She tipped her head back against the pillow. “I’m so tired.”
“Sleep, darling.” He said, kissing her. “I will be here when you wake. You will heal, and we will marry.”
Chapter 39
A fortnight later, the church was again festooned in summer blooms and ribbons. Barbara’s heart was fluttering once more as she was laced into a new wedding gown by Rosie. Her bedroom at home was still under renovations, so the entire bridal party had been moved to the church and she was hidden away in the sacristy to dress.
Her sisters and Rosie all fluttered around her, adjusting her hair, or spritzing her with perfume. The room was cramped, but Barbara didn’t mind. The gentle crush of being surrounded by the women who cared for her and shared in her excitement on her wedding day was far from unpleasant.
Her hands had healed enough by then that, though the skin was still damaged, she could wear satin gloves to cover them. The gloves went up to her elbows and were of a pale champagne color to match the sheen of her silk gown.
She had not seen nor heard from the Dowager Countess, though she knew that she had been extended an invitation to the wedding. Barbara was still uncertain whether the older lady would show her face.
She and Jeffrey had not told anyone else about her involvement in the fire. As far as anyone else knew, it had simply been a freak accident. But, one day prior to the wedding, a small package had arrived at Barbara’s home. When she opened it, she had been confused to find a lavish necklace, with glimmering rubies inset with diamonds. Her confusion melted away when she saw the card that came with it, which only bore the name of the Dowager Countess.
She hadn’t been sure that she would wear it. But as she stood there in the cramped sacristy and her maid and her sisters filed out of the room to take their places in the sanctuary, she made up her mind. Silently, she pulled the necklace out of the box and latched it behind her neck. Perhaps it would bring good luck to start off her marriage to Jeffrey with a token of good will.
A soft knock came to the door and she opened it to find her father. He looked weepy as he saw her for the first time arrayed in her wedding attire.
“You look beautiful, darling,” he said.
Barbara felt tears spring to her eyes as well, and she chuckled gently as she reached out to wipe her father’s eyes.
“No, you’ll spoil your gloves,” he protested, dashing at his eyes with the back of his hand instead.
He offered his arm to her and Barbara’s stomach flip flopped as she threaded her arm through his. She could hear music coming from the chapel and suddenly her heart felt like it was beating in her throat.
The ceremony passed in a blur. Barbara’s mind was so overwhelmed with emotion that it was difficult to focus on anything in particular. The orphans were there, sitting quietly in the pews wearing their new suits of Sunday clothes, their hair done up in ribbons and smiles on their faces as she passed them.
Jeffrey stood straight, his hands clasped behind his back. He looked as though he was holding his breath as she was brought to the altar.
The ceremony seemed to go on forever, but Barbara wondered if it only felt that way because her heart was beating so quickly the entire time. Looking at Jeffrey, whose presence normally calmed her, only made her feel more giddy. He looked like a prince in his fine navy uniform with its glistening golden buttons deep blue fabric. He’d been wearing this uniform the first time she’d laid eyes on him as an adult. That ball felt like a different life, now. And then, he had not been wearing the saber, which now dangled importantly from his hip. He was magnificent, and even Barbara’s modesty could not stop her from beaming with pride at having caught such a fine-looking gentleman for her own.
As the vows were spoken, a hush seemed to fall over the whole world. It was as if her entire life had been leading to this place, this moment. As she gazed into his eyes and swore before God that she would love, honor, and obey him for the rest of her life, she had never felt more certain of anything.
And then, as the sun suddenly bursts forth from behind a cloud on a dreary day, she was married. She looked on Jeffrey with the eyes of a wife and her heart soared as she longed to throw herself into his arms and kiss him for all the world to see.
I can’t wait for you to bring me to your bed.
He grinned at her, and she knew he was thinking the same, but after signing their names in the register, he took her hand—gently because of the burns beneath her gloves—and they burst out of the church to bright sunlight and the tolling of church bells. Townspeople had gathered for the event and cheered as they came down the steps, hand in hand, and piled into the decorated carriage that awaited them.
Jeffrey closed the door of the carriage against the noise and the eyes of the crowd and, finally alone, Barbara did as she had longed to do in the church. She threw her arms around his neck as the carriage jostled to a start and kissed him.
Jeffrey laughed against her lips, wrapping his arms tightly around her middle and pulling her hard against him.
“At last,” he whispered, “You are mine. All mine.”
“All yours,” she agreed, sliding her fingers up the back of his neck and entwining in his hair.
* * *
Barbara was ravenous, her stomach grumbling as she sat at the head of a long table for the wedding breakfast.
“You didn’t eat?” Jeffrey asked.
“I was too nervous!”
He laughed, reaching across the table to pluck a strawberry off of a platter. As the rest of the food was being served, he plopped the strawberry in her mouth, kissing the corner of her lips as she chewed and tried not to laugh.
Holding the wedding feast at the orphanage had been the children’s idea and, unbeknownst to Barbara, they had decorated the garden with yards and yards of paper garlands that the children had made themselves. She thought it more beautiful than any expensive decorations that could have been bought.
The raucous nature of the feast suited her just fine. Children ran circles around the table and the sound of laughter rang above them all. Barbara ate her fill, each food item delighting her more than the last. All the while, Jeffrey seemed unable to keep his hands off of her. She didn’t mind.
During the festivities, one of the children fell down and scraped her knee on a paving stone. Forgetting at once that it was her wedding day, Barbara jumped up before anyone else could volunteer and helped the girl back to her feet and brought her to the kitchen to tend to the scrape.
“Lady Barbara?” the girl asked as she pressed a warm cloth to her knee. “Now that you are married, will you still come to the orphanage?”
“Why, of course I will. What makes you ask such a silly question?” she replied.
The girl shrugged. “I was afraid, that’s all. I’m glad you married the scary man. I think he’s very handsome, now.”
Barbara chuckled. “Well, that’ll teach you to judge people based on appearances, won’t it? Now, run along, and take care not to trip again.” The girl nodded and hopped down from the chair, running off ahead of Barbara back to the garden.
Barbara was chuckling to herself as she followed after the girl, but the laugher died in her throat when she caught sight of the Dowager Countess, hanging back in the hallway.
“You came.” Barbara said. The light from the garden streamed into the hallway but pockets of shadow still darkened the space.
“You wore the necklace,” the Dowager Countess said. She sounded unlike Barbara had ever heard her before. Her voice was smaller, somehow. Softer.
“Yes, I…thank you for lending it to me.”
“Not lending. It’s yours. I…I don’t know how to apologize, though I dearly wish to.”
Barbara stiffened. Although the pain had largely faded, her hands still tingled disconcertingly on occasion and, underneath the gloves, they were still unsightly.
“And I don’t know how to forgive you,” Barbara said, her quiet voice carrying through the hallway and mingling with the distant sounds of celebration. “T
hough I wish to.”
The Dowager Countess winced and seemed to shrink.
“There will be time,” Barbara continued after a moment.
The older lady nodded. “A lifetime. I know you will make my son happy. I should have thanked you for that from the beginning, rather than—”
“Come join us and eat,” Barbara said.
“I couldn’t. I merely wanted to speak to you.”
“No one else knows,” Barbara assured her. “For Jeffrey’s sake, come and celebrate with us.”
The lady inhaled deeply and glanced toward the door that led out into the sunlight. She looked back at Barbara briefly, then nodded.
“As you wish,” she said at last, and the two ladies went out to join the others.
When the table was cleared away there was to be dancing in the lawn, and Barbara couldn’t help but remember again the ball where she had first danced with Jeffrey. How he had fascinated her. Something deep and primal in her must have known that he was the man from her dreams.
“Do you remember the first time we danced?” she asked coquettishly as they stepped around each other.
“You read my mind, Countess,” he said. “I was just thinking of it.
Barbara’s heart skipped a beat at hearing her new title from his lips. Something about the way he said it sounded thrillingly possessive. Not just any countess, but his countess.
“I thought you were the most beguiling man I’d ever seen in my life. You frightened me, you know.”
“Did I?” he asked, arching his brow at her.
Barbara chuckled, waiting until the next part of the dance where they clasped hands and passed closely next to each other. She stood onto her tiptoes and whispered in his ear, “I liked it.”
The look he gave her was positively wolfish and it sent a shiver down her spine.
“Minx,” he said. “You are mine now, remember. And soon, I will bring you home.”
His tone lingered somewhere between a threat and a promise, and her knees grew weak. In all the excitement of the day, it was easy to forget that their wedding night was, at last, upon them.
“Now?” she asked, with an innocently teasing look in her eye.
“Now,” he repeated, perhaps a bit surprised by her boldness.
He stopped dancing, the others in the jig needing to jostle around them as they interrupted the dance. His smirk had changed into a boyish smile that made him look younger.
Suddenly, he took her hand and was pulling her out of the garden. Barbara laughed, throwing her cares to the wind as the others seemed to catch wind of what was happening. Her face blushed at the sound of cheering as Jeffrey took her around to the front of the orphanage, but she didn’t mind as he piled her into the carriage.
Epilogue
“You didn’t have to be quite so obvious about it,” Barbara said, her face hot as they pulled away from the orphanage. “What will people say?”
“Well, let me see…” Jeffrey grinned. “That we are happily married?”
Barbara punched his arm playfully. “You are incorrigible.”
“And you, my dear,” he said, snaking an arm around her waist and pulling her against him. “Are ravishing in your wedding gown.”
“You like it?” she teased, wiggling closer to him and peppering his jaw and under his chin with kisses.
“I like most what is beneath it.”
“Jeffrey!” she said, playfully hitting his arm to mask her nervous excitement.
When the carriage ground to a halt, Jeffrey jumped down to help her out. She was just climbing out of the carriage when he caught her behind the knees and swung her into his arms. Barbara giggled, clinging to him as he carried her up the steps and through the doors to the manor house.
This is mine now…
Her eyes scanned over the beautiful home, trying to imagine how life would be there. The next few months with Jeffrey would be heavenly. And when he went to sea again, her life would be full. She would pine for him, and long for him, but always with the comforting knowledge that he would come back for her. Perhaps, when he returned, it would be not only to her, but to a child as well. The thought overwhelmed her, but then she was being carried up the grand staircase and brought into a lavish bedroom.
He put her back onto her feet gently, not wasting a moment before he covered her neck with kisses, his hands pawing at her dress. She couldn’t stop her smiling, though she feared it made her seem like a foolish chit. His desire had seemed to grow into a frenzy and the thought that all of that need could be for her was hard to wrap her mind around.
Carefully, he removed her gloves. Though her skin was damaged, and would scar, it didn’t hurt when he pressed his lips to the marred skin.
“Two of a kind, now. Aren’t we?” she said, rather breathily.
“You are beautiful, Barbara,” was his response.
He soon had her out of her dress, and she shivered even though the room was quite warm in the early summer. His hand covered her breast, and she sighed against his mouth as he pulled her naked flesh against his military uniform. She tried to undo the buttons of his jacket, but her fingers trembled, and he took over for her.
Barbara said nothing as she watched him undress. The scars on his face travelled down the side of his chest and ribs, but they did nothing to lessen the impact of his tightly muscled body. Barbara swallowed, remembering that here was no milky, spoiled earl. He was a sea captain, with the hard, powerful body of a man who worked hard for his living. At the sight of him, she forgot her shyness and reached out to trail her fingers over his skin.
Although he lifted her into his arms boldly, she could sense that he was yet shy about his appearance. In an effort to assure him that she found him perfectly formed, she wrapped her legs around his waist and arched her back so that her breasts pressed against his chest as he carried her to the large bed. Her enthusiasm seemed to reassure him, because he was smiling wolfishly again as he laid her down on top of the warm covers.
As he lowered himself over her, Barbara let her knees fall to the side. Despite the frightened pounding of her heart, she welcomed him, thrilling at the surging heat of his erection as it pressed against her core. She was certain that he would take her then, without any more preamble. As he had said; he’d done his waiting.
She was surprised when, instead, he trailed kisses down her chest, his hands caressing her breast as he took the nipple of the other one into his warm mouth. She gasped, but hardly had time to settle into the pleasure before his lips were trailing down her stomach.
There was no time to protest before his mouth was at her sex. She squealed, trying to snap her legs shut in embarrassment, but he grasped her by the thighs and licked her insistently. Her mind was a tumult, half of her rebelling against the indecency of such an act, the other half of her already succumbing to the unearthly pleasure of his warm mouth caressing her there.
By the time he let go of her thighs she had no more thought of pushing him away. She cried out, sliding her hands into his hair and gripping him as though she would float away.
In no time he had brought her to the place where she could sense the familiar aching throb that she knew would grow until it shattered over her like a million shards of glimmering crystal. She raced to meet it, writhing her hips and muttering something, she hardly knew what. When the wave hit, she cried out, bucking against his tongue and shuddering around his swiftly moving fingers.
She hardly had time to catch her breath before he was hauling her onto his lap again as he repositioned himself to sit back against the headboard.
“Like this?” she asked, a bit confused. She’d assumed that the woman’s place was beneath the man in times like these.
“Trust me,” he growled in her ear, taking her hand in his own and guiding it to his erection. She wrapped her fingers around him, hardly breathing as a sudden trepidation washed over her.
Will this hurt?
She was suddenly realizing the very real pitfalls of being a motherless br
ide.
“You’re in charge,” he said quietly. “You go as slowly as you need to.” He tipped her chin up with a finger and kissed her sweetly, encouragingly. It was foolish to be afraid, she knew. He would never hurt her, and what was more, she wanted this. More than anything.
Licking her lips nervously, she raised onto her knees and guided him to her entrance. He was feigning patience, but his breathing was labored, and his jaw clenched. She wanted to be brave for him, to satisfy him, so she gathered her daring and lowered herself onto him. The groan that hissed out from between her teeth was half pain and half ecstasy. There was a jagged, ripping feeling, but beyond that discomfort was the incredible feeling of fullness. Of oneness. The way Jeffrey’s head fell back against the headboard, exposing his sharp jaw and his long, tanned neck as he stifled a groan was more than encouragement enough.
A Seductive Lady For The Scarred Earl (Steamy Regency Romance) Page 27
