Page 70 of A Virgin for the Duke of Depravity
It would certainly make his life easier, having Margaret around to help watch over them. Joan could only do so much in her old age.
Margaret finished her walk down the aisle with Theresa, who stood to her left and waited for the ceremony to begin. Leo took his bride’s hands in his own.
He could not flaunt convention entirely. He needed to make it appear as though they would have a real marriage, even if he knew better.
Father Cleary gave a short speech about the power of love, but Leo could not take his eyes off Margaret. By the time they were exchanging their vows, he was ready to leave. He could not bear being this close to Margaret while holding her at arm’s length.
“I now pronounce you man and wife,” Father Cleary said with a smile.
He did not follow it up with an order to kiss the bride, and Leo was grateful for it. He leaned toward Margaret and whispered in her ear, “You are officially mine now.”
Margaret must have been in a daze, lost in her thoughts about what her wedding night would hold, because the ceremony ended too soon. She found herself walking back down the path to the mansion on Leo’s arm sooner than she had expected.
It seemed that she had missed the most important part of the ceremony.
Or it had been skipped.
At every wedding she had attended, the groom would kiss his bride at the end of the ceremony. It did not have to be thepassionate kisses they had shared already—that would not have been appropriate for the girls to see.
But surely, there had to be some kind of kiss?
Margaret tried not to overthink the situation, but she felt that her new husband had purposefully avoided kissing her. It was the one part of the ceremony she had been looking forward to.
Perhaps he is just letting the anticipation build up for our wedding night.
But the thought rang hollow in her mind, and she could not shake the cloud that hung over her.
“It has been a busy day,” she said when they had all made their way inside and sat down to taste the pastries the cook had made for the day. It was the recipe that Theresa had gotten from her own cook for the strawberry pastry they had shared at Blackwell Manor.
“That it has,” Leo agreed without looking at her.
He did not partake in the dessert, though the girls were more than eager to eat his portion.
“If it is all right with you, I believe I will retire to my chambers,” she said.
She hoped he would look at her, that he would see the suggestion in her eyes if he could not hear it in her tone.
He nodded. “Do as you like, dear wife.”
He had clearly dismissed her without so much as a second thought. There was nothing to be done about it now except to retire to her rooms, to seclude herself from her friends and her new husband.
As Margaret reached her rooms, she summoned the maid to help her undo the laces of her gown. If she was going to wait for Leo to come to her, then she was at least going to breathe easily while doing it.
With the dress cast aside, she slipped into her most revealing nightgown, the one with the low neckline and thin fabric that left nothing to the imagination. It was what she would want him to see her in the first time he took her and claimed her as his own.
She sat on the stool in front of the mirror and undid her braids. The red tresses fell in tame waves around her face.
Running her fingers through her hair, she tried to imagine what it would feel like if Leo did the same. She sat there as long as she could, wondering what Leo would see when he looked at her tonight.
Surely, he should have come by now.
Not knowing what could cause the delay when he had been so eager to pleasure her the last time they were together, she rose from her seat and moved to the bed. She turned down the covers and climbed in.
Maybe it would not be such a bad thing for him to find her in bed when he arrived.
She tossed and turned, trying to find a position that would not only be comfortable for her but would also appear attractive to her new husband. But eventually, she tired of holding the pose and collapsed onto the soft mattress.
Margaret waited as the sun went down, the light streaming through the small window in her chambers casting the room in oranges and purples. The golden light of the afternoon was long gone, and night was falling.
