A Duke By Any Other Name

Chapter Four

B ianca’s wedding breakfast was a small, private affair. As Kitty’s intended, Edmund should have been invited. Kitty had not wanted to take attention from Bianca and asked to wait to announce the betrothal until after the wedding, which meant Edmund was not supposed to attend the wedding breakfast.

Edmund rather thought his betrothed was pleasantly surprised when they’d been told Bianca was to marry the man who had been charged with protecting her while she hid from fortune hunters in the countryside. With the attention on Bianca’s wedding, Kitty could put off all the celebration of her own impending nuptials. She’d told Edmund she wanted the marriage, just not the wedding. He could hardly blame her. His parents’ reaction when he’d told them he was marrying Katherine Featherswallow was likely to be mild compared to Society’s at large.

His mother had looked up from her embroidery. “Kitty?” she’d asked. “Not Bianca? Isn’t Bianca the sweet one?”

His father had lowered his paper. “Why would you choose the shrew, Edmund?”

Edmund had defended his betrothed, and received support from his sisters, who had known Kitty since childhood and wrote with congratulations. Mary said, Kitty is much kinder than she seems. Rose wrote, Kitty is lovely…underneath it all.

Edmund supposed that was the best he might hope for. He had no doubt that once his parents knew Kitty better and she felt comfortable enough to drop her prickly defenses, they would love her as much as he.

Edmund loved her a great deal, which was why he’d made his way to Godwin Priory hours after he assumed the wedding was completed. He’d thought the wedding breakfast would be concluded, but a few guests were still celebrating. No matter. He’d asked Mrs. Port, the housekeeper, to deliver a message to Kitty to meet him in the garden. She’d come out a few minutes later, looking lovely in a gown of palest blue with a wreath of pink roses in her hair.

“Why do you look like that?” She slowed her approach and eyed him warily.

“Why am I smiling?” he asked, taking her hands in his. “Because I am the luckiest man alive.”

She rolled her eyes but smiled back at him when he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. Though it had been only a couple of days since he’d held her, his body reacted as though he were starving and the feel of her was the first sustenance he’d had in days. What he’d intended as a light kiss turned into pulling her hard against him and devouring her lips. He’d thought having her once again in his arms might cool his ardor, but the more he touched her, the more he wanted.

Kitty seemed to agree. She moaned and wrapped her arms about him, pressing herself closer. The press of her body against his sent a strange and exhilarating sensation through him. He felt his need for her keenly, but even more than that, he felt the sense of rightness when he held her.

She pulled back. “I don’t ever want to stop kissing you,” she said. Edmund’s heart swelled at her words. A few days ago, she might have been too afraid to express her feelings. Now she trusted him enough to be more vulnerable.

“I feel exactly the same.” He brushed a thumb over her swollen lips. “Soon we’ll be married, and I’ll show you a few things even better than kissing.”

“Why not show me now? There’s a bench behind those bushes—”

Edmund smiled and took her hand, pulling her toward the hidden bench. But just then Bianca’s dog Astra scampered around a corner of the house and gave Edmund a happy greeting. She bounded up to him, and he was forced to pet her lest she knock him over with her enthusiasm. A moment later, the viscount’s sister and her daughter strode around the house. They must have taken the dog out, and now they were staring at Edmund and Kitty with matching curious expressions.

“Aunt Florence. Cousin Amelia,” Kitty said, giving them cool nods and shallow curtseys. “May I present our neighbor Edmund Peters.”

Edmund bowed.

“We have met before,” Aunt Florence said before Kitty could even finish the introductions. “I did not realize you were a scoundrel, sir.”

Edmund raised his brows. “A scoundrel?”

She pointed a finger at him. “Do not think I do not see what is occurring here. You were about to lure my niece into a secluded part of the garden and have your wicked way with her.”

Edmund couldn’t quite stop a smile. “I assure you, madam, I would never disrespect Miss Featherswallow. Indeed, she is my betrothed.”

“Pardon?” Kitty’s cousin said. The child couldn’t have been older than thirteen or fourteen. “What did you say?”

“We are betrothed,” Kitty said. “We were waiting to announce it until after Bianca’s wedding.”

“But why would you marry… her ?” Amelia said, pointing to Kitty.

“Amelia!” Aunt Florence said.

Edmund felt Kitty tense beside him, all the joy seeping out of her.

“Mama, you always say she is a termagant she-devil who will never marry.”

Kitty’s aunt had the grace to look sheepish. “I… Amelia, I would never—”

But Edmund would not allow this to go on. He would never again allow anyone to disparage Kitty or make her feel less than. He loved her exactly as she was.

“There are some people,” he began, “who view a strong woman as a threat. Not I. I love Kitty’s temper, her spirit, her—”

“Amiability,” Kitty said.

Edmund raised his brows. “Your amiability, my love?”

She scowled at him. “I am quite amenable, am I not?”

Edmund opened his mouth and then thought better of it. “You are the most amiable woman I know.”

Her aunt made a sound of disbelief, and Edmund quite suddenly wished she’d been a man so he might say the words he liked. Instead, he had another idea. If Kitty wanted to prove there was more to her than people saw—that she could be genial and accommodating—then he would help her.

“My love, how lovely the moon shines tonight.”

Kitty looked at him, then at the sky, where the sun was shining. Her aunt and cousin also looked up.

“You are mistaken, my dear,” Kitty said. “It is the sun in the sky.”

Edmund looked up again, keenly aware of the gazes of Kitty’s aunt and cousin. “Look again, my sweet. It is the moon that shines o’er us this day.”

She pretended to look again, then gave him a beatific smile. “I see now it is the moon. And what a lovely moon it is.” She turned her smile on her relatives. “Do you not think the moon lovely, Aunt Florence?” Her aunt sniffed and excused herself, taking the dog with her.

As they departed, Amelia said, “Is she mad, Mama? That is not the moon!”

“They will go back and tell everyone how changed you are,” Edmund said, pulling her into his arms again.

“Either that or that I have gone completely daft. You do realize that is the sun in the sky,” she said, eyes narrowed.

“I will call it whatever you desire. If you say it is the sun, then it is the glorious sun. But if you say it is the moon, then blessed be the moon. I don’t care, as long as you love me.”

She threw her arms about him. “I do love you, Edmund.”

“Then kiss me, Kitty.”

She shook her head. “Kiss me , Edmund.”

“You’ll never need to ask again.” And he kissed her, swept her into his arms, and carried her to that hidden bench where he kissed her again, quite thoroughly, under the pale rays of the sun—or the moon…whichever Kitty said it was.

The End