“You already did, with all that tea. My friends were most appreciative.”
“I’m glad I was able to garner at least some of Miss Smith’s goodwill. There were moments this evening when I thought she might like to claw my eyes out.”
“She is only protective.”
Beckett kissed her hand once more. “Another signifier of a good, honest person, Nell. Good friends who will help and protect you. Now I ought to go, so that no more propriety is disturbed. I’m sure Jacobs and your maid are standing by outside the door, armed with brass candlesticks to bludgeon me if I say anything untoward.”
Nell nodded, standing with him when he took to his feet. “So, we are getting married, correct?”
Beckett laughed. “God, I hope so, after all that. I feel wrung out like a wet towel, don’t you?”
“Positively exhausted. But I had to check. And I have a few requests then, about our union.”
Beckett looked surprised. “I thought we agreed to a partnership. That means you don’t have to make requests of me. We discuss it and come to an accord.”
“Right then.” Nell took a breath, not sure how to make these sorts of discussions happen, for she had been the mistress of her own life for so long. “I want Jacobs and Sabine to come with me to your houses. They should always be given a position for however long they wish to have one. With pensions when they grow too old.”
“Sounds very reasonable,” he said. “Any other concerns?”
“Dozens, though I’m too tired to think of them now.”
“I am the same. I shall put things into motion. Should I contact your father for this?”
Nell felt her heart clutch. “No.” The woman she was now had no parents, no siblings. She had put them all out of her mind when she came to London. She had to, for her own sanity. And seeing them now would only hurt more and put them all in danger, for being a countess would put her vulnerable to blackmailers. “We should keep as I have done. No contact whatsoever, for their safety and ours. I am Mrs. Reid. A widow come to London to keep my meager fortune, with no family upon which I can force my company.”
Beckett nodded. “I look forward to introducing you to my circle, particularly to Lord Rincon. You can finally meet in person for a chess match.” He stepped closer to her, cradled her face, as if memorizing her for later. “I had not thought to ever feel like this. I did not think I was capable.”
“Nor did I,” she admitted, turning her face to kiss his palm. “I thought it was stuff of poetry and nattering idiots.”
His chuckle was low and deep, and she felt its resonance in her bones. “They say everyone is a fool in love.”
“Then let us join the population of stupidity.”
He leaned down, hair’s breadth from her lips, a smile playing on his. “Gladly.” Then he pressed himself to her, and she felt as if there was a whirlpool that surrounded them both, taking away all sense of up and down, all sense of time, as they melded their hearts to a similar shape of others.
A clearing of a throat in the hall brought Nell to her senses, and she pulled away, feeling like a chastised child.
“I ought to go,” Beckett said, smiling enough to reveal a dimple.
A dimple! She had not seen that before. So much to learn and discover. She nodded, and for the first time, she felt giddy without the glass of sherry.
Chapter Thirteen
Beckett did notunderstand Society weddings and was thoroughly annoyed with even the small ceremony they did have. He was gratified to see that Nell felt similarly, as he learned to read every expression that flitted across her unguarded face.
The last month had been tedious, to say the least. The new year was upon them, and Beckett looked forward to having a countess for this turn of the sun. But what he did not look forward to was more small talk at this wedding breakfast.
He had not heard a word out of Miss Smith’s new husband, Rafe Taylor. He was likely a fine bloke, but Beckett had his fill of other people and wanted to throw them out of the house, leaving only him and Nell.
It would have been no scandal or trouble to consummate their marriage before the wedding. They were betrothed. Beckett paid her bills—they were essentially nothing—and they kept company every morning in Hyde Park. But they had decided to keep the rules in place. Or rather, Nell had, and Beckett was learning this was the other side of her strong sense of fairness. It was also the reason Nell had written to so many members ofParliament. She didn’t comprehend anyone breaking the rules, so she set about to change the rules to suit.
This judicious observation of standards also extended to an obvious, legal union before she would come to his bed, because this was what she had been taught was correct, and she followed the rules. Beckett felt a cad when he thought about debating the matter, so even as impatient as he was, he honored her restrictions to passionate kisses, with no roaming hands. Beckett hated it, but he had to admit it made him anxious for the wedding day to arrive, and even more anxious to get his guests the hell out of his home.
On the other side of Nell sat Timothy. His bride didn’t seem to harbor any of his impatience to finish the wedding breakfast and fling open the doors to push their guests out. Indeed, she and Timothy spoke at length, using their hands to gesture, causing both of them to eat all the slower. Their friendship was instantaneous, which Beckett should have foreseen.
Indeed, when he had first invited Timothy to meet Nell, they spoke almost nonstop for three hours before Beckett could get a word in edgewise. They spoke of politics, of arts and sciences, of a bookshop owner with a thatch of white hair on the side of his otherwise brown mop that they both had noticed. Beckett might have worried about jealousy, about feeling that Timothy had more of a right to her, but the emotion had not arrived. Oddly, he was not jealous at all now that they had encountered each other, and rather marveled at both of their brilliance, and how they both shone all the brighter for each other’s company.
More relieving still, there had been no undercurrent of attraction between the two, and Nell happily recounted her discussions with Beckett later, as if he had not been sitting right there with them, witnessing it.
