Elizabeth was wearing a stunning ivory silk dress, with a pale lemon coat in satin over the top and matching bonnet. She didn’t feel the need for a veil as this wasn’t her first wedding and she didn’t have a muffler, just a small reticule in the same colour as her coat.
Each of them had arrived at the church in their independent ducal coaches with their coat of arms displayed on the doors and they left the same way. As Robert and Elizabeth arrived back at their Grosvenor Square residence, he helped her out of the carriage and as she turned for the door, where all the staff were lined up waiting to greet her, Robert swept her up in his arms and carried her over the threshold. She levered her upper body up, supporting herself on his shoulders, so she didn’t over stress his injury. He placed her on the floor as soon as they were in the hall and she noticed the sweat on his brow. ‘You shouldn’t have done that.’ She whispered.
‘It’s nothing, and what kind of a husband would I be if I didn’t carry my new wife over the threshold.’ He smiled at the staff. ‘Everybody, this is Lady Elizabeth, the Duchess of Roding!’ he announced and the staff clapped and whistled for them. It was obvious that Robert had a relaxed household.
Robert turned to Burke. ‘Has Mary got settled?’
‘I think she is in the process, Your Grace.’ He smiled innocently. ‘She already has that particular item you wanted.’ Robert nodded and took Elizabeth’s hand and headed upstairs.
‘Will I have to wait long?’ she whispered.
‘No.’ Robert said and smiled. ‘Because when you are ready, just open the door.’ He lifted her hand and kissed her fingers. ‘The door will always be unlocked, just like my heart.’
He escorted her right to the door to her room and bowed as she opened the door and went in. Mary stood beside the dressing table waiting for her. He closed the door softly, turned and shouted. ‘Burke! Come and help me get this monkey suit off.’ And he strode into his bedroom.
He had decided a week ago that he would be waiting for her in his Indian robe. He bought it at the same time as the one for Susanna and just like hers; he’d put it away in the wardrobe.
Burke helped him get out of his silk shirt and britches, carefully replacing all the items back into their paper covers, in the dressing room. Burke had taken the silk wrap out of its box and was surprised that a gentle steam had removed the creases.
‘Take this damned dressing off!’ Robert instructed and Burke sliced through it with the scissors, revealing the angry burns. ‘They’ll heal.’ Robert muttered as Burke held the silk gown out for him and Robert slipped his arms into it.
‘A brandy, Burke. I need a bloody drink.’ He said stiffly.
‘I should think you do, Sir. You’ve never been married before.’ Burke replied as he poured the fiery spirit. ‘Try not to think of it as a burden, Sir, more of a conquest.’
‘Do you presume to tell me how to feel?’ Robert asked and laughed. ‘Mary would make you a fine wife.’
‘I’m working on it, Sir.’ Burke said. ‘Will that be all, Your Grace?’ Robert nodded and watched him leave.
Elizabeth had bathed, anointed herself with perfume and dressed in the magnificent present she had found on the bed. She looked at herself in the long mirror, other than it was too long and pooled around her feet; it was a glorious garment, the soft brushed cotton interior smooth on her bare skin. Mary arranged her loose hair over her shoulders.
‘I think you are ready, Your Grace.’ Mary said softly making Elizabeth look up sharply. ‘Your new title suits you, Your Grace.’ She smiled, ‘if that is all, I’ll be on my way.’
‘Thank you, Mary. That will be all until the morning.’ She watched her maid walk out of the door and close it quietly behind her.
Elizabeth took a deep breath and opened the connecting door between the two bedrooms and was shocked to see Robert standing by the fire waiting for her in a scarlet robe. ‘Would you like a small brandy, my love?’ he asked and held up a small glass of amber liquid. She lifted the hem of her robe and walked across the room. She circled around him to look at the back of his gown and was astounded to see a golden tiger embroidered there.
She accepted the glass, Robert picked up his. ‘To a happy marriage.’ He said and they drank.
‘How does your shoulder feel?’ she asked in polite enquiry.
‘Better now I’ve taken the dressings off.’
‘How are you going to manage without bursting the wounds open?’ she asked innocently, still looking in her glass.
‘I don’t know. I suppose I’ll manage.’ He said noncommittally and frowned.
‘In that case, I suppose I should take charge.’ She said and flicked her eyes up to his, in exactly the same way as she did at the opera. Robert’s heart hammered in his chest just as it did the last time and his sudden erection tented the front of his gown. A small smile played around Elizabeth’s mouth as her gaze dropped to his groin. ‘I know how to take care of that.’ She said huskily and put out her hand. She smiled up into his eyes. ‘Come with me, my love, and let me show you where heaven begins.’ And she pulled him backwards towards the bed.
Epilogue
Robert paced up and down the drawing room. ‘For heaven’s sake, Robbie! You’ll wear the carpet out.’ Sarah Argyll, Duchess of Goring, said as she turned her embroidery to the light of the lamp on the table beside her. ‘I hope you’re not going to be this bad next month?’ she asked her husband John Argyll.
‘Probably.’ He said as he stroked his hand over his wife’s expansive midriff. ‘You know Robbie would rather be in there, don’t you? He doesn’t trust the midwife!’ he finished with a laugh.
‘Too right!’ Robert said with conviction, ‘but the midwife won’t even let me in the room. She gave me some excuse about how husbands can suffer impotence if they witness the birth as the wife goes through quite an ordeal.’
‘So I understand.’ Sarah said and smiled.
‘It’s not as if I haven’t seen it before!’ Robert said indignantly.
‘Yes, but that wasn’t your wife, Robbie and its different when it’s your child forcing its way out of your wife!’ Sarah explained again. She sat back to rest her eyes and looked at the two most important men in her life. Her husband John and his best friend Robert and his wife Elizabeth, who was her best friend was upstairs giving birth to their first child.
‘What’s the matter, my love?’ John asked softly.
‘I was just thinking how strange it was that we met. Prinny the Despicable, selling my first kiss to the highest bidder.’ She shook her head. ‘Oh, that reminds me. I heard on the gossip yesterday that Lady Beresford has had her baby.’ Robert stopped pacing abruptly and looked at her in horror. She smiled to herself.
‘Do you know what she had?’ Argyll asked curiously.
‘I believe it was a little girl.’
‘Do you know what colour its hair is?’
‘Apparently its hair is the same colour as its mother!’
‘Red.’ Robert said softly and sighed deeply ‘Thank God for that!’ He marched straight to the sideboard and poured another brandy. He looked at Argyll, who nodded, so Robert poured him one too. ‘Would you like a small port, Sarah?’ he asked.
‘No thank you.’ Sarah said and smiled. ‘I have to be careful how much I drink.’
Suddenly they heard the querulous cry of a baby. Robert looked at the door with apprehension, but Burke opened the door quickly and the midwife walked through the door, complete with a bundle of linen in her arms.
‘Congratulations, Your Grace.’ She smiled broadly. ‘You have a well delivered son.’
‘I have a son!’ Robert said and then he looked at her ‘what about Elizabeth?’
‘The Duchess is fine, Your Grace. A little tired, but it wasn’t a difficult birth.’ She smiled and manoeuvred the baby into his arms. ‘Perhaps you should go and see her.’
Robert looked down into the wrinkled face of his son and his heart squeezed in his chest. ‘A ducal heir.’
; ‘Poor little mite!’ John said and stood up to view this heir.
‘I hope yours is pretty, my dear.’ He said to his wife.
‘Then I’d better have all girls!’ Sarah riposted as Robert slowly walked out of the door to go to his wife.
‘No! Their marriage portions would break me!’ he heard Argyll say and Sarah tittering as he left the room.
Upstairs in the ducal apartment, Elizabeth lay in the big, ornate ducal bed, elevated on a dais. She looked dishevelled, happy and tired.
‘Are you pleased, my love?’ she asked as Robert approached the bed. He carefully laid the baby in her arms, sat down and just looked at the two most important people in his life.
‘I’m delighted that we have a healthy baby, content that it is a son and that you are well.’ He kissed her cheek. ‘How long do we have to wait before we can start working on our next one?’
‘At least give me a week or two.’ She spluttered indignantly.
Robert gave her his best charming smile, as he pictured her in the aquamarine housecoat that she’d worn on their wedding night.
Other Titles by Lyndsey Norton
A Lust for Gold
Erica Young
Fire! At the Al-Hejira
Jealousy
The Avenging Angel
Regency Stories
The Duke and the Governess
Inspector Castle Series
Dating and Dying
Bombs on Trains
The Red Suitcases
Two Notorious Dukes Page 22