Page 51 of Earl of Excess
She looked up at him, suddenly unsure. “What about Dandie? I would not leave my dog.”
He laughed. “Of course, Dandie comes with us. I would never leave her behind.”
“Let us check with your grandmother and make sure she has not already emptied the cages.”
The two walked hand-in-hand through the gate and towards her aunt’s house.
When they reached the house, Dandie sniffed the air with her tail pointed straight behind her.
Bethany touched her pulsing head. A slight headache was coming on. Something felt wrong. She just did not know why.
*
“It took himlong enough to leave,” Smoot muttered to himself, as he watched Bethany and Matthew go towards the house. “You might go places, but it ain’t home, soldier, and it ain’t with her,” he sneered. “Soon, you will see what I mean.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Matthew could notbelieve his good fortune. Bethany had agreed to be his wife. He had thought she would decline because of her family. His sight had mostly returned, and each day now, it seemed to improve. He wanted to curse the war, damn it to Hell for what it had cost him. It had taken Bart and countless others. He had hated America, or at least, he had untilher.
Here they sat on a dock in the bayou, pulling up crab baskets and carefully placing the critters in a large bucket.
One crab bolted from the basket before they could usher it into the pail, and began making its way towards Bethany, who nearly catapulted into the water to escape it. “I have it, my dear,” he said, suddenly feeling sorry for the crustacean. His hand accidentally, on purpose, knocked it into the water. He looked up and met the gaze of a grinning Bethany.
“I have done it myself, a time or two,” she teased. “Their little eyes look up at you with such fright, I cannot help it. If they are so ambitious that they take off, I let them go.”
“Now you are making me look at all of them,” he admitted, finding his attention drawn to the crowded bucket of clamoring and clacking crabs.
“Don’t do it,” she warned, laughing. “I know what you are thinking. Aunt Theo is not the forgiving sort if her crabs have absconded.” Her voice was light.
“Tell me this does not bother you,” he dared, pulling her up into his arms.
“It does. I assure you. If it were up to me, I would only eat fruits and vegetables,” she admitted. “But my aunt and grandmother love seafood.”
“I will admit, I have never stared down into the face of a crab,” he said with a laugh. Another crab escaped, crawling up on the pile beneath it, and he watched it tumble out of the bucket into the water.
Bethany’s lips twitched as she threw the lid over the bucket, locking the rest of the crabs in the pail. “Come,” she said with her arm outstretched. Let’s take the crabs to Grandmère and go for a walk. We have much to discuss, it seems.”
“That sounds wonderful. Is there a good place we can walk?” he asked, looking in the colony’s direction next door. Honestly, most of what he had seen, seemed threatening in the sense of communing too closely with snakes and such. He whacked at another mosquito that had landed on his arm. “Ouch! These blood-suckers are such a nuisance.”
“To answer your question, there is a good place—just over there.” Bethany pointed towards the back of the plantation. “The Bellovere family had some beautiful gardens at one time, and they fell into disrepair. However, Mr. Duplantis has restored much.”
“When should we tell your family... about us?” he ventured.
“I do not know. How would you like to approach it?” she asked quietly.
He heard the note of anguish in her voice. “Are you having second thoughts?” he asked, gently.
“No, not at all,” she answered. “I just do not want to hurt my aunt and my grandmother. I am all they have. Well, there is my father, but we haven’t heard from him since the beginning of the war.”
“We will find a way to mollify their fears, I promise you,” he soothed. He could not wait to introduce Bethany to his father. While she was not part of Society, he was certain when his parents met her they would love her.
“I hope so. I cannot suffer to have them hurt, and to cause it would be agonizing,” she said.
“’Tis a long voyage, but I could never deny you the opportunity to see your family. We will come here as often as you wish,” he offered.
She smiled at that, and he thought his heart would burst. He cared so much for this woman. It was something he had never thought possible. What would his friends say?
He thought about the men who had been as close as brothers before he had accepted this assignment. He had planned to sell his commission and settle down, but the need for officers had been great. Now he was planning to marry a woman he had found in the wilderness of America. Evan would surely give him grief. The man would probably never marry if he had his way. Of course, Clarendon’s mother would have something to say about that. He liked Lady Clarendon very much. However, the thought of Evan becoming snared in the parson’s trap seemed too fantastical. It would never happen, he thought.
