My thanks, Aunt. Anne extracted herself from her aunts arms. Wondrous. She supposed it was.
Aunt Louise and Lady Byton hailed from opposite sides of the family and, after curtsying, eyed each other warily like two strutting hens.
Lud, Clarissa, Louise chirped to Lady Byton. Is it really you? You are so altered from last we saw each other. Ah, well, I suppose all that country air has a rather ripening effect.
You are much the same as when last we met, answered Lady Byton. She peered closer at Aunt Louise. The paint is unchanged.
Anne supposed she had better avert a full-scale war whilst there was still time, or else the iced cakes would be used as mortars and the wedding breakfast table would serve as battlements. I was just telling Lady Byton that my husbands mother resides in the country, and hasnt the constitution for travel.
She sounds very delicate, said Aunt Louise, for a woman from the lower orders.
Anne supposed that now she was Leopolds wife, she would have to hear such comments frequently. I have never met her, so I have no firsthand knowledge of her health. Only what Leopold relates to me.
Lady Bytons brows rose. It is passing strange that you have not met your husbands mother. But, she added, the whole courtship seemed to take place with extreme haste. No banns read. Everything done by special license, regardless of the expense. Her kinswoman glanced at Annes silver-embroidered stomacher. Perhaps you have acted quickly in anticipation of an event?
The very idea nearly made Anne laugh. Her? Indulge in a dalliance? You forget, cousin, how very little any man might have to gain by compromising me.
A hard truth, child, agreed Aunt Louise. A barons daughter you might be, but the estate loses capital like a cup made of lace.
Lady Byton clearly felt the need to defend her side of the family. But Anne has three brothers. Even the most profitable of titles would be hard-pressed in the keeping of all of them.
Yes, however, smiled Aunt Louise with all the warmth of an adder, I am obliged to note that the two younger boys must truly earn their bread through the military and the Church.
Leaving Anne with a paltry dowry and even smaller annual income. Soon after her coming-out, she began to realize the futility of a Season as, one by one, young men learned how little she could bring them, and they fell away, petals from a dying blossom.
If you are not enceinte, said Lady Byton, pointedly turning from Aunt Louise, then why the rapidity of the marriage?
Because Leopold wished it. Honestly, Anne did not know how or why the courtship had progressed as fast as it had. It seemed a blur to her now. Within a few meetings, she had found herself engaged and, only weeks after that, married. It was as though she had been playing blindmans buff: shed been blindfolded and spun around, then she had grabbed the first person she could. Now she stood with sight and balance restored, the wife of a man she hardly knew.
As if sensing her watching him, Leopold turned, his gaze holding hers. Anne could not look away as he murmured something to the guests and then walked toward her, weaving through the guests. He moved beautifully, with a sleek animal fluidity that suggested barely restrained power. His gaze never left her, as if she were the prize he was determined to claim. The thought both thrilled and terrified.
She saw now how he had risen from his humble beginnings to who he was now: one of the wealthiest nontitled men in England. He permitted nothing to stand in his path.
Annes pulse quickened as Leopold came to stand before her. Good Lord, how had she managed to wed this gorgeous stranger? He had none of the well-bred gentlemans softness, no insipid chin from generations of selective breeding. A bold jaw, high cheekbones,
firm mouth that boasted a full lower lip. His morning shave had already lost its battle, and Anne could mark the faint trace where his beard gilded his cheeks and chin. As if the veneer of civility could not last long, and the marauder beneath came to the surface.
At eight and twenty, he was only five years older than she, yet he had the air of a man who had seen and knew the world. She had known ... only this. London. The circles of the polite. What she understood of life outside her conscripted patterns came from books, yet she knew that the world as depicted on the printed page did not reflect true experience.
Her new husband was experienced. Even a sheltered young woman like her could see it.
Ladies, he murmured, bowing.
Though Aunt Louise was surely on the other side of forty, and Lady Byton a good ten years older, both trilled and blushed as if barely out of the nursery. Anne could not fault their response. She was married to him, yet his nearness befuddled her senses to an alarming degree, and when he next spoke, her heartbeat raced.
Might I speak with my lady wife in private?
Most certainly, Mr. Bailey, warbled Aunt Louise.
Emphatically, Mr. Bailey, added Lady Byton. The two women nearly came to blows in their haste to curtsy prettily in their departure.