Daisy felt terrible, and looked to Leland for advice.
But the earl spoke first. “We’re all sorry to see you go,” he said. “Leland will take care of your wages, and likely here and now if I know my man. But at least I can help you with your other predicament. No need to take the public stage, I’m going tomorrow morning, too, Mrs. Masters. I’d be happy to take you north. It’s on my way to Egremont.”
Leland smiled and looked at Daffyd, who shared his silent appreciation. The earl’s estate was south of where they were, but Geoff hadn’t even asked Helena’s destination or knew how far north it was. But he was the sort of man who hated to see anyone left on his own.
“Of course I’ll settle the matter of wages,” Leland said. “But see what an expensive wife I’ve got! Married not ten minutes and already demanding my money.”
They laughed. Daisy joined in, not because of the quip, but because it seemed to her that her new husband liked to use the word “wife.” And for a wonder, for the first time, hearing herself called that didn’t cause her heart to sink.
The guests began to toast them again, and they joined in the merriment.
After an hour, a servant in green and white livery ducked into the inn’s common room, looked around, saw Leland, and went to him. Leland spoke with him for a moment, nodded, and sent him out again. Then he took his wife aside, and spoke quietly to her.
“This is amusing, but we shouldn’t outstay our welcome,” Leland told her. “So we’ll stay on here, celebrating, for a little while longer. But then we must leave. A bride and groom who linger too long at their own celebration give rise to gossip just as surely as those who can’t wait to rush off and be alone.”
His eyes were grave and sincere as they studied her. “And you and I must begin this right. I want our marriage to be as little cause for gossip as my life was cause for it before we met.”
“Then you shouldn’t have married a convict,” she said bleakly.
He turned so that his body shielded her from the eyes of the guests.
“Had I married a nondescript little nun of a girl in her first Season, with a bishop for a brother, they’d gossip more,” he said in a low voice. “I don’t mind that. It’s you I’m thinking of. But as for your history? I’d wager that if we sat down, bared our souls, and compared our relative notoriety, I’d win, hands down. But there are much better things for us to bare and compare.”
He smiled, and then shook his head at her involuntary start. “No, don’t worry. It wasn’t a threat or a promise, just a jest. I hesitated to take you back to my house until all the guests had been tossed out and we could be alone. I’ve just been assured that we will be-apart from my long-suffering staff, that is. Speaking of the staff, I’ve also been assured that they are ecstatic at the turn of events and eager to meet their new mistress. Who would have guessed that a wedding and the possibility of a quiet life in future would excite so many people so much?”
His voice gentled, and he smiled. “Including myself. Come with me, if you please, my lady. My pleasure palace awaits us, and so does our duty. We have to make it a home again.”
Chapter Nineteen
“This is it?” Daisy asked, astonished.
“In comparison to my principal seat, where my mother lives, yes it is,” Leland said. “It’s small enough to be manageable, and it’s entirely mine, alone. Not any longer, of course; now it’s ours.”
Daisy looked out the carriage window at his home as it came into view. She’d suspected something out of the ordinary after they’d turned from the main road and passed a gatehouse where a gatekeeper, goggling at their carriage, trying to see inside, let them in. Then they’d gone along a lane that curved and snaked so as to keep showing spectacular views of the grounds of some fabulous estate. But Leland only said they were nearing his humble home, so she assumed the estate was a near neighbor. She and her father had lived in a small manor house adjacent to a magnificent house and lands. It was this noble neighbor’s lands that her father had poached until he’d overdone it, been charged, convicted, and sent far away.
Now they passed huge walls of rhododendron that Leland said he regretted were out of bloom, and she’d gotten glimpses of fountains and statues on distant green lawns, and glints of blue in the distance that was surely a lake. Daisy saw deer that stopped to stare at them and sheep that ignored them altogether as they grazed on long green meadows. She spied a waterfall that spilled into a stream that twisted beside the road until it ran beneath a bridge they crossed, and then rushed away. The coach went over an Oriental bridge, up a hill, and under an arch. And then she saw his home.
It was a sprawling red house with wings on either side, and it embraced a shining white oval of a front drive.
Servants in green and white livery stood on the white stairs to the house, and the big front door was opened wide. Leland got out of the carriage and turned to offer his hand to Daisy.
“Welcome,” he said. “I hope you’ll like it here.”
She paused in the doorway of the carriage. “It’s as big as London,” she whispered in awe.
“Not quite. We lack a tower and a palace, although they say the ruler of this place is just as dissolute as our prince. But I hear this fellow’s turned over a new leaf, taken a new bride, and promises to become as staid as anyone could wish. Come, meet my staff. They’re yearning to be presented.”
“I’ve never lived in a place such as this,” she said as she came down the carriage stairs.
“You’ve lived with worse and survived, haven’t you? I think you could get used to this, if you try. You will try, won’t you?” he asked, his eyes suddenly solemn.
She laughed. “Oh, my lord, it will be a hardship, but I promise, I will try!”
She was as good as her word. The household staff stood in a reception line, and she accepted their well wishes, never letting them know how stunned she was by how many of them there were. She met the butler and the housekeeper, the cook and her assistants, footmen and maids, coachmen, stablemen, gardeners, and assorted outdoor workers. Daisy lost count of them and realized she wasn’t that far off thinking her new home was as big as London. It was, in fact, a small city of workers, and though they all looked happy, well fed, and content, they beamed at Daisy as though she’d come to deliver them.
“They’re delighted that I’ve taken a wife, and one with manners and dignity,” Leland explained in an aside as they finished greeting the last of the servants.
When they were done greeting her, the assembled staff burst into applause. That almost made Daisy burst into tears.
“My lady is overwhelmed, as am I,” Leland told his staff. “I know all will go well from now on. Thank you for your patience in the past, and for your well wishes today. I’ve asked Cook to prepare a special menu for you all today so that you can celebrate, too. Again, thank you.”
After another burst of applause for his speech, the staff silently and swiftly dispersed. Soon Leland and Daisy were alone in the front hall.
“Your maid’s already ensconced upstairs,” Leland said. “I’m sure you’d like to change so I can show you ’round.”
“Oh, yes, I would,” she said.
“Good,” he said as they began walking up the long, ornate staircase. “That gown
She laughed. “I’m not beautiful enough to answer that.”
“Of course you are,” he said mildly. “I might not keep peacocks, but I’m impressed by their beauty. I didn’t marry for beauty, but I’m delighted to have a lovely wife.”
“You flatter me after we’re married?” she asked with a grin. “Now that’s something wonderful.”
