Chapter Seven
They stood before the altar at St. Michael’s Highgate, the women garbed in black and the men with black armbands to signify their mourning status.
If the priest found it to be unusual, he kept his own counsel on the matter.
Instead, for a not insignificant contribution to the church made by Mr. Fitzsimmons, they had a brief ceremony.
When it was complete and the register had been signed, the names of witnesses recorded, they left for the cemetery with the priest accompanying them.
If he thought it strange that he had to perform both a wedding and a funeral for the same family in one morning, he again kept such thoughts to himself.
The funeral was not a long and drawn-out affair. The traditional words were spoken, the casket lowered into the ground. And one by one, they all dropped a clod of dirt atop it before walking away.
And none of them returned to Hayton House.
Instead, they piled into their respective carriages and made their way back to London proper.
Grace was dropped at the Darrow School to relay the news of Caris’s changed status.
And along with her new husband, Felix Graves, Viscount Grimsleigh, they journeyed onto Brentwood and his ancestral home of Gravemore Hall.
“Is it as ominous as it sounds?” Caris asked.
He smiled. “No. Hayton House is infinitely more so, though I suppose that leaves a great deal of room for peculiarity, doesn’t it?”
“It does,” she agreed. “Is this madness? We’ve married and we are practically strangers.”
Felix leaned forward, reaching for her hand and taking it in his.
“We might have to begin as strangers, Caris, but we will not remain so. Despite her methods, I think we will both find ourselves very grateful one day for Aunt Edith’s meddling.
For myself, I think I am grateful already.
I am married to a woman whom I find to be… compelling.”
“Compelling?”
He nodded. “Indeed. Compelling. You, if I told you what I truly thought, would deny the compliments or think them empty flattery… So I shall keep them to myself until you are not only ready to hear them, but ready to believe them.”
She looked at him for a long moment. Then she uttered another question, both shocking and so very, very tempting. “Would you kiss me again?”
Felix did not provide an answer with mere words. Instead, with her hand still clasped in his, he pulled her forward, across the distance of the vehicle until he could close his arms about her and settle her onto his lap. She was tense, but not uncooperative.
“I will do nothing you do not wish for me to do… We are married, but we have all the time in the world to consummate our union when you are more certain of things between us.”
Instantly she relaxed. “You must think me foolish.”
“Innocence is not foolish. The need to trust someone before granting such liberties is not foolish… and over time, I will gain your trust by doing only what you wish. And today, you have expressed a wish for a kiss, and that is what you will have.”
To that end, Felix took her lips in a gentle, claiming kiss.
It was not chaste in nature. It was hungry, pushing the boundaries of what “just a kiss” could be.
And when it ended, she was trembling against him, and he was less than steady himself.
His pulse was rapid, his blood heated from their brief exchange, and he wanted more.
So much more. But he’d given her his word, and he would not press her for anything she was not only willing but eager to yield.
“I liked that,” she confessed softly. “Very much so.”
“I hope you will like more than just my kisses. I know many women view the marriage bed as a chore to be endured, but it is my most fervent wish that you will not view it thusly.”
“I can almost promise you that I will not. Even now, I’m struggling to think of why I should resist at all.”
“If you still feel that way later, we will revisit the terms of our agreement,” he replied. “Perhaps if you permit more kisses throughout the day, your certainty will increase.”
She hadn’t missed the teasing note in his voice, as evidenced by her slight smile. “Well, it should certainly take more than once to make a well-informed decision, don’t you think?”
“Indeed, I do,” he said, and drew her closer to kiss her yet again. And that was how they spent the duration of the drive, slowly exploring one another and the strange attraction that existed between them. A seemingly fated one.