Page 82 of An Innocent Bride for the Duke

“…I pronounce that they be man and wife together. In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.”

Finally, it was done. Their hands clasped, the Duke and Duchess of Northwick turned at smiled at the equally beaming congregation, many of whom were already filing out of the church to be ready for when the newlyweds emerged.

“Guess where we’re sleeping tonight,” Benedict murmured to Louisa as they walked laughing through the rain of rice and rose petals along the church path and towards the carriage.

“Your suite?” Louisa guessed, feeling a small pang of dismay and embarrassment for not thinking about this earlier. “Oh, but that’s right by the nursery. There is my room but my bed is small and you are so big…”

“I am big enough but you will not find my size excessive,” Benedict teased her. “In fact, I hope you will find me just right.”

“Benedict, please!” Louisa both laughed and blushed, understanding his meaning perfectly well but also genuinely a little worried about the bedroom situation. “Where are we going to sleep? There has been so much happening that I can’t believe we all forgot that we would need married accommodation after the wedding.”

“We didn’t all forget,” Benedict told her. “I have arranged for us to stay in the old Rosemere hunting lodge all week, out near the lake. It has been swept and fixed up for us. There is only one bedroom, but that is all we need, I suspect. The servants will come from the main house with meals, or to clean and tidy when we need them.”

“Oh Benedict!” Louisa exclaimed delightedly, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him. “Thank you. I could not think of anything more perfect!”

He took this opportunity to lift Louisa into his arms and carry her the rest of the way down the path, to cheers and applause from the gathered well-wishers.

“The more you say things like that, the more determined I become to prove you wrong,” Benedict warned her with a grin.

As their carriage pulled away, Louisa smiled and kissed her new husband lovingly on the lips, certain now that today had been the beginning of her dreams rather than the end.

Epilogue

“It looks so different,” Louisa said as she walked in through the door of old hunting lodge by the lake and began to look around.

“Do you like it?” asked Benedict, leaning back against the doorway and watching her with a smile as she examined the place.

The old carpets had been beaten, the wood polished and the windows cleaned. Fresh woodland flowers filled a vase on the table in the living room and a fire had been built in the grate, waiting to be lit if the evening grew cooler.

“I love it, Benedict! It was always so old and dusty in here when I was young, and no one ever stays here. Uncle Edgar pretends he will when he visits for duck hunting but then he always says his lumbago is coming on and stays at Rosemere instead.”

“We shall not suffer from lumbago, I promise,” laughed Benedict. “I have thought of everything. Come and see the bedroom.”

Louisa glanced at her new husband from under her lashes, wondering whether this was really an invitation of another sort. Perhaps it was, but the boyish eagerness on his face told her he really did wish to show something too. Following Benedict through the door, she saw that this chamber too had been transformed.

The two old rickety wooden cots were gone and in their place stood a sturdy bed of chestnut wood, topped with a comfortable-looking mattress and familiar Rosemere linen.

“It came from one of the guest rooms at Rosemere,” Benedict told her. “I chose it, with your aunt. She selected the mattress, though. I cannot take credit for that.”

“Aunt Beatrice is very particular about the mattresses at Rosemere,” observed Louisa.

“See how comfortable it is,” he added, throwing himself onto the bed with a grin, and then lying there, holding his arms out to her.

Louisa advanced to the bed with halting steps, shy again suddenly. Benedict turned on his side and smiled at her more gently.

“There’s no need to be scared. Tonight is going to be very slow and we don’t even have to start until you’re ready.”

“I know,” Louisa acknowledged, sitting down on the bed and patting it with her hand, finding it as well stuffed and fashioned as all the beds at Rosemere. “I thought I wasn’t nervous earlier, but now that we’re here, I am.”

Lying down then, she smiled and then rolled to Benedict’s side as he opened his arms again and embraced her, presently with more affection than passion.

“Can I tell you a secret?” he said, stroking the loose curls from Louisa’s face. “I am a little nervous too.”

“Really?” returned Louisa with surprise. “But you have… well, you have shared a bed with many women.”

“None of those women were you, Louisa,” Benedict answered seriously. “None of them knew me, or cared for me as more than a friendly acquaintance. None of them saw me or understood me as you do. I am not a selfish lover and I have always wanted to please the women who came to my bed, but never half as much as I want to please you.”

“Oh,” Louisa said quietly, thinking about this. “Well, then, in some way, it will be a first time for both of us.”