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“Someday he will find a woman to love,” I said. “When he is ready. Love cannot be rushed.”
“No, it cannot,” Benedict said, coming to stand beside me. “Even if one tries exceedingly hard to rush it.” His smile was unrepentant, and his hand snaked around my waist, pulling me close to his side.
“I should go in search of Henry,” Lady Edith said, worrying her lip.
Benedict leaned down and whispered in my ear. “We should leave while Mother is occupied.”
“We cannot leave our own wedding breakfast.”
“Whyever not? We’ve eaten, accepted well wishes, and fed our neighbors. What more do they need from us?”
“Very well,” I whispered. “But do not forget the valises.”
Benedict looked down at me, confused. “I’ve already had your trunks delivered to Bumpton.”
“Yes, but we’ll needvalises.”
“Whatever for?”
“For the bed,” I said, keeping an innocent expression on my face. “I will line them up in the center. It is the only way I’ll entice you into it, correct? Of course, I know I promised I would never again mention when you failed to be a gentleman and forced me to sleep on the cold, hard, ground—”
Benedict swept me off my feet, carrying me from the courtyard and into the house without any care for who was watching.
“Put me down, and I promise I will not speak of your utter lack of chivalry again.”
“You vowed never to bring it up in the first place,” he muttered. “But now that you have, I am of a mind to hide tomatoes beneathyourbed and allow them to stink up your room.”
I flattened my lips, drawing my arms around my husband’s neck and holding on. It seemed he had no intention of putting me down as we made our way through the house toward the front door.
“I only did that once. I wasveryangry at you for flirting with that girl at the fete.”
He stopped walking and looked at me. He was so close I could see the varying shades of blue in his eyes. “That was why you hid the tomatoes beneath my bed? Because I flirted with that girl?”
“I had thought you cared for me, Ben, and I was extremely jealous.”
“Not sure I deserved the tomatoes, though,” he muttered.
“No, probably not.” I wrinkled my nose. “I expected an odor, but I did not realize they would smell quite that awful.”
Benedict carried me through the front door and down the curved, stone stairs to the carriage awaiting us.
“You had this escape planned?” I asked.
He shot me an unrepentant smile. “They have been waiting for a quarter hour now. The poor horses need to walk.”
“We ought to hurry them along to Bumpton, then.”
Benedict’s blue eyes glittered. “My thoughts exactly.”
* * *
The sun reached the edge of the earth and threw gold light over the clouds streaking the vast sky. From the front portico we could see a vast majority of our land, rolling in hills and fields in all directions, sliced down the middle by a long lane. Benedict had already completed a good portion of the work required on the roof prior to the wedding, and now it was up to both of us to style the house in a way that suited our tastes.
Benedict’s knuckles grazed my cheeks. “You look much healthier now than when I first saw you in the Fullers’ garden.”
“It is all the marzipan and morning chocolate filling my cheeks again.”
“Whatever the cause, I’m glad of it. The thin, gaunt Thea I found that day frightened me a little.”
