Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The woman who had once been Nerissa Fairchild burst out of the church hand in hand with the man she loved.
She beamed at her husband, and Anthony grinned back at her as the cheers from their guests and passers-by rang in their ears. Petals were being thrown over them and Nerissa shrieked as some were stuffed down the back of her wedding gown by Abigail.
“We will have less of that, if you do not mind,” said Anthony, helping her to shake them out of her gown. “I am the only one who should be going there, thank you very much.”
There was murmured laughter around the churchyard, but Nerissa barely noticed who else was there. All she could see was him: Count Anthony, her beloved.
He dipped his head down and kissed her, his hands tugging her closer to him as though they simply could not get enough of each other, and Nerissa threw her hands around his neck in an equal display of exuberance.
There was tittering now and slightly harsher murmurings, but Nerissa did not care. How could she care, when she was married to the greatest man she had ever known?
“I love you,” she whispered when they finally broke apart.
“I love you no matter what,” was his whispered response, and he brought his lips down onto hers again.
“Now then, now then, we will have less of that here, thank you.”
A rather harassed voice broke into Nerissa’s ear, and she finally broke away from the kiss with tinged cheeks as she saw her father struggling to get through the crowd to them.
“The wedding feast will be ready,” he was saying to guests with a smile. “Please, do come and join us to celebrate the marriage of my daughter, the Countess of Stratham.”
Nerissa rolled her eyes slightly to see the joy that it gave her father to use her new title. Well, if it helped him to accept her husband, then she supposed that she would allow it. He would wear it out, soon enough.
She and Anthony joined the throng that were wending their way back to her home – what had been her home. Looking around her, there were few people that she did not know, and she squeezed her husband’s hand as she asked a question.
“ ‘Tis a shame that Olivia was unable to be here.”
Anthony shook his head with a sigh. “It would have taken her weeks to get here, and by the time she arrived we would have been about to leave in any case. We will see her in London, I promise, and then at Daemarrel Manor. I cannot wait to introduce you – and in fact, given the slow nature of the post from Port Royal, we may arrive there sooner than my letter!”
Nerissa laughed, and turned into the gates of her father’s home as she overheard some guests who had already arrived muttering in a corner of the garden.
“Yes, that is what I heard, the scandal will reach London soon, but the earl will say nothing but that he is innocent!”
Her natural curiosity piqued, she would have liked to linger for a moment and hear more of the conversation, but Anthony was striding forward into the house and pulling her along with him to the herald of more cheers.
A gentleman that she did not know stepped forward and shook Anthony’s hand, stopping them in the hallway where it was getting congested with well-wishers.
“Congratulations, Stratham, I could not be more pleased for you!”
Nerissa beamed, and expected to be introduced, but instead the gentleman lowered his voice to whisper in Anthony’s ear.
“I have finally received word of Samuel, my lord, and he has decided to leave England before the scandal reaches London.”
Her eyes snapped to her husband, who looked a little sorrowful.
“And you are sure that he is serious? This is not the typical drama that Kincardine loves to indulge in?”
The stranger shrugged. “All I have is this short letter, my lord, and you may have it if you wish.”
Anthony held out a hand for the letter and opened it eagerly, but it was at that moment that he noticed Nerissa closely watching them, and he shook his head.
“I can read this anytime,” he said easily, placing the letter into his waistcoat pocket. “But I only have one wedding day!”
The gentleman laughed, bowed, and disappeared into the crowd.
“You were not meant to hear that,” Anthony said with a wry smile to Nerissa.
She returned his smile. “Are we going to be the married couple who has secrets from each other, then?”
“Only other people’s,” he countered. “Now then, shall we go out into the garden? ‘Tis rather hot and stuffy in here for my liking.”
The hibiscus was in bloom early this year, and as Nerissa stepped out into the warm weather, she felt the slight rub of a golden wedding band on the fourth finger of her left hand.
“You know, I can barely believe it,” she said softly. “But I am so happy. You make me so happy, Anthony, you give me happiness that I did not even know I was lacking.”
He smiled, and she saw in it everything that she wanted from her entire life.
“You sound as though you are buttering me up for something,” he said happily. “I stand ready to be buttered.”
Nerissa laughed. “I only wondered – ”
“Aha, I knew that there was something!” Anthony said in triumph. “Out with it, wife.”
She glowed to hear his words. “I only wondered whether I can find out about our marriage tour now. Where are we going?”
Anthony rolled his eyes as they strode, arm in arm, around the garden. Guests were being offered glass of champagne by Abigail and Cook Nancy, and there was a pleasant warm chatter drifting on the breeze.
“Are you already bored of Jamaica?”
Nerissa shook her head. “I would like to see more of the world.”
Her husband smiled at her, but there was a tinge of sadness to it.
“There are dangers in travelling so much, Nerissa. But in truth, I thought that we would make a start by going back to London, and see Olivia. She will be relieved to see me, that I know, and equally astonished and pleased to meet you.”
Nerissa inclined her head to Judge Matthews who was struggling to swallow a sandwich that Cook Nancy had undoubtedly made using the latest recipes from London, probably six months out of date, and stifled a laugh.
“I suppose it will be a much smoother introduction to name me as your wife, rather than mistress?”
Anthony at least had the good grace to look a little embarrassed, and now she could not stifle her giggles.
“You fool, Anthony! My, but we did get ourselves in a muddle, did we not?”
He nodded. “But not again. No, I think complete honesty and clarity is the only way forward for us. And with that in mind, our wedding tour destination.”
Nerissa held her breath, stopping in her tracks to look more closely at her husband. She could not wait to hear of their next adventure, a shared adventure with the man who had taught her not just to love, but to be loved in return.
“Anywhere,” Anthony whispered. “Anywhere from London that you wish to go. ‘Tis your decision, and I leave it to the wisest person in this marriage to decide.”
She did not have the words to say how grateful she was, so she did what she knew he would understand: she leaned forward and kissed him hard on the mouth.
There were murmurs of shock around them, but she did not care. Nothing would compare to every moment kissing Anthony.
They broke apart, finally, when a wolf whistle echoed throughout the garden.
“And no matter what catastrophe befalls us,” Anthony said in a loving whisper, “this Count and Countess will always have each other.”