Page 81 of An Innocent Bride for the Duke

He shook his head, seeing a mischievous glint in her eye that went straight to his groin.

“I shall think about riding astride a horse with you, and feeling you behind me…”

Striding back to the bed, Benedict kissed Louisa again, more fully this time, his hand cupping her breast and drawing a slight moan from her throat.

“Just you wait,” he promised her with a grin as he pulled away again. “I will show you far better than that after I get you to the altar on Sunday…”

Their wedding day dawned bright and clear, showers on the previous day having enhanced the greenery and then conveniently blown away. Rosemere was still garlanded in many of the decorations from the engagement party.

Fresh flowers had been added and the larger rooms closed up, since the wedding breakfast was to be a small affair. A few other close friends and relations had arrived from London or Scotland for the ceremony but there were no invitation lists or complex room arrangements to manage. The servants went about whistling or chattering more than usual.

“Is Louisa ready, Seraphine?” asked Lady Esher, consulting her pocket watch as her married niece entered the room. “I do like to be punctual, and so does Mrs. Torrence, even if Mr. Torrence is less particular.”

Standing in the hallway outside the drawing room, Louisa smiled to herself on hearing her aunt’s affectionate fussing. Then, she turned and beckoned to Fanny and Ezra, each carrying an armful of dolls while two nursemaids followed in their wake, picking up any that fell and placing them in a basket.

“Louisa has been ready for hours, Aunt Beatrice,” Seraphine replied to their aunt. “It was Fanny’s dolls who were holding things up in the bride’s bedroom.”

“Here we all are,” Louisa announced brightly, leading the way into the drawing room. “Look how beautifully all my bridesmaids are dressed.”

Fanny laughed happily and twirled about in her little dress of buttercup silk, while her dolls were dressed in every color of the rainbow, and Ezra was in the sweetest little suit and white carnation buttonhole that Louisa had been amused to see matched that of his father and, equally importantly, Uncle Benedict.

Louisa’s own dress was cream silk with a summer green sash and scattering of tiny satin rosebuds, real rosebuds being fixed in her hair with golden pins. She wore her mother’s pearls again and the small bandage at her left wrist was the only sign of her ordeal a few days earlier.

“They look very beautiful indeed,” agreed Aunt Beatrice. “Just like the bride. How are you feeling, Louisa? I hope you’re not too nervous. I was a little nervous on my wedding day, not about marrying dear Reginald, but that I might say my vows wrong, or trip on my dress.”

“I’m not nervous at all,” Louisa answered, speaking the truth. “In fact, I don’t think I could be happier…”

She stopped here and laughed, blushing a little, although no one here would know why. After Louisa said something similar to Benedict yesterday afternoon, he had drawn her away into the woods, slid his hand beneath her skirts and fingered her to ecstasy, while assuring her that she could certainly still be happier yet and he intended to prove it.

“I’m very glad of that,” her aunt smiled. “Now, to the carriages, everyone, please. The gentlemen left twenty minutes ago.”

“But I’m a gentleman,” Ezra objected, at which his big sister laughed.

“All the gentlemen except Ezra left twenty minutes ago,” Louisa clarified. “For the bride must have a gentleman to escort her to her carriage, mustn’t she?”

Ezra nodded solemnly and took Louisa’s hand, happy to dump his share of Fanny’s dolls in the maid’s basket.

Benedict was waiting for her there at the altar in St. Anne’s church, just as Louisa had always pictured her bridegroom waiting. When he heard the doors open and turned his head to her, she looked into his blue-green eyes and smiled with such happiness that she thought her heart would burst.

I love you. I think I have always loved you…

Who else had Louisa ever expected to be standing here except this tall, dark and dashing hero who had saved her life and limb several times over, proving as well as professing his love? The fantasies of her youth were only shadows now of the the real man with whom Louisa would share her real life.

Benedict’s handsome face shone as he watched Louisa walk up the aisle towards him, Ezra toddling beside her on one side and Aunt Beatrice holding her arm on the other. Behind them, Fanny carried her large basket of well-dressed dolls. As best man, Damien grinned beside Benedict, his eyes as much for Seraphine as the bride or groom.

Louisa smiled to see local acquaintance around the back of the church and a smattering of family and friends in the front row. There was Thalia and Laurent, Rosaline too, several little ones… A figure in blue dashed down the far side of the church when Louisa was halfway and squeezed itself in beside Thalia.

Daphne?! How wonderful, after ten years! Her childhood friend must have come all the way from Paris for her wedding. Seraphine had said she would write to Daphne but Louisa had been in the doldrums at the time, still in shock at the sudden events that precipitated her betrothal.

The wedding party complete, Louisa reached Benedict’s side and passed her bouquet to Aunt Beatrice. A ripple of laughter ran through the congregation as Ezra refused to release Louisa’s hand and the Duke of Northwick had to clarify that he was the one marrying Lady Louisa Ascot. Damien resolved the issue and allowed the ceremony to begin by lifting Ezra in his arms and pronouncing him the deputy best man.

“Dearly beloved,” began Mr. Torrence, "we are gathered here together, in the sight of God, to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony…"

Louisa and Benedict looked into one another’s eyes. There was no scandal now, no obligation and no arrangement of convenience. Today there was only a celebration of love and the kind of duty that was joyful to fulfill.

“With this ring I thee wed,” said Benedict’s deep voice, raising the hand that already bore his ring to his lips and kissing it, “with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow…”

The words and the touch of his mouth shot through Louisa like fire, not caring what anyone in the church might think of the fact that she already wore his ring. It mattered more that Benedict spoke every vow with sincerity, promising himself to Louisa, as she pledged herself to him.