Epilogue One
Bella Henshaw was paying very little attention to the ledger in her hands. Instead, she was observing her handsome husband, who stood with her father and Pemberley’s steward, Mr Samuels, around a large table where they were examining several maps and talking with furious concentration.
George made such a better student than she did that it was almost embarrassing, but still, Bella was glad to have someone beside her as she learned about all of Pemberley’s many facets.
They had returned to Pemberley three months previously, George’s commission with the Customs Office having come to an end and both of them agreeing that it was time they got to grips with estate matters.
Her father had been overjoyed, although he had shown it considerably less exuberantly than her mother.
When they returned after nearly six months away, Elizabeth had greeted them with such squeals of delight and such effusive affection that Bella had been reminded strongly of her Grandmama Bennet, who had been forever going into paroxysms of pleasure whenever her darling granddaughters came to visit.
George caught her eye from across the room and winked devilishly. Bella rolled her eyes in response before lowering them to the ledger once more and making a valiant attempt to continue with her sums.
Less than an hour later, her father and Mr Samuels were called away to deal with some tenant matter. Bella kept her eyes firmly on the book in front of her, although she could sense George approaching before he came to sit beside her.
"Mrs Harwood," he said.
"Yes, Mr Harwood?" she replied in a prim tone.
"Oh, do not come that way with me, Princess. I know perfectly well you have not been attending to your sums. You have been ravishing me with your eyes all afternoon."
"Goodness," she said, trying to contain a laugh. "If I were to do anything so unladylike as ravish you with my eyes, I should hope I might at least do it discreetly."
"You were not discreet in any way, shape or form."
She closed the ledger with a sigh. "I admit I have not been attending to my numbers as I ought, but that is hardly unusual. You have far outshone me as a student of Pemberley’s many intricacies. I fear you are fast becoming my parents’ favourite child."
George smiled and leaned closer. "Your mother and father dote upon all three of you, and I know for a fact that your father is very proud of everything you have learned and undertaken since we returned to the estate."
Bella felt heat rise into her cheeks and ran one hand over the worn leather cover of the ledger. "Well, I am glad Papa thinks so. I sometimes suspect he must look at me and wonder how a daughter of his can remain so entirely unmoved by columns of figures."
"I do not believe you are entirely unmoved by them.
" George leaned back in his chair and regarded her with an expression of great seriousness.
"You become particularly animated whenever you discover that a tenant's roof requires replacing or you think the kitchen has been charged two shillings more for sugar than you think reasonable. "
"That is different. Those are matters that concern people. People interest me greatly. Numbers by themselves are dreadfully dull."
"Ah." His eyes dropped pointedly to the ledger. "Then I fear we have confirmed your crime. You have not been attending as you ought."
Bella narrowed her eyes at him. There was something in his tone she knew very well indeed. "I have attended."
"You have stared at me for the better part of an hour."
"I glanced at you on occasion, George. Mainly to check you were behaving yourself."
"You ravished me with your eyes."
"I did no such thing." She crossed her arms across her chest.
George smiled widely, his dimple appearing in his cheek "I fear, Mrs Harwood, that if you have not been attending to your lessons as you ought, I shall have to devise some sort of punishment. It is the husbandly thing to do." His eyes flashed wickedly.
Bella stared at him for one second before a laugh escaped her. "George Harwood, do not even think about it."
That was precisely the wrong thing to say. George rose from his chair with deliberate calm, and Bella immediately pushed hers backwards and narrowed her eyes at him. "George."
"I have been entrusted with your education," he said, coming around the table towards her with a gravity that was entirely undermined by the laughter dancing in his eyes.
"You have been entrusted with no such thing." Bella stood as well, putting the chair between them. She knew that expression and where it usually led. It absolutely could not lead there in her Papa's study.
"Your father would surely expect me to support him in maintaining proper discipline."
"My father would have an apoplexy if he heard you speaking in that tone," she said, although she was already struggling not to laugh as George continued his slow progress around the table. "And I would remind you that I am a married woman of one-and-twenty, not a troublesome schoolgirl."
"That is true. And it is therefore fortunate he has gone to inspect a tenant’s drain." He paused, considering her with exaggerated seriousness. "Although your conduct this afternoon has been decidedly troublesome and I am afraid there must be consequences."
Bella's laughter escaped then, despite every attempt to maintain her dignity. "George Harwood, do not even think about it."
His smile broadened. "I fear it is already far too late for that."
Bella was still laughing when she darted around the end of the table.
George followed at a much more leisurely pace, which was particularly infuriating because they both knew perfectly well that he could catch her whenever he wished.
She moved behind her father's chair and held up one hand in warning.
"Do not come any closer."
"I am merely attempting to converse with my wife."
"My wife, my wife," Bella mimicked. "You have become intolerably possessive since acquiring one."
"I went to great trouble to acquire you. I intend to enjoy it."
The words did something warm and ridiculous to her insides, which was precisely why she failed to notice that he had moved around the opposite side of the table until it was too late.
"George!"
He caught her around the waist as she tried to escape, hauling her back against him while she shrieked with laughter. Bella twisted in his arms and attempted to push him away, but George was much stronger than her and held her fast.
"Put me down."
"No." His voice had dropped close to her ear, sending a delicious shiver down her neck.
Bella turned her head to look at him and immediately regretted it.
His face was inches from hers, blond hair falling untidily over his forehead and his eyes full of that particular wickedness which she had become very familiar with during the months of their marriage.
"George," she said again, although with less conviction.
"Yes, Princess?" he said, planting a delicate kiss behind her ear.
She loved it when he called her that now. Once it had been an accusation, a reminder that he thought her sheltered and spoiled. Somewhere along the way it had softened into an endearment that belonged only to them.
"You are behaving disgracefully."
"I am."
Before Bella could formulate a sufficiently cutting reply, George bent, caught her behind the knees and tossed her over his shoulder. Her startled scream must have carried halfway across the estate grounds.
"George Harwood!"
He started towards the door as though carrying his wife out of the estate room like a sack of flour was an everyday occurrence.
"Put me down this instant."
"No."
"I shall bite you."
"Don’t tempt me with a good time, Princess."
The door opened before them and Mina stood wide-eyed on the other side.
For a moment, all three of them froze. Mina's blue eyes moved first to George, then to Bella hanging upside down over his shoulder, then back again.
She was carrying a sketchbook beneath one arm and had a smear of blue paint across the cuff of her gown.
"Bella? Are you well?"
Bella closed her eyes.
George, the traitor, did not seem embarrassed in the slightest. Bella could feel his shoulders shaking beneath her as he fought laughter.
"Do not be alarmed, Miss Mina," he said solemnly. "Your sister and I need to converse quite urgently. She is also very tired from all the estate matters she has attended to since breakfast, so I thought it best to assist her upstairs."
Mina stared at them, a smirk forming across her angelic face.
"George," Bella hissed.
"I see," Mina said slowly, idly twisting a curl around her finger.
"You see nothing, Mina Darcy," Bella said, although it was hard to give the words any sort of gravitas from her present predicament.
"You do not look particularly tired, Bella."
George coughed in a manner that sounded very like a laugh.
Bella lifted her head as best she could. "Mina, I swear to you, if you tell Mama about this..."
Her sister's face brightened immediately. "I had not thought of telling Mama. She will be most amused!"
"Mina, please."
"I was looking for Papa, actually."
"He is with Samuels," George said helpfully. "Something involving a drain."
"Thank you." Mina stepped aside to let them pass, but her expression had become unbearably smug. "Enjoy your conversation."
"I shall throw all your paints in the lake."
"No, you will not. They are expensive."
George carried Bella away before she could make good on any of her threats. She could hear Mina laughing behind them as he strode along the corridor and towards the staircase.
"You have ruined me," Bella muttered.
"I believe running away from Pemberley, involving yourself with smugglers and marrying a former naval officer did more damage to your reputation than being carried upstairs by your husband."