Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 86167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“What are you thinking about?” she asked, pressing her lips to his cheek. “I can feel you grow tense.”
“You’re too observant for your own good.” He brushed back her tousled hair. “I only wish you to have an enjoyable Season. The garden party is sure to be a success, but…you must take care whom you invite. You must also consider whose calls to accept, whose salons you visit. It’s different being married.”
“You mean…gentlemen?”
He laughed. “No, you’re not to visit any gentlemen, and they certainly won’t come calling now you’ve been spoken for. I mean ladies who will not make good friends or have your best interests at heart.”
“Oh, you needn’t worry. I’ll know them right away. There were some at the ball…”
“Yes. Take care.”
“You will care for me,” she murmured. “My knight…”
She was barely awake now, growing soft and limp in his embrace.
“Yes, I will care for you. Sleep, sweet one.”
He held her, touched by the way she called him “my knight” in her drowsing, contented state. There was a time he couldn’t have seen himself as such, but becoming her husband had made him a different person, a more honorable person. He would care for her to the ends of the earth.
Now that they were in London, he’d take the head off anyone in society who threatened her. It wasn’t a question, just something he had to do. He watched her eyelids flutter as she slept, then dreamed. An hour later, he was still watching her, trying to figure out how such intensity of feeling had developed between a friendship and a marriage he’d embarked upon only to be heroic and kind.
Chapter Sixteen
A Royal Audience
Prince Carlo, Felicity, and the children arrived on schedule, just in time for the garden party in their honor. August had warned Elizabeth the royals’ ocean journey might run late, that they might have to have the party without the guests of honor, but Elizabeth only shook her head and said she could “feel them near.”
Of course, it would have been fine to mount a garden party without them, but he was pleased for Elizabeth’s sake that the Italian contingent arrived without unforeseen delay.
And it would be a contingent, if past visits were any indication, a veritable army of footmen, guards, maids, nannies, cooks, valets, and grooms, all of whom were to take up residence at Buckingham Palace at the king’s invitation. The Lockridges delivered Elizabeth’s garden party invitation when they went to greet their daughter, and Felicity wrote a personal note to her in return, thanking her and expressing the family’s excitement to attend. The note arrived just at dinner.
“She says they will be thrilled to attend.” Elizabeth looked up from the monogrammed notecard to smile at him. “Those are her words. Thrilled.”
“Of course she’ll be thrilled. It was kind of you to think of them.”
She scoffed, pushing aside her plate to scan the note a second time. “To think of them? Why, they’re so estimable and royal. It’s kind of them to hobnob with us.”
“It’s only Felicity, darling. Yes, she’s royal now, but she used to carry you about when you were a baby, and let you sit at tea with her dolls.”
“She’s seemed impressive to me since I was a child.” Elizabeth laughed softly. “She was older, and so beautiful. It made sense to me that she married a prince, though I suppose…” She slid a look at him. “I’m sorry it made you so sad.”
“It made all of us sad.” At the time, he’d been gutted. Inconsolable. “Mostly because she was going so far away. I worried for her. We all did, even her mama and papa, though she’s built a marvelous life. But you, too, are marvelous.” He reached for his wife’s hand. “You’re the Countess of Augustine. No small feat.”
She burst into louder laughter. “It was a small feat, accomplished because you were kind enough to marry me.”
“But you’ve grown into the title with such elan.”
He was not teasing. In truth, he was proud of her. Since the Season had started, she’d endeared herself to many and impressed those who might have disparaged her with gossip. She’d been unerringly brave and faced the ton with such unruffled composure that any talk about oddness or her failed betrothals had been scuttled before it began.
And now, with her meticulously planned garden party, she would be rewarded for her efforts. He prayed it was a triumph. She deserved a triumph after her ups and downs the last few years.
The day of the party dawned bright and cloudless, with a lilting breeze, so the stultifying stench of London seemed drawn up and away. Elizabeth wandered the house and grounds in a panic, tending to last minute tasks, but his servants had things well in hand. They’d been waiting many years for him to take a wife, so the house might be opened to parties and guests.