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‘And now you are a married man, and when your mother sees how much you love me she is bound to understand. I know that my mother will.’
The truth was that she didn’t care what her mother thought, though she was secretly delighted at the prospect of confronting her mother with the reality of her marriage and her new title–a far grander marriage and a far grander title than her mother’s.
‘Mmm.’ Emerald kissed him swiftly. ‘D
o cheer up, darling. I don’t want to spend all day shut up in a train carriage with a miserable husband. When we get to Lenchester House—’
‘Lenchester House? But I have a suite of rooms at the Savoy.’
A suite of rooms to which his mother had open and easy access–all very well whilst Alessandro had still been single, but now he had a wife to consider. As far as Emerald was concerned, the sooner Alessandro’s mother recognised the way things were now going to be, the better.
‘A suite of rooms?’ Emerald pouted. ‘But, darling, Lenchester House is my home. It is where I have all my fondest memories of my dear father, and besides,’ she added more practically, ‘all my things are there.’
‘But Lenchester House belongs to Dougie, surely?’
Emerald controlled her impatience and gave Alessandro a sweetly sad smile. ‘It does now, but it has so many happy and special memories for me, Alessandro. Please be kind and understand that I want my happiest memories of all, those of being your bride, your wife, to be made there. It is silly of me to be so sentimental, I know…’
Alessandro had been brought up to understand the importance of sentiment to the female psyche, as Emerald had already discovered, and now his response was every bit as satisfactory as she had planned, an expression of obedience giving his face rather a puppy-dog melancholy.
‘No, it is not silly at all,’ he assured her tenderly. ‘My mother herself is often vexed by her own vulnerability to her sentiments.’
‘I just know that she and I will understand one another perfectly,’ Emerald told him. ‘Of course we shall have to look for a house of our own in London,’ she continued, having satisfied herself that she had won the first skirmish. Not that Alessandro was much of an opponent.
‘A house in London? But I shall have to return to my country.’
‘Well, of course, but we won’t be living there all the time.’ It was so much easier to make things work out the way one wished if one behaved as though they were already an indisputable fact, Emerald had always found. ‘So it makes sense for us to find a house in London first, and then you can show me your little country.’
There was a knock on the door and then the porter came in, bringing an end to any further conversation, not that Emerald minded.
There was one thing she was completely determined on and that was that she was not going to allow Alessandro’s mother to take charge of events and, ultimately, them. They may not as yet have met, but Emerald already knew that she and her mother-in-law were going to be on opposing sides in the fight for Alessandro’s loyalty.
Chapter Nineteen
‘You and Alessandro are married?’
Emerald watched coolly as her godmother struggled with her shock.
‘It was very naughty of us, I know, to elope to Gretna, but you mustn’t blame Alessandro, Aunt Beth.’ Emerald gave her new husband a look of adoration as she reached for his hand. ‘He was just so afraid that, with his mother’s cousin being virtually on her deathbed, he would have to go through a whole year of formal mourning before we could be publicly engaged, and then with my mother being away on business…’
Emerald could see her godmother struggling to assess which was the worse scenario: a runaway marriage or no marriage at all.
‘Alessandro desperately wanted to make me his princess,’ Emerald smiled softly. ‘It will be so much fun now that I’m married, holding wonderful parties here in London and on the Côte d’Azur for Lydia and Gwendolyn. I dare say that we shall even have a special ball for them in Lauranto to introduce them to scores of eligible young men.’
Her shrewd move had the desired effect. Emerald could almost see her godmother assessing the benefits to her daughter and niece of having a young married princess as a friend.
‘Well, it is very unorthodox and quite shocking.’
‘But so very romantic, Aunt Beth, although I did feel desperately sad that you and Mummy couldn’t be there. There’ll have to be an announcement of the marriage sent to The Times, of course.’ Emerald’s tone became more practical. ‘And there will have to be a proper reception here at Lenchester House. I shall have to rely on you to organise that though, dear Godmother. Mummy is wonderfully clever with all her business things but she doesn’t have your special touch. Do you think we should make it a wedding breakfast or—’
‘No. It will have to be a reception. It’s fortunate that Alessandro is foreign; foreigners are always so much more impetuous about these things,’ her godmother responded automatically to Emerald’s careful shepherding. ‘Where will you be staying?’
‘Why here, of course. I’ve told darling Alessandro that I couldn’t imagine making happy memories for when we’re old anywhere other than here. I can still see Daddy in these rooms, Aunt Beth; I can still hear his voice. Do you know, I think in a way he engineered it so that Alessandro and I would be married the way we were because he knew he wouldn’t be able to give me away and he knew that I couldn’t bear anyone else in the family to do it.’
‘Oh, my dear girl, you are so right. To think of your father watching over you from heaven in such a way. He was a wonderful man. I knew him before your mother, you know. My mother was his godmother.’
‘I knew you’d understand. Of course, we can’t possibly share my room so I think it would be best if Alessandro and I moved into the suite of rooms that used to be Mummy and Daddy’s.’
Beth’s sentimental tears were momentarily suspended, as she said uncertainly, ‘The master suite, Emerald? Do you think you should? I mean, now that Dougie…well, he is the duke…’ Her voice faltered beneath the reproach in the gaze Emerald fixed on her.
