Page 40 of An Innocent Bride for the Duke

“Mr. Harper has a spy glass and told Lady Esher that he could see the Wexford crest on the carriage.”

“Tell my aunt we’ll join her very shortly, Melissa. Come Fanny, come Ezra, our expedition to the woods can wait until later.”

It had been barely four days since they had written to the honeymooning pair. If they were here now, that meant that they must have set off immediately after receiving the letters from Rosemere. Louisa wondered how the news of her betrothal would have been received.

The Duke of Northwick said that he had written only in the most factual terms, and Lady Esher’s letter had said little more. Louisa had intended to write to Seraphine too but found herself unable to put pen to paper and explain recent events in a rational way.

“Is Mama coming?” asked Fanny delightedly as Louisa took the children’s hands and steered them around on the path, “and Papa too?”

“Mama! Mama!” Ezra began to shout, jumping up and down in his excitement. “Where is Mama?”

“Come, we’ll go and see for ourselves,” replied Louisa, glancing up at Rosemere and spotting the tall, dark-haired figure watching them from the window of the library.

The duke was still in there, where they had left him half an hour earlier. He had come in to the library while Louisa and the children were building a fort with blankets and throws from the downstairs cupboards, just as Louisa used to do when she was small.

Using chairs, tables and heavy books to weigh down the corner of blankets, they had constructed a whole maze of cushion and book-filled caves within which Louisa told them stories and led them in adventures. For a few hours in the library with only Fanny and Ezra, she had almost been able to forget her problems and live within the children’s games.

While Benedict seemed far more amused than disapproving as he looked over their “fort,” Louisa felt embarrassed to be discovered like that and immediately announced that she was taking the children out for some fresh air, snatching up Ezra in her arms before he could begin his usual demands for the duke to come too.

Benedict… Louisa often thought of him like that now, rather than as the Duke of Northwick. When they talked, he also insisted upon her addressing him by his Christian name, something that felt natural on the one hand but disturbingly intimate on the other.

“Are you going to marry Uncle Benedict?” Fanny suddenly asked her as they approached the house, waving her little hand at the library window without self-consciousness.

“Am I…Oh, well…I…”

Louisa stumbled over her reply, shocked to hear the question put so bluntly, when all the adults in question had taken care not to speak of the matter before the children. Perhaps the nursery maids had not been quite so discreet, forgetting how sharp Fanny’s ears could be.

“Can I be a bridesmaid?” continued the little girl blithely. “My dolls can be bridesmaids too so you will have lots of us.”

“We must speak to your mother about all that,” Louisa managed to answer, glad to reach the conservatory door and get back into the house.

Gertie was waiting in the hallway for them with brush and comb in hand, ready to tidy up the children before their parents’ arrival. Fanny stood obediently beside Lady Esher for the nursery maid’s ministrations but over-excited little Ezra shrieked and broke away from Louisa’s hand, racing across the hallway.

“Don’t want the brush!” he protested as Gertie pursued him.

“Don’t you want to look tidy for your Mama and Papa?” Louisa tried to reason with him but he shrieked again at Gertie’s approach and evaded her again.

“What’s all this then?” asked the Duke of Northwick, suddenly stepping out of the library, his voice kindly but authoritative.

“Don’t want the brush, Uncle Benedict!” gabbled Ezra rushing over to him as if for protection from all the ladies bent on tidying him up. “Don’t want to!”

“Shall I do it, Ezra?” Louisa tried to coax the boy but he only shook his little head vigorously.

“Well, my hair needs brushing,” Benedict announced, holding out his hand to take the brush from Gertie and then crouching down by Ezra. “Would you do it for me, Ezra? You can pretend I’m one of Aunt Beatrice’s ponies.”

The duke put the soft-bristled little brush into Ezra’s hand and offered his head. With a giggle, the child pulled the brush through the man’s thick dark hair several times, creating far more disorder than order in doing so.

“He is so good with that child,” murmured Aunt Beatrice at Louisa’s side. “I would never have believed it, if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. He will make a very good father some day, I think.”

Louisa nodded, blushing slightly at the final sentence since she now would likely be the mother of the duke’s children. She could not deny that he was very good with Ezra, and Fanny too, although the little girl liked spending time with Lady Esher and Louisa just as much.

“Am I done?” Benedict asked, grinning at the boy and receiving a nod. “Well then, it is your turn.”

As the duke took the brush, Ezra now offered his head willingly.

“I’m a pony too,” he asserted as his hair was quickly brushed into order.

“Good horse,” laughed Benedict, patting the boy’s head as he stood and looked over at Louisa and her aunt, brush in hand.