Page 66 of A Duke to Undo her
“So many layers of sheer silk and French lace trimmings,” Vera reminisced, refilling her glass of champagne from the ice-bucket and waving away Betsy’s help as she refreshed other glasses in the room. “It was lovely, but quite a challenge for the wedding night.”
“I remember thinking that it would be,” Ophelia commented opaquely. “So well-fitted but so many buttons!”
The two older women shared a brief humorous glance that made Rose frown in puzzlement.
“Surely, it is best to have one’s wedding dress securely fastened?” she observed innocently, at which both Josephine and Madeline also smiled.
“I’m sure it is,” Madeline reassured their most innocent friend.
At that moment, the drawing room opened and Constance finally reappeared, having excused herself to the retiring room ten minutes earlier.
“Constance, what do you think?” Josephine asked straight away, finding that she still wanted her eldest sister’s approval, regardless of her more staid attitudes. “We have been through ten dresses now and everyone has a different opinion.”
Lady Norfield smiled and entered the room fully, bearing in her arms another dress entirely.
“I wondered whether you might consider this gown? It never suited me well and I never wore it outside the fitting room. We are a similar height and build, and a few alterations would suffice to make it your own, Josephine.”
The gown she brought to lay on the large sofa was a white summer silk with some floral embroidery and a forest-green sash. It was somewhere between a day dress and an evening dress, informal in design but constructed of the finest materials.Josephine knew instantly that this was what she would wear to her wedding.
“It suits Josephine but it is very simple,” Madeline commented.
“Perhaps, but with Mother’s emeralds, it will be just right,” judged Ophelia. “That simple style never suited Constance but it works for Josephine.”
“Sometimes the simpler the better, especially on the wedding night,” Vera added in another private joke with Ophelia and the two of them laughed together once more, as Rose looked on in puzzlement.
“Thank you, Constance,” Josephine said sincerely, accepting the dress and kissing her oldest sister’s cheek. “I know I have shocked you…”
“You cannot help shocking me,” Constance broke in, but with affection. “I know how…different your are. It does not affect how much I love you. Dear little sister, I want you only to be happy. If the Duke of Ashbourne is truly the man you want, then you have my blessing.”
“I hope you mean that, Constance,” sounded Victor’s voice merrily as he entered the drawing room, ahead of both Percival and Norman. “We have just agreed that the wedding will take place in a fortnight, haven’t we, Your Grace?”
“We had a drink at one of the bars on the Temple embankment with the lawyers and then brought Cassius back with us,” added Percival, appearing rather pink and fueled with rather more than a single measure of brandy or whisky. “He is to be our brother, after all.”
“We shall take him to dine at to my club,” announced Norman, with equal cheerfulness. “But he will first need the use of a comb and my valet should equip him with a fresh collar and stock…”
“Two weeks?!” Constance broke in loudly, as Vera and Madeline scrabbled quickly to hide the chosen wedding dress from the deep blue gaze of the Duke of Ashbourne who now entered the room behind Josephine’s relatives. “Victor!? How will we manage everything in two weeks?”
“It is all arranged, bar the wedding breakfast and that must be at Ashbourne Castle since our license is for my parish church,” said Cassius Emerton, walking past the other men, directly to Josephine’s side. “If you provide a list of family and friends, my mother will doubtless assist you. She has been wanting to marry me off for at least a decade.”
“Should I write to your mother?” Josephine suggested as the duke’s hands settled again at her waist. “Duchess Nerissa has been kind to me. I should like to send word to Benedict too, to let him know that we are to be brother and sister, in law now, as well as affection. They will still live at Ashbourne Castle after we marry, won’t they?”
“I expect so,” the duke nodded, gazing down into her green eyes with complete absorption and then raising her hand to his lips. “Write a note tonight and I shall enclose it with mine tomorrow. Then they can read both together. I believe they will understand.”
Vera and Madeline needn’t have worried about concealing the dress. The duke only had eyes for Josephine and she reveled in it, wishing only that they were alone. How she wished to to kiss the dark shadow of his upper lip and run her hands through his already less than orderly hair. The duke’s head began to bend towards her…
Before Josephine or her duke could do any of the things they longed for, Lord Norfield cleared his throat loudly beside them, with humorous effect.
“You are not married yet,” he reminded them. “Two weeks is not so very long to wait.”
“Two weeks,” acknowledged Cassius, removing himself reluctantly from Josephine’s orbit and following Victor and the other men to the door but then looking back with a knowing smile. “Not a day longer, Josephine.”
In that moment, the duke’s expression was so intimate and familiar that Josephine found herself blushing to the roots of her hair in the knowledge of what he was thinking.
“But wouldn’t it be better to wait a few months longer and have a proper trousseau?” asked Rose once the drawing room doorhad closed and the voice of Mr. Booth, Norman’s valet, could be heard in the hallway with the gentlemen. “Why hurry to get everything done in two weeks? I would rather have all my new gowns ready.”
Vera and Ophelia laughed together knowingly while Constance threw up her hands helplessly acknowledging her inability to hold back the tide of Josephine and Cassius’ determination.
“I suppose,” said Madeline, striking a tactful balance between Rose’s innocence and the experience of the older Thomson ladies, “when two people love one another, they wish to be married as quickly as possible. Isn’t that so?”
