“Why waste time trying to talk?” he said, though neither of them heard his words. He kissed her.
Unknown to either of them, a cheer went up from those gathered outside the church gates—and those in the churchyard too.
***
The entry hall at Everleigh was decorated in autumn colors and would have quite taken her breath away if there had been any more to take, Estelle said, laughing, when they entered it—to find all the household servants lined up in two rows to greet them with applause when they stepped over the threshold.
The state dining room in the north wing was similarly decorated, as was the nearer of the smaller reception rooms on one side of it and the ladies’ withdrawing room on the other. Estelle and Justin moved from room to room trying to greet everyone personally before everyone was seated for the wedding breakfast.
Estelle hugged her stepsiblings—Camille, Abigail with Gil, and Harry with Lydia, who interestingly appeared to have lost some of the slimness of her waist since Estelle last saw her at her own wedding in the spring. She shook hands with Thomas Wickford from Yorkshire, and hugged his wife, Sarah, the youngest of Maria’s aunts. She hugged all of the Westcott sisters, her stepmother’s former sisters-in-law—Aunt Matilda, Aunt Louise, and Aunt Mildred. She laughed and chattered with various cousins, and kept an arm about Andrew’s shoulders as he hauled out of a bulging pocket his latest stone carving to show her; it was inspired, she believed, by the carvings on the Palladian bridge. His sister Winifred explained that Ricky Mort had found the stone for him. Ricky had sat with the boy whilehe carved, and the two of them had somehow been able to communicate even though Andrew could neither hear nor talk.
Estelle hugged and thanked the Ormsbury aunts when she saw the state dining room, which was gorgeous in the splendor of its decorations and table settings.
“How would we have managed without you?” she asked them.
“Very easily, Estelle,” Lord Crowther told her. “All you really need for a wedding is a clergyman and a license and a willing bride and groom.”
“If I did not know he was merely trying to provoke me,” Lady Crowther said, tossing a glance at the ceiling, “I would give that idea the answer it deserves. Thank you, Estelle. Felicity and I worked hard. And we enjoyed every moment. I can see a dozen other ladies in this very room who would have been only too happy to take our place if we had been unavailable.At leasta dozen.”
The meal was sumptuous. It was followed by speeches and toasts and the cutting of the bottom layer of the four-tier cake. Sidney Sharpe gave the speech the best man would normally have given. Wesley Mort had apparently agreed—very reluctantly—to be Justin’s best man, but only on the condition that he would not also be expected to attend the wedding breakfast. He would, however, be at the ball this evening. His wife would see to that. So would Ricky.
“We have a few hours,” Justin said when the breakfast was over. He had Estelle’s hand clasped in his. “How would you like to use them?”
“I am quite weary,” she said, surprised by the truth of her words. “The summerhouse? The lake? The grotto? The library?”
“We made the bed at the summerhouse work for us once upon a time,” he said. “But for the next time, Estelle, I want something altogether more spacious. I think this afternoon should be the next time. And I have not yet shown you the countess’s bedchamber, have I?”
“It might be considered scandalous if you had,” she said.
“Come and see it now,” he said.
“We will not be missed?” she asked him.
His eyes laughed at her. “I would expect thateveryonewill miss us,” he said. “But everyone will know where we are, so no one will come looking.”
“I think,” she said, “I am blushing.”
His eyes roamed her face. “You are,” he said. “Blushes become you.”
“Ah, Justin.” She sighed. “Take me to see the countess’s room, then.Myroom.”
They spent three hours there before Justin rang for her maid and his own valet. And for those hours Estelle seemed to forget her weariness except during a few brief intervals while they both dozed. They made vigorous, joyful love on either side of those intervals. And talked love words and nonsense and smiled and laughed.
“It is the laughter and the joy that I remember from my childhood here,” he told her. “My parents were forever talking silliness to each other and tickling me and pretending to eat me up and hugging me while they told me what a little pest I was. That was when Everleigh felt like home.”
“It will feel like that again,” she promised him.
“Oh,” he said, “it already does, Estelle. Will you think meverygreedy if I have you one more time before we get ready for the ball?”
“Yes,” she said. “But I am greedy too, you see.”
“Mmm,” he said, covering her mouth with his. Again.
***
The wedding and the breakfast had been for family. The ball was for the community too. Justin had signed all the invitations that had been put before him after his return from Wes’s wedding, and they had been sent out to families at the village and in the countryside for miles around. All, almost without exception, had sent back acceptances and came promptly at the appointed hour. Justin stood with his bride just inside the doors of the grand reception hall, the dome soaring above them, tasteful wine and gold decorations all about them, wound about the great stone pillars and in festoons over the balustrade of the gallery. The orchestra platform was surrounded by pots of autumn-hued chrysanthemums. They were greeting their guests.
Estelle was at her most elegant and beautiful in a high-waisted, simply styled gown of dull gold, her dark hair almost severe in a smooth chignon that shone in the light of myriad candles. She was at her most charming too, and she had a word and a smile for everyone. Even setting aside the fact that he loved her, Justin could see that she was going to be the perfect countess. But of course that was a nonsense thought, for hedidlove her. More than he had ever thought it possible to love. And, wonder of wonders, she seemed to love him just as much, callused hands and broken nose and overblown muscles notwithstanding.
