Page 44 of His Haunted Duchess
“To toast the wedding! It’ll be good for all of us.”
Winifred sighed and nodded. Aunt Olivia turned back to Caroline.
“What we were hoping to do, dear, is tell you a little about how your wedding will be.”
“Oh!” Caroline’s awareness sharpened. “I see.”
Her heart fluttered a little with an odd sense of anxious anticipation.
“Weddings are marvelous, glorious unions, ordained by God and sanctioned by man,” her aunt began.
“For the most part,” Winifred chimed in.
Aunt Olivia glared at her.
“Mostlyglorious and sanctioned and for good reason.”
Winifred folded her arms.
“I didn’t mean that theyoughtn’tto be sanctioned, but that they aren’t always.”
Martha brought the tray of red ratafia, biscuits, and jam which she had thoughtfully included as a consolation. Aunt Olivia accepted them gratefully. Caroline waited without tapping her fingers while the repast was distributed. Whatever her aunt and Winifred had to say, it was apparently very difficult and would require some time.
“A man and a woman come together,” Aunt Olivia said, once her mouth had emptied of biscuit, “so that children may bless the earth.”
“Or at least have the chance to bless it. Not all children are a blessing, to be sure.” Winifred beamed at Caroline. “You were ever so much a blessing to us, dear.”
Aunt Olivia waved the comment aside with a half-eaten biscuit.
“Indeed, she was—and is and likely will be. But the nature of your role is changing, dear.”
“Changing very much.”
“It may be—it very likely will be—expected that you spend—time— with your new husband.”
Caroline knitted her eyebrows. That seemed self-explanatory, at least from what she knew about marriage. Aunt Olivia ate another biscuit.
“You’ll spend time with your husband as a woman?—”
Winifred dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief.
“Our little girl grew up so quickly to be a woman!”
Aunt Olivia reached for her empty plate. She stared at it and rang the bell.
“More biscuits, Martha.” She turned back to Caroline. “Up until now, you’ve been our dear little girl and our lovely lady—” Winifred sniffed heavily. “But from your wedding forward, your first responsibility will be to your husband and to your future family.”
They looked at her, as if expecting some kind of comment. It felt like they were trying to offer her valuable information.
“I—yes, thank you,” she said. This must be the good wedding advice she had sometimes heard other girls mention in knowing whispers. “I am very grateful to you both.”
Martha entered with a generously heaping plate of biscuits. Winifred blew her nose into her handkerchief. Aunt Olivia took a healthy bite.
“I remember when she was just a little thing?—”
“We were speaking,” Aunt Olivia said firmly, “of a husband and wife, not of us. And of a husband and wifecoming together.”
Winifred nodded knowingly.
