He patted her hand. “Eat your dinner. You’re being married tomorrow.”
Bella returned to her chair, her heart singing, and attacked her flummery. Derrick seemed to admire her curves, so she saw no reason to deny herself.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
IMPATIENT TO REACH Eaglestone Park after their long journey, Bella yawned and gazed out the window at the pretty green as their carriage drove through Eaglestone Village. A couple emerged from the haberdashery. The man raised his hand and the woman curtseyed.
“We’re almost home,” Derrick said as they turned down a lane.
They’d spent the last two days traveling through pastoral fields and woodlands, the horizon broken by the chalk ridges. Their two nights spent at inns had resulted in very little sleep.
Derrick took her hand. “Tired?”
“A little,” she confessed with a playful smile.
He raised her hand to his lips with that smoldering look, which made her heart thud and her body heat. She adored every inch of this handsome man who was now her husband. She was coming to understand him, bit by bit, as her love for him deepened. She hoped that one day soon he would come to love her. She’d questioned him about his mother as they lay together in bed, spent from lovemaking. Although she’d died when he was a boy, he remembered her well. He’d adored her, as he had his father. Bella saw that as a good sign for the future.
When the carriage turned off the lane to enter a pair of ornate gates, Bella sat up straight and peered out the window.
Derrick leaned close. He smiled and pointed. “You can see the chimneys of Eaglestone Park from here.”
Above the trees, a massive roof appeared. The carriage jounced along a lane bordered by lime trees and turned in a circle before a sprawling Elizabethan house built of warm stone. A footman stood on the gravel waiting to assist them.
“I had no idea….” Bella was almost lost for words. She knew Derrick was wealthy, but this!
When they left the carriage, Derrick hefted her up in his arms. Reaching the house, he strode past the butler. “Meet my bride, Lady Eaglestone, Wagstaff.”
The stern expression on Wagstaff’s face softened into a smile. “I’m very pleased to meet you, my lady.”
Derrick placed her on her feet. “Welcome to Eaglestone, my love. We’ll take tea in the small salon, Wagstaff.”
He took her hand, and they crossed a vaulted Great Hall, where oil paintings in gilt frames hung on paneled oak walls. “My ancestors. After tea, I wish to show you my collection of seventeenth century Italian paintings. Tomorrow, I’ll show you the gardens. There’s a deer park. And a lake.” A wicked expression entered his eyes. “We can have a picnic.”
She gazed up at him, suddenly shy. “And this afternoon, my lord?”
“From this afternoon until breakfast, you shall become familiar with my bedroom.”
Two months later, when Bella began to suspect she was pregnant, Derrick became tender and protective.
At breakfast, she read a letter from Mrs. Armitage. “Oh!”
Derrick lowered his newspaper. “What is it, my love?”
“Lord Brookdale has responded to my request and employed Henry to work in his estate gardens.”
“That is good news. I am pleased for the young scamp.” He sighed. “I suspect you intend to employ several of your orphans in our houses.”
They shared a smile, and spying the heated spark in his eyes she struggled to regain her focus. “I rather think Jennie, who is soon to turn twelve, would make an excellent ladies’ maid.” She took up her tea cup. “Mrs. Armitage will miss Henry. Might we return to London soon? I must see my orphans. Although these letters I receive from Mrs. Armitage are heartening, there’s more to be done there.”
“I do need to return soon. You must consult a London doctor.” He raised a brow, as if he didn’t trust her. “Promise me you won’t wear yourself out at Hartnoll House.”
She laughed. “I’m in perfect health.”
“And I intend you to stay that way.”
He had become very bossy. “I shall take good care of your heir, sir.”
He scowled. “I mean it, Bella. I shall ban you from your orphanage if you defy me.”
“My lord! I wasn’t aware I had married a potentate.”
Failing to laugh, he leapt up and set his chair rocking. A teacup rolled off the table and shattered over the floor. Derrick drew her to her feet. “Promise me,” he said, holding her close.
“I promise.” She could feel his uneven breathing against her cheek. As the knowledge that she was truly loved filled her with joy, she looked down to survey the damage. “My heaven, that teacup was Sèvres. Mrs. Blake will rush in here in a moment. She values the china far more than you do.”
“Never mind the housekeeper, dammit.” He sighed. “Don’t you know how much I love you, Bella?”
Bella’s heart swelled with love for him. “I do.”
Derrick silently swept her into his arms. She smiled and laid her head against his chest as he strode with her from the room.
END
MAGGI ANDERSEN