Chapter 11 #3
There was a long pause. Lexham left the place behind his desk and walked to the fire. He stood there, looking into the grate, as he so often did when cogitating.
After a time he looked at Marchmont. “I notice that you don’t say you’re over head and ears in love with Zoe.”
Marchmont found himself at a loss how to answer, a rare experience for him, though not surprising in the circumstances. When he’d set out this day, the last thing he’d expected was to be standing here, asking Lexham for his daughter’s hand—and all the other delicious parts of her.
He was over head and ears in lust, beyond a doubt. He had no idea what anyone meant by love in these cases. He’d always assumed it was a euphemism for a strong attraction.
“You don’t say, either, that without her your life would be a desert,” Lexham added after a moment.
“But that isn’t the sort of thing you’d say.
” He shrugged. “And it isn’t the sort of thing I could easily stomach.
No, I suppose I don’t expect it, though I’m not altogether surprised at this turn of events.
You’ve always had the knack of dealing with her, and I’ll feel less anxious trusting her to you than to anyone else I can think of. ”
Ah, yes, I’m to be trusted. Give me half an hour alone in a carriage with your daughter and her virtue’s done for.
Lexham nodded to himself. “Then, too, she’ll be a duchess, and I’m no different than any other father in wishing to see my child well set up in life. Yes, it will do, it will do.”
Marchmont let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
Lexham gave him a quizzical look. “Did you think I’d say no?”
“She’s been back for only a few weeks,” Marchmont said. “I thought you might tell me I was too hasty—or you weren’t quite ready to give her up.”
“I shan’t see her any less than I do at present,” said Lexham. “She lives under my roof, but I’m hardly ever at home. And when I am at home, my daughters usually turn up, I find. They’re the very devil to get rid of.” He laughed then. “Come, Marchmont, give me your hand.”
His former ward did so and thanked him.
“A most satisfactory day this has turned out to be,” Lexham said.
“The royal family has smiled on my daughter, and she’s netted herself London’s most sought-after bachelor.
A duke, no less.” He laughed. “I always said Zoe was a clever girl. Well, then, you have my blessing, Marchmont. Now let me speak to her.”
Late that night
Zoe stood at the window, looking down into the garden. This time she’d obediently donned her nightgown, as well as the heavy wrapper Jarvis had insisted she wear.
“Miss, I hope you’re not thinking of running away this time,” said Jarvis as she turned down the bedclothes.
“If I did, it would only be to get away to think,” Zoe said. “I can hardly believe all that’s happened in one day. My head is a jumble.”
Marchmont at the bottom of the stairs…the presentation…Marchmont lifting her up and spinning her about…the wondrous end of her virginity…and then he’d asked her, and yes she’d said, because no other answer was possible.
She smiled. He must have had a very anxious few minutes while she was alone in the study with her father.
The duke needn’t have worried.
Yes, she was uninhibited, as Marchmont said. She was not a fool, however. She knew better than to tell Papa what had happened during the return from the Queen’s House.
She had only assured her father that Marchmont had had no trouble persuading her to become his duchess. “I’ve never felt about any man as I do about him,” she’d said, and that was simple truth.
“The Duchess of Marchmont,” Jarvis said in awe-filled tones. “I can hardly take it in myself.”
“I still haven’t taken it in,” Zoe said. “What chance had I to think, with all of them about?”
The hubbub attendant on her arrival from court was nothing to the uproar ensuing this evening at the family dinner celebrating her debut.
When the dessert course arrived, her father said he had an additional treat for them all.
That was all the warning he gave before announcing her engagement to Marchmont.
“It was funny,” she said. “Everyone was so surprised. Well, not so much Priscilla. She wasn’t quite as much aghast as the rest of them.
But it did stop some of my sisters fussing about my traveling alone with him in a closed carriage.
They all assumed he took the opportunity to propose because he was blinded by my finery.
They couldn’t imagine why any man in his senses would marry me—and they could see he wasn’t drunk when we arrived at Lexham House.
” She laughed. “They thought it was the dress—and perhaps it was.” He seemed to find her hoops as exciting as she did.
“Miss, if His Grace hadn’t asked, there’s a hundred who would,” Jarvis said loyally.
“That’s a hundred who don’t know me,” Zoe said. “I know he won’t be an easy husband, but I won’t be an easy wife. Still, we understand each other well enough…” She let out a sigh. “And I’m afraid I do love him.”
“Nothing to be afraid of, miss. I’ve no doubt he loves you, too.
Leastways, he will, once he comes to know you better.
Come to bed, please. You’ll be needing your rest after such a day.
And we’ll be very busy in the next few days, packing your things and getting you ready to move to Marchmont House.
” She shook her head. “Oh my, oh my, I can hardly believe it. Back into that house—that Mr. Harrison—and this time you’ll be his mistress.
I do wonder what’s going through his head. ”
Zoe approached the bed. “Oh, yes. Harrison. I’d forgotten about him.”
“I haven’t,” said Jarvis. “I’m glad at least I shan’t be going there as a housemaid.
As you said, I answer only to you—and I shan’t have much to do with him in any event, except at mealtimes.
Not that I complain, miss. It’s an enviable place to have.
Lady’s maid to the Duchess of Marchmont.
Who could have thought it!” She shook her head in wonder.
“I only thought of Marchmont,” Zoe said. “I never thought about the house, that great, immaculate house and all the servants. My goodness. I’ll be mistress there. What fun!”
“Miss, you said I could say my opinion, and my opinion is, Mr. Harrison isn’t going to be much fun.”
Zoe looked at her. “You’re not afraid of that man?”
“Yes, miss, I’m afraid I am.”
“Pish. Nothing to be afraid of. Yusri Pasha’s chief eunuch—now that was a man to fear. It took me years to understand him. But this one, who has all his manly parts?” Zoe paused. “The servants do keep all their manly parts in England?”
“Miss, I don’t think it’s allowed to make eunuchs here,” Jarvis said.
Zoe waved her hand dismissively. “Then there’s nothing to be uneasy about. I do know how to manage a household, and I’ll manage that one.”