Page 37 of Her Wily Duke

Emme felt all flushed, and, in that moment, wanted nothing more than for him to forget himself and keep kissing her, but she took a steadying breath and nodded.

After that, their arrival at Foxridge Park provided her quite a shock, for, there, on the front steps under the portico, were all of the household staff, lined up to be formally introduced to her, as their new mistress. It was at that moment that Emme discovered a whole new depth of nervousness.

Adam handed her down from the carriage, and led her forward.

“I thank you all for your service to my family, and Foxridge Park. I present to you now your new mistress, Emme Villiers, Duchess of Foxridge.”

A cheer went up, and then Wiggins stepped forward.

“Your Grace, I realise that you know most of the staff already, but I will take this opportunity to introduce those you may not have met before.”

It was a shock when Emme realised that when he said ‘Your Grace’ he was referring to her. He walked with them along the line of people, providing names and information on the roles of the staff as he went, until Emme’s head was spinning. She hadn’t, truly, realised just how many people worked here, until she saw them all together like this.

After that, the day was a whirl of activity, with barely a moment to themselves, until late in the evening, when, at last, they left the management of the final guests to Emme’s father, Wiggins and Mrs Miltwood, and went up to their rooms. Adam had told Walham not to attend him for the evening, and had also told Meg, who was to be Emme’s Lady’s maid, to spend the evening celebrating.

Once the door closed behind them, Adam turned to Emme with a smile.

“I’m afraid you’ll have to trust to my skills as a lady’s maid tonight, for I thought that we would both prefer to be completely alone.”

Emme stared at him, shocked, and then burst into laughter, causing Adam to raise a questioning eyebrow. Once she contained her laughter, Emme explained her reaction.

“A Lady’s maid! For me! I’ve never had a maid in my life – I don’t know how to be assisted by a maid! I am sure that I will cause her a great deal of frustration.”

“Well then, she’ll just have to cope, won’t she? For I am certain that you won’t ever intentionally be difficult.”

“Of course I won’t!”

Adam pulled Emme to him and kissed her, and she melted against him, happily. A short while later, as Adam undid the laces of her dress, she spoke softly, musingly.

“You know, I just realised something. Not only has there been not the slightest whisper of the highwayman since Frederick died, but nothing happened today. I’d been half afraid that the highwayman might appear and hold up my carriage on the way to the wedding, or hold up the guests, or the like.”

Adam turned her back to face him, laughing softly as he bent to kiss her again. Just as his lips reached hers, he spoke, very, very softly.

“Oh, that’s not so surprising – I was quite, quite certain that he wouldn’t dare to interrupt our wedding day. Quite certain.”

*****

The next few days after the wedding were busy, with Adam and the servants making changes in the large suite of rooms that Emme and Adam shared, to suit their preferences, and to remove the last traces of Frederick’s occupation of the master suite.

They were also preparing space for all of Emme’s possessions to be added into the house. Emme rather thought that her possessions, which had seemed quite a lot when in her father’s little house, were as nothing when placed in the scale of Foxridge Park – still, there were things that she treasured, no matter that Adam had assured her that they could afford for her to order new gowns and almost anything else she desired.

She was still getting used to the idea that she was a Duchess, and the staff were getting used to the idea that she had no intention of changing her attitude to them.

Their response, after initial caution, had been positive, and they had gone to it with a will when she suggested that they open up all of the rooms which had not been touched since Frederick’s death, or before, and remove any traces of his attitudes and choices with respect to decorating the house.

On the fourth day, after digging through dusty rooms and discovering paintings and furniture which was either quite lovely, or quite dreadful, She reached the point where she needed some fresh air, so she left the servants to the cleaning, and wandered outside. After idly walking about the gardens, she went down past the stables, always happy to see the horses, which she hoped soon to learn to ride. Most of them were turned out in the nearby pastures at this time of year, to take advantage of the rich summer grass, and she walked down the track which ran from the stables between the pastures, stopping every so often to stroke the nose of a curious horse which came to sniff at her.

As she went, she realised that the path she was on went around a copse of trees, and that, just faintly between those trees, she could see what looked to be a small building. Intrigued, she continued down the path until she reached the trees, then paused in the shade to rest a moment. As she did, two men came into sight, walking along another path which wound through the trees from deep in the woods.

Emme frowned, and stayed where she was, watching.

The men got closer, and she realised that it was Adam, and Walham, his valet, who had also been his friend since childhood. She waited to see what they would do, and, as she watched, rather than turn towards where she was, as if to go to the house as she expected, they turned the other way, towards the mysterious small building, and went into it, as far as she could see.

Emme was seized by intense curiosity, and hurried forward on quiet feet, until she reached the building, where she leant against the wall, listening.

She heard a soft whicker, and realised that this must be a stable of sorts.

She was not certain why it was all by itself so far from the main stables, until she dared to peek around the side of it, and saw a very large black horse with white feet and a star on its face approaching the open half door of the building. It all became clear in an instant – this was the stallion that she had occasionally seen Adam riding, from a distance, when she was out walking. And it was perfectly sensible that they would keep a stallion some distance away from where the mares were kept. But… why were Adam and Walham here, now?