ROMANCE: His Reluctant Heart (Historical Western Victorian Romance) (Historical Mail Order Bride Romance Fantasy Short Stories)

by Jane Prescott

  “It is not a lie,” Margaret says, tears streaming down her face. “Just ask Miss Blackwood,” she points, turning to me.

  I stop in my tracks; both Margaret and Harriet are staring intently at me. I don’t say anything, but something in my face must give it away, as Harriet suddenly burst into tears before running upstairs to her room. Poor Harriet, as much as she has annoyed me with her vanity, I really did feel sorry for her. Though, better she knows now than after she is married. I feel no triumph now at his predicament; having seen the lives that man has ruined only fills me with sadness.

  Lady Margaret quickly runs off upstairs to join her siblings, no doubt informing them of Guys indiscretion. Sure enough, as I enter the classroom, she is regaling them with all the gory details. I allow it to go on for a few moments, before putting a stop to such nonsense and informing them to behave with the manners expected of them.

  There is a lot of coming and going for the rest of the day, with the Duke interviewing all who were present, to determine exactly what happened. I tell him what I saw, but do not mention my own previous tryst with Guy. It would not help the situation and would probably lose me my job. I did not see Guy at all that day, and wondered if he had slinked off with his tail between his legs.

  Come the next day I am completely unaware of what, if anything has been decided. To be honest, I don’t really care. I have my date with Henry to look forward to, and nothing is going to spoil it, certainly not Guy.

  He comes to pick me up in his buggy, by the church gate, and drives me to his father’s house. They have a wonderful home, and for some reason, I feel like I am home with my own parents. I am given a warm welcome by everyone, including the staff, and cook’s meal is delicious.

  “Come, Rose, let me show the ring that father is delivering tomorrow to the Duke’s mansion,” Harry drags me along, keen to show me a ring that may not be needed.

  I have said nothing of the incident at the mansion, from the previous day. Would the wedding still go ahead, I really was not sure, but felt discretion was my best option.

  “Oh, they are indeed stunning,” I say, as Harry opens up a little navy blue velvet box, and shows me a pair of glowing and matching golden rings.

  I feel that the bride and groom are unworthy of such fine rings, but who am I to judge, I too have transgressed with that man.

  “Your father is very talented to have created such fine pieces.” I say, truly amazed at the workmanship.

  “I have a little secret, Rose it was not my father who made them, but me. But please, don’t tell them will you?” he begs me.

  “You never told me you were such a master craftsman,” I say with surprise.

  “I have been training on and off all my life. My father always wanted me to follow in his footsteps, but I had other ideas. Now, I feel ready to settle down and make my peace with the world,” Harry says, as if he has made some great decision for himself. “We are invited to attend the garden party of the wedding, I hope I can spend it with you?” he asks.

  “It would make my day so much more pleasurable, Harry, to be in your company,” I reply. “I have written to my parents as they are also invited. I should love for your family to meet with mine.”

  He puts down the glowing box, holds my hand and kisses my lips, ever so lightly. I do believe that my blushing cheeks make him smile all the more. He is a wonderful man and I think I grow fonder of him daily.

  Chapter 18

  I feel quite excited today. My parents arrived yesterday, for the wedding, and have been given a grand room within the house, the Duke is most generous. I am surprised that the wedding is still going ahead, the Duke was not happy at Guy’s indiscretion, but it seems that Guy has wriggled out of the gossip, and into Lady Harriet’s favor. Good luck to the pair of them, they deserve each other.

  My excitement is not for the wedding, but that Harry will be meeting my parents for the first time. I made the decision, in our early days together, to tell Harry about my stupidity with Lord Guy. Whilst a little hurt, he was not taken aback at all. He has known Lord Guy for many years and understands his character, fully. It is suspected that a maid who worked within the inn is having his child. I wonder why the Duke has not kicked his behind, and is allowing him to marry his granddaughter, but I understand it to be a good match for the family. These things seem all important to the upper classes.

  I spend most of the morning showing mama around the grand mansion, and in the afternoon I take a walk on the grounds with both of my parents. The house is in such chaos that we are glad to be away. I take little Laurence with me as the girls are delighting in helping out with all the fancy arrangements.

  The church ceremony goes without incident and the younger girls look so very pretty in their bridesmaid dresses. Lady Harriet looks beautiful and I feel in my heart that I want to wish her well, but somehow I do not see how that marriage can be a happy one.

  When I told Harry about my imprudence with Lord Guy, I gave him the option to step out of our growing relationship. To my relief he has not mentioned it since. I think he respects that I admitted what I had done, and hopefully he forgives me.

  The weather holds out for the huge garden party, so we all have a wonderful day. Boats have been put out on the lake and huge tents have been erected with food and drink. There is even an orchestra playing music outside, it is all a very grand affair.

  The Duke invited us to dine with the family, when my parents arrived yesterday, so they met everyone, making them feel at ease today. I see my father in deep conversation with the Duke, from across the gardens. As I go in search of my mother, I find her sat at a table with Harry and his father. It all makes me feel so happy.

  “Shall we go on one of the boats?” Harry asks me.

  Of which I agree and meander down towards the lake, leaving my mother and his father chatting about fixing a broken locket.

  “I only wanted to be alone with you,” he tells me. “We haven’t had a moment alone all day,” he complains.

  “Am I to take it then, Harry Ashbourne, that you like my company?” I say, teasingly.

  “Truth be told, I want to ask you something,” he says.

  We arrive at the boathouse, and someone helps us to board a small rowing boat, of which we are to row ourselves. It is wonderful, and fun. Harry makes me feel so very, very happy.

  He rows us to the middle of the lake. “Now then, I have you alone at last,” he says.

  “Indeed you do sir, should I scream? Are your intentions honorable?” I ask.

  “Rose, I want to give you this,” he says, handing me a burgundy colored, tiny box. “And, I want to ask you to be my fiancé. I know you might think it’s too soon, after Peter, and I’m willing to wait. I only ask that you assure me you will consider it, and one day we will be man and wife. If that’s what you want, of course,” he finally finishes with his stuttering.

  “Oh, Harry, it’s beautiful. Have you made it yourself?” I say, looking at a dainty pink, diamond rose, set on a gold band.

  “Yes, as soon as I saw the stone I thought of you,” he tells me.

  “Oh Harry, you still want me after all you know about me?”

  “I Love your Rose, whatever has come before doesn’t matter, only that we love each other now, you do love me don’t you?”

  “Yes, yes, yes, I do love you so very much, my darling. While it is too soon for me to marry, if you can be patient with me, then one day we will be together as one.”

  My answer seems to satisfy him and he pulls me into his arms and kisses me passionately on my lips. My life has changed, from the despair of only a few months ago, to complete happiness. It is all because of this wonderful man.

  THE END

  Going Deep

  Jen had decided at the last second to go on the cruise with her parents. She knew it was a decision that she might soon regret, but she didn't have anything better to do in the meantime. The law firm she worked at was in the middle of a two week work stop after the passing of the
founding partner, something that Jen understood but still found a little bit annoying—wouldn't he have wanted everyone to get over it and get back to making money? But no one else seemed to think that way, and she knew that this wasn't the kind of thing that was worth rocking the boat over. And if her work life was at a stand still, her personal life was the aftermath of a tsunami.

  Her long time husband had left her and taken the kids. He hadn't even so much as a left a note behind letting her know what was up. Instead he'd went behind her back, while she'd been busy working seventy hour weeks. Not so much as a note had been left behind to explain what had been doing through his mind when he'd gathered up their three children, their things, and left. Jen wasn't even sure where they'd gone to, not even what part of the country. Now her home stood like something that had been abandoned, because it had. All of the hopes and dreams Jen and her husband had once had were gone, up in smoke.

  There were parts of her that still didn't want to believe it, that didn't want to think of what it took inside a person to do something like that. She'd thought she'd known her husband, now ex as far as she was concerned, better than that. But there had obviously been a lot more going on then Jen had had time to take into account.

  “Hello,” Jen said, answering her phone.

  Jen and her parents were slowly making their way up a long ramp that lead to the top deck of the cruise liner.

  “Jen?” it was the voice of her former husband. “I'm so glad you answered. I really need your help!”

  It was so like him to do this, to uproot an entire family and then come crawling back to ask for help.

  “Well,” Jen said. “Maybe you should call someone who loves you and ask them for help. As for the kids, send them to your parents and I'll collect them and raise them on my own.”

  He sputtered. It sounded like it was raining in the background.

  “What, what do you mean call someone that loves you,” he said. “I'm talking to you right now, aren't I?”

  “I only love people who love me back,” Jen said.

  It felt good to hang up on him while he was still trying to sputter something out on the phone.

  “Who was that, dear?” her mother asked.

  “Oh, no one important, mother,” Jen said. “Don't you worry.”

  As her father and mother fussed over her, knowing very well who it had been, Jen was glad that she had someone on the cruise who she sort of knew and could hang with. As much fun as it sounded to spend a great deal of time with her parents, they didn't seem to want to let up on certain things. Like why Jen and her husband just split up. It wasn't like Jen hadn't answered them, either. Because she had, time and again she had. They didn't want to understand that sometimes things fall apart and there just isn't anything anyone can do about it. Jen was sure her husband had his own reasons for leaving her and taking the kids, but did she really give a shit deep down? Maybe it was because being a lawyer had turned her cold, but no, she didn't really care. If her former husband was going to be the kind of dickless fuck that ran out on her without even so much as an explanation then that was that, and he was a dickless fuck that didn't deserve any more of her time than it took to gather up the things he'd left behind and burn them in the driveway while the neighbors watched.

  Just as Jen and her parents boarded the ship she told herself that she wouldn't be thinking anymore of her former husband. The brisk ocean air smelled so good she didn't want to be anywhere but in the present moment. There was something about getting on a boat, something so big she had a hard time comprehending it, that really put a skip in Jen's step. Because this cruise liner was massive, “the real deal,” as her father had called it. From the little bit she'd read about it the cruise they were about to go on was something of a novelty, but also a little bit of history. It was the biggest cruise ship to date, and although it didn't bear the name of another notorious cruise ship that sunk after hitting an iceberg that was years later made into a movie, it might as well have.

  The person who she knew on the ship was an artist who played autistic guitar. His name was Ben and Jen hadn't met him in person yet. As her parents and her made their way to the room they would share Jen thought about Ben, because he was so good looking and because it would be awkward to tell him that she was staying in her parents' room. It wasn't like the room they'd be staying in was like a small hotel or anything, there were actually two bedrooms, one bigger one for her parents and the smaller one for herself. But her parents would still be there, and she wouldn't be able to take anyone back there, not even just to hang out, and certainly not to fool around. She could only imagine what would happen if she did bring someone back to fool around and her cried of passion roused her sleeping father or mother. Jen would die of embarrassment!

  After Jen and her parents made their way to the room, Jen hurriedly slipped into a swimsuit and absconded with a towel and sunblock to the sunbathing deck. The sunbathing deck was the topmost deck of the ship where passengers could go to get some sun—thus the name. The kink in the mix that Jen hadn't mentioned to her parents was that there were parts of the sunbathing deck that were clothing optional. And although she knew that her parents wouldn't tell her not to go lay out with no top on, she didn't want them to even think about it. Jen knew that her parents would spend most of the time the cruise ship was between little islands below deck gambling. This wasn't their first cruise and they didn't care about the hot bodies or booze. They wanted to gamble and occasionally go on tours of tiny islands and see what corral reefs look like through the glass bottom of a boat. Jen didn't want to make the cruise about her by opening her mouth and saying something she knew she shouldn't to them, like, “I'm going to go nude sun bathing!”

  So she didn't feel guilty as she padded barefoot down the corridors and gangplanks of the ship, looking for the stairs that would take her to the top deck. Eventually, after getting lost in a huge gift shop and getting turned around in a gym, she found the stairs and headed up toward the sky. When she got to the top deck the scene that greeted her eyes made her forget entirely of all the things going wrong in her life. There were so many people bathing nude it was incredible, and the sun hung in the baby blue sky far above, shining down fiercely on all of them. Jen made her way over to a section of the top deck that wasn't so filled out with people yet and thought about her body before she took off her swimsuit.

  Jen knew she was still attractive even though she was in her mid thirties now. She had full, perky breasts with soft pink aureoles that were about the size of silver dollars. Her black hair was curly and fell down to her mid back. Even though she had a dark complexion she had blue eyes that matched the ocean and sky. She kept her bush trimmed to a little forest trail, and looking around she saw that all of the women on the top deck were completely naked, not just nude. She was almost glad for this, to be able to shed all of her clothes and just lay out. Already she could see the eyes of some of the young men around her lingering, waiting for her to drop her clothes. At first Jen was scared, and a little ashamed, to be the object of lust for so many. But then she got turned on by it. So many good looking men were looking at her like they wanted nothing more to take her right there in front of everyone, and Jen knew that if she'd asked all of them would have. But she didn't want just anyone, she reminded herself, as she slipped out of her swimsuit and lay down on her towel to soak in the sun.

  Ben would show up sometime, but she didn't know when. They'd communicated through social media and gotten to know each other fairly well before Jen had decided to go on the cruise. It wasn't that she needed someone to hang with who weren't her parents, she also needed some dick. She couldn't help but chuckle to herself as she lay naked in front of hundreds of people and thought about it. But of course she needed some dick. What kind of woman wouldn't need that kind of attention after what she'd just been through? And when she got off the cruise ship she'd be able to tell her ex about how she fucked the pain away and hadn't thought of him for even a second, save for the few moments
when she'd had to deal with his phone call before she boarded. She, of course, hadn't really thought that he needed help. It was just what he did whenever he did something completely stupid. He'd start to feel out how people around him still felt about him by calling them and asking for “help,” when really he was just asking to be validated by other peoples' attention.

  Ben wasn't that kind of guy, even though he was in the business of other peoples' attention. Ben was in his mid forties but didn't look it. He played guitar and traveled, doing the whole artist schtick to the point that it almost turned Jen off, but then she looked at how amazingly attractive he was and all of that melted from her mind. Ben had broad shoulders and blonde hair, with the features of a Swiss model. Jen had also noticed the bulge in his pants in several photos, but she liked to think that that didn't have as much to do with things as it actually did. Jen was the kind of woman, like most women, that liked a hung guy. She didn't want some guy that was hung only decently well. She wasn't on the cruise liner to have a fling with someone who was all right in bed but had an amazing personality. No, she wanted to meet up with the good looking singer song writer and fuck his brains out, or vice versa.

  As Jen felt the sun kiss her skin brown she wondered how much seducing she'd have to do to get what she wanted from Ben. Or maybe it wouldn't be like that at all, maybe she wouldn't have to feel weird or bad or anything after they did it because they would both want it. Once thing she wasn't entertaining that might very well happen, although she would rather they didn't, were feelings. No matter how much she wanted to pretend that someone like Ben couldn't sweep her off her feet she knew that deep down she was like any other woman, vulnerable to the wiles of attractive romantic men. And Ben was attractive, and hopefully romantic as well. It would just be better if he wanted to lay with her and canoodle, maybe sneak up to the top deck late at night and fool around under the stars or something like that. Jen wasn't sure what she wanted to do exactly, because she also liked the idea of ducking into a a an emergency life raft—there were many stationed around the ship—and fooling around there. The rafts were much more like small boats than inflatable life rafts, so it was possible to step inside of one as it hung off the boat, just parallel with the deck she'd first boarded.