“You write her this day, my gel, or I shall,” Lady Bellingham said sternly. “Your mama has waited long enough for grandchildren.”
“My sisters have children,” Sirena protested.
“Why so they do, bless me, so they do!” Lady Bellingham said. “But it is your child that will best please Olympia, I am certain.”
“Sirena and Ocky are to become parents,” Allegra told the duke as they rode home after the wedding.
“I know,” he said. “Are you happy for your cousin?”
“Yes,” Allegra said slowly, but without much conviction.
Reaching over he took her hand in his. Their eyes met, and the duke said, “What is it that is troubling you, my dear?”
“Sirena says she will be able to attend me at our wedding, but I do not think she will. She has a delicate constitution, Quinton. A trip to London may be too much for her in her condition.” Allegra sighed deeply. “We are more like sisters than cousins. I cannot endanger her, or her child.” She bit her lip, but even the sharp pain of the bite could not prevent the tears from slipping down her cheeks.
“If you could choose where we would be wed, my dear, where would it be?” he asked her.
“If I could choose?But I cannot, Quinton. We must be married with all the pomp and dignity due your family’s position. Lady Bellingham is right. It must be St.George’s in London. I could not ask anything less of you, my lord.”
“Your commitment to my history and my name is to be commended, Allegra, but you still have not answered my question. If you could choose where we would wed, where would it be?” He gave the little hand in his a tiny squeeze of encouragement. “Come, my dear,where?”
“The Great Hall at Hunter’s Lair,” she burst out.
“Indeed?”He was very much surprised.
“Yes!” she told him. “I love Hunter’s Lair, and the Great Hall is the perfect place for such an event. Especially now that it is clean. And I would have only our family and friends. And we would give everyone on the estate the day off, and set up a feast for them on the lawns. We should come from the hall where our feast was being held, and greet our tenants and workers. It would be wonderful!” Then her face fell. “But I know it cannot be. We must be married at St. George’s, and have a proper wedding breakfast afterward with the king and the queen as our guests, and Prinny and Mr. Brummell.”
“No,” he replied. “We shall be wed in exactly the manner you have said, my dear.” Then he kissed her hand, and their eyes met again. He felt as if something had cracked within his chest, and yet he was fine.
“Ohh, Quinton,” she said softly, “could we really be married in such a fashion? Then Sirena could come, for her home is not so far away, is it? That would make me so very happy.” Her violet eyes were shining with pleasure.
“Wouldit?” he answered her softly, and then he leaned forward, and kissed her lips gently. “I am coming to realize, Allegra,” he told her, “that even if you are strong-willed, opinionated, and far too outspoken, thatI am beginning to want to see you happy.” Then he added, “There is nothing in our most practical arrangement that precludes our being happy, is there, my dear?” His silver eyes twinkled at her.
“I do not believe so, my lord,” she replied, her voice a little breathless. Her heart was hammering rather quickly, and she could feel that her cheeks were flushed.
“Excellent,” he said. Then he tucked her hand deeper into his.
“Are you happy with me?” she ventured boldly. “Despite my faults? I do not think I can change, Quinton. I am not certain I want to change. Weak women are always taken advantage of to their detriment.”
“I do not believe you shall ever be taken advantage of, my dear Allegra,” he assured her with a chuckle. All his doubts, and dark mood of the past few days had vanished suddenly. He wondered, briefly, why he now felt he could conquer the world.
“How far is Pickford?” she asked him. “I should like to go and visit my cousin now that she is home from her wedding trip.”
“Just half an hour’s drive away, my dear,” he told her.Wedding trip!Egad! How could he have forgotten to make plans for a wedding trip? “Tell me, Allegra,” he began. “Where do you think we should go after our wedding?”
“Must we go anywhere?” she asked.
“Perhaps not right away, if you do not want it, but next spring I should like to take you to Italy. We might go to Rome, or Venice, Allegra, if it would please you, my dear.”
“My mother lives in Italy. I should not like to meet her.”
“The contessa does not reside in Venice. We shall go to Venice, Allegra, and you shall not meet her. It is abeautiful city, my dear, built on the edge of the sea, and the streets are not paved, but are water, and carriages are not used but rather charming little boats called gondolas ferry people from place to place.”
“How interesting,” she cried. “Yes. Let us go to Venice next spring. I would like that.”
Allegra, despite her little imperfections of character, was going to be an excellent Duchess of Sedgwick. She only needed his guidance, and he was after all fourteen years her senior. He would share his experience with her. Her desire to be married at Hunter’s Lair had surprised him, but it had also pleased him very much.
He began to spend more time with her. They rode together in the morning, and then went about their own pursuits, sometimes meeting again at luncheon, and sometimes not until dinner. But he made every effort now to spend the evening with her. They walked in the gardens, and her ability at kissing improved daily. She had proficient skills with the pianoforte, and sang most prettily. One evening he sat next to her on the bench, turning the pages of her music. He found the back of her neck and the two unruly dark curls of her hair, damp with the heat of a summer’s night, irresistible. His arms slipped about her narrow waist, and he kissed her nape.
