The breakfast that followed the ceremony, while suitably elaborate, was perhaps more eccentric than thetonwas used to seeing.
The duke had employed the services of a certain Sergeant Major Philip Astley to provide the entertainments. As the guests dined, they were entertained by jugglers and acrobats. One of the jugglers even employed lit torches.
It might have been anticipated that a duke’s dining room was not particularly set up for such performances and there were moments that did give the diners pause.
Lady Marchfield was unceremoniously knocked off her chair by a stray acrobat and there was much debate for months over whether the duke had paid the fellow to be so clumsy.
The juggler of the lit torches was very skilled indeed, but for the moment when he set a pair of curtains ablaze. The duke promptly threw a jug of water at the fire, which also managed to douse Lady Marchfield.
Then there was the fellow whose skill was walking on his hands. He was so accustomed to it that he found moments to grab at various lady’s ankles. Very naturally, Lady Marchfield’s ankles were among the grabbed.
The breakfast was capped off by a horse-riding display round the park of Grosvenor Square that served as a sendoff to the young couple setting out on their wedding trip. If certain individuals who were out for a stroll at that moment found themselves inexplicably knocked to the pavement, well, did they not know that the duke’s eldest daughter had been married that morning?
Before that blessed day had arrived, Percy and Felicity had debated at length on where they would go for the wedding trip. By happenstance, Percy’s friend Mr. Wiles had come up with a cracking idea. His family were connected to the O’Neils,that family having their roots in Ireland but long-established in Scotland. They had a lovely old castle in the Outer Hebrides.
Naturally, this struck the couple as quite the interesting adventure. As the negotiations between the duke and the viscount had dragged on, Mr. Wiles wrote to his relations. Word was received back that the family was not currently in residence there. The newly married couple were welcome to its use if they thought they could get by with a rather bare-bones staff to serve them.
They were entirely enthusiastic over the idea and neither of them gave a toss for how bare-bones the staff was. Felicity even speculated that she might be encouraged to learn how to bake a cake after all.
Percy was not so foolish as to spend the first night of his wedding trip at some inn arrived at through exhaustion and lack of choice. He promptly relocated his bride to a lovely place just ten miles out of London. It was small but well run and set in the prettiest little valley with green all round.
It was fortuitous that he did think to stop so early that first day, as it was not likely the couple would have made it another ten miles before doing something shocking in the carriage.
Felicity had never given too much thought to marital relations before she had fallen for Percy. Very naturally, once shehadfallen, it had occupied her mind day and night. She’d even had some whispered conversations with Grace and a heart to heart with Mrs. Right. Grace had nothing much to offer, other than pressing Felicity to come back and tell her all she’d found out. Mrs. Right stuck to her original and only advice—things would naturally take their course.
As Mrs. Right was a long-time widow and the most experienced person she could speak to regarding such personal matters, Felicity took that advice.
It turned out that counsel was very apt. If one were to think of the whole thing at once, it was almost off-putting. But minute by minute, it was rather lovely.
This was also the moment when Felicity first saw Percy’s scars. She had of course been there when the attack occurred, she had seen the blood, it had soaked her dress. For all that, she had not imagined the severity of the scars left behind. Those scars would be there for the rest of their lives to remind her of what had happened. Each time she looked at them, she fell in love with Percy all over again. In truth, when Percy occasionally strayed into her bad books, he made a point of walking round without his shirt on, turning his back to her at every opportunity.
In these early days, Felicity discovered that marital relations became even more lovely as one became accustomed to it. By the time the couple came near their destination a fortnight later, Percy Stratton was rather exhausted.
They reached the coast and arranged transport to Barra by way of a fishing vessel. It was not glamourous by any means, and perhaps made less glamorous by Felicity’s heaving over the side for most of it, but they managed to dock without a worse disaster than seasickness.
That was when they discovered that Castle Kisimul was not actually located on the island of Barra. One must cross another body of water, albeit so narrow one could likely swim it if currents did not sweep one away.
This discovery led to a series of negotiations with the local fleet of fishermen. These negotiations were not friendly, as the local people did not seem very charmed to have newlyweds from London in their midst. One finally whispered to Percy that he would take them over under cover of darkness, albeit for an exorbitant price.
As Percy had begun to believe that their choices were narrowing down to a frantic swim while being dragged down tothe bottom of the sea by their sinking luggage, he agreed. For the next hours until the sun set, they sat on the pier with their luggage, attempting to ignore the glares from passersby. It had been a long day, they were tired, hungry, and thirsty, Felicity was weakened from being sick, and the day was growing longer still.
These difficulties inevitably led to Percy’s first glimpse of his beloved wife’s renowned temper. First, she listed all the terrible things to be done to Mr. Wiles when they returned to Town. Some of them found Percy rather shaken, as he really did not see the need to burn Wiles’ house to the ground, especially since it was rented.
As the hours wore on, Felicity turned her ire toward the local people who glared at them as they passed by. If a local Hebridean had come under the notion that she was to put up with such nonsense when she was thirsty and tired and had been sick over the side of a boat, they were quickly informed of their mistake.
One after another of the glares was met with his delicate wife’s shouting that if they wished to say something, they ought to have the courage to step up to her and say it and they should be very glad she did not have her fowling piece on hand.
The shoreline slowly emptied, though Percy could see the white curtains of nearby houses being pulled back on occasion. He presumed they’d all been warned off regarding the mad Englishwoman on the pier who may or may not have brought along a gun.
Finally, the sun sank below the horizon. The fisherman who had agreed to take them over crept on his boat and cautioned them to be quiet.
This was, apparently, the last straw. Felicity picked up the nearest piece of luggage and threw it at him. They were ferried over to the castle in the bay in all haste.
Percy had rather serious doubts that the fellow would ever come back for them.
After the housekeeper, an old and wizened woman, took one look at Felicity, she said, “Ya poor thing, this ain’t no place for the likes of you. I’ll fetch you a whisky, that’ll help you forget whatever day you’ve gone and had for yourself.”
The old woman hurried off. Felicity burst into tears. “Now you’ve seen it,” she said. “My terrible temper. You’ve married an awful shrew.”
