Page 123 of The Duke's Forbidden Bride
“Oh, but I bet you wish there had been,” Theodore teased.
Eleanor laughed, peering up at her husband, realizing he was blushing because hehadwished it.
In truth, perhaps she had too. Not that she would admit it. She recalled how delirious she had been the night he rescued her, and while physical intimacy had not been on her mind, she knew she had felt some form of comfort from him.
“Not to mention how you banished me from the house for your honeymoon,” Charlotte piped up.
Spencer sighed as if they exhausted him. “You two are the most lethal couple, and I do not know why I endorsed it.”
“After keeping us waiting for a wickedly long time,” Theodore pointed out. “But we more than made up for lost time during our honeymoon.”
He turned to Charlotte, drawing her in for a chaste kiss. Still, his hand lingered on her waist, a suggestive moment of intimacy, and the love Eleanor saw on their faces was enough to make her heart swell.
“Your honeymoon must have been beautiful,” she sighed wistfully. “Avington Village is stunning, so Spencer was saying.”
“It is absolutely gorgeous,” Charlotte gushed. A butterfly fluttered around her hair while Theodore toyed with one of her curls. “It has an open Grecian-style theater, and Theodore took me there on the first day of our honeymoon.”
“I did,” he confirmed, flashing her a grin. “I could not marry a lady who loves the theater and not take her to see such a spectacle.Romeo and Julietwas positively romantic, although tragic, nonetheless.”
“It was aMidsummer Night’s Dream,” Charlotte delicately corrected.
Theodore frowned. “No, I am certain it wasRomeo and Juliet. And then I took you to the jeweler’s further down the road andbought you a new bracelet to adorn that slender, pretty wrist of yours.”
He kissed her wrist now, smiling lovingly.
Spencer glared at him as if it was outrageous to make such a show in front of him. Perhaps it was, but Eleanor did not mind at all.
“It was most definitelyA Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Charlotte insisted. “I recall them discussing Pyrrhus and Thisbe. It made me think of Eleanor and Spencer.” She nodded toward them. “Walls and all. Was it not you who suggested they were similar?”
“Ah.” Theodore’s eyes flashed with recollection. “I do recall now, for I boasted that I paired the two well.”
At that, they all laughed, and Theodore finished his wine.
“You must catch me up,” Katherine interjected, looking around at them. “I am perfectly content in my little cottage, but I do miss you both.” She regarded Charlotte and Spencer, then Eleanor and Theodore. She had come to welcome them all. “Whatever happened after the commotion several months ago? I returned home quickly after to recover there, so I was not a bother.”
“Oh, Aunt Katherine, you could never be a bother!” Charlotte protested with a frown.
“Dear, you have endured my company for many years. In fact, it gives me so much joy to trade your company for the knowledge that you are married and settled. Spencer, too.”
Eleanor’s thoughts drifted to the disaster seven months ago, the groaning and creaking of the ship, the fighting, the ropes burning her wrists.
It had long been dealt with, but her subconscious had not quite forgotten how it had felt to be back in that cell, back beneath Lord Belgrave’s thumb even for a brief moment, the fear of losing Charlotte and Spencer.
“Belgrave was captured by the constables,” Spencer told them. “I oversaw the trial myself in London. Along with him, Sister Martha—who was, in fact, the Renshaws’ biggest shame many years ago, and she was originally sent to the convent in the hopes that she would turn to God—and the rest of the sisters in that horrid place are imprisoned for life. They will not be released under any conditions.”
Eleanor’s chest tightened. “I did hate Sister Martha, but when you first told me how she had ended up there, I felt a hint of sympathy for her.”
“Do not,” he said sharply. “She, more than anybody, would have known your terror and fear, and she exploited it. She tried to indoctrinate you, even though she herself was indoctrinated. She could have chosen to help. At her trial, she was offered rehabilitation, a return to society if she apologizedand abandoned her extreme ways. She claimed God is her only judge.”
Eleanor nodded, still trying to let go of that guilt.
Sister Martha had made her own choices, and she had abused Eleanor, even though she herself had been abused. She had almost ruined Eleanor’s life, knowing how much the convent had ruined her own.
It haunted Eleanor, but not so much that she dwelled on it the way she once had.
“And Lord Follet?” Katherine asked delicately.
Charlotte stiffened at the mention of her former fiancé.
