“No!” Reggie said so forcefully the maid jumped. “This ismychild! I won’t hide in shame until it’s born and then give it up, just to save myself an unpleasant marriage.” Then she elaborated, “I don’t have to live with the man, you know, not if it proves too difficult. I don’t have to stay with him forever. But my child will bear his father’s name. Nicholas Eden will share the responsibility, as he should.”
“Then we had best be gettin’ to the church on time,” Meg sighed.
Nicholas was already at the church, silently raging and despairing by turns. Family and friends were arriving, proving that this was really happening. His grandmother and aunt were there, but Miriam Eden was conspicuously absent again. It reinforced his conviction that he had done the right thing in warning off his fiancée.
His heart sank when Jason Malory entered the church, the bride a few steps behind him. Exclamations ran through the crowd, for she was truly breathtaking in a silk gown of powder blue and silver, with tiers of white lace trimming. It was strikingly old-fashioned, tight-waisted, long-sleeved, and reaching to the floor. Though the bell of the skirt was not as full as the gowns of the last era had been, the outer skirt was split on both sides and trimmed with lace, revealing wide panels of silver underskirt. There was lace beneath the rounded bodice and at the neck. A circlet of silver and diamond chains held in place a white veil which covered her face to her chin, draping in back nearly to the floor.
She stood in the church door for several long moments, facing Nicholas at the end of the aisle. He couldn’t see her face or her eyes, and he waited breathlessly, willing her to turn around and flee.
She didn’t. Regina placed her hand on her uncle’s arm and began the long walk down the aisle. Cold, calm anger settled inside Nicholas. On the whim of this small child-woman, he was being forced into marriage. Very well, let her have her day of triumph. It would not last long. When she learned she had married a bastard, she would wish she had heeded his warnings. Ironically, Miriam would help. She would take a malicious delight in apprising Regina of all Nicholas’ faults. He thought with grim humor that this would be Miriam’s first act of kindness toward him. Of course, she wouldn’t know it for what it was.
Chapter 20
REGGIE stared out the coach window, but all she could see was her own reflection. She flushed as her belly growled with hunger but didn’t look at Nicholas to see if he had heard. He was across from her in the plush coach, which bore his coat of arms.
The interior lamp had been burning for two hours, but still they hadn’t stopped at an inn for dinner. She was hungry, but she was damned if she’d beg.
The wedding guests had been served a huge luncheon at Malory house, but Reggie hadn’t been there for it. Nicholas took her home directly from the church, telling her to pack an overnight bag and order the rest of her things sent on to Silverley. The two of them were gone even before their guests arrived.
He had made her ride all afternoon and into the evening, but she didn’t feel like complaining, not when he sat there so pensively, never once looking her way. He hadn’t spoken a word since leaving London.
He was married and furious about it. Well, she’d expected he would be. But it boded well, didn’t it, that he was taking her to his country estate? She hadn’t expected that. She didn’t know what she had expected.
Her stomach growled again and she finally decided to ask, “Will we be stopping soon for dinner?”
“The last inn was in Montieth. Silverley is just up ahead,” Nicholas replied brusquely.
It would have been nice if he’d told her that sooner.
“Is Silverley large, Nicholas?”
“About as large as your own estate, which borders mine.”
Her eyes widened. “I didn’t know that!”
“How could you not?”
“Why are you angry? Why, it’s perfect. The estates will now be combined—”
“Which is what I have wanted for years. But surely your uncle told you about that. He used your estate as the inducement to get me to marry you.”
Reggie blushed furiously. “I don’t believe it.”
“That I wanted the land?”
“You know what I mean!” she snapped. “Oh, I knew there was some land involved, and Tony even said it was what swayed you, but—but I didn’t believe it. No one told me about this. I didn’t know your estate borders the land that came to me through my mother. I haven’t lived there since—my parents died, in the fire that destroyed the house. I was only two at the time. I have never returned to Hampshire. Uncle Edward has always seen to what was left of the estate, as well as to the inheritance I got from my father.”
“Yes, a tidy sum that, fifty thousand pounds, which he was happy to point out has tripled due to his wise investments, giving you a sizable yearly income.”
“Good God, are you angry about that, too?”
“I am not a fortune hunter!”
Her own grievances were riding very close to the edge. “Oh, bother. Who in his right mind could accuse you of that? You’re not exactly a pauper.”
“It is no secret that I wanted your land, land I assumed belonged to the Earl of Penwich, since the Earl was the last to be in residence there.”
“My father was, not the present Earl. But as the land came to him through my mother, it was not entailed to Penwich and it was their wish it come to me.”
