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

by Jane Prescott

  “Yes, indeed, propriety be damned,” he answered, and Margaret added her smile quite deliciously to his.

  Upstairs in Ania’s chambers, the darker haired sister’s hopes had swiftly been dashed. Struggling to maintain her perspective on the situation, Ania uttered a few sentences about how it had turned out to be lucky after all that the new Duke Connols had chosen to keep to the legal deed and take her on for a bride, despite not truly having to do so after all.

  “You will be married in St. John’s in a week’s time, and your father and I will be hosting the breakfast after,” Lady Cromwell was saying, and Ania found herself wondering what all the rush was about. Were her parents afraid that during that time, her husband-to-be would return to his previous sport of bedding the more fashionable ladies of the ton? If he was anything like his brother, then Nicholas Connols was a smart man and it would be decidedly stupid of him to continue to tarnish the reputation of his family, since it was tarnished beyond repair. And then she realized what it was that her parents were truly afraid of. They cared not a whit for the reputation of her husband to be, or even her own.

  They were afraid Nicholas Connols would change his mind and not marry her.

  Not for the first time, Ania seriously considered turning tail and fleeing from this whole mess, this whole misguided sense of duty and fealty. She had made enough money, certainly, to be able to live somewhere else for a while, rumors be damned. But catching the worried expression on both of her parent’s faces made her think about another member of her family who was depending on this marriage to happen, someone she cared about deeply, even if she did not care for the way she had to save her.

  Margaret.

  Margaret Cromwell deserved better than to be penniless. Her little sister Margaret deserved to choose who she wanted to marry.

  And so with a curt nod of the head and an inner steely resolve, Ania Cromwell shouldered the burden of a self-sacrificing hero and began preparing for her marriage to scandalous rake Nicholas Connols and all that had to offer.

  * * *

  When Ania finally caught sight of her husband, the Duke of Connols, her breath caught. Lawd, but he looked a dangerous man! From the cleft in his chin to his smooth olive skin, you might have thought he would be the one to be the illegitimate son, not his peaches and cream brother Brent.

  There was something about him that caught the eye; he looked less the hero and more like the pirate Ania imagined, although from the rumors she had heard, he might be less gentlemanly than even that imagined man. His dark hair was cropped close to his head like his brother’s, but his wide brown eyes shone with an innate intelligence that, when compounded with the air domination about him, made him all the more interesting to look at. He was not a particularly tall man, but he had a powerful build that made him seem as if he would be excellent to hold on to in a storm. Not that Ania was going to hold on to him or that there was any storm. She shook her head, willing the ridiculous train of thought out of her head.

  Her husband did not appear to be weathering any kind of trouble in trying to wrap his head around their nuptials, however. He was quite calmly slicing into a roasted duck breast at the seat next to her, listening to someone’s insipid mother babble on and on about the weather. Ania snuck a glance out of her periphery at his glance; broad and finely boned, they handled the silver utensils above his plate with ease, comfort and skill. Would he also be touching her with the same practiced maneuvers?

  Her mother had had only the most cursory of conversations with her about what to expect in the marriage bed, and it had served only to make Ania flush some more and instill her with a fear of the goings-on there that she had not previously had. She did not want to believe what her mother was telling her, that she had to bear her duty and submit to him entirely in bed. Surely somebody who was now telling something genial to Brent Connols and making him laugh could not be such a terrible monster that he would stand on ceremony too often. Ania’s thought strayed to that shaking rosemary bush, and she wondered if passion was something that was found outside of the marriage bed, and if her own life would include it in any capacity. With a heavy sigh, she pushed the onion-glazed potatoes around on her own plate and refused to meet anybody’s eyes, even though Margaret was peering at her closely, intent on seeing her reaction to her brand-new husband.

  Nicholas Connols, in his stead, had indeed noticed his new duchess. What had Brent been talking about, “learn to appreciate it”? Ania Cromwell was indeed quite the looker, although she appeared quite unaware of the effect she had on the men around her. Curved and petite, her light brown hair was streaked with shots of gold, which made him think that there was a side to her that perhaps turned its nose at the idea that ladies needed to be out of the sun to maintain their pale beauty. Speaking of her nose, it was delightfully upturned and splashed charmingly with freckles, which she did not even attempt to hide with powder as most young ladies did, which endeared her all the more to Nicholas. But perhaps the very best thing of all were her large and intelligent dark green eyes, which upturned at the corners to make it seem as if she was always smiling at you. Nicholas imagined what those eyes would look like looking up at him from waist level when his new bride would be kissing him in a place he was sure most people would deem oh-so-inappropriate, and the picture it formed went straight to his cock. Yes, he could learn to appreciate his new wife’s looks.

  But could he also appreciate her mind?

  The wedding breakfast seemed to last forever, and by the end of it, Ania was visibly spent. Although she was nervous about the night that awaited her, she hoped that it would be over soon—her husband was not the tender pirate of her imagination, after all. Perhaps it would all be very civil and over quickly. Although, when she looked at her husband’s easy posture in the carriage, one arm along the seat rest, she could not help but think that perhaps it would be enjoyable, after all. The ride lasted for hours, and as the sights that went by them became less familiar, Ania’s nerves rose; she began to understand that she had started a new chapter not only for the serial, but also in her own life. Hopefully, Nicholas Connols would keep mostly to himself so she could continue on as she had before.

  “Duchess,” Nicholas said wryly, offering her a hand as she stepped from the carriage. The corners of Ania’s mouth turned up at that; it seemed Nicholas Connols might have a sense of humor behind that imposing demeanor.

  “Your Grace has a lovely new home,” she said back to him, accepting the hand, wholly unprepared for the electricity that passed between them when they made contact. Nicholas looked as though he had not felt the same, and Ania momentarily wondered if she had imagined the sensation; she was taken with flights of fancy, after all, although she preferred to call it work-necessitated creativity.

  “It is lovely and new to me as well,” Nicholas answered, tucking her hand over his and leading her to the door. Bemused by such a reply, she glanced up at him and realized that they both wore mirror expressions of the same kind of smile. Although her heart had done a little jump at being so close to him and the feel of him against her arm was quite nice, she could not help but wonder if the charming rake beside her would turn into a completely different man in the bedchamber.

  This thought pursued her all the way into the evening and into the bedchamber where her maidservant Johnson, hired, no doubt, by Duke Connols for the impending marriage, was brushing out her thick, wavy hair. Ania preferred it like this instead of forced into some silly bun that pulled at her scalp and never managed to stay together anyway. After a while, she took over the brushing herself and send Johnson away, much to the older woman’s chagrin; Ania was used to taking care of her own grooming, as her parents had not been able to afford such a luxury for a long time. It was several long minutes before she felt a pair of eyes boring into her back and turned around to find Nicholas Connols standing in the doorframe to her bedchamber.

  “Oh!” she cried, hastily putting the hairbrush down on the table. “Oh, Your Grace, you’re here.”
Lord, but he looked languorous as a panther leaning against the doorframe. Like the big cat itself, he uncurled himself from the posture and approached Ania from the back; she followed his motions in the mirror with her eyes.

  Nicholas picked up the brush and poised it over her head. “May I?” he asked, hoping against hope that his new wife would not deny him such a simple pleasure. He wanted to be able to touch her, if only in such a small way. He felt relieved when she nodded her head yes.

  Holding her slim shoulder with one hand, he began the downward strokes through her lush locks, gradually settling into a rhythm that soothed them both. How long had it been since he had done anything so—so intimate with a woman? For all his knowledge of the fairer sex, he was new at this, establishing an actual closeness with someone who he was expected to share his life with. He glanced at Ania’s reflection in the mirror and was pleasantly taken aback to find his new duchesses’ eyes closed, an expression of rapture on her face. Had he caused that? Slowly and silently, not wanting to break the spell, he put the brush down and employed his hands instead, rubbing her scalp gently, but firmly. Ania made a little noise in her throat and opened her eyes, the widened pupils betraying some secret part of her that made Nicholas feel almost as if he had intruded into some private moment of her thinking; at the same time, although his wife’s face was new to him, the look itself seemed familiar, and he recognized it as one of excitement of a certain nature and felt himself swell slightly against his breeches. He glanced at his wife’s face in the mirror once more, and while his fingers kept up a steady pressure against her gloriously soft hair, he lowered his mouth down to her neck.

  And instantly felt her stiffen.

  At the look of pure panic that crossed her expression, Nicholas felt regret fill him instantly. Of course, no matter how excited his new wife was by his attentions, she was a gently bred lady who undoubtedly expected him to turn into some raging animal. Her face took on a steadfast expression, and Nicholas’s immense surprise, Ania rose from her chair and crossed over to the large bed he had ordered specifically for her chambers.

  And so it was to begin, thought Ania, her heart doing some spectacular somersaults within her chest. She had enjoyed the feel of Nicholas’s rapturous head rub, but there was also the sidelong knowledge that it was not as innocent as it might have been. Terrified at the feelings rising up inside of her own self, Ania had decided that the sooner they got over the part of the evening where Nicholas would wrench the clothes off her body and ravage her, the better. She was actually very tired, and so she took matters into her own hands.

  At the determined, yet slightly terrified look on Ania’s face, Nicholas bit his lower lip. Never before had a woman he had in bed been so plainly scared of him, and somehow, the idea that this might all be moving just too fast for her, that she would be coming to him now unwillingly gnawed at Nicholas directly underneath his skin. She was innocent; she had no idea that the way she had just responded to his ministrations to her locks was the way it all could be, and quite suddenly and solidly, Nicholas decided that he would prove to her that very fact.

  Crossing over to where she sat on the bed, Nicholas sat down, simultaneously amused and guilty at the look on her face; good God, it was as if she expected him to toss her down on the bed and ravage her immediately! And although the idea appealed to him enormously as he took in the lush curves of her body underneath the lilac nightgown she wore, he had a different kind of evening in mind for them.

  Ania’s eyes widened as he leaned his solid, warm body over hers, but confusion instantly warred with trepidation as she heard the bell ring. What was he doing?

  Johnson the maidservant appeared a few minutes later. “Sir?” she queried, avoiding looking at the intimate scene of husband and wife planted at the edge of the bed in their nightclothes. Ania tried to hide her body best she could against such impropriety, but Nicholas seemed to not share her embarrassment. Why would he, when he cut such a fine figure against the fawn-colored breeches he wore, and in his own home no less?

  “Fetch a newspaper, would you, Johnson?” he said, leaning back against his outstretched arm on the bed.

  Ania instantly wrinkled her brow. Not only did he know the servants by name, which was highly unusual and something she doubted her parents would have approved of, but she could not imagine what he was going to do with a newspaper now, on their wedding night. Perhaps she was not masking her nerves as much as she imagined she was, and now he was going to punish her by striking her with the paper? The image of him smacking her bottom with a rolled-up newspaper held a naughty appeal for her, and she blessed everything she could think of that Nicholas did not catch the grin that spread over her face in that moment as she leaned forward so that her hair masked her.

  With an impeccably controlled expression on her face, Johnson fetched the newspaper and, carefully sidestepping the pair, set in on the table where Ania had just sat. Rising from the bed, Nicholas went to collect the newspaper and settled himself deeply in the cushy armchair nearby. Realizing that the evening was not going to go at all as she thought it might, Ania scooted over on the bed until she was comfortable against the oversized pillows and waited.

  “I, ahem, have never admitted this to anyone except Brent,” said Nicholas, peeling open the periodical, “But I enjoy reading the serials, particularly the one by someone who goes by the moniker the Illustrated Lady. I was wondering if I could read some of it tonight, with you.”

  You could have heard a pin drop in that room. Ania had to force herself to hinge her jaw back together upon hearing the bomb that Nicholas Connols, her new husband, had just dropped on her. She feared that he might misconstrue this as shock at the fact that he read dramatic stories about pirates.

  And in fact, she was shocked. Not so much at the fact that he liked to read dramatic stories about tender-hearted pirates, but at meeting her first devoted fan and having him be so closely tied to her. Ania felt a flush creep up her neck and prayed it did not stain her face and betray her secret, or worse, confuse Nicholas, who she was seeing in a whole new light at that very moment.

  “P-please,” she said, gesturing towards the newspaper. “I would like nothing better.” And in fact, she realized, as his warm baritone brought the stormy seas and rising passions to life, she was telling the truth. Although she put her work out to the public, she had never read it aloud before to anyone, not to Margaret and certainly not to herself. To her growing amazement, Nicholas became even more animated as the conflict in the story began to build, and his whole face grew soft and warm, so that for the first time, Ania could see the man behind the scandal, the man behind the rumors of dozens of women.

  When he was done, Ania felt pinned to the bed by the force of her own incredulity. As Nicholas set down the newspaper and crossed over until he was sitting by the foot of the bed, Ania felt an almost overpowering urge to touch him in some way, to communicate her wonder in some tangible form of expression; so great was her feeling that she almost did not hear the question Nicholas posed her.

  “What?’ she asked, shaking her head clear of all the emotions.

  “I asked,” Nicholas repeated quietly, “If you had cared very much for Brent.”

  A wrinkle creased her brow as the full import of his words assailed her. “You mean, did I wish to be married to him instead?” she asked, wrapping her arms around the knees that she had folded in on herself. At the look of pain that crossed his face fleetingly, Ania wanted to hit herself on the forehead. What an impolite thing to say to one’s husband!

  “I was wondering if perhaps you two had had some kind of agreement and you were very disappointed to be married to a philanderer such as myself,” said Nicholas, with just a wink of joviality in his voice.

  Ania considered her answer carefully. “It was true that I held Brent in high regard and hoped we might have quite the civil marriage, perhaps even be friends. But I think that you do yourself a disservice by calling yourself a philanderer.”

  “What make
s you say that?” asked Nicholas, finding himself drawn irresistibly closer to his delicious young wife, who had laughed and gasped in all the right places as he had read.

  Ania turned her serious green eyes on him. “May I be frank?”

  Nicholas smiled. “I wish for you always to be frank with me, Ania.”

  She flushed slightly at the usage of her name, then nodded. “Well, Your Grace, just look at what is happening to your family. Everybody is talking about it, but you, you have taken it completely in stride. More than that,” she pressed on, “you have taken on the duties of your brother with nary a protest, including an unwanted bride you no doubt married purely out of pity.”

  That he could not deny. But after hearing Ania’s honest reply, Nicholas felt something inside of himself that he had never felt towards a woman before.

  Good Lord, he thought he could respect his wife.

  Timid and green as she was, she seemed to possess an innate kind of maturity beyond her years, and he could not deny the little leap his heart took when she mentioned that not only was she not in love with his brother, but that she too, was looking for a true companion in life. In a matter of seconds, Lady Ania Cromwell had turned his world completely upside down.

  “Ania,” he said in a low voice, meeting his dark brown eyes with her green ones, “Call me Nick.”

  “Nick,” she said, and then, to both of their utter surprise, she threw her arms around him.

  She did not care what this appeared like; she knew only that the urge to demonstrate her happiness had finally overwhelmed her. Although she knew that this was a most unorthodox wedding night, Ania would not have changed any bit of it for the world. As Nicholas Connols’ arms closed around her in a responsive hug, Ania closed her eyes to keep tears of an unknown emotion from rising beyond the surface of her lids. By speaking such truth with him, she felt connected to him, and by his admiration of her work, she felt like they were destined for a most interesting marriage. If only she could read his thoughts.