“I wonder if Thomas is being fussed over as much as I?” she murmured as Susan helped her dry off and slip on a robe.
“I’ve no doubt he is having a bath, miss. There were a great many jugs of water being warmed by fireplaces all over the house this morning.” Susan squeezed water from Ellen’s hair with a linen cloth before taking a comb and carefully beginning to separate the strands, using a little lavender oil on her fingers to smooth out tangles. “Though for sure his hair will be quicker for Kenneth to dry!”
For some reason, Ellen found that ridiculously funny. Giggling, she picked up the cup of chocolate Betty had brought with her breakfast tray to take a sip.
“’Tis good to hear you laughing on your wedding day, miss,” Susan said. “And look—the rain has stopped!”
“So it has,” Ellen agreed, peering out of the window.
“Happy is the bride the sun shines upon,” Susan quoted the old saying.
“Perhaps, but my parents were the happiest couple I know and Mama always said it snowed on their wedding day. And it certainly poured with rain the day Demelza and John married, and they are very happy too, so I will not put stock in miserable wedding days having anything to do with unhappy marriages,” Ellen declared firmly.
“Very wise too, I dare say,” Susan agreed. “Won’t you eat something, miss?”
Ellen smiled wryly. Of course her sharp-eyed maid had noticed Ellen had not chosen anything from the tempting array on the tray. “My stomach is in knots, with nerves,” she confessed.
“Just think of it like every other wedding your father, God rest his soul, officiated over the years,” Susan suggested. “I dare say you’ve seen more weddings than anyone else in this house!”
That was quite true, Ellen mused as she allowed Susan to coax her into eating a slice of toast spread with butter and honey. Her father always said he loved nothing better than conducting a wedding, seeing a loving couple joined together in matrimony in God’s house… unless it was the baptisms which often followed, sometimes a little less than nine months later, though her father would never comment no matter how short the time between wedding and birth.
Her parents would have liked Thomas, she thought, very much. She could imagine he and her father having long debates over what they read in the newspapers, her mother recruiting Thomas into helping with one of her projects to improve the lot of the poorest villagers.
A tear trickled from her eye, and she blotted it away. “I am just thinking of Mama and Papa,” she replied to Susan’s concerned query. “I wish they were here.”
“Of course you do, miss. No doubt they’ll be watching over you from heaven, though,” Susan said stoutly, and Ellen nodded.
“No doubt,” she agreed quietly. No doubt the old Earl would be rolling over in his grave, too, if he could see his upstart American heir marrying the impoverished parson’s daughter he had never deigned to acknowledge as his relation, but she did not voice that thought aloud.
*
The servants had filled the little church with foliage, purchasing all the hothouse blooms they could find with Thomas’ purse opened for the purpose, and adding beautifully woven wreaths of greenery. The sweet scent of the blossoms filled Ellen’s nose as she took a deep breath before stepping over the threshold of the church.
Smiling faces greeted her, the servants at the back of the church and a surprising number of higher society at the front as she walked up the aisle. Lady Jersey, in a position of honour in the front row, was positively beaming, Lady Sale and Mrs Peabody beside her looking just as pleased to see Ellen married. Marianne Creighton was directly behind them, her older husband at her side looking less than pleased with the occasion, but Marianne’s smile was bright. Ellen thought she would be sure to write Marianne very often. Lady Creighton seemed very much in need of a friend.
At last, she reached the end of the seemingly interminable walk to where Thomas awaited her before the altar, a broad grin on his face. Seeing how joyous he looked soothed the butterflies in Ellen’s stomach and she smiled happily back at him, the last of her worries falling away.
Together, she thought as she placed her hand in Thomas’s and the curate began intoning the words to the marriage ceremony, they would deal with whatever trials and tribulations might come their way. They might well set the Ton on its ear with their new-fangled ideas and determination that the common folk should be treated just the same as the aristocracy, but Ellen found she did not care in the slightest what the spoiled scions of the upper class might think of them, and she knew Thomas did not either.
“I love you,” Thomas mouthed as the curate droned on.
“I love you too,” Ellen mouthed back.
“If any man here knows any reason why this couple should not be joined together in holy matrimony,” the curate said, frowning at them both, “let him speak now, or forever hold his peace.”
For a wild moment, Ellen half-expected Louisa to leap from behind one of the pews, knife in hand, and she flinched slightly. Thomas tightened his grasp on her hand, concern entering his expression, but she shook her head and smiled at him again.
The church was absolutely quiet. Thomas smiled reassuringly back at Ellen, perhaps guessing something of what she was thinking, and the curate began the ceremony again, this time preparing them to speak their vows.
“I now pronounce you to be man and wife in the sight of God,” the curate ended at last. “My lords, ladies and gentlemen, the Earl and Countess of Havers.”
“My lady,” Thomas said with a smile, and Ellen laughed delightedly.
“Your lady indeed, my lord!”
Uncaring in the least whether they scandalised their audience, Thomas drew her close to place a lingering kiss on her lips. A few tuts sounded from the most traditional, but almost all the congregation beamed at the happy couple, glad to see Ellen find happiness with her Earl at last.
*
A Note From The Author
*
An Earl For Ellen is the first in the Blushing Brides series. Look out for A Marquis For Marianne, Book 2 in the series, also available now!
I hope you enjoyed reading An Earl For Ellen. If you did, I hope you will consider leaving a review of the book on Amazon or Goodreads, so that other potential readers can see your recommendation!
With thanks and best wishes
Catherine Bilson
Brisbane, Australia
January 2019
An Earl For Ellen (Blushing Brides Book 1) Page 12
