Chapter 26 #2
“It wasn’t a hovel!”
Damn Richard’s arrogance.
A commotion on the stairs spared her from answering any further. Georgiana heard Jamie’s heavy steps bypass Andrew’s lumbering climb. Jamie burst into the study first.
“Richard! Come to join the wedding party, have you? Too late. Andrew has already assigned the honor of standing up with him to me.” He defied the Marquess to stand in their way.
Silence followed that amazing speech. Richard looked over at Georgiana. Whatever questions he had must have been answered, because he gave her one of his rare smiles.
“Don’t be foolish, Heyworth. I’m here to give the bride away.” He raised her hand and kissed her fingers, whispering as he did so, “Thank God. I feared for you alone.”
Tears sprang to her eyes. His concern touched her heart in spite of his managing ways.
Andrew removed her hand from her brother’s, a protective glare dark in his eyes. The ferocious expression delighted Georgiana.
“Consider the bride presented, Richard. You are welcome to share in our joy, but I warn you—”
Richard raised a hand to pause, but Andrew overrode it and went on, “—that if you hurt her in any way, if she suffers the slightest humiliation or difficulty, there will be hell to pay.”
“My dear Andrew, that should be my speech to you,” the marquess replied with perfect hauteur.
“Richard, what about His Grace?” Georgiana asked, suddenly anxious.
“As I said before, he prefers to ignore what he doesn’t wish to exist.” Glenaire watched her with steady eyes. She would cease to exist to them; she already had. They both knew it.
She reached up and brushed the coarse black hair from Andrew’s eyes. “So be it,” she said out loud.
Andrew looked puzzled and glanced at Richard suspiciously, but her swift kiss more than satisfied him.
Richard watched them for a moment; his slight smile reached his eyes slowly. He looked around the room as if satisfied with what he saw. “One presumes there is a license. Perhaps the Reverend would like to see it, Heyworth. There’s a good man.”
“Alas, my lord, it is a common license. What is the date Mr. Mallet?” the reverend asked.
“Six days exactly. We can be married at St. Mary’s tomorrow morning.”
* * *
The next morning, the newly wed couple processed back to Andrew’s little house, the bride carrying flowers, their friends marching behind them and crowding up the stairs into the study. If they couldn’t marry there, at least Georgiana got her wish to celebrate there.
Georgiana had given both her hands to Andrew and repeated the words that joined their lives as light streamed through stained glass. When Andrew leaned to kiss her, their loved ones clapped in delight.
When they reached the study, Richard peered down at his sister. “Georgiana,” he said, “you might want a moment to freshen. Or perhaps not. You are disgustingly radiant already.”
“Corporal Harley? Ah, good man! I see the champagne wine is chilled. Cakes and ices as well. Excellent.”
Georgiana laughed as everyone did her brother’s bidding. They always did. This time no one seemed to mind, and she minded least of all. She had his support and that was all that mattered.
* * *
We should celebrate more often. This house was in need of joy, Andrew thought as he stepped around Mr. Peabody and John Bailey deep in conversation on the bottom of the stairs.
He looked at the guests standing in his kitchen door and spilled around his sitting room. They chatted in groups of two and three and happily sipped champagne. He and Georgiana would fill the house with guests often in the future. Not tonight, though. Tonight is for us.
That night he wanted nothing except to be left alone with his wife. Glenaire had already begun to hint Jamie away, promising dinner at Cambridge’s best inn. Harley announced he would spend a few days in Georgiana’s little cottage, ostensibly packing it up, but in reality giving them privacy.
All I want is my bride, who seems to have gone missing.
“Geoff, have you seen Georgiana?” Andrew asked. “She and your mother were deep in some female conversation ten minutes ago.”
“Went out back for air,” Dunning replied, putting on his cloak. “Mrs. Mallet looked a bit peaked.”
Peaked? Andrew looked in the direction of the kitchen. His tiny garden lay beyond it.
“I will bid you good day, Mallet, and give you my congratulations one last time. Mother and I will take our leave in a few moments,” Dunning said.
Andrew merely nodded. He headed through the kitchen before Dunning could finish. He heard others making their departures behind him.
“Georgiana, is there a problem?” he asked coming out the door. “Your brother is preparing to leave and—”
He stopped short at the sight of his bride, pale as linen, bent over in the shadowy garden. Edwina Potter sat next to her on a stone bench against the brick wall that surrounded his small patch of green. The old woman had an arm around her shoulders.
Andrew rushed forward.
“What is it, Love?”
“I fear champagne didn’t agree with her,” Mrs. Potter told him. “She’s had a bit of nausea.”
He knelt in front of Georgiana.
“I’m sorry,” his new wife mumbled. “It should pass.”
“Indeed it will, young man. Nothing to be concerned about,” Mrs. Potter told him with a smile as she rose to her feet. As if to confirm that, Georgiana sat up straight.
Mrs. Potter beamed at both of them. “I’ll leave you two together. You’ll want some time alone.” She scurried away without another word.
Georgiana leaned her forehead against his. “Andrew, I’m so sorry, but it has passed already. I’ll be fine. I won’t let it spoil our wedding night.”
He kissed her softly. “Nothing could, no matter how you feel or what we do. We have hundreds of nights ahead of us. Are you certain you aren’t ill? Do you want me to fetch Peabody?” He stood up. “I’ll have to run to catch him.”
She grabbed a hand and pulled him back.
“I’m not ill, Andrew. I fear I may have misled you, however. This house is very small.”
He looked at her, confused. “I told you we didn’t need to stay here,” he said, struggling to understand her meaning.
“Mr. Peabody may have been wrong.”
His puzzlement deepened.
An impish smile crossed her lips. She pulled him down to the bench to whisper in his ear. “I’m not quite sure, but I think we will have another collaboration to manage in several more months.”
Still not making sense. Georgiana just smiled back at him until the radiant look on her face moved something inside him and the light dawned. He felt an explosion of joy great enough to fill their little house.
“Pregnant, Georgie?” he whispered when he could breathe. He covered her belly with his hand. A child grew there, his child. The idea made him tremble.
She nodded, a happy laugh bursting forth. “I’ve never been so glad to be wrong about something.”
He kissed her then, as he wanted to do all evening. “I love you,” he said. She didn’t answer. She took his mouth with hers and kissed him until they both gasped for air.
Andrew stood and helped her rise. He slipped an arm around her waist, and they walked to the door.
“I think, dear wife, that, no matter what happens, my life with you will be a constant surprise.”
Georgiana let out a yelp when he swept her up into his arms. He carried her across the threshold, laughter trailing in their wake.