masculine scent that was distinctly his own. Succumbing to temptation, she let her fingers brush his bare chest as if by accident. The hair was softer than she had expected, but she felt unnerved when his warm flesh tensed at her touch. Hastily she lowered her hand.
But the kiss continued, and she found that she was in no hurry to end it. Very gently, his tongue stroked her lips. It was a new sensation, but pleasant. Very pleasant…
The clamor of a bell reverberated brassily through the corridors. Both of them jumped as if they had been caught stealing from the church poor box.
After he had caught his breath, Justin said, “The pre-dinner bell. We must be downstairs in ten minutes.”
“I barely have time to dress.” Embarrassed at how she had lost track of time, Sunny bolted to her own room. As soon as the connecting door was closed, Antoinette started unfastening her traveling dress so that the duchesse satin could be donned.
Yet as her maid swiftly transformed her, Sunny’s mind kept returning to the kiss, and her fingertips tingled with the memory of the feel of her husband’s bare body.
DINNER WAS ANOTHER STRAIN. Sunny sat at the opposite end of the table from her husband, so far away that she could barely see him. Before the first course had been removed, it was obvious that the dowager duchess was a tyrant, with all the tact of a charging bull. She made a string of remarks extolling Gavin’s noble spirit and aristocratic style, interspersed with edged comments about the deficiencies of “poor, dear Justin.”
Charlotte tried to divert the conversation with a cheerful promise to send Sunny a copy of the table of precedence so that she would never commit the cardinal crime of seating people in the wrong order. That inspired the dowager to say, “There are about two hundred families whose history and relationships you must understand, Sarah. Has Justin properly explained all the branches of the Aubreys and of my own family, the Sturfords?”
“Not yet, Duchess,” Sunny said politely.
“Very remiss of him. Since he wasn’t raised to be a duke, he hasn’t a proper sense of what is due his station.” The dowager sniffed. “So sad to see poor, dear Justin in his brother’s place—such a comedown for the family. You must be quick about having a child, Sarah, and make sure it’s a boy.”
Sunny was tempted to sling the nearest platter of veal collops at her mother-in-law, but it seemed too soon to get into a pitched battle. A quick glance at her husband showed that he had either not heard his mother, or he chose to ignore her. Clearly Alexandra had heard, for she was staring at her plate.
Carefully Sunny said, “The eighth duke’s death was a great tragedy. You all have my sympathies on your loss.”
The dowager sighed. “Gavin should have betrothed himself to you, not that Russell woman. If he had, he might be alive now, in his proper place.”
Sunny had heard enough gossip to know that the fatal problem had not been Gavin’s fiancée, but his inability to keep his hands off other women, even when on the way to his own wedding. Hoping to end this line of discussion, she said piously, “It is not for us to question the ways of heaven.”
“A very proper sentiment,” the dowager said. “You have pretty manners. One would scarcely know you for an American.”
Did the woman suppose that she was giving a compliment? Once more Sunny bit her tongue.
Yet in spite of her good intentions, she was not to get through the evening peacefully. The gauntlet was thrown down at the end of the lengthy meal, when it was time for the ladies to withdraw and leave the gentlemen to their port. Sunny was about to give the signal when the dowager grandly rose to her feet and beat Sunny to it.
As three women followed the dowager’s lead, Sunny’s blood went cold. This was a direct challenge to her authority as the new mistress of the household. If she didn’t assert herself immediately, her mother-in-law would walk all over her.
The other guests hesitated, glancing between the new duchess and the old. Sunny wanted to whimper that she was too tired for this, but she supposed that crises never happened at convenient times. Though her hands clenched below the table, her voice was even when she asked, “Are you feeling unwell, Duchess?”
“I am in splendid health,” her mother-in-law said haughtily. “Where did you get the foolish idea that I might be ailing?”
“I can think of no other reason for you leaving prematurely,” Sunny said with the note of gentle implacability that she had often heard in her mother’s voice.
For a moment the issue wavered in the balance. Then, one by one, the female guests who had gotten to their feet sank back into their seats with apologetic glances at Sunny. Knowing that she had lost, the dowager returned to the table, her expression stiff with mortification.
As she waited for a decent interval to pass before leading the ladies from the table, Sunny drew in a shaky breath. She had won the first battle—but there would be others.
THE EVENING ENDED WHEN the first clock struck eleven. Accompanied by the bonging of numerous other clocks, Justin escorted his wife upstairs. When they reached the door of her room, he said, “I’m sorry that it’s been such a long day, but everyone was anxious to meet you.”
She smiled wearily. “I’ll be fine after a night’s sleep.”
“You were a great success with everyone.” After a moment of hesitation, he added, “I’m sorry my mother was so…abrupt. Gavin was her favorite, and she took his death very badly.”
“You miss him, too, but it hasn’t made you rude.” She bit her lip. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound impertinent.”
“My mother is a forceful woman, and I don’t expect that you’ll always agree. Blanche and Charlotte used to have terrible battles with her. Just remember that you are my wife, and the mistress of Swindon.”
“I shall attempt to be tactful while establishing myself.” She made a rueful face. “But I warn you, I have trouble countenancing unkind remarks about other people.”
That sensitivity to others was one of the things he liked best about her. A volatile mix of tenderness and desire moved through him, and he struggled against his yearning to draw her into his arms and soothe her fatigue away.
He might have done so if he hadn’t been aware that the desire to comfort would be followed by an even more overwhelming desire to remove her clothing, garment by garment, and make slow, passionate love to her. With the lamps lit, not in the dark.
Innocently she turned her back to him and said, “Could you unfasten my dog collar? It’s miserably uncomfortable.”
The heavy collar had at least fifteen rows of pearls. As he undid the catch and lifted
the necklace away, he saw that the diamond clasp had rubbed her tender skin raw. He frowned. “I don’t like seeing you wearing something that hurts you.”
She sighed. “Virtually every item a fashionable woman wears is designed to hurt.”
He leaned forward and very gently kissed the raw spot on her nape. “Perhaps you should be less stylish.”
She tensed, as she did whenever he touched her in a sensual way. “A duchess is supposed to be fashionable. I would be much criticized if I didn’t do you credit.” Eyes downcast, she turned and took the jeweled collar, then slipped into her room.
He felt the familiar ache as he watched her disappear. Who was it who said that if a man wanted to be truly lonely, he should take a wife? It was true, for he didn’t recall feeling lonely before he married.
But now that he had a wife, his life echoed with loneliness. The simple fact was that he wanted more of her. He wanted to hold her in his arms all night while they slept. He wanted her to sigh with pleasure when he made love to her. He wanted to be with her day and night.
He drew a deep breath, then entered his room and began undressing. He had hoped that with time she might come to enjoy intimacy more, but every time he came to her bed, she became rigid. Though she never complained, or spoke at all, for that matter—it was clear that she could scarcely endure his embraces.
Yet she didn’t seem to dislike him in other ways. She talked easily and was willing to share her opinions. And she had given him that shy kiss earlier. In her innocence, she had not understood that she set the blood burning through his veins. But even going to her bed would not have quenched the fire, for he had found that quick, furtive coupling was more frustrating than if he had never touched her.
The Wedding of the Century & Other Stories Page 7