Page 24 of A Night of Passion with the Duke

Madeline stuck out her tongue, earning herself a flick on the forehead.

Arabella shook her head and lounged back in the bath that had been drawn for her. She’d had always thought that if she ever got married, her wedding morning would start off magical, with fresh morning light streaming through her windows and birds singing harmoniously in the background, but her reality was a far cry from what she was currently experiencing.

First, her sisters had woken her early before the sun began to peek through the clouds to soak in a hot bath with rosemary, lavender and rose petals sprinkled in while they bickered about Madeline’s hair.

“I really don’t see why you woke me up at an ungodly hour just to soak in a bath,” she groaned. “You could have given me an extra hour of sleep.”

“Nonsense,” Sarah had rebutted. “You want to look your best, and you definitely want to smell your best on your wedding day. You only get married once, you know.”

Her tone left no room for argument, so Arabella sat back and let herself be pampered. Her hair had been washed and oiled with fragrantly spiced oils, then brushed and arranged in an elaborate style that had her giggling.

By the time her hair was done, the sun was peeking through the clouds, the bright light telling her that even if it wasn’t exactly the wedding every girl dreamed of, it was still a beautiful day.

“’Tis a beautiful day,” Hannah, her handmaid, commented as if hearing her thoughts.

“Indeed,” Arabella affirmed, smiling brightly.

She was dressed in her mother’s wedding dress, which had been altered to fit her with accents of pearls and crystals sewn over the bodice and in floral patterns around the flowing skirt to give it a more modern feel.

“The Duke won’t be able to keep his eyes off you in this dress,” Sarah gushed as her sister was laced into her wedding dress.

“Or his hands,” Madeline whispered.

“Maddie!” Arabella and Sarah gasped simultaneously at her crude words.

“Whereever did you learn to speak so crudely?” Sarah scolded, swatting her youngest sister’s bum with the hairbrush.

“Ow!” Madeline complained. “It’s not like there’ll be anything wrong with that, seeing that they’ll be married.”

“Maddie!” Sarah gasped again.

Arabella felt a hot blush creep up her neck and cheeks at the thought of her and Edward sharing a marriage bed.

Yes, she’d asked him to give her a night of passion, but now that it would be his right to take his pleasure from her, she couldn’t help but fear if he’d be satisfied with her, considering she didn’t know much about the marriage bed despite Sarah’s best attempts to educate her.

The lecture had been awkward and had changed the way she’d look at cucumbers forever.

“Are you ladies ready in there?” Leonard’s gruff voice came through the door.

The sisters rolled their eyes at his fatherly tone and opened the door.

If Arabella hadn’t been feeling guilty about lying to her family before now, his awestruck expression made her feel worse than she had in the last few days as they rushed the wedding preparations.

“You look… too beautiful for words, Sister.” He smiled at last. “The Duke is a lucky man.”

Arabella smiled through the tears pooling in her eyes and rushed into his arms. She really hoped she wouldn’t spend the entire day crying. That might do the opposite of convincing them that she was actually in love with her husband-to-be.

“I never believed this day would come so quickly. I—” Leonard broke off once she pulled away from him. “Are you sure this is what you want, Sister? You don’t have to go through with this.”

Love filled her as she looked at her brother’s concerned expression. Even though he feigned being tough and unfeeling, he’d always been the sweetest even when they were just children. It was he who’d taught her the names of flowers and birds. It was he who had calmed her when she fell and hurt her knees in the gardens. It was her big brother who had stayed up all night, raging on her behalf when she’d wept over the Duke of Green.

“I’ve never been more sure, Brother.” She smiled, squeezing his hand.

He nodded and took her hand in his. “Come, let’s go downstairs,” he said. “It isn’t proper to keep a duke waiting, especially on his wedding day.”

They slowly went down the steps of the childhood home she realized she was going to miss once she moved to the Soulden estate.

Most of her things had been packed and sent ahead to the Duke’s castle. The rest would go with them as they rode to his home as man and wife.

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