“I do not know that I will ever grow tired of hearing those words,” Gerard said with a smile. “Do repeat it, my dear.”
“I love you,” Nora said with a smile. “And now we have only my father to convince of the fact.”
Gerard raised his eyebrows and looked out of the window. “As long as he does not withhold you from me, I can have no real quarrel with the man, for he has given me you, and he treasures you as I now do.”
Dearbrooke was at the end of a long day’s ride, and when they at last pulled into the grand drive, unannounced due to the speed of their arrangements and journey, the sun was already dipping down in the far western sky. Gerard helped Nora out of the carriage, and they walked together up the grand staircase to the front door of her childhood home. Her heart was beating wildly at the prospect of their conversation with her father, and yet she felt protected and safe at Gerard’s side.
The butler showed them both into the parlour, where a very surprised Pembroke family – including William and James – stood to greet them.
“Nora!” Mr Pembroke exclaimed, looking from her to Gerard and then back again. “We thought you would be well underway on the boat to Europe by now.”
She shook her head. “We have had a change of plans, Father. May I beg a little of your time to discuss that change?” She looked over to one side and caught sight of William hiding a grin. He and James stood without being asked and slipped out of the room. Fanny stood as well, frowning a little in confusion, and after bidding Gerard welcome, scurried away as well. It was now only Nora and Gerard standing arm-in-arm before Mr Pembroke. He had been sitting with a pipe by the fireside, but now he came to stand in the centre of the room as though he was holding court.
“Lord Colbourne, I am surprised to see you again, and at my daughter’s side no less. Our last parting was not one I am proud to remember, and yet I cannot say you have yet won the favour to reappear in my parlour.”
Nora turned nervously to see Gerard’s reaction, but he showed neither offense nor insult. Instead, he smiled kindly at her father and bowed his head.
“I regret that meeting as well, sir. I should not have pushed myself upon you so suddenly. The form was ill thought, but the meaning was well-intended.”
“I hope you have not come to renew the sentiments that you expressed that day,” Mr Pembroke said quietly. “Or, if you have, I hope that Nora has thought to set you straight regarding the matter of the dowry.”
Nora blushed at how frank and coarse her father was being, and turned her head away from Gerard, but again he spoke in clear and calm terms.
“I have already asked for your daughter’s hand in marriage, Mr Pembroke, and she has already accepted me. I came here today not to bargain for funds, but to allow you the chance to give your blessing.” Gerard bowed his head. “She cares deeply for you, and I would not sever her from that relationship if possible.”
Mr Pembroke frowned. “Then she cannot have told you about the dowry after all.”
“If you mean that you do not wish to condone our marriage with your daughter’s dowry, I do indeed know about that already.” Gerard took a deep breath. “It does not change my wishes or influence my decision in any way, and so I did not think it worth mentioning. I wish only to have a chance to convince you that I am worthy of her. I have told you already of my ardent affection and admiration for her –” Nora blushed again to hear herself spoken of in such glowing terms, “– but I will also assure you that I intend to provide well for her. Given the current state of my finances, which I know concern you greatly, I will ensure that a portion of my estate is set aside for your daughter and any children we may have in the event of my death. You see, you may deny Nora a dowry, but I shall supply one in your stead.”
Mr Pembroke stood frozen for a moment, but Nora could see even before he spoke that Gerard’s words had broken through to his conscience. He put a hand to his forehead and shook his head before responding quietly. “You have done me a greater service than I did you, my son. Not in the dowry that you claim to be supplying Nora, but in the grace that you extend to me despite clear insult. I was unable to forgive you a slight to my pride, and yet you are willing to come in here and marry my daughter without mention of the slight to yours.”
Gerard bowed his head and pressed Nora’s hand gently against his arm. “I would do much more than that, sir, if I knew that I could have your daughter here at my side for the rest of time.”
Mr Pembroke cleared his throat and smiled for the first time, his gaze falling on Nora. “All I ever wished was that she would be treasured as she deserved, and I can see now that I did you a great disservice when I assumed your intentions were mercenary. You really do care for my daughter, and you have chosen to have her even as a penniless woman. Please, allow me to now do the least gentlemanly thing of all and rescind on a former promise regarding my daughter’s dowry. I now wish to supply it in full, as a sign that I accept you entirely as her husband and trust you to care for her until the end of her days.”
“Father!” Nora exclaimed with delight. She had never seen her father relent on a matter of honour, and yet he had done so here in a matter of minutes for the sake of her happiness. She rushed to him and threw her arms about him in an embrace. “Thank you, Father. And so we have your blessing?”
“You have passed every test a father could require, Lord Colbourne,” Mr Pembroke said. “And some that you ought not to have endured as well, perhaps. You have my blessing. And you,” he took Nora by the shoulders and looked into her eyes with a smile, “have made me very happy, little one. It seems that in the end you chose better for yourself than any of us could have done in your stead.”
Nora turned and smiled back in Gerard’s direction. She had chosen well, and he had chosen her in return. It was more than she could have dreamed for herself.
Epilogue
“And for Lady Colbourne?” the footman asked, pausing by Nora’s side. Gerard watched with amusement as Nora continued to stay absorbed in the work at her fingertips rather than looking up in the direction of the teacup being offered her. After a pause, Gerard laughed and spoke gently.
“Lady Colbourne? I do believe the good gentleman wishes to extend to you a cup of tea.”
Nora looked up with a start, nearly dropping her paintbrush, and then laughed. “I am certainly not used to the name, not yet at least. It is a fortunate thing that your mother and Diana are still overseas, or else I would be daily confusing my title with hers.”
“Then I will call you Nora, and you will know, at least with me, who is being summoned,” Gerard said with a laugh. He craned his neck while she took the teacup, his eyes falling on the painting she had been working on. “That’s a bit more formulaic than your work tends to be,” he said, noting the straight lines and alleyways. “What is it meant to depict?”
Nora brightened and turned the canvas around for him to examine it. They were sitting together in the sunny parlour at Holcombe, two months after their wedding at Dearbrooke, still thrilled just to be in each other’s presence.
Gerard couldn’t get over how special it was just to sit by Nora; his arm brushing against hers, the smell of her perfume filling him with delight. He looked down at the canvas and saw, from a different viewpoint, that it was a map of sorts.
“What is this?” he questioned, laying his finger on the far right lane. There were three large trees planted near it.
“That, my dear sir, is the northern pasture of Holcombe, and the rest of the painting depicts the attached fields below.”
Gerard smiled. “I didn’t know you were so well-acquainted with the northern pasture or the adjoining fields. Why do they strike your interest?”
“I went riding up there a few days ago and saw that it is mostly used for open pastureland, with little development, and it gave me a grand idea for the estate. Look here,” she ran her finger along the line of trees, “and see how well-situated this grove is to catch the light and encourage growth?”
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p; “If I remember rightly,” Gerard said with a frown, “there is no grove of trees anywhere near there at present.”
“Precisely. This is a forecast of how we might use the northern pasture to better advantage,” Nora said, looking up at Gerard with an impish delight that turned his heart to butter beneath her gaze. “I have discovered that an orchard just there would be most beneficial, and the fruit could be an added support for the estate. Also, if you were to divide the fields into slightly smaller pastures, you might rotate the flocks more regularly and ensure greener pastures when they come around.”
Gerard looked at his wife in quiet astonishment. “I’m not certain why,” he said softly, “but I am continually surprised by your wit and intelligence in these matters. It is quite silly, for you have always proven yourself to be capable, but I am so accustomed to wives slipping to the side and allowing their husbands to commandeer all the ideas and management of the estate that, faced with your aid, I find myself flying on wings of energy and invention.”
“There may come a day when you regret inviting me into your counsel,” Nora teased lightly. “What was it your mother was so worried about? That I might be a distraction without the level-headed nature necessary to run the house.”
Gerard hid a grin. “My dear,” he said with mock gravity, “you do lack the level-headed nature necessary to run a house. Just yesterday I found the maids quite distraught in the lower kitchen because you had not given them spring cleaning duties and they didn’t know how best to divide themselves.”
Nora laughed in a voice like chimes. “Certainly, but you took that matter clearly in hand and, as in all things, have taught me to be more organised and predictable in matters of responsibility. I believe I have profited greatly from it, as you in turn have profited from my influence.”
“And what influence is that?” Gerard asked, tilting her head back and running his finger lightly along her ear.
Nora smiled brilliantly. “Why, my dear husband, you would never have been so relaxed if you had married another, and even your own mother, who is loathe to speak too often of my better qualities, has been able to note my positive influence.”
“What do you mean, relaxed?” Gerard leapt up quite suddenly, filled with the energy that only Nora could inspire in him. “The sort of relaxed attitude that might encourage me to take you out right now on an unscheduled morning ride to that very northern pasture you are re-inventing on your canvas?”
“Yes!” Nora rose as well and rushed to the side hook where her cape was hung. She pulled it on over her shoulders. “A spontaneous ride is precisely what this morning needed.”
They went together out to the livery, saddled their own horses as the groom was not quite ready to assist, and then rode together down the lane and northward. At the beginning of their ride, they chatted easily with one another and rode at a steady pace. But when they turned off the main road in the direction of the pasture, Nora quite suddenly urged her horse forward into a trot, and then, only moments later, a gallop.
They took off tearing across the field, Nora keeping abreast of Gerard even in her side-saddle. The wind flashed by them and Gerard felt his heart filling with the beauty of his life, the woman by his side, and the world that they could continue discovering together.
At the top of the hill, in the space Nora had marked out in her painting for a grove of fruit trees, Nora suddenly pulled up her horse and slipped down to the ground. Gerard climbed off and saw that her hair had come loose from its careful pins during their ride and was now tumbling down around her shoulders as though she was quite a young girl. All in a disarray, her cheeks pink from the excursion, she turned to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning back to laugh into his eyes.
“I let you win,” she said lightly.
“You were the first to arrive,” he corrected her in momentary confusion.
She pretended to be astonished and then, with a teasing look in her eye, conceded, “Yes, I suppose you are quite right. I was the first to arrive, and I will thank you to remember the fact in the future, Lord Colbourne. You admitted that I beat you fair and square.”
“If I’d only know you were such a boastful woman…” Gerard began.
“Then what?” Nora teased, winking at him. “You would have married me sooner?” The smile, wide on her face, softened a little, and she cocked her head to the side and examined him carefully. “You know, Gerard, there is something that I’ve never told you.”
“Really? With the amount of conversation you keep at a constant pace, I’m surprised there is anything I do not know about you or the world,” Gerard teased, leaning down as though to kiss her. She reached up, however, and put her finger to his lips to stay him. She spoke quite close to him, not quite touching but near enough to bring his heartbeat about again.
“When I was a little girl, I thought you quite handsome,” she said softly. Then bit her lip and smiled shyly. “Actually, ever since I was old enough to wonder about love I thought you were everything a man ought to be. And though I knew it was hopeless, I pined for you quite dreadfully, picking flowers in your name and hoping for even the slightest of glances in my direction. I remember one day I actually wished that I might marry you. But then I felt so foolish and silly for such a wish that I regretted it that very night and chastised myself for the weakness.”
Gerard caught her to him, burying his fingers in her hair and looking deep into her eyes. “I am glad that you wished it,” he said with feeling. “For whatever could have happened, your desire became my truest joy.”
He leaned down and they shared a long, sweet kiss.
THE END
Can't get enough of Nora and Gerard?
Then make sure to check out the Extended Epilogue to find out…
What could be the reason that Nora and Gerard will postpone their trips and return home?
Will Diana be ready for her very first Season and what will her feelings be?
Will the reason for Nora’s recent weariness be the continuous travelling, or could it be something else?
Click the link or enter it into your browser
http://bridgetbarton.com/nora
(After reading the Extended Epilogue, turn the page to read the first chapters from “Bride for the Sake of Duty”, my Amazon Best-Selling novel!)
Bride for the Sake of Duty
Introduction
Eleanor has wished for true love ever since she was a little girl, but she has no other choice but to marry a man she knows nothing about, due to her father’s definite will. To make matters worse, her new husband leaves right after their nuptials on his first trip overseas. After two years of loneliness, Miles returns and he’s even more handsome than she remembers, but he still remains a complete stranger to her. Could she ever grow feelings for him after all this time? Will she eventually get the one thing she has always dreamt of?
Miles Fitzroy craves adventure but he has to get wed to honour his father’s wishes. His wife may be breathtaking, but he has no time to get to know her before he leaves for India. Now that he is finally back home, he finds himself longing for something other than the sea. He realizes that it might be the journey of falling in love that has been missing from his life. Could he ever choose the warmth of his beautiful wife over the exciting life of an adventurer?
Two strangers are bound together forever, but it won’t be easy to create a genuine bond after their long separation. A string of mishaps and adventures that follow can either bring them together forever or tear them apart for good. Will Eleanor get her wish for a true, heart-melting romance? Will Miles finally find a place to call home in Eleanor’s eyes?
Preface
Off the Barbary Coast; 1799.
It was the end of first dogwatch at sea, the afternoon light fading into evening, when the men of the Earl’s Promise sighted sails on the eastern horizon. The sails elicited mild interest at first, then concern, then a real fear as the sails made for their frigate, steady and unrelenting.
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bsp; “I told you this voyage was continuing apace, and that’s ne’er a good sign,” one sailor grumbled to another. “The sky was so fair and the wind so steady, they’ve had us on our knees taking to the decks with holystone the passage has been so easy.”
A Baron Worth Loving: A Historical Regency Romance Book Page 27