The Reclusive Earl

by Ruth Ann Nordin

  “But the vicar…”

  “The vicar knows it’d be in poor taste to mention it to anyone.”

  He hoped she was right. In his experience, it was hard to know who wasn’t going to talk behind his back.

  “Are you hungry?” she asked.

  “No.”

  “Did you eat before the ceremony?”

  “No.” He just didn’t have an appetite when he was under a great amount of stress, and there was no doubt that getting married was an amazingly stressful event.

  “Well, if you’re ready to leave, we can.”

  “I need to apologize to your family before we go.”

  “There’s no need to apologize. I told you that we all understand it was an accident. You can see my family another time. They aren’t expecting you to see them for the rest of the day. Iris’ parents already left, and Iris is taking care of her children. Warren is getting ready to go to White’s.”

  Was she telling him the truth, or was she only saying it to make him feel better?

  She sighed and squeezed his hand again. “They understand you’re embarrassed, Landon. No one wants to put you in an awkward position. They want you to be as comfortable as possible.”

  Sensing her sincerity, he nodded. “All right. I’ll talk to them later.”

  “Good.” She slipped her arm around his. “Let’s go to our new home.” Then she led him to the stairs.

  ***

  Opal had dreamt of getting married since she’d read books about people falling in love. Despite the marriage her mother and father had shared, she’d held onto the hope that she might be one of the fortunate couples who had a love match. Warren and Iris were proof that such marriages were possible. Watching them over the past two years and seeing how their love deepened every day, her desire for such a match had grown stronger than ever.

  She thought it might be possible that she and Landon could share such a marriage. He was undeniably sweet. He worried too much about what others thought of him, but it was only because he wished to please everyone. She hadn’t ever come across a gentleman so sensitive to the needs and thoughts of others before. He would, without a doubt, make a kind and gentle husband, as the vicar had said.

  Now, as she sat with him in the carriage on the way to their new home, she wrapped her arm around his and offered him a smile. Though hesitant at first, he returned it.

  When the carriage came to a stop, she peered through the window to see where she’d be living from this point forward. The townhouse was close to Warren’s, and for that, she was glad. It would be nice to be near her family. Landon had been very thoughtful to take that into consideration.

  The footman opened the door, and Landon stepped out and then turned to help her down. Despite his nervousness, he did have a nice grip. Not too tight. Not loose, either. Thankfully, he had seemed to relax significantly since she’d found him in the attic.

  He led the way up the stairs, and they went into their new home. While Landon introduced her to the staff, the coachman brought in her belongings. She noticed that Landon spoke slowly as he chose his words, avoiding any that would cause him to lisp.

  Afterwards, Opal and Landon went to their bedchambers to change into more comfortable clothes. When she was done, she thought of knocking on the door separating their bedchambers, but then she decided to wait for him in the drawing room.

  “Is there anything you would like me to bring to eat or drink?” the butler asked.

  Turning from the window, she said, “Green tea and scones will be fine, thank you.”

  He offered a nod and left.

  Good. Maybe now Landon would get something to eat. Hopefully, by now, he would be relaxed enough so he could manage to get something into his stomach.

  Studying the room, she didn’t notice anything personal about it. There was nothing that gave her a clue into what Landon’s interests were.

  She heard some footsteps. Expecting it to be the butler, she was ready to tell him to put the tray by the settee so she and Landon could sit together, but it was Landon. He stopped just outside the doorway and peered in as if he wasn’t sure he had a right to be there.

  She was ready to invite him in when he asked, “Would you like to see more of this place?”

  “Yes, I would.”

  She should get familiar with the townhouse. She went over to him, not sure if she should hold his hand or slip her arm through his. When they were in Warren’s attic and Landon was afraid to leave, it’d been easy to make the move. It’d been easy initiating contact when they were in the carriage, too. But now that they were here, she didn’t feel so confident.

  The butler came up to them with a tray in his hands. He paused when he saw them. “Should I return this to the kitchen until you’re ready to sit in the drawing room?”

  “You can put it in there,” Landon said. “We won’t be gone for long.”

  The butler nodded, and as he went into the room, Landon gestured down the hall.

  “When Lady Chadwick gave me a tour, we went down here,” Landon explained.

  He didn’t make a move to touch her, so she decided to walk beside him. “Do you plan to put any personal items in the rooms?” she asked.

  “I hadn’t thought about it,” he replied. “I had a lot to do to get ready for our marriage. Except for my clothing, I have nothing of my own here.”

  “So this furniture and the decorations belong to Lady Chadwick?”

  He nodded.

  “If you don’t mind, can we get a couple of things that are our own to help make the place feel like it belongs to us?” she asked.

  “I’d be happy to do that.”

  She smiled at him, and they came to an open door along the hall.

  “The den,” he said, motioning to the room.

  She entered it first, and he followed behind. “I’m surprised she left books here,” she said as she went to the large bookcase lining one of the walls. “There’s not a single spot left to add another book. She must love to read.”

  “Either her or Lord Chadwick. Lord Chadwick died. Lady Chadwick might have left them here.”

  Noting the way he carefully spoke each word, she glanced away from the books and said, “I don’t mind your lisp. You don’t have to purposely choose words that don’t have the letter ‘s’ in them.”

  A blush crept up his face. “I prefer to.”

  “I understand. I didn’t mean to embarrass you. You should speak in a way that makes you comfortable.” She smiled again in hopes of making him more comfortable then scanned the titles. “I’m going to guess that it was her husband who read most of these. They seem to involve histories of empires and battles.”

  He walked over to her. “I hadn’t noticed.”

  “I love to read. I spent most of my life in books. They were a good escape. I only read a couple that dealt with past empires.” She hesitated to add more, but then she thought she might put him more at ease if she made a joke. “I only read the books about empires and battles when I was having trouble going to sleep. Within thirty minutes, they always made me tired.”

  As she hoped, he laughed.

  “What about you? Do you read?” she asked.

  He nodded. “A lot while in the country. I don’t do much more than that.”

  “What about riding horses? Do you do that when you’re in the country?”

  “I do. Do you ride them?”

  “I used to when I was a child, but I haven’t done it in a long time.”

  She decided not to tell him that was because when she’d last been on a horse, she’d fallen off of it in an attempt to kill herself. After that, her mother and brother, Byron, had forbidden her to go on another one.

  “Do you like riding them?” Landon asked, breaking her out of thoughts of her past—thoughts she’d rather not dwell on.

  She turned her attention back to him. “I do.”

  “I can rent them, and we can take a ride in Hyde Park. I hear people do that in London.”

&nbs
p; “Yes, they do. I’ve seen them do it. It’s been so long since I’ve been on one, I might be a bit clumsy, but I would love to ride one again.”

  “Would you like to do it today?”

  Surprised he would make the offer so soon, she chuckled. “I think we have enough to do today, what with the wedding and everything. But I would like to do it soon.”

  “All right.”

  “I suppose there’s not much more to this room than books,” she said after a long moment of silence passed between them.

  He shook his head. “Lady Chadwick let me know I could replace them,” he gestured to the books, “if I wanted. We can put them in the attic. I don’t have many people under my employment. No one,” he cleared his throat, “livth there.” He winced then hurried to gesture to the books. “They aren’t going to get in the way up there.”

  “Do you like to read those kinds of books?”

  “A little, but not that many.”

  “They are a lot on the same topic. Even I need more of a variety than that. That will be one of the things we’ll get to later. First, we should think of things we can purchase that will make this our home instead of Lady Chadwick’s.”

  Landon scanned the room, “I think a painting or two would go well in here.”

  “What kind of paintings would you like to have?”

  “I like the country. Maybe a painting like that would be nice. What do you think?”

  “I think this is going to be your room, so you should get whatever paintings you want for it.”

  “But don’t you want to add book…?” He stopped before he added the ‘s’ then quickly added, “The type you like to read.”

  “There is room in my bedchamber to put them.”

  He paused for a moment then nodded. “All right. The den will be mine then.”

  “For what it’s worth, I love paintings of the country. They will be lovely in this room.” Even if Lady Chadwick had left her husband’s books here, she had cleared the walls for them to do whatever they wished. “You can also replace that inkwell on the desk or add another chair to the room. Then this will feel like your room.”

  “It will.”

  She slipped her arm through his again and guided him out of the room. “This is going to be fun. We’ll add our own personal touches to these rooms, and they’ll represent who we are.” She paused when they reached the hallway. “Where should we go next?”

  He cleared his throat. “The ballroom.”

  Ballroom? She and Landon could now host balls! She was definitely looking forward to that. Excited, she encouraged him to lead the way.

  Chapter Nine

  Opal tried not to notice the passage of time, but it was hard to ignore it when the grandfather clock in the hallway chimed from the hallway. She counted each chime as it struck without meaning to, and after the mark hit ten, she began to wonder if Landon had any intention of coming to her bedchamber.

  This was their wedding night, and as the gentleman, it was expected that he would be the one coming to her. However…he wasn’t the average gentleman. He was extremely shy. She had thought Iris had been exaggerating about the gentleman who was so shy that he would hide at a ball, but now she could imagine there really was a gentleman in London who did that.

  Landon wasn’t that shy, though. He at least did let others see him. Which was why she couldn’t understand why he hadn’t come to her bedchamber. They had had a good afternoon together, and even if he hadn’t said much during dinner, he did eat all of his food. So she had assumed he felt more comfortable with her now.

  She sat up in the bed, clutching the blanket to her chest. To make things easy for him, she had slipped into bed naked. But it was starting to occur to her she’d been hasty in doing so. Maybe she was going to have to go to him.

  She waited for a few minutes, and when he still didn’t come into her bedchamber, she decided to get out of bed. The first thing she did was slip on her chemise. She might be brave enough to go to his bedchamber, but there was no way she could do it without anything on.

  Her heartbeat picking up, she went to the door separating their bedchambers. Now she could understand why he hesitated to come to her. It was harder to be the person who was making the first move.

  She knocked. No answer. She knocked again, and still, there was no answer. She turned the knob and slowly opened the door. She wasn’t sure why she did it as slowly as she did. It wasn’t like he was going to be on the other side, waiting to pop out at her. The thought of him jumping out at her made her chuckle, and she felt some of her tension ease.

  There was a single candle burning in the room, which gave her enough light to see the bedchamber. Like her room, his was well furnished but lacking any personal objects. She wasn’t surprised by that. She was, however, surprised to see he wasn’t in the bed. In fact, the bed was neatly made.

  She stepped into the room. Except for the burning candle, a few grooming supplies on the dresser, and his shoes which were under a chair by the armoire, she would never know anyone was staying in this room.

  “Landon?” she asked.

  No answer came.

  Noting the additional room to the side, she took a step toward it. “Landon, are you in there?”

  She didn’t hear anything to indicate he was.

  Maybe he was downstairs. Maybe she should get dressed and go to him.

  She turned to go back to the door when she heard a sneeze. Her gaze went to the bed…specifically under the bed. She walked over to the bed, knelt down, and lifted the edge of the blanket.

  Landon was lying on his stomach under the bed. His face was in his hands, as if he actually believed she wouldn’t be able to see him if he couldn’t see her. Minus his shoes, he was also fully dressed.

  If she didn’t already know he was prone to excessive shyness, she would have burst out laughing. Whoever heard of a gentleman hiding under his bed on his wedding night?

  She forced aside her chuckle and asked, “Landon, are you feeling all right?”

  He grew stiff.

  What a curious reaction. Hadn’t he heard her when she came over to the bed? Oh, how silly. Of course, he had. Why else would he hide his face?

  “Landon, there’s no reason to be nervous,” she said.

  He shook his head and still wouldn’t look at her.

  “I’m serious. You don’t have to be nervous,” she insisted. She waited for a moment, but when he didn’t look at her, she slid under the bed and wiggled toward him. “Have I given you a reason to think that I don’t want you to be with me tonight?”

  Again, he didn’t answer her.

  She reached up and brought one of his hands away from his face. Making sure her tone was playful, she asked, “Landon, you do realize I can see you, don’t you?”

  As she hoped, he finally looked at her.

  She wrapped her hand around his. “I thought we had a pleasant day together. Did I do or say something to upset you?”

  “No,” he quickly replied. “Why would you think that?”

  “Well, to be honest, I didn’t. I just couldn’t think of any other way to get you to talk to me except to ask you a question. We did have a good day together, don’t you agree?”

  He nodded. “We did.” Then he cleared his throat. “After the wedding, we did.”

  “I enjoyed myself immensely.”

  He edged a little closer to her. “I did, too.”

  “Then why are you hiding under your bed?”

  He didn’t answer right away. In fact, his gaze went away from her. Just when she was beginning to think she might have to encourage him to say something, he spoke, his words coming out slowly, probably because he was testing each one. “I’ll be bad in bed.”

  It took her a moment to understand his meaning. “How do you know that? Were you with a lady in the past who said you were bad?”

  “No. I’ve never been with anyone before.”

  “Then how do you know you’ll be bad?”

  “I’m not goo
d at anything.”

  Did he really believe that? She studied him and saw that he really did. “That’s not true. You do a wonderful job of listening to people. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people too busy trying to convince others they’re right that they aren’t paying attention to what the other person is saying.”

  “When you put it that way, I do that very well. But I have never done anything with a lady. I have no experience at all.”

  “I have no experience, either.”

  “But gentlemen are expected to have experience.”

  “Even if they are, they still have to start somewhere. No one is born having the experience. There has to be a first time.”

  His eyebrows furrowed as if he’d never considered that possibility before.

  “Would it really be so terrible if we learned about lovemaking together?” she asked.

  “Well,” he began, “you won’t know how bad I am.”

  “Landon, why are you assuming you’ll be bad?”

  “I don’t have any experience.”

  The poor thing. When she woke up that morning, she had no idea the wedding ceremony was going to be the easy part. “Let’s not do anything tonight. Let’s just sleep together. We don’t know each other very well. We can spend the night in each other’s arms. Maybe later, after we’re comfortable with each other, things will be easier for you.”

  He hesitated but then nodded. “That might work. All right.”

  Good. She was beginning to worry that they would end up staying under the bed the entire night. She wiggled out from under the bed and looked behind her to make sure he was following her. Fortunately, he was. She stood up and waited for him to stand up before she went to the blankets and pulled them back. Once she got into the bed, she turned to face him.

  He stood still, and she caught the uncertainty in his expression. “There’s plenty of room for both of us,” she assured him. To demonstrate, she slid over to one side, exposing the area that was free for him. She patted the spot and gave him what she hoped was an inviting smile.

  After a moment, he cleared his throat and headed for the bed.