Page 33 of A Duchess Disciplined

“Good morning,” William replied.

Lady Catherine’s wedding gown was quite lovely. It was a white muslin garment, embellished with white embroidery and tiny, glittering pearls that shone in the sunlight. The design was clearly the work of a gifted seamstress, for the dress’s bodice perfectly cradled Lady Catherine’s perfect, white breasts. He feigned nonchalance as he ate his toast and its generous coating of orange marmalade. Inside him was an inferno. He ached to touch those breasts, just as he had two weeks before. William wanted nothing more than to tear that gown from her shoulders, to see that brilliant flush cover her face, and hear her shocked, feminine gasps.

“It is a nice morning for a wedding,” Reeds said in a paltry attempt to make conversation.

“Yes,” William agreed.

“The place is quite nice, too,” Lady Bridget said. “I can see the chapel outside my chamber’s window, and it looks so beautiful during the midday sun when it strikes the stone. It looks like something from a fairy tale.”

“Fairies do not exist,” Hester said. “And fairy tales are created for children. How would you know what it looks like?”

Lady Bridget blinked, appearing taken aback. “I—I suppose I have imagined it as such,” the lady stammered.

William hid a small smile. Few people understood Hester’s sharp wit and odd sense of humor. She made people uncomfortable, as he often did, but, while Williams’s behavior was often—in his own mind—dominant and aggressive, Hester’s was sly and logical.

“It would be nice if fairies existed,” Hannah said, “like Queen Titania, of course. Not the mischievous variety.”

The mention of Shakespeare’s Queen Titania seemed to earn Hannah a friend, for Lady Bridget’s face brightened at once.

“We used to hunt for fairies,” Lady Dorothy said, smiling. “Do you remember that?”

Reeds grinned. “Yes. I remembersomeone—” He shot an obvious look in Lady Catherine’s direction. “—always insisting that she had seen fairies in trees or in bushes, and being the indulgent brother that I am, I was always forced to look.”

If Reeds had beenlessindulgent, maybe he would have a proper younger sister. William took a sip of his coffee, his eyes flitting toward Lady Catherine. She ate some of her eggs, and he watched her delicate jaw move as she chewed her food. Then, she swallowed, and his attention drifted to her white, swan-like neck.

He imagined those coral lips swollen and red from kisses and her wide eyes fixed solely on him with that same sense of confusion and pleasure that he had seen just weeks before.

After the wedding, he would see that look once again—and likely many times after it. Perhaps he ought not to complain, for if Reeds had given him a proper bride, the marriage bed might have been significantly less pleasant than it was bound to be withher.

“I remember,” Lady Catherine said. “I knew that you did not believe me, but I insisted that I saw fairies in increasingly absurd places. I wanted to see if you would continue to look for them or if you would correct me someday. You never did.”

“No,” Reeds replied.

“I remember only a little of that,” Lady Bridget said. “I think.”

“You would have been very young,” Lady Dorothy said. “I would be surprised if you remembered anything at all.”

“But what of you?” Lady Catherine asked, inclining her head towards Hester and Hannah. “What do you do with your days here?”

This might produce something interesting.

“Besides lessons, you mean?” Hester asked. “I quite enjoy walking in the gardens and sketching the plants around Verdant Castle. Sometimes, it is also enjoyable to take the boat onto the lake, for there are often fish swimming about.”

Hannah wrinkled her nose, as she often did when the lake was mentioned. She detested anything dirty and preferred to avoid the lake and the forest that lined the property. With some coaxing, Hannah would tolerate a stroll through the gardens, but she would become vexed if dirt stained her slippers or the hem of her gown.

“I prefer embroidery,” Hannah said. “Besides, flowers made of thread last forever, whilst the ones in the gardens wilt and die.”

“That is what makes them beautiful,” Hester argued.

Hannah shook her head and glanced at William, as though she expected him to deliver the final verdict and end their little debate.

“Both are beautiful in different ways,” Lady Catherine said. “Perhaps the fleeting nature of flowers is why we wish to embroider them so often. We want to take that fleeting beauty with us always.”

William grunted. It was an acceptable answer, but it sounded very unlike Lady Catherine. Perhaps this was her attempt to be a proper Duchess of Sarsen. He supposed that he ought to be pleased she was taking her role seriously, yet he found himself waiting—and wanting—for Lady Catherine to inevitably earn the correction that she so clearly needed.

* * *

Following the wedding breakfast, they walked to the church together in a mostly silent procession.Mostlybecause he heard Lady Dorothy and Lady Catherine engaged in a whispered conversation. He could not decipher the exact words exchanged between them, but Lady Dorothy sounded worried.

---