“You know, normal brides call this the happiest day of their lives. They love the gowns and the jewels and being the center of attention.”
“I am clearly not a normal bride.”
“No. You are far better.” Hugh leaned over and kissed her.
She smiled at him when he pulled back away.
“Have I told you how beautiful you look today?”
“No, Your Grace, we have hardly spoken today. Thank you for the emerald, by the way.”
“Seeing you wear it is all the thanks I need.”
“It was far too generous a gift.”
“You know, for a moment before you walked down the aisle, I worried you might have been spooked by my mother and would not come today.”
“Well, I was a bit spooked, but I wanted to marry you more.”
Hugh smiled at that. He opened his mouth to tell her he loved her, but he heard a noise outside. He looked out the window and saw that the street outside was lined with well-wishers. “So many people,” he murmured.
“I quite regret rejecting your suggestion that we elope.”
Hugh laughed. “You do understand that these well-wishers have good intentions. They want to celebrate the new Duchess of Swynford. Since so few of the king’s daughters seem inclined to marry, this is the closest to a royal wedding these people may ever witness. And I am related to the king, you know. My mother has reminded me of this several times this week. So we are practically royalty.”
Adele looked a little green.
Hugh took her hand. “It will be all right. We will remain in London only as long as necessary and then leave for Swynford House, hopefully without my mother in tow, and we shall have quiet and privacy there. I think I should greatly enjoy quiet and privacy with you.”
Adele sighed. “Yes. I think so, too.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The wedding breakfastand subsequent party had been a lot. Adele had felt obligated to entertain her guests. Then, finally, mercifully, as the sun sank in the sky, Hugh walked over and told her he sensed she was tired, and really the only thing keeping all these people in the house was the happy couple’s presence in the Swynford ballroom. He invited her to retire while he kicked everyone out of the house.
Now that she was up in Hugh’s bedroom—their bedroom, she reminded herself—and Daisy was taking the pins out of her hair, Adele was nervous. Would Hugh be upset she’d wanted to end the party early? More than that, it was now their wedding night. In a way, she was glad they’d spent a night together already because she knew what to expect. But something about this being their wedding night made it more important.
She’d been given a gift. She didn’t care about the title or the relation to the king or the fancy house. What she cared about was that she’d married a good man and soon they might have a child. She’d been telling herself for the last couple of years that a child wasn’t something she would ever have, and she’d made her peace with that, but from the moment Hugh had proposed, she’d been thinking about it. Her main duty as a duchess was to give Hugh an heir, and in all honesty, she wanted that more than anything in the world. Hugh had taken her life in an entirely newdirection, and though she wasn’t too keen on the title and all that, now she could have the family she’d always longed for.
Daisy helped Adele out of her gown and into a loose nightgown and a pale-pink dressing gown that had been a gift from Hugh a few days before. She dismissed Daisy and moved to lie on the bed.
She looked around the room. It was well-kept and masculine. The large canopy bed had a green damask bedspread that matched the fabric hanging from the posts above. In a way, the bed felt a bit like its own little world, like they could undo the ties on the fabric curtains and hide in here, away from everyone else in the house, everyone else in London. After a day of smiling at near strangers, it was something that had a certain appeal.
She closed her eyes, relaxing. Then her stomach growled.
Had she eaten at the party thrown in her favor? There’d certainly been a lot of food there, but Adele couldn’t say that much had made it into her body.
Hugh walked in then, and he had a tray in his hand.
“Hello, my love,” he said. “Sorry that took so long. A few of our guests were pretty deep in their cups. Also, I don’t know how you feel, but I’m famished. I hardly ate a thing. So I’ve commandeered some of the leftovers from the party.”
“Bless you,” she said, pushing herself into the sitting position so she could see what he’d brought.
He placed the tray on a table near the bed, then sat beside her. He smiled. “Do you feel completely overwhelmed?”
“Notcompletely.”
Hugh chuckled. Then his expression became more serious. He touched the ends of her hair. “I love your hair loose around your shoulders like this. You never wear it this way.”
