Page 14 of An Innocent Bride for the Duke

“No reason? This inn is full of drunken men of every class and character tonight and the public rooms are no place for you…”

“Mr. Elton and his friends were most helpful,” she objected. “It would have taken far longer to resolve things without their assistance. I found them entirely civil and polite.”

“Yes, you were lucky,” Benedict snapped at her. “That little gang were gentlemen, regardless of drink taken, and barely out of the nursery themselves. But they might have been another kind of man entirely. What would you have done then?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Lady Louisa threw back crossly, looking every bit as annoyed with him now as that first morning they met when his horse had accidentally thrown dust into everyone’ faces.

“That’s the problem,” he replied, scowling, and then they both fell silent as they reentered the private dining room.

“I know His Grace was displeased with me tonight, Aunt Beatrice,” Lady Louisa said to her aunt as they prepared themselves for bed later that night. “I cannot help feeling there must be some misunderstanding I should address. I was only getting milk for Ezra but the duke seemed to think the inn was full of villains. The staff and guests seemed kind and goodhearted to me.”

While he had kept up a steady conversation with Lady Esher over dinner, the Duke of Northwick had barely exchanged two words with Louisa. This treatment further roused the resentment she felt on having been scolded by him like a child.

Lady Esher came over and put an arm around Louisa’s shoulders where she sat at the dressing table in her nightgown.

“You inspire kindness and goodheartedness in the people you meet, Louisa,” replied her aunt. “It is your own nature that calls it out in others, a little like magic, although entirely natural. My Reginald had something similar in him, although he was not half so pretty as you.”

At this, they both laughed and then the older woman took up a hairbrush to brush out Louisa’s curls.

“I am not completely naive, Aunt Beatrice. It is only that I do believe most people are good, and I must treat them so, unless they behave in a way that shows their character otherwise. I have never been wrong yet, have I?”

“Do not blame the duke,” Lady Esher urged her niece. "There are some people in in the world who are immune to goodness, and I dare say he has met as many as I. I also admit to being afraid when you did not come back directly and likely I transmitted my concerns to His Grace. Perhaps there are also other reasons for his reactions that we cannot know.”

Louisa considered this for a minute as Aunt Beatrice brushed her hair, something that she had done daily in Louisa’s childhood. At this moment Louisa did not find it as soothing as usual. She looked at her aunt in the glass.

“In that case, he might have apologized to me. He has never once apologized for anything, Aunt Beatrice. Not once! Not for making you cough with all that dust when you arrived, not for losing Ezra on the first day, which was his fault just as much as mine, and not for treating me like a naughty child tonight.”

Lady Esher looked taken aback by this rather impassioned declaration but then smiled at Louisa in the glass.

“Well, speaking of naughty children, you do look and sound just like Fanny right now,” her aunt observed and Louisa had to laugh too, seeing her own stubborn expression and pouting lower lip.

“Am I being foolish?” Louisa enquired with a sigh, turning to face her aunt. “I know you told me to avoid personal conversations with the Duke of Northwick and I suppose I fell into one when I argued with him.”

“You are being young, my sweet Louisa. Likely you are also tired from the journey. All will look rosier after a good night’s sleep.”

Louisa nodded and rose, kissing her aunt goodnight and going to the smaller of the two beds in the large room.

“I shall start over with the duke tomorrow, Aunt Beatrice, and soon we will be at Rosemere Hall and all will be well with everything.”

“I trust it will always be so,” replied Lady Esher. “Goodnight, Louisa.”

Lying in bed, Louisa thought happily about their home at Rosemere Hall. It had always been a sanctuary, both for Aunt Beatrice and for Louisa. Once they arrived back there with the children, nothing wrong or bad could ever happen. Could it..?

Chapter Six

“Look, Ezra, it’s Rosemere Hall!” exclaimed Lady Louisa, pointing out of the coach window as their vehicle rounded a bend in the road. “Do you see the house on the other side of that lake? Isn’t it beautiful? Rosemere is where I grew up.”

Lady Louisa’s enthusiasm was infectious and little Ezra pointed and shouted “Rosemere!” in turn as he bounced on her knee.

“Beautiful,” echoed Benedict before realizing his eyes were on Lady Louisa’s honey-gold curls and sparking hazel eyes rather than the landscape outside.

Swiftly, he turned his gaze to the view ahead and was genuinely impressed with what he saw. While not a large house compared to Northwick, or Wexford Manor, Rosemere Hall was a very picturesque country estate nestling on the edge of the lake country, well-furnished with scenic rose gardens, sparkling streams, and what seemed to be the ivy-clad ruins of an ancient abbey.

“Mrs. Wilcox is there on the steps, I believe,” said Lady Louisa excitedly, speaking more to herself than to Ezra now. “She’s our housekeeper. Oh, I think they must have seen our carriages already for everyone is coming outside now. There’s Mr. Harper, the butler, with four of the footmen, and Melissa and Alice, two of our maids…”

Of course, she was exactly the kind of young woman who would know the name of every single staff member, Benedict reflected with a mixture of weariness and amusement. Likely Lady Louisa also knew of the servants’ health, their families and when to send pots of calf’s foot jelly or Rosemere estate preserves to their ailing relatives.

Benedict himself knew that his staff were well-paid and well-treated and was always civil in his address, but he did not encourage familiarity beyond this. He could say he even liked Thomson, his faithful valet, who had traveled ahead from London, and should already be at Rosemere. That still did not mean he wished to talk to Thomson about anything beyond gentlemen’s dress and grooming.