by Rebecca King
“She will really hate you being associated with me if she ever finds out,” she murmured.
While she could understand what he was telling her, she couldn’t change who she was. There were very few opportunities in life for someone like her anyway. By sleeping with him, she had scuppered the one chance she had of a better life. She didn’t get the chance to start all over again. In fact, now that she didn’t have a job she wasn’t entirely sure what she was going to do.
“It isn’t for the dowager to object to anything I do with my life. I know she is my mother, but look at her. Does she look happy to you? She has gone from trying to destroy Jerry’s life, and very nearly succeeding, to trying to destroy mine. It makes me wonder what she will turn her attention to once we are married.”
“Does Jerry have his sights set on someone?” she asked, desperate to keep her thoughts away from the prospect of Aidan being married to someone else.
“Not as far as I am aware. Jerry has sworn never to marry again.”
“Well, she certainly seems determined,” she murmured thinking of the obvious way she had sailed into Aidan’s bed chamber, her eligible ladies dutifully at her side.
At some point, she knew one of them would catch his eye.
She quickly turned her attention to a blot on the ceiling she had not seen before, and tried to ignore the ache in the region of her heart.
“Well, she will have to focus her attentions somewhere else after today,” he whispered.
“Why after today?” Petal’s heart began to thunder in her chest.
She knew that look in his eye far too well now, and felt a sinking sensation deep in the pit of her belly.
“Well, I think it is about time I made it perfectly clear, once and for all, that my interests, and my heart, lie with one very reluctant young woman who is now essential to my very existence,” Aidan mused.
Petal stared at him. It took a moment for his words to sink in. She felt her cheeks heat but couldn’t tear her gaze away from his.
“I know that we still have a lot to learn about each other, but we have the rest of our lives to find out everything,” he prompted.
“I can’t come back,” she persisted, thinking of Edwards’ venom, the dowager’s scorn, and the below stairs gossips.
“You must,” he challenged.
“I am not going to be your servant again.”
She tried to throw the covers back from the bed but he was lying on them.
Trapped, she closed her eyes in a silent prayer for the strength to get through the next few minutes.
“I don’t expect you to be my servant again. In fact, I am essentially your servant. My job is to keep you happy. You have taught me a lot since you have been in the house. I am not going to let you go, especially when there is so much more I can learn.”
“What could I teach you?”
Aidan kissed the gentle sweep of her shoulder. “That I can have the life that I want, and a house full of happiness, as long as I choose the right woman to share it with. Fighting to survive the accident, and living through all the pain and discomfort of my recovery, has presented me the ability to close the door on the ton once and for all. You have taught me that I can be myself in my own home and that I can have a healthy life. One without bowing and curtseying every time I speak to someone; where I can sit and relax and simply be – well – me. If I can have you by my side, then my life is about as perfect as I could have hoped it could be. Apart from two or three things, I could not wish for anything more.”
While she listened, she felt his magnificent words bathe her soul and soothe her aching heart. At that moment, she could find no argument for any of it. In fact, she would move Heaven and earth to bring it fruition. Her devotion to him was absolute; a force she wasn’t strong enough to fight, even if she had the will to do so.
“Of course, there is one stipulation I must insist on,” he assured her.
“Stipulation?”
He nodded but, before he could expand, she leaned back to look at him.
“What two or three things?”
“Pardon?” He looked at her blankly.
“You said that your life would be as perfect as it could be apart from two or three things. What are they?”
“Well, I was just getting to that part,” he replied with a mysterious smile.
“Go on,” she prompted, her breath locked in her throat.
“Although I am happy to shun society and its dictates, there are certain things I know nobody would accept, and that is this.” He waved a hand down the bed toward their entwined bodies.
“I know people won’t acknowledge us,” she replied, her joy fading rapidly.
“Oh, but people do,” he assured her. “Others will accept us, some won’t. They just won’t accept us sleeping together out of wedlock and, now that I have ruined you completely, several times, I really do have a responsibility to ensure that you are protected as much as possible.”
She tensed, unsure if she was going to like where this conversation was heading. She hoped beyond all hope that he wasn’t going to suggest turning her into his mistress or something.
“Petal, look at me,” he pleaded gently.
She did, and she knew her heart was in her eyes, but couldn’t force her gaze away.
“Marry me. I have it on good authority that we can be happy; there is a future for us. It won’t take all that much adjustment for you to accept the position of the lady of the house. It will mean that we can be together as often as we like for as long as we like and nobody can say, or do, anything about it. I need you in my life, Petal. In fact, after what we have just shared, I am going to insist on your hand in marriage.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
She stared at him in shock.
When she didn’t immediately reply he knew he had to take advantage of her troubled state to press his case further.
“I have also ruined you and, as a gentleman and a wealthy landowner in the area, I must now do right by you, especially since you could be with child.”
He couldn’t prevent the delighted smile from breaking out as he spoke.
She was shocked, and immediately filled with wild excitement, but that was quickly followed by guilt, then worry. What stunned her most was the look on his face.
“You don’t have to be so smug about it,” she scolded.
“Why not? I am smug about it. In fact, I think it is a possibility we have to make a definite maybe as soon as possible.” He rolled over until she was beneath him again. “In fact, I think we need to try to make it a reality as often as possible. However, as wonderful as that prospect is, we have your father and the vicar waiting for us in the church, with Rollo, and Mrs Kempton, Aggy and, by now, probably all the staff as well. They are all preparing for our wedding. I have no idea what the time is but think we need to leave for the church before someone comes to find us, and catches us in bed together. You have already delayed events long enough.”
“Me?” she cried, only to smile when he winked at her.
“Your father will be here in a minute if you don’t get a move on,” he murmured.
“Wait!” she gasped, and suddenly sat bolt upright in bed. “Did you say that my father knows?”
“God, no. Not about us sleeping together anyway. This is something that has to remain between us, sweetheart,” he assured her. “However, anyone with a brain in their head can do sums. If you are expecting my child, and we delay with this wedding by more than a month, it won’t take a genius to figure out what we enjoyed the delights of the matrimonial bed before we met the vicar.”
Petal coughed uncomfortably, and had to concede Aidan had a point.
“But we don’t know whether I am or not yet. What if I am not?”
“Then we will try and try again until you are,” he replied, completely unconcerned at the prospect. “I want at least two, maybe three.”
“Children?” She gulped but began to smile.
“Well, I am not talking about
weddings,” he snorted with a grin. “I fully intend to marry only once, and it will definitely be to you. I won’t take ‘no’ for an answer. In fact, if you don’t agree to get out of this bed and accompany me to the church then I am just going to have to keep you here until your father catches us. He will have to march you up the aisle at the end of his shotgun, my dear. I promise you this, though; you will most definitely marry me today.”
“What if I don’t want to?” she asked, knowing for definite that she did.
While she wasn’t audacious enough to point it out to him, he had yet to profess any feelings for her. She didn’t expect any wild declaration of adoration or anything like that. Just some token of affection besides desire would have been nice, especially when she knew that her heart belonged entirely devoted to him.
“Why wouldn’t you want to marry me?” Aidan asked without any hint of arrogance. “I know you want me as much as I desire you. I know you enjoy what we share in bed. We get on well. I like you reading to me. You bring light to my world and a smile to my heart. Over the past few weeks you have become as essential to me as the very air I breathe. I will not consider life without you by my side, Petal. If you don’t love me like that in return then I will do whatever it takes to help allay any doubts you might have about our union. However, I absolutely refuse to keep my hands off you. I won’t take steps to prevent a child, and I won’t let you hide out on your father’s farm like this. You are coming back to Wenland, whether you like it or not.”
She knew then that her future was set. Not least because he spoke with calm conviction and such determination that she knew he meant every word. After a declaration like that, she didn’t have the fortitude to deny such a forceful onslaught. She adored him; it was as simple as that. All he had to do was smile at her, and she turned to mush inside and could deny him nothing. To her dismay, she rather felt he knew that already.
“I love you,” she whispered somewhat shyly.
She didn’t even realise she intended to say the words until they popped out of her mind like an afterthought. Once they were spoken, she didn’t want to take them back. Instead, she waited to see what he would do; how he would react. It was critical in helping her decide whether she should leave the house or not and accept his offer of marriage.
“Thank Heaven for that,” he murmured fervently as he tugged her into his arms. He rested his head against hers; his throat locked with emotion. “Then marry me, I beg of you?”
“If you are sure?” she whispered hesitantly.
In the end, she had to ask herself whether her worries were really all that important. He had already declared she was essential to him, and held her in sufficiently high regard that he would forsake all connection with the ton, just to be with her.
But was it enough?
It has to be sufficient, she reasoned. Maybe he could come to love you as you love him in time.
“You will?” He jerked back to look at her, his face alight with delight.
Although she still looked doubtful, at least she seemed calm; almost too quiet as a matter of fact. He rather felt that she was waiting for something although had no idea what it could be. Still at least she had agreed to become his wife. Hadn’t she?
“Is that a yes?” he prompted.
“Yes,” she replied. Anything else she was going to say was stolen by his kiss.
Eager to get her to the church before she changed her mind, he suddenly released her and began to tug his clothes on.
Petal couldn’t tear her stunned gaze away from his masculine splendour as he walked around the room. Every muscle rippled as he walked but he appeared to be completely oblivious to his nakedness, and her rapt gaze, as he tugged his shirt over his head and shook his breeches out.
Minutes later, aware that she hadn’t moved yet, he threw her a warning look.
“Hurry up, or you will have to get married in the dress you have on,” he warned her.
“I can’t marry you today,” she protested laughingly. “I don’t have a dress.”
“I have it on good authority that your mother’s dress will fit you. Your father said so. Do you know where it is?”
“Well, yes,” she replied hesitantly, clutching the sheets to her chest to protect her modesty as she sat up. “Wait! Do you mean that father knows about this?”
Aidan looked at her. “He does know we are to be married. I asked him for your hand this morning.”
Petal looked at him in shock. “You did what?”
“I asked your father for permission to approach you for your hand in marriage,” he informed her absently. “Where is it?”
Petal looked askance at him.
“Where is what?” She was struggling to keep up with the swiftness of his subject change.
He was like an overenthusiastic puppy jumping this way and that.
“Tell me where your mother’s dress is usually kept and I will get it while you dress,” he said on his way to the door.
“It’s in my father’s room in the cupboard behind the door,” she murmured absently, and watched him go.
Aidan disappeared without a backward look.
“Hurry up!” he called when he couldn’t hear her moving about. In spite of her lack of movement, a grin split his face as he went in search of her dress.
Petal stared at the empty door for a moment but, at his shout, vaulted out of bed and hastily gathered her clothing up. She couldn’t put them on, though, because he had the dress she was supposed to put on. Behind the retiring screen, she hurriedly saw to her ablutions and waited.
“Here, put this on,” Aidan ordered, as he tossed the dress over the top of the screen.
Petal looked at it for a moment and snatched it down. It felt strange to put it on; surreal even, and in some ways it made her feel more connected to her mother than ever before. But she had no time for sentiment, and quickly tugged it over her head. Thankfully, it fit perfectly and left her with enough time to hastily pin her hair up.
Aidan tried not to pace as he waited for her to emerge. He was aware that time was passing swiftly, and the wedding had yet to take place. Now that he had her agreement, he didn’t want to give her the time or opportunity to change her mind. That thought prompted him to pack the few belongings in the room she had used, and tuck them back into her bag.
When he became aware of movement behind him, he turned around and suddenly dropped the hairbrush he held.
“Good Lord above,” he whispered, as he stared at the vision before him.
Although her hair still hung in tousled abandon about her shoulders, the beautifully embroidered dress she wore emphasised her slender frame to perfection. The tiny yellow rosebuds adorning the soft, cotton material matched her honey coloured hair, highlighting her brilliant blue eyes and refined beauty to perfection. In all of his life he had never seen such a wondrous sight. It humbled him to think she was his.
“Do you like it?” she asked hesitantly, staring down at herself nervously when he didn’t immediately answer.
Aidan walked toward her and only stopped when they were toe-to-toe.
“God, you are so beautiful,” he breathed huskily.
Stepping back, he looked down the length of her and shook his head in admiration. She was utterly divine. He knew then that he had made the best choice of his life and wasn’t prepared to waste a single moment of the life that now awaited him.
Sweeping her high into his arms, he stalked toward the door.
“Aidan! Your legs!” She gasped as she clung to his shoulders.
“Aggy and Mrs Kempton are going to help you with your hair and everything in the church. Come on,” he urged.
He stood beside the door and held his hand out to her.
Petal looked at it but didn’t hesitate to cross the room to him. She would follow him to the ends of the earth.
As she stepped through the door, it felt as though she was leaving behind a life of shadows and drudgery, and embarking on a new and entirely unexpected adventure t
hat would bring her many rewards. It held a few worries, doubts, and concerns, but then her old life did too.
Whatever lay in store for them on their married pathway together, she suspected that with Aidan’s loving guidance, and her father’s stoic support, there wasn’t much she couldn’t find a way of coping with.
It was thrilling to think that her future lay with Aidan. She didn’t care where they lived; or what anyone thought about their union for that matter. Not now. Not after she had experienced first-hand just how miserable life was without him.
It was an even bigger surprise to see the carriage waiting outside for them.
Aidan looked apologetically at her. “Jerry was going to come with me in case my legs grew weak, but given we are using the carriage, went to the church with your father instead.”
Petal opened her mouth to speak but then closed it again with a snap. It was the first time she had ever been inside one, and it was wonderfully luxurious. Aidan barely had the time to close the door before the carriage rumbled into motion, and they were on their way.
Inside the carriage, he held her hand all the way to the church. Once there, he handed her down with tender care and escorted her inside to join Mrs Kempton, Jerry, Aggy, Maisie, Rollo, and her father. Bored with the wait, they had decided to enjoy a cup of tea with the vicar and another kindly lady whom Petal knew was the verger who also played the organ.
“It is about time you got here,” her father grumbled as he pushed to his feet.
He studied the joy on his daughter’s face and shook his head in disbelief at her transformation. She looked blissfully happy.
“You look beautiful,” he murmured huskily as he hugged her. “Just like your mother did.”
Petal blinked tears away at the rare show of emotion from her father. She knew from his hesitancy that he still had his doubts, but at least he was willing to allow her to make this decision for herself. Given the problems they faced, his support was as essential to her as Aidan’s presence in her life.
Aidan shook his hand.
“She said yes,” he declared, aware that he was stating the obvious but not caring one jot.
