A Good Day to Marry a Duke
Page 30
“That sounds serious.”
“We won’t be going to New York right away.”
“Oh?”
“I know you have your heart set on showing me off to the ‘hundred’ or whatever, but we’ll have to postpone that for a while.”
“Why? What’s happened?” She thrust up onto one arm, facing him.
“Arthur . . . won’t be here . . . and I’ve agreed to stay on at Betancourt and take care of the place.”
“You and me, you mean. Why won’t Arthur be here?”
“He’s going to travel. He told me he needs to see the world before he settles down . . . if he settles down. He signed documents when we were in London making me his heir and abdicating the title to me if something should happen”—he watched her taking it in—“or if he doesn’t return in five years, I become duke in his stead.
“Are you all right? I know it’s a bit to take in.”
“So you two just cooked this up between you? Without a word to me?”
“You had already talked with Arthur. He said you encouraged him to travel and see something of the world.” He stroked her cheek. “I didn’t think you’d mind. You’ll be the duchess here in all but name.”
“And you’ll be the duke.” She saw the irony in it. “Are you sure this is what you want? I don’t think you owe Arthur anything more. Don’t you want to travel yourself? Go to Nevada. See New York?”
“I’ve already traveled and seen the continent.” He looked thoughtful for a minute. “Somehow . . . I feel that things aren’t quite finished for me here. Would you mind staying and helping me put Betancourt to rights?”
The hope in his eyes, the love in her heart—how could she say no?
“With one condition.” She lay down and snuggled against him. “The minute I’m pregnant, we make plans to sail for New York. I want my children born in the U.S. of A.”
He laughed and pulled her close, breathing in the scent of her hair.
“I think that can be arranged.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
The celebration lasted until sunset, during which time people occasionally asked after the newlyweds, but were not concerned enough to search for them. Later, Collette’s discreet and unanswered knocks on Daisy’s locked door confirmed for the immediate family that the honeymoon had begun in earnest and there was no cause for worry.
Oddly, no one thought to look for Arthur until dinner, when Daisy and Ashton appeared with an answer to his whereabouts that no one expected.
“He’s gone.” Ashton pulled a letter from his breast pocket and read it to the family at the dinner table. In it, Arthur handed control of Betancourt to Ashton for the period of his absence and claimed a small traveling stipend for himself from the wedding settlement. Red was downright delighted for him, the countess and Elizabeth were aghast, and Daisy’s sisters were glum at the thought of missing Arthur’s eligible company.
* * *
It indeed had been a great day to marry . . . a duke’s brother. That marriage and that wedding night were the start of a new era at Betancourt. There were guests at the grand old house frequently in the months to come. Former tenants returned from the city to take up their old occupations, and herds of sheep, passels of pigs, and flocks of ducks and geese grew increasingly common on the estate. The roofs were fixed, plumbing was installed, and new furnishings were ordered for many of Betancourt’s rooms, including the old duke’s and duchess’s chambers. By the year’s end, they were making plans to install wires for electrical lighting and there was even talk of a newfangled telephone someday.
Elizabeth and her girls moved into the London house, found new servants, and were introduced by the countess into society as the young duke’s relations and Lord Ashton’s sisters-in-law. They were a success and had their choice of invitations to parties, soirees, and balls.
It all came to a head eighteen months later, when Daisy walked into Ashton’s study, holding both her stomach and head. “Ashton, dear”—she looked deathly pale—“it’s time to make plans for New York.”
“Really?” He rounded the desk in a heartbeat, picked her up and whirled her in his arms. When he set her on her feet, his eyes twinkled. “About time. I was beginning to wonder if I’d ever get the chance to charm that old gorgon, Mrs. Vanderbilt.”
Afterword
I hope you enjoyed Daisy and Ashton’s story. I have so enjoyed crafting the Bumgarten family and charting their challenges and triumphs. Stay tuned: there is more adventure and discovery and romance to come!
And just a historical note: the Meridians bemoaned the tidal wave of “dollar princesses” who descended on England in the late Victorian era and inveigled their way into noble marriages, but not everyone was quite so judgmental. One count puts the number of wealthy American brides who married English lords and gentry at over two hundred—which means that a good bit of American blood was injected into the family trees of the British aristocracy. These marriages were sometimes resisted by English families, but money and influence were persuasive and time eventually put to rest most tensions.
The marriages, however, were not necessarily happy. Ashton’s observations on the restrictions and demands of an English lord’s birthright and the problems that faced their American brides are based on known accounts. One of the most prominent examples was Jennie Jerome Churchill, Winston Churchill’s mother. She and her family were indeed shunned by “the Knickerbockers” of New York high society because their money was too new. Jennie’s mother whisked her off to London, dressed her in 450,000 dollars’ worth of Charles Worth gowns, and quickly saw results. Jennie soon married the dashing Lord Randolph Churchill. Not long into the marriage, the affairs began, and though Jennie continued to love Randolph, and even cared for him as he died of syphilis, they seldom shared more than a name and a large, lonely house.
Another American bride was Consuelo Yznaga, later the Duchess of Manchester. She met the Viscount Mandeville when he went to the U.S. on a “hunting” expedition—though, in fact, what he was hunting for was a rich bride to cover his gambling debts. He was a womanizer, a gambler, and a notorious patron of prostitutes. Needless to say, Consuelo did not find happiness in her marriage, but she did seem to enjoy her title . . . and the additional noble husbands who added to her status over time.
No accounting of the influence of America’s dollar princesses would be complete without the mention of Frances Ellen Work, an American heiress who married the scandalous James Roche, Third Baron Fermoy. Roche was also a gambler and very fond of debauchery—so fond, in fact, that Frances’s father reached across the Atlantic to recover his poor daughter and her children—stripping his grandsons of the name “Roche” and renaming them “Work,” like himself. The sons eventually returned to England to assume their father’s much diminished title and lands, and their sister’s great-granddaughter became Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales. Through Diana, the unhappy Frances’s descendants—princes William and George—have become future kings of England. Not too shabby for a “dollar princess.”
So . . . Daisy Bumgarten’s brash determination to marry “up” had many real world counterparts. And Ashton’s battle to become his own man or stay a loyal “second son” was regrettably similar to the struggle of many younger sons in England’s hierarchical society. Sibling rivalry being what it is, it is hard to say how many of the nobility’s younger sons were as loving and devoted to their elder brothers as Ashton.
* * *
Coming next in the SIN AND SENSIBILITY trilogy: Daisy’s younger sister, Frances “Frankie” Bumgarten, takes London society and a certain nobleman by storm, and finds that love is one secret that is very hard to keep.
Betina Krahn
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