A Simple Lady

by Carolynn Carey

  Unless— Was it possible that Gerald had been mistaken? Or that Kenrick had changed over the years? Perhaps maturity had proven to him that even flawed objects—and people—had value.

  Feeling suddenly more optimistic than she had at any moment since Gerald’s disclosures about her husband’s character, Elizabeth smiled to herself. Over the next few weeks she would surely have an opportunity to get to know her husband, and then she could decide for herself whether or not he still abhorred imperfection.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Elizabeth began falling in love with Oak Groves almost as soon as she first set foot on the property. Although the layout of the house was a bit confusing, she soon found her way around and began to revel in the sense of security she experienced within the walls of her husband’s principal seat.

  She was equally enthralled with the grounds, which were immaculately groomed, with neat graveled pathways leading through formal gardens and around the sparkling lake that lay a short distance from the stables.

  And while she hadn’t expected a busy social life in the country, she was astounded and pleased when soon after she and Mary arrived, numerous carriages began wending their way down the long driveway so their occupants could leave cards at Oak Groves.

  Mary was ecstatic. As she explained to Elizabeth, many of the neighbors had befriended her when she was a bride, before her marriage had deteriorated to the point that she had taken Jeremy and retreated to Aston Arbor to escape the humiliations being heaped upon her by her husband.

  While Elizabeth was delighted to see Mary so enthused about renewing ties with their neighbors, she was soon pleased for her own sake as well. For the first time since her marriage, she was being exposed to people who had never heard the rumors about her supposed simplemindedness, people who knew nothing of Kenrick’s reasons for marrying her. Being greeted with respect rather than with wariness was a heady experience for Elizabeth, and she soon learned that her position had certain advantages. The neighbors around Oak Groves accepted her without reservations, and they appeared quite content with the new marchioness.

  Elizabeth couldn’t help but notice that her husband was especially popular among the people who lived near Oak Groves. Everyone appeared delighted to see Kenrick whenever he accompanied his mother and wife to one of the neighbors’ hurriedly planned picnics or parties.

  She soon began to suspect that her acceptance by everyone in the neighborhood could be tied to Kenrick’s constant good manners whenever she was nearby. He always treated her with respect and with a show of affection that she was beginning to find both exhilarating and discouraging. Elizabeth was discovering that, like her neighbors, she delighted in Kenrick’s company. Unfortunately, she rarely saw him except when they had guests.

  Of course, as Elizabeth frequently reminded herself, it was obvious her husband was busy. He spent much of every morning assisting Mr. Smithfield with estate business. During the afternoons, whenever his presence was not required at a social function, he closeted himself in the library to go over the books or read up on new farming methods.

  This facet of her husband’s personality was one that Elizabeth admired immensely, especially when she compared Kenrick’s care for his property and his dependents to her parents’ neglect of Ravingate Hall. She had done what she could to provide for the security of the servants at her former home by having half of her quarterly allowance sent to Squire Wilson, along with a request that he hire a dependable man to oversee repairs to the house and the property. He’d seemed happy to comply and sent occasional reports detailing improvements to the property and modernizations designed for the comfort of the servants.

  While Elizabeth would have liked to view the changes at Ravingate Hall herself, that wasn’t possible, so she decided to devote herself to learning about her new home and hopefully finding something useful to do herself at Oak Groves. Every morning she rose at eight o’clock and went for an exploratory ride with one of the grooms as her guide. Within a week, she had discovered the tenants.

  On the morning Elizabeth first rode out of the forest and into the compound of tenant cottages, she was met by the women there with a bit of awe and a healthy portion of suspicion. None expected the marquess’s new bride to have anything in common with them.

  But Elizabeth had not spent hundreds of hours tutoring Farmer Wythecombe’s children without learning a few things about farm life. She could easily commiserate with Mrs. Donaldson, whose cow had gone dry, and with Mrs. Faulkner, whose hens had stopped laying. But the tenants discovered that Elizabeth always did more than commiserate with them. Whenever any of them expressed a need, they could soon expect to see a servant arriving from Oak Groves bearing milk or eggs or, in some cases, liniments or potions for whatever ailments happened to be prevalent at the moment.

  Elizabeth enjoyed her visits with the tenants, but she enjoyed even more the routine that inevitably followed her return to the stables, for she always found Apollo and Billy waiting for her, anxious for her to play a game with them or to take them for a walk. Both the cat and the boy were thriving at Oak Groves. Billy, it appeared, had increased two inches in height and gained at least a stone, while Apollo was growing longer and leaner. Both were as prone as ever to land in trouble, and Elizabeth sometimes ended up there with them.

  On one particularly warm morning, Elizabeth, Billy, and Apollo had sought respite from the heat in a small grove of trees on the west side of the grounds. When Billy persisted in peeping at her from behind a tree, Elizabeth knew he was requesting a game of hide and seek. After removing the plumed hat that matched her riding habit and placing it on the ground out of harm’s way, Elizabeth covered her eyes, the signal for Billy to hide.

  Ten minutes later, she was still searching for him, dashing from tree to tree and from shrub to shrub. Later she concluded that Apollo must have been watching her from a strategic position on a tree limb several feet above. When she darted beneath his tree, Apollo sprang.

  Catching only a glimpse of something flying through the air toward her, Elizabeth was so startled she screamed, tried to whirl about, and tripped on her long skirt. Within seconds, she was lying flat on her back on the forest floor, weak from her combined fright and laughter. Apollo was sitting in the middle of her stomach, nonchalantly washing his left front paw.

  Elizabeth assumed the footsteps she heard running through the forest were Billy’s. He would have heard her scream, of course, and be coming to check on her. When she looked up from her prone position and into her husband’s apprehensive gaze, her heart began to race. She would never grow inured to his remarkably handsome face, she feared.

  “Are you all right?” Kenrick asked, dropping to his knees beside her. Concern had darkened his gray eyes to the color of steel. “I heard you scream.”

  Apollo, apparently feeling his left paw had received enough attention, switched to his right.

  “Oh my,” Elizabeth said. Then, as the irony of the situation struck her, she began to laugh. Always when she was at her very worst, her husband was the first person on the scene. Here she was, lying on her back in the woods, her hair pins scattered to the winds, her habit covered with twigs and dried leaves, with a cat sitting on her stomach calmly giving himself a bath. And she couldn’t seem to stop laughing.

  * * *

  Kenrick hurriedly brushed Apollo off of his wife’s abdomen and began gently feeling of her limbs to see if anything was broken. Obviously she was hysterical, and he feared she’d suffered a head injury. Knowing she had recently dispensed with a groom during her morning rides, he could only assume she had taken a bad spill. He didn’t even want to think about how long she might have been marooned here if he hadn’t been taking a short cut through the woodland.

  A tug on his sleeve interrupted his thoughts. Billy was standing beside him, a frantic expression on his face.

  “I’m not sure how badly she’s hurt,” Kenrick said in response to the question in Billy’s eyes. “She doesn’t seem to have any broken limbs,
but she must have hit her head. She appears addled.”

  When Elizabeth’s laughter increased in intensity, Kenrick and Billy exchanged worried glances. “I must bring help,” Kenrick told Billy. “Will you stay with her until I return?”

  At Billy’s nod, Kenrick got to his feet, but Elizabeth’s laughter immediately died. “Don’t go,” she said. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know why I couldn’t seem to stop laughing, but I’m not injured, I promise you.”

  Kenrick hesitated, then dropped back onto his knees as Elizabeth began struggling to sit up. “Lie back for a moment more,” he commanded. When Elizabeth obeyed, he quickly stripped off his coat, folded it carefully, and placed it beneath her head. He was not reassured when he noticed that his wife’s face was gradually turning a fiery shade of red.

  “Elizabeth?” he said softly. “Are you in pain?”

  She grimaced. “No, I’m just terribly embarrassed.”

  “There’s no need for embarrassment. We all take a tumble sometimes.”

  “But I didn’t take a tumble,” Elizabeth responded. “I merely stumbled and fell when Apollo leaped at me from a branch.”

  A tiny frown touched Kenrick’s forehead. “Then why were you laughing so hard.”

  “Because,” Elizabeth replied, “when I saw you standing above me, it reminded me of the rose garden.”

  Kenrick’s deepening frown clearly indicated he was having renewed doubts about his wife’s sanity. “Rose garden?” he repeated.

  Elizabeth sighed deeply. “If I may be permitted to sit up, I’ll explain about the rose garden.”

  Five minutes later, Kenrick was staring at her in amazement. “I’m horrified to learn you actually went through that maze of briars behind your father’s house while trying to locate me on the eve of our wedding. The wonder of it is that only your clothing was snagged. You could have been scratched to pieces.”

  Elizabeth shrugged. “I wasn’t worried about that. I was too frantic, fearing I would miss my opportunity to talk to you.”

  “And I thought…” Kenrick began, then paused.

  “You thought I was an unkempt simpleton who could not understand your reference to a Shakespearean play,” Elizabeth said.

  Kenrick grimaced. “Were my thoughts so obvious?”

  “To me they were. But I was accustomed to being underestimated and thus would have recognized your doubts more readily than most people. I was planning to tell you the truth about my capabilities when my parents interrupted us.” Elizabeth paused for a few seconds, then sighed before continuing. “I have not yet apologized to you for my parents’ misapprehensions about your intentions that evening. They had no right—”

  “No,” Kenrick interrupted. “They had no right to jump to such an uncomplimentary conclusion about you, but I have learned in the past weeks just how likely your parents are to misread situations. In fact, I am amazed that, with such parents, you managed to grow up to be such a remarkable young woman.”

  Elizabeth smiled. She’d received so few compliments over the years that a sincere word of praise had the power to delight her. But much more important to her than the praise, she realized, was the look of admiration shining in Kenrick’s eyes. She returned his gaze, willing her thoughts to be written in her eyes, for she could not yet force her lips to form the words she longed to share with her husband—words that would have expressed her as yet intangible desires.

  A sigh from Billy attracted her attention. He had been waiting patiently while she and Kenrick sat on the ground talking. Now he was beginning to fidget.

  “Poor Billy,” Elizabeth said, reaching to grasp his hand. “You have been very good this morning. Would you like to continue our game of hide and seek?”

  Billy nodded eagerly.

  Kenrick immediately stood and then reached to grasp Elizabeth’s hand and pull her to her feet. They stood, inches apart, her hand still clasped in his. Elizabeth’s head began to swim and she knew intuitively that it was from no physical ailment. Her husband’s closeness was intoxicating. The soft scent of his sandalwood soap, along with the warmth emanating from his body, assaulted her senses, creating longings that Elizabeth had never experienced before.

  Suddenly frightened, she wrenched her hands from his grasp. “I-I must return to Billy,” she said.

  Kenrick blew out his breath in a long sigh. “Yes,” he said softly. “Yes.” Then he turned and hurried away through the forest, leaving Elizabeth to silently curse herself for her missishness. After all, she and Kenrick were married. What would have been so terrible about a small kiss between husband and wife?

  When Elizabeth arrived at the stables the following morning for her usual ride, Kenrick was there before her, one shoulder propped against the stable door as though he was waiting for her to appear. He straightened as she approached, a mischievous smile teasing the corners of his lips.

  Elizabeth’s heart sped up as Kenrick strode toward her. “Good morning, my lord,” she murmured through suddenly dry lips. Her husband looked even more handsome than usual this morning, perhaps because there was an especially appealing gleam in his eyes. She nervously moistened her lips. A bit intimidated by his warm smile of welcome, she glanced up at the cloudless sky. “The day promises to be sunny,” she murmured inanely.

  “Especially now,” Kenrick agreed, smiling even more broadly. “May I join you for your ride?”

  Elizabeth nodded, delighted with the open admiration in Kenrick’s gaze and suddenly feeling breathless and lightheaded.

  She allowed him to toss her into the saddle, marveling that the mere touch of his hands could create such peculiar sensations in her stomach.

  “May I take the lead today?” he asked as soon as he had swung himself onto Solomon’s back. “Although I didn’t spent a lot of time at Oak Groves when I was growing up, my father occasionally had me join him here for a few weeks in the summers. On one of those visits, I discovered a glade that I particularly enjoyed, and I would like to share it with you.”

  “Very well,” Elizabeth said, feeling somewhat foolish. Why could she not think of something clever and witty to say, something that would prove to her husband that she was just as sanguine as he appeared to be? Unfortunately, she admitted to herself as she followed Kenrick down a narrow path leading into the woodland, none of her studies over the years had prepared her to deal with the peculiar emotions that were besetting her now.

  Conversation was limited by their necessity to ride single file, a circumstance Elizabeth welcomed since she could think of no topics of discussion she felt would interest Kenrick anyway. However, too soon for her comfort, they exited the forest into a sunny meadow where Kenrick pulled up and waited for Elizabeth to join him. Wild flowers provided a multi-colored carpet, and a small pond near the center of the glade was surrounded by willows swaying gently in the soft breeze.

  “Oh,” Elizabeth breathed softly. “What a magical place.” She could immediately envision her husband as a small boy slipping away here to play. In a child’s imagination, she knew, the willows could easily double as a castle, and the pond could be swiftly transformed to an ocean sporting dangerous pirate ships.

  The broad smile on Kenrick’s face was proof of his pleasure at her reaction. “Would you like to sit under the willows for a while?”

  At Elizabeth’s swift nod, he quickly dismounted and then reached up to help her slide from the saddle, appearing in no hurry to release her once her feet were on the ground. “I think, Elizabeth,” he said softly, gazing into her eyes, “that it is time you and I became better acquainted.”

  “I agree,” Elizabeth responded quickly—before she could lose her courage. After all, she had been longing to know her husband better. And besides, she had not yet spent enough time with him to be able to judge the truth of Gerald’s assertions about him.

  “I’m glad,” Kenrick said simply, reaching to take Elizabeth’s gloved hand in his own and lead her slowly through the sunny meadow to the shady bank of the pond. There he removed his r
iding coat, spread it carefully on the bank, and insisted that Elizabeth sit on it to protect her from any possible dampness. Then he lowered himself to the ground beside her. “Tell me about your childhood,” he commanded, reaching to pluck a blade of grass which he began twisting around one finger while he gazed solemnly at the ripples on the pond’s surface.

  A bit startled, Elizabeth glanced at her husband. He was still staring at the water. “Why?” she asked baldly.

  He looked at her then, long and searchingly. “A fair question,” he allowed at last. “I could tell you that I merely want us to become better acquainted, and that would be true. But it would be only a part of the truth.” He paused and took a deep breath before continuing. “As I am sure you know, my first marriage was based on a lie, and, as a result of that lie, I was afraid to trust any woman again. I certainly did not wish to marry a second time, and I now know that our marriage was not what you wanted either. But in recent weeks, I have begun to hope that, if we try, we can learn to trust each other and perhaps build a real marriage out of the rubble of our poor beginning.”

  “And an understanding of my childhood is essential to your trusting me?” Elizabeth asked, frowning slightly as she tried to understand.

  “Not at all,” he replied quickly. “I already trust you, Elizabeth. I have for quite some time. Please believe that. But I don’t understand you. I simply can’t comprehend how anyone could survive such a childhood and still grow up to be as intelligent, as generous, and as unembittered as you are.”

  “I fear you give me too much credit,” Elizabeth objected with a pleased smile. “But I thank you for the compliments. I doubt anyone can understand how much a few words of praise can mean to someone who grew up with so much criticism.”