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She was rewarded with booming laughter.

“I will stop teasing you, well for at least a few hours. Let us return to my explaining our income. First of all I own significantly more land than is commonly believed. Rather than just under 3,000 acres it is more than double that. It is just the estates are not in Somerset, rather they are scattered across many of the southern counties. None of them are very substantial but it all adds up. The income from my agricultural holdings is therefore between £6,000 and £7,000 per year. But in addition to the usual estates Somerset also has several coalmines dotted around the north east corner of the county. I own shares in close to 15 of these mines, as well as the canal that connects to the Avon river. Not a majority but more than just a few percent. Overall my income is north of £15,000 and is edging closer to £20,000 a year.”

Elizabeth did the calculation he had mentioned a few minutes earlier. 25 times £20,000 was half a million pounds. She leant back in her chair and had to take several deep breaths.

“I see you have done the arithmetic.”

She nodded silently.

“It is why the Trust is so ironclad. And after everything you have gone through, I presume you are going to follow my example and keep the real amounts well hidden?”

A very emphatic nod. They newly wed Elizabeth Napier was married to a very rich man. And although she did not know how far into the future the date was going to be, at some point, sooner rather than later, she was going to be a very rich widow.

Suddenly everything seemed much more serious, much more real. These were sums of money that she had never dreamed of.

But rather than focus on them, her new husband turned her attention to her upcoming wedding night.

Chapter 11

For both Elizabeth and Peter, their wedding night was unique. Elizabeth was sure she had been blushing since 10.00 that morning and it was merely the intensity of her blush that changed. Yet in a very unique way, it was also sweet and loving. Her husband was making sure that there would be no idle gossip, no malicious comments from the servants. He had spoken to Elizabeth on several occasions, trying to make the whole experience less awkward for her.

Mind you, it was pretty clear he had failed in that regard.

“Your maid will prepare you for the marriage bed. She will help you wash, brush your hair and assist you in getting into your new nightgown.”

They had spoken of this many times.

“I will give you 45 minutes before I will join you in your bedroom.”

The issue was consummation. Peter had been mortifying direct when explaining that he was unable to consummate the marriage. The idea of an annulment of a marriage due to non-consummation was a practice of the Catholic Church, rather than the Church of England. But Napier was taking no chances. He wanted to protect Elizabeth as thoroughly as possible, even if it was horrifically embarrassing for her.

He knocked on her bedroom door and heard a very faint ‘come in’. When he opened the door he had to stifle his laugh. Elizabeth was all the way over on the far side of the bed with the sheet tucked right under her chin. He closed the door and sat beside her on the bed. He decided to try and relax her, even if only a little bit.

“Let me tell you a story. It starts sad but then veers off into who knows what. My wife was dead, and when my daughter died I was left to deal with her belongings. Her husband was still alive at this point but was off somewhere with the Army. It was left to me to clear her bedroom, and pack up her personal belongings. I could have left it to the servants but I wanted to do this last task for my daughter.

“That is the sad part over. Where things start to get weird is that I discovered this, hidden at the bottom of the nightstand.”

He placed an object wrapped in cloth on the bed beside them. Elizabeth’s arm snuck out from under the cover and carefully unwrapped the object. And promptly dropped it on the covers with an ‘eek’ of shock. It was an ivory phallus.

“That was pretty much my own reaction. The first thing to say is that it has been washed thoroughly many times, including being dropped into boiling water. As to why I kept such a private and intimate item of my daughter’s? I cannot answer that. It has sat at the back of my safe for 30 years. But when I was considering our issue I remembered this.”

He took a small phial of olive oil from his dressing gown pocket.

“I am not going to leave the room; the staff will be all ears for any noises. But I will face out of the window. You know what to do.”

And so Elizabeth was faced with the task in front of her. Peter had been explicit in the need for maidenly blood to be smeared on both her nightdress and the sheet beneath her. Absolute evidence that the marriage had been consummated. Looking at the back of her husband she realised that the quicker this was dealt with, the sooner it would be never talked of again. Seven painful minutes later, with more error than success at first in her trials, it was done. The sting had faded but the evidence of the piercing of her maidenhood would be there in the morning for the gossiping servants.

“Come to bed Peter.”

“I am sorry you had to go through that, but it really is important. No one will be able to allege that our marriage is unconsummated.”

“Is it really a risk?”

“Almost certainly not, but better a few minutes of embarrassment that allows you a lifetime of peace and security.”

“It is why I am sleeping here this evening. Your maid will find me in your bed in the morning and she will have told the entire staff within 10 minutes.”

It was the first night Elizabeth had ever slept with a man. She and Jane had shared a bed before, in the days when they were still close, but this was the first time with a man. Hardly surprising, most maidens only sleep with a man for the first time on their wedding night.