Page 127 of Enslaved
She sighed wistfully. “It isn’t my home,” she said softly.
He pressed a paper into her hand. “It soon will be.”
She opened the crackling parchment and read that Richard Davenport consented to a marriage between Lady Diana and Mark Hardwick, Earl of Bath. Suddenly she was laughing and crying at the same time. “Are you truly asking me to marry you?”
“You had better say yes; I mailed the invitations this afternoon.”
The corners of her mouth drooped. “Oh Mark, I’ve caused such scandal, no one will accept. I’ll be ostracized by polite society and you along with me.”
“Rubbish! Society is anything but polite. I’m an earl, for God’s sake. People will be fighting for a chance to come to Hardwick Hall, and dying for the opportunity to observe my outrageous bride.”
“You really did know what I wanted for my birthday.”
“You are transparent as Venetian glass, and just as delicately lovely. Why don’t we forget the food and go straight to bed?” he murmured.
“Are you mad? I’m starving to death! First I want dinner, then I want you for dessert.”
“Deferred pleasure is twice as passionate.” He dipped a piece of lobster tail in the drawn butter and lifted it to her lips. “I shall gratify all your senses before the night is through.”
She licked her lips. “You are so damned cocksure.”
Mark smiled his secret smile.
Hardwick Hall, ablaze with spring flowers, had never looked lovelier. Even the weather cooperated for the wedding. The food was being catered so that Nora was free to attend the bride.
The night before, Mark and Diana exchanged wedding gifts. She bought him a magnificently preserved Roman gladius sword and he gave her a diamond necklace with a flower of amethysts at its center to match her eyes.
“Oh, I forgot this,” he said, bringing out a huge box from beneath the bed.
When Diana opened the box, her eyes became liquid with tears. There lay a creamytunica recta,woven in one piece, and a pair of cream leather slippers encrusted with pearls. The wedding veil was flame-colored Chinese silk.
“Mark, you must listen to my stories most attentively.”
“Why would I not? I love you for much more than your beauty. Your intelligence and your humor delight me.”
Diana wondered how many centuries it had taken him to learn to appreciate a woman for all of her attributes.
“Have you enough courage to wear a red veil?”
“I have courage enough for anything!”
Now, however, as she stood in front of the cheval glass while Nora fastened it to her hair with a wreath of verbena, Diana wasn’t sure. Last night she had been convinced they would have no guests. Today, carriages had been arriving for the last two hours.
“It’s too late for me to act the respectable countess at the eleventh hour, Nora. The ton has come to scrutinize me, so far be it from me to disappoint them.”
A light tap on the chamber door told them Mr. Burke had arrived to escort her to Hardwick’s own chapel. Every pew had been decorated with lily of the valley. The small chapel overflowed with guests, whose faces were just a blur to Diana. The only one she was acutely aware of was the dark face of her beloved awaiting her at the altar.
She listened attentively as the minister joined them in holy wedlock. She was startled when the groom took her hand and said, “I, Marcus, take thee, Diana, to my wedded wife”
When it was her turn, she used his full name, “I, Diana, take thee Marcus to my wedded husband…” When she’d finished the traditional vow, she added softly, “Will you be mypater familias?”
Mark squeezed her hands, telling her he would be anything and everything she wanted him to be. As they left the chapel and were showered with rice, Diana hugged her secret to her for the last time. Tonight she would share it with her husband.
The afternoon sun shone so brightly, the doors were thrown open so that the guests could explore the gardens of the lovely old Elizabethan hall.
Diana was surprised that she knew so many of the guests. Dr. Wentworth and his attractive wife were there, and Diana was amazed to see Dame Lightfoot, who had arrived with the Melbournes.
“Allegra couldn’t come?” Diana asked wickedly.
