Nicola Cornick (24 page)

‘Annabella!’

Annabella was still asleep when the knock came at her door. The lights had burned late in the library the previous night and she had not seen Will again. She and Alicia and Caroline had sat with Amy Weston, Miss Frensham and Lady Stansfield, chatting in desultory fashion, each trying to preserve the illusion that all was as normal. Amy had not suspected anything, but Lady Stansfield, with her sharp perception, had scanned the faces of both her granddaughters, noted some hint of tension and kept her own counsel.

‘Annabella!’ The scratching at the door was insistent, as was the whisper outside. Annabella slid out of bed and went across to the door. The light had begun to seep around the bedroom curtains but it was still very early.

‘Who is it?’ she whispered, suddenly nervous.

‘It is I. Alicia.’ Her sister slipped into the room, fully dressed. Behind her was Caroline Kilgaren. Both were smiling, almost radiant with bright excitement. It struck Annabella as most inappropriate given the somewhat grim circumstances.

‘What on earth—?’ she began crossly, only to be shushed by Alicia. Caroline shut the door with exaggerated care.

‘We have come to help you get ready for your wedding,’ Alicia said, her eyes sparkling. ‘Will would
have come to ask you himself, but James and Marcus would not let him out of his room lest he were seen! But he says that if you refuse he will come for you anyway! He gave me a message for you, Annabella.’ She frowned slightly in an effort to remember the words precisely. ‘He said that he had told you he would marry you as soon as he could, and the time is now. Will you come?’

She watched as Annabella’s green eyes filled with tears. ‘I think he loves you very much,’ she said gently, adding as the tears started to overflow, ‘Caroline and I have been discussing it and we really feel you should agree to marry him!’

That fortunately had the happy effect of making Annabella laugh, although the sight of Caroline bringing forward the silver and gold dress she had worn for the ball at Mundell almost made her cry again. The two girls worked silently, helping Annabella into the dress and arranging her hair in an elegant cascade of golden curls. At the end, Alicia stepped back and sighed.

‘Oh, you look so beautiful!’ She had a lump in her own throat now. ‘And here—’ she produced a battered jewel case ‘—are the Stansfield diamonds. A fitting occasion for them to be worn again!’ She hugged her sister. ‘Our grandmother gave them to me to give to you specially. She is to be there this morning, for she says that, having missed my marriage to James, there is no chance that she will miss yours as well!’ She clasped the jewels around Annabella’s neck where they glowed softly with pale fire.

The little chapel at Oxenham had not been used for many years and the old priest was in retirement on
the estate, but he had answered a summons from James Mullineaux to come to officiate at his sister-in-law’s wedding. There, with two candles burning on the altar, Will Weston took Annabella St Auby as his wife.

At the last minute, descending the faintly lit stair, Annabella had clutched at Alicia’s arm. ‘Oh, Liss, is it not rather dangerous?’

Alicia had paused. ‘Not really. Marriage is difficult sometimes, perhaps, as you well know, but not dangerous precisely…’

‘No…I meant this…now. It is morning and if anyone were to be about…’

‘Oh, yes…’ Alicia was preoccupied with keeping her footing in the dark. ‘But if Will is prepared to do this for you, Annabella—’

‘I know, but suppose Harvard were to guess and burst in!’

‘This isn’t the Middle Ages, you know! This is a private house, and I doubt that even Captain Harvard would be prepared to risk everything by attempting to raid the premises!’

There was a moment’s silence, then Annabella stopped again. ‘Liss…’

‘Yes?’ Alicia had started to sound quite irritated.

‘How can Will and I be married when the banns have not been read?’

‘Because Will has a special licence, Bella! I believe he procured one a while ago—’

‘Oh, I see! Will
assumed
that I would agree to marry him—’

‘Yes, he did! And he was right, wasn’t he?’

And now they were indeed man and wife, and the
priest was saying the blessing, his benign face wrinkled in a smile. Behind them, Alicia and James were looking besottedly at each other, Caroline and Marcus were holding hands, and even Lady Stansfield had a misty look on her face. Annabella stood on tiptoe to kiss her new husband.

‘Now you have Larkswood back again,’ she whispered irrepressibly, and saw him smile, but he did not answer.

Lady Stansfield, trying not to yawn at the earliness of the hour, kissed her grand-daughter and her new grandson-in-law, and then Alicia and Caroline escorted Annabella back up the stair to her room and helped her out of the wedding dress.

‘Well,’ Annabella said, a little inadequately, ‘what shall I do now? It can only be nine o’clock, but I suppose I should get dressed properly.’

‘Why not go back to bed for a little?’ Caroline suggested pragmatically, but with a twinkle in her eye. ‘You had a very tiring day yesterday, and Will has been ordered to rest, but perhaps he would like to share a breakfast here with you first…’

She dismissed Annabella’s high-necked cotton nightdress with a wave of one hand, bringing forward one of Alicia’s delicious gauzy creations. To Annabella’s mind this was rather filmy, revealing far more than it concealed, and she was suddenly overcome by an extraordinary wave of shyness.

‘Oh, but surely—’ she could feel herself colouring up ‘—is this not a little impractical for breakfast? Something more modest…’

Caroline raised an expressive eyebrow at Alicia.

‘There will only be yourself and Will here,’ Alicia
said, trying not to laugh, ‘and there is a wrap to go with the nightdress…here…’

The wrap was no more concealing than the nightgown, Annabella thought, obediently putting it on. She was suddenly beset with nerves. It did not appear to help when she told herself that she was no innocent, and that she had already spent a night with Will, albeit in different circumstances. She had longed for this moment, but now she was afraid. Her experience of Francis’s lovemaking had not been a pleasant one, after all, and despite the pleasure she had found in Will’s kisses, there was no guarantee that matters would be any easier with him…She managed to frighten herself so much that when Will came into the room some fifteen minutes later, he found his bride huddled under the blankets and looking at him with distinct nervousness.

Will smiled a little, bringing a bottle of champagne and two glasses over to the bedside and sitting down on the edge of the bed as though it were the most natural thing in the world for Annabella to suddenly find him invading her bedroom. He poured for them both and raised the glass in a toast to her. The champagne bubbles tickled Annabella’s nose as she looked at him warily over the rim of the glass, the sheet tucked tightly around her.

As well as the champagne, Will had brought soft bread rolls, still warm from the oven, with rich golden butter and honey. Annabella, surprised to find herself hungry, ate and drank her fill and finally set her glass down rather reluctantly. Will yawned suddenly.

‘Lord, I’m still so tired! My shoulder aches…
Could I…would you mind if I were to rest for a while…?’

Annabella immediately felt guilty. ‘Oh! Your shoulder! I almost forgot. Of course…’ She turned away, deliberately averting her gaze in an agony of shyness as Will wearily stripped off his clothes, slid into bed beside her and blew out the candle. There was a moment of tense silence, then Will sighed again.

‘Annabella, I’m so sorry, would you mind if I just hold you gently? I feel a little cold…’ He did indeed sound very fatigued and Annabella reproached herself for her self-consciousness when Will was evidently too tired to care about anything other than his physical discomfort. The flimsy, transparent nightdress need not matter, she reassured herself. He would not see it, and at least it would provide a barrier between them…

Will moved closer to her and Annabella was suddenly acutely aware of his body curved against hers, even through the almost non-existent encumbrance of the nightdress. Contrary to what he had said, he actually felt very warm. She could feel his chest brushing against her back, his thigh just touching hers, the gentle caress of his lips against the sensitive skin of her neck. He slid his good arm around her, pulling her closer, and settled down with a relaxed sigh.

Annabella found herself unable to rest. She was acutely and intensely aware of both him and the inconvenient demands of her own body. Her mouth was dry and it was not nerves that quickened her breathing now. The more she tried to distract her thoughts, the more they obsessed her. She imagined Will lifting the swathe of honey-coloured hair from her shoulder and
sliding the silky material away so that he could press his lips to her naked skin. Suddenly she wanted him desperately. She gave an involuntary moan. Will shifted irritably.

‘Whatever is the matter, Annabella?’

Annabella wriggled frantically to try to get away from him but he held her still. A delicious ache of anticipation in the pit of her stomach now threatened to overwhelm her. Her nerves had fled but she was frantic that Will should not guess her state, not when he was tired and hurt, and needed only to rest. She wriggled again.

Will rolled away from her, pulling her over on to her back in the process. Annabella opened her eyes to see him leaning on one elbow looking down at her. It was very dark in the room and she could not discern his expression. His fingers were absentmindedly entwining themselves in the curls of hair that nestled at her throat, just grazing her skin with the lightest of caresses. Annabella tried to ignore the tiny tremors of sensation which his touch was awakening.

‘I’m so sorry,’ she said in a rush. ‘I know you are tired, but I find I cannot sleep. Perhaps I should read for a while, or get up and dressed—’

Will’s mouth coming down on hers cut off any other inanities that she might have chosen to utter. Annabella’s gasp of mingled surprise and pent-up relief was lost, as were any coherent thoughts that had previously been in her mind. She was helpless with desire, weak with the taste and feel of him. And he lingered over the kiss, prolonging their pleasure until Annabella was almost begging him to move on, dig
ging her fingers into his back, pressing against him with abandonment.

It was then that Annabella discovered just how wickedly erotic her borrowed nightdress proved to be, for it fastened with a series of small buttons down the front which Will was now proceeding to undo with thorough and tormenting slowness. His lips brushed the hollow of her throat, pressing a trail of tiny kisses downwards. The material parted slightly, tantalisingly, and he traced its progress to the cleft between her breasts, sliding the silky fabric away slowly so that he could bend his head to her sensitised nipples. Annabella writhed beneath him, pulling him hard against her, but he resisted her blandishments.

‘Oh, no, sweetheart…I’ve waited a long time for this and I don’t intend to hurry…’

Annabella twined her fingers in his hair as his hands and lips continued their wicked provocation. The nightdress finally slid away from her shoulders and arms, leaving her naked to the waist. And Will had finally lifted his head from her breasts and was moving downwards again, hesitating once more over each button, his mouth still following the path of his fingers to stroke and caress and tease. His fingers skimmed the soft skin of her stomach, and the fluttery, demanding ache within Annabella intensified. She arched against him, desperate with need. With a gentle movement, Will turned her on her side so that she had her back to him and they were lying as they had been at the start. But this time Annabella was shockingly aware of his arousal, the hardness of him pressed against the curve of her bottom. She gave a little gasp.

Will’s fingers moved to cup her breast and she
gasped again, willing him to end this torment. The nightdress was unfastened as far as her hips, but its slippery folds were entwined about them in a manner which suddenly seemed excessively stimulating. Then she felt Will’s hands move to undo the last buttons and the material fell away.

His leg slid between hers, his fingers straying across the softness of her inner thighs. Annabella’s eyes were open wide as she drifted with the unimaginable pleasure of Will’s touch. She slid onto her back again, her lips parting as Will raised himself above her to reclaim her mouth in a kiss as deep as it was protracted. His hands were on her hips as he moved her beneath him. And when he finally put an end to all waiting, taking her with a fiercely gentle demand, Annabella thought nothing of the past and was enveloped in the exquisite fulfilment of the present.

Later, lying amidst their tangled sheets, with the candle relit and the champagne consumed, she looked somewhat accusingly at her husband.

‘I thought that you were tired, Will! I was at great pains not to disturb you—’

With one swift gesture, Will pulled back the tumbled bedclothes and considered her naked body, holding the sheet out of her reach when she would have snatched it back.

‘I defy anyone not to be disturbed by the feel and the touch of you,’ he said softly. ‘And if I was a little less weary than you imagined, well…No—’ as she made another determined grasp at the sheet ‘—you denied me the sight of you before, Annabella—I insist that now I make up that deficit.’