Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 76921 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76921 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
It was early in their marriage, she reminded herself. You must give him time to know you. But she’d feel much more at ease when, some blessed day, she saw her own love reflected back in his eyes.
Chapter Ten
Waltzing
Their first official callers were her husband’s parents, the Duke and Duchess of Lockridge. After announcing their intention to visit, they arrived on the sixth of March amid a spate of pleasant weather and warmer days.
Jane had been nervous about hosting such an august couple, but they put her at ease at once, insisting she call them “Mother” and “Father” rather than “Your Grace.” They were wonderfully gracious, offering newlywed gifts to her and Edward: a set of gold platters engraved with their initials, a handsomely embossed Bible, and two sets of bed linens embroidered by the duchess herself.
She’d barely retained a memory of Townsend’s parents from the wedding, she’d been so nervous that day. Now that they were guests in their home, she had an opportunity to know them better and found them very amiable.
The duke was as tall as Townsend and looked very much like him, with the same dark hair, although the duke’s was peppered with a bit of gray. The two men moved in the same assured way and, to Jane’s amusement, had the same ability to look utterly, haughtily lofty with the arch of a mere brow. Even so, he was a kind man who seemed to go out of his way to put her at ease.
The duchess was a very sweet, soft-spoken woman with pale coloring and thick golden hair. Edward had told her his mother’s given name, Aurelia, came from the Latin word for gold, and Jane thought it very appropriate, for the woman glowed with contented happiness.
Her burgeoning friendship with her in-laws was cemented when His Grace rubbed his hands together and asked if they might meet Mr. Cuddles. “Oh yes, my son has written about your unusual pets,” he said, laughing as Edward feigned exasperation.
“I believe my wife will be famous for her snake handling. Or infamous.”
“Come now. Apparently, the snake in question would have been dead without her interference. May we see it?”
The head cook nearly panicked to see the four of them crowding into the bustling kitchen, but soon was extolling the virtues of “cute little Bouncer” and the royal python that disposed of a mouse or rat with regularity every other week.
“Will he try to dispose of my hand if I put it in the cage?” asked the duke.
“Oh no,” she said. “In fact, he enjoys being handled, if you would like to pet him?”
The duke said he would very much like to, so she lifted Mr. Cuddles from his enclosure and showed the duke and duchess how he liked to be petted and stroked along his back. The duke asked many questions, while the duchess looked on, keeping a certain distance. She apologized that she did not feel comfortable handling the snake, though Jane took pains to tell her she didn’t mind. She did finally agree, at her husband’s urging, to give Mr. Cuddles a soft pat upon his light-colored scales.
“Do you remember when you bought me that grasshopper, Hunter?” she asked the duke. “It had a special cage and everything.”
“A habitat,” the duke specified. “A fancy enclosure of mesh and wood.”
“Yes, a habitat.” The duchess smiled in the affectionate way of long married couples. Jane was so jealous of that smile between them, she forgot to ask the obvious follow-up question. Edward asked it instead.
“Father bought you a grasshopper?” Edward laughed. “Why on earth would he do that?”
“It was the first real gift he got me. I thought he’d lost his mind.”
“It was because I used to call you grasshopper. You didn’t like it much, either.” He grinned at his wife. “How irritated you used to get.”
The duchess fluttered her lashes, as if too proper to launch a retort, but her quick glance at Jane communicated the vexation of wives everywhere: what are we to do with these husbands?
“What did you name your pet grasshopper?” Jane asked.
His parents looked at each other and laughed. “It didn’t last long enough for a name, did it?” said the duke.
Jane’s face clouded. “Oh no. It died?”
“Nothing like that,” said the duchess, taking her hand to console her. “In fact, he promptly escaped his habitat and hopped about our bedroom, chirping now and again to taunt us. We decided it would be better to set him free.”
“That would have been better for a grasshopper,” said Jane.
“We set him free there in the gardens,” said the duke, gesturing out the kitchen’s open door. “Near the forest behind the house. I imagine his or her descendants are still hopping about Somerton’s glades.”
Jane put her hands to her face in wonder, while Edward rolled his eyes.