Be My Bride (8 page)

Daniel let her go with equal misgivings, then hurried into the dark stable to find his friend. Enoch was exactly where Daniel had thought he’d find him, back in one of the stalls, checking on one of the stallions he used for stud service. The tall, thin, craggy man glanced up as Daniel neared, running a hand back through black hair that was graying at the temples and narrowing sharp blue eyes.

“Didn’t think to see you so soon,” he muttered, setting down the stallion’s hoof and patting the brute as he exited the stall. “Married folks usually have better things to do.”

“Nice to see you again too, Enoch,” Daniel said, grinning at him.

He stumped along the aisle, and Daniel fell in beside him. “I suppose she made you come.”

“We need horses. Where else would we go?”

He spat into the straw at his feet. “I heard she was a tartar. You were lucky when you were a lad – she ran away on you before you had to offer. Should have learned your lesson then.”

Daniel couldn’t imagine why, but for once Enoch’s words stung. He tried to ignore it and focus on what he had come for. “So, what would you recommend for three boys and a lady?”

They were out in the sun now, and Enoch waved toward the paddock. “Looks like she already made the decision.”

Cynthia saw them coming. The man beside Daniel was taut as a halyard and as hard as a whet stone. She’d dealt with his kind many times in the Admiralty. Arrogance was the only approach they understood. She drew herself up to her full height for the oncoming battle. Unfortunately that only put her eyes on a level with Enoch’s collarbone. She craned her neck to meet his gaze as Daniel introduced them.

Enoch spit at the ground near inches from her feet. She refused to move. “Well, which horses do you want?”

Even though she had been expecting it, his insolence annoyed her. “I’m sure my husband knows what we need for our stables.”

“Your stables, eh?” He quirked a bushy eyebrow. “Last time I checked, they were Mr. Lewiston’s stables.”

She started to protest, but Daniel slipped an arm about her waist and she froze in surprise. “Now, Enoch, you know how things are with newlyweds. We do everything together. And right now we’d both very much like your advice on horses.”

Cynthia sucked in her breath, but whether it was a result of Daniel actually treating this creature politely or how warm his arm felt all the way through her black gown, she wasn’t certain. “I’m sure you’re quite capable of determining which horses we should purchase, Daniel,” she murmured as firmly as she could.

“He wouldn’t know good horse flesh if it sat on him,” Enoch grumbled. “Any more than he knows a good woman when he sees one.”

Daniel shook his head. It was obviously not one of Enoch’s better days. The only thing he could do was take Cynthia home before matters worsened. “Never mind, Enoch. I think we’ve seen enough for one day. Cynthia, let’s go home.”

Cynthia trembled in suppressed rage. How dare the man speak that way about Daniel? How dare he imply that she was less than a good wife to him? “You’re quite right, dear,” she replied, head high, as she turned away from the paddock. 

Enoch chortled. “Give it up, missy. You just like to let him think he’s running things. Everyone knows who wears the pants in your house. The only shame is, Daniel doesn’t get to see what goes into them.”

Cynthia turned bright red.

There was nothing for it. Daniel turned and slugged Enoch right in the jaw.

Pain shot through his hand, and he hopped back out of reach before Enoch could return the swing. The older man’s head had rocked back with the blow, but he didn’t stumble. He rubbed his jaw and winced. “Well then, I guess we all know how things stand. The three ponies, I think for the younger ones, and the bay mare for the lady. No charge. They’re my wedding present to you. I’ll have one of the boys bring them round tomorrow morning. Good day to you both.” He knuckled his forelock in Cynthia’s direction and turned back to the stables.

Daniel stared after at him, hand smarting and thoroughly confused. He realized Cynthia was staring at him, eyes wide, all color fled, and he could only hope she didn’t think him as great a beast as Enoch.

“Oh, Daniel,” she cried, throwing herself into his arms. “That was magnificent!”

She was so close he could smell the scent of roses in her hair. Her body next to his was soft and curvy and seemed to fit against him in all the right places. It took every ounce of strength he possessed to force himself to push her gently away before she could see how she was affecting him.

“Thank you, my dear,” he managed, wincing at the pain in his right hand. “But would you mind returning with me to the carriage? I’m not feeling particularly well.”

Cynthia found she wasn’t feeling particularly well either. The feel of Daniel’s arms about her had been surprisingly good, and the summer day had suddenly felt much cooler when he had set her back from him. She tried to reach out to him, but he turned quickly before she could touch him. Self-conscious, she let her hand fall to her side and followed him back to the waiting carriage. Yet, she could not help marveling again at what she had seen. Daniel Lewiston, knight errant. It was a side of him she had never suspected existed. Could she have misjudged her husband after all?

Chapter Eight

Daniel’s defense of Cynthia’s good name was not the last of the surprises in store for her. She soon found that she didn’t know her new husband well, if she had ever known him at all. Growing up, she had assumed his timidity and awkwardness around her was part of his personality, that he approached everyone that way. Certainly nothing up until his gallantry at the stables had led her to believe otherwise. But a number of events over the next few weeks made her realize that there was a great deal more to Daniel than she had ever thought possible.

The first event was the arrival of the horses from Enoch McCreedy. True to his word, he had sent study ponies for Adam, James, and John, and a darling spirited mare for her. In earlier days she would have thought the idea of Daniel riding the brute of a stallion Enoch sent as a surprise for him preposterous, but Daniel had no trouble mounting and galloping about the estate with evident glee. Soon she and the boys were cantering alongside him on a daily basis, the boys proud in their matching black trousers and jackets, and Adam proudest of all in his long pants. And she had to admit, as she admired the way the sky blue wool riding jacket and skirt flattered her figure and coloring, that Daniel’s taste in clothing was bang up to the mark as well.

The second event was a visit by several of the village matrons, including Squire Pentercast’s wife Genevieve and her sister Allison, to congratulate her on her marriage and welcome her formally to Wenwood. Since she had run away to be married to Nathan, and neither his family nor her own had ever approved of the match, she had never had such a visit in her life. She wasn’t at all sure what to say or do, but Daniel welcomed the women to the house, chatted with them about their own families as if he’d known them for years, which of course he probably had, and in general let it be known that he was utterly enchanted with his new bride so that the ladies left singing her praises without her having so much as to remember to pour the tea.

If she had thought Daniel was impressive at home, she was equally surprised to find him adept at social gatherings as well. Allison had ordered Daniel to bring Cynthia to the next assembly at Barnsley Grange, but Cynthia had hardly taken that seriously. She hadn’t danced in years, and she certainly didn’t want to subject Daniel to something he might find uncomfortable. Besides, outside her pink wedding dress, all her dresses were much too dark and of poor material to make a good showing even at a country dance.

She was therefore surprised to return from a ride with Daniel and the boys to find a rather large box sitting on her bed.

“Oh, a present!” Adam squealed, having followed her into the room before continuing to his own to change. He clambered up onto the bed and bounced on his knees, setting the box to rocking. “Open it, open it!”

James and John crowded in the doorway. John frowned. “A present for Mother?”

Daniel put his arms across their shoulders and bent to speak in their ears. “Certainly. After all the toys we’ve bought, not to mention the new horses, don’t you think she deserved something all for herself?”

Cynthia frowned at him, then at the box. “Well, I don’t think I deserve it. What have you done, Daniel?”

His gray eyes twinkled with blue. “Open it.”

Grimacing, she reached down and shook off the lid. Whatever was inside was wrapped in yards of white tissue. She glanced back up at him. He grinned at her.

“Open it, Mother!” Adam urged, bouncing again in his excitement.

She shook her head in exasperation and began unpeeling the wrapping. As the tissue began to open, she caught sight of rose satin, as soft as the petals of a flower. Eagerness seized her, and she practically tore the last of the paper off. In her hands lay the most beautiful dress she had ever seen.

All of it was made of the delicate rose satin, with darker rose ribbon in triple rows around the high waist and full skirt. The rounded neck and small puffed sleeves were edged with intricate embroidery of white roses on emerald leaves. In the center of each rose was a small pearl. Similar roses seemed to climb from the ribbon at the hem to blossom under the gathered bosom.

“Oh,” John grunted dismissingly, “it’s just a dumb dress.”

“Very nice, Mother.” James nodded dutifully before John pulled him across the corridor toward the well-furnished play room. Adam reached out and patted the soft material.

“It’s very pretty, Mother. You’ll look just like the roses in Mr. Daniel’s garden.”

Cynthia smiled at him, feeling her eyes moisten. “That’s right, Adam.”

He crawled down from the bed and skipped off across the corridor. Watching him, Cynthia glanced up to find Daniel watching her.

“I don’t know what to say,” she murmured, oddly embarrassed. “It’s absolutely beautiful.”

“Good,” Daniel replired. “Then you’ll have no trouble accompanying me to the assembly this Wednesday.”

“No, I suppose I won’t.” She couldn’t help laughing at the thought.

And she had worn it to the assembly, with a nosegay of rosebuds at her wrist and roses entwined in the braid in her hair. And Daniel had danced every dance with her, and she’d felt more beautiful than even the night she’d met Nathan. In fact, Nathan had never seemed farther away, and for once the thought didn’t terrify her.

Daniel couldn’t help noticing the change in her. All his efforts to bring them closer were beginning to work. She was laughing again, not the teasing laughter he remembered as a young man but a joyful sound that did something to his heart to hear it. He ordered a dozen more dresses, each in a different style and all in shades of violet and blue and pink that complimented her fair coloring. Whether it was the dresses or laughter he didn’t know, but he was pleased to see the dark circles disappear from around her eyes. 

He was also pleased and a little surprised to find that virtually none of his own clothes were fitting. Between the improvement in Monsieur Henri’s cooking and the exercise he was getting with the boys, he had lost a good fifty pounds. When he put on the new clothes he ordered for himself, he had to admit that he cut a rather dashing figure. Perhaps Cynthia hadn’t married herself such a frog after all.

There was one thing more he felt he must try to change, however, and that was Cynthia’s inability to play with the boys. While he would cheerfully wrestle and dash about the house with them, Cynthia always watched from a distance. She watched with an indulgent smile on her face, that was true, but she refused to join them.

At first he wondered whether she was hampered by her new gowns, but she didn’t seem more likely to enter their games when she wore the hideous black dress, which was rarely now. More likely, he decided, she had had to be both mother and father for so long that she was unable to unbend to be herself even long enough to play a game of hide and seek. It seemed to him a symbol of their relationship – while it was pleasant, the joy was missing. If he could get her to unbend in one area, perhaps the other would follow.

His opportunity came one afternoon when he had been playing a boisterous game of touch and run with the boys through the hedges of the maze. He had stopped to catch his breath near one of the entrances when he heard Cynthia calling to the boys to come in for tea. James and Adam dutifully appeared from behind various shrubs. A half-hearted scuffle behind him could only be John. He held out one arm to stop them and put a finger to his lips.

“Let’s see if we can’t get your mother to play for a bit,” he whispered. All three of them brightened, and they scampered off into hiding. Daniel sauntered out of the maze right into Cynthia’s path.

“Hello, my dear. Did I hear you calling?”

Cynthia smiled at him over the basket of roses in her arms. She had to admit that even with his new clothes powdered with dust and thoroughly rumpled, he was looking rather handsome. She’d never realized in fact how handsome he really was. His jaw was firm, his profile strong, shoulders were impressive, and his legs long and powerful. The strength of her possessive feelings surprised her, and she had to look away with a blush that rivaled the color of the blooms in her arms. “Yes, well, I’ve finished with the roses for the day, and I thought it must be time for tea.”

“Well,” Daniel said with a grin, “if you really want tea, you’ll have to come fetch us.” He tapped her gently on the arm. “You’ve been touched.”

She blinked, and Daniel pelted off into the maze, his husky laughter floating behind him.

“Daniel, this is ridiculous,” she called, peering into the bushes in first one direction and then the other. Really, couldn’t the man be serious? The path stretched empty in all directions. “Boys, come out immediately.”

“Boys,” Daniel’s voice countered from somewhere on her right. “You will do nothing of the kind until your mother touches one of us.”

Somewhere to her left someone giggled. Adam, she thought, eyes narrowing. “Very well, then, have it your way.” She set the basket on one of the stone benches that dotted the maze and tiptoed toward the sound. Carefully she peered over the top of the bushes. There was no one there. Frustrated, she sank back onto her feet.