Page 108 of The Reckless Love of an Heir
‘My lord…’ Davis’s voice echoed in the hall as the others arrived.
Susan stood as Henry brought the glass of sparkling wine to her.
‘Now swear to me you will not rebel and run off to the library. This is our wedding day,’ he said quietly.
She shook her head and made a face at him, but in truth she was glad of his humour. It was holding her together. ‘I promise.’
27
If his father and mother were still angry that he had to marry Susan so soon after William’s funeral, there was no sign of it on his wedding day. The day may have been a subdued affair, but everyone had been perfectly pleasant, especially to Susan, and quite probably for her sake. Even Harry had kept his lips closed on the reason for the rush.
Henry hoped her day had lacked nothing bar the company of Alethea.
His uncle and aunt and cousins had left immediately after luncheon. When Susan’s parents had left a short while later, his family drifted away, leaving her to her goodbye. He had stayed and watched as she held them as though she never wanted to let go. She had cried, and there was a fear of change in her eyes as she watched their carriage depart. He had become used to that emotion in the days since William’s death; it was because she had no time to adjust to leaving her home and family.
He had stepped forward then and lain his arm about her shoulders.
Susan had taught him what it was to be selfless. But in returnhe would teach her to allow herself to sometimes think only of herself. She was allowed to feel sad over leaving her parents.
He proposed they retire to bed before the sun had even set, because his parents had not been talkative, and the girls and Percy had already chosen to retire. It was going to be an odd thing, though, to spend the night with Susan in his bed, in his home, with his family in the house.
He sighed. He had been standing outside the door of his own bedchamber for nearly a half hour, while a maid helped Susan undress and get into bed. He perhaps should have knocked once he heard the maid leave through the servants’ door, but he had not been certain Susan would be ready, and he was waiting for her to call. Perhaps she was waiting for him to call, though.
His knuckles tapped the door. ‘Susan! Are you ready?’
After a moment there was a call back. ‘Yes!’
He turned the handle. Samson rose to follow him. ‘No, you stay, and do not dare whine. If you fight over the bed with Susan, she will always win, and you will be in the kitchens.’
He walked in alone as Samson padded off towards his favourite chair.
When he saw her, he wanted to laugh. He had stripped off his evening coat, his black stock neckcloth and waistcoat and held all the items and his shoes. Yet, in his shirt and trousers he was probably as heavily clothed as she was in her bed attire.
The nightdress she wore came to her wrists and lace hung over her hands and formed a flurry about her neck. It surely could not be comfortable to sleep in that. His gaze dropped to her bare toes peeping from beneath her nightdress then lifted to her face. ‘You are all buttoned up still.’
At least with her nightdress, though, unlike the dress she had worn in the rose garden, the buttons were at the front.
He put his clothes down on a chair and walked across theroom. She was smiling at him although her cheeks were pink. ‘There will be a rule, the first in our marriage. I may set them and you may set them as we go on, but this first rule will be mine. You are never to wear a nightdress in bed.’
‘And what if I am cold?’
‘You will not be cold. I shall warm you.’
His smile twisted when he looked down at the row of tiny round pearl-like buttons, then he began releasing them. ‘I do not wish to fight with a thing like this every night.’
She was looking at his face. ‘Every night?’
He glanced up. ‘Indeed, every night.’
She laughed. ‘Thank you. You have been making me laugh all day and making me feel better, when you must still feel very sad yourself. Have I told you, Henry; you are not self-centred, I take it back. I have seen everything you are doing for your family.’
His fingers continued their work releasing the buttons between her breasts as he looked into her face. ‘No. You were right, I am. You being here is only more evidence of that. The way I behaved in the rose garden was for my own selfish interest. I thought nothing of the impact on you.’
‘You needed comfort, I understood…’
‘But you made up your mind not to marry me, and I took that choice away.’ He moved aside her nightdress and cupped her left breast. She stood straight and unmoving as his thumb brushed over her nipple.
‘I do not regret what we did. I think I simply shocked myself.’
