He half-bowed to her. “You look amazing.”
“Thank you.” Color stained her cheeks despite her attempts not to be affected by him. “Mary’s overseeing the loading of my things into the carriage, and she’ll include a basket as well. If we don’t stop too often, we should make it to your family’s farm before sunset.”
“I’ve never made it there so quickly.”
“Because you don’t have a matched team pulling a carriage, and lots of people stop you to talk to you.”
“You’re right about that.”
“You’re a very sought-after man, Sir Matthias Northland, but for the moment, you’re mine,” Sapphire said with a flippant confidence she didn’t feel.
He grinned. “A day alone with my bride and no interruptions? I’m a very lucky man.”
She tried to resist his boyish charm and instead found herself smiling back at him.
Sir Matthias offered her his arm. “I can’t wait for you to meet my family.”
There was an earnestness in his words that tightened the knot in her stomach. She’d make sure he didn’t regret marrying her, and that meant making a good impression on his family. Sapphire wasn’t certain how to do that, but she’d do everything in her power not to disappoint him, now or ever.
She laid her hand on her husband’s sleeve, and Sir Matthias escorted her out to the carriage already hitched with a fresh team of horses. He handed her into the conveyance, then sat beside her.
Excitement mixed with a strange nervousness as the coachman closed the door, leaving Sapphire alone with her husband.
Chapter 13
As the carriage left the city, Sapphire eased back against the squabs. News of her marriage would have reached her grandfather. If not through someone he had watching her, then Lord Bartley would have told him.
Another reason to leave the city.
She’d leave it behind along with the gossips, the indiscreet whispers, and the fear.
Her grandfather would be waiting for her when she returned, but word of her marriage would’ve already spread. It would be far harder for him to act against her, but not impossible.
Once she and Sir Matthias announced their marriage at the Duke and Duchess Valerian’s ball, Lord Henry Carsons would be a fool to act against her. Even if he did, Sir Matthias would inherit her fortune.
At least until Sir Matthias asked for the divorce she’d promised him, but then the money would be entailed to charity. By then, her grandfather’s spite would demand he destroy her. She didn’t want to imagine what he’d plan for her, but her mind drifted there anyway.
As if sensing her dark thoughts, Sir Matthias slid an arm around her and told her an amusing story.
Within minutes, Sapphire was smiling as much as the kids at the orphanage had when he was there.
Her husband was already enthralling her servants, and inside of a month, her staff would have forgotten a time when he wasn’t in the house.
Sir Matthias’s charm made him easy to like. But he was also kind and competent, a rare combination.
Sapphire relaxed against him and let herself enjoy the sound of his voice, the feel of him warm and strong beside her, and the rich scent of him surrounding her.
While the journey promised to be long, the coach was well sprung, and the warmth of her husband chased away the chill.
Her husband.
Sapphire swallowed at the thought, but there he was beside her. Tall, strong, and impossibly handsome. His arms tightened around her, protective without feeling oppressive. If she wanted to move to the other side of the carriage, he’d let her go, and that made it safe enough for her to want to stay beside him.
Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to endure her wifely duties to him. She couldn’t imagine him holding her down and… Sapphire swallowed the thought, not allowing it a place in her imagination.
Lord Musgrave and Lord Bartley were both despicable men, and while they might do something like that, Sir Matthias was nothing like them.
But then her father hadn’t been either.
Sapphire stared out the window as her mother’s warnings wound through her head. How much of what Julianna Darrington said could Sapphire believe? Her mother had been remarkably sheltered in some ways, but so insightful in others.
No one moved through the ballrooms of Aerius like Julianna had, even stained as she was by who’d she’d married. Julianna had understood what the most eminent hostesses wanted, needed even, and she’d given it to them.
In turn, it had secured Julianna Darrington, wife of a merchant captain, a place among the social elite. A stupidly wealthy merchant captain, but still a merchant captain.
When it had come to finances, overseeing the household staff, or helping the less fortunate, Julianna Darrington had been helpless.
Hopeless was more like it.
Sapphire wondered how her father had endured such ineptitude. But then Sapphire had never really considered what her parents’ marriage had been like.
They’d slept in separate rooms, which was common among the aristocracy, but they’d also led separate lives.
Captain Gregory Darrington had seldom attended social engagements, whereas his wife had gone out almost every evening.
Sapphire’s father had busied himself with trade, particularly when routes to Qumaref opened, land ownership, and mercantile interests. He’d also been a devoted a father.
From everything Sapphire had witnessed, her father had treated his wife kindly, but he’d never displayed affection toward her.
The gossips said Captain Darrington loved his wife desperately, and that was why he’d paid her family a rich dowry to marry her. Why he’d gifted her with such an extravagant home, the finest clothes, and an army of servants.
But most of the people that said that hadn’t known Captain Darrington all that well, nor had they known material goods were not a measure of his regard.
Perhaps her father had loved her mother, and because he was a good man, he hadn’t wanted to engage in the unpleasant things her mother had described.
Yet, Sapphire existed, and there’d been a madame of great repute in his will.
Blowing out a breath, she admitted to herself that she didn’t know, would never know, and it didn’t matter. She’d promised Sir Matthias they’d try to make a marriage work, and that included all aspects of it. Even if they were less than pleasant.
While she could endure that, she was far more worried about further losing her heart to him. Feared her heart would mistake physical intimacy for something it wasn’t. Another thing her mother had warned her about, and something she’d witnessed herself when an acquaintance had fallen prey to a young lord’s sweet words and amorous advances.
She would need to remember that and be careful. Sapphire didn’t want to fall any further down Rashalee’s path of greed, lust, and jealousy.
“Is everything all right?” Sir Matthias asked, interrupting the dark path her thoughts had taken.
“Nervous about meeting your family.” Not a lie, but not the truth, either.
He kissed her temple. “There’s a lot of them, and they can be a little rowdy at times, but they’re going to love you.”
“I hope so. They mean a lot to you.”
“Did I ever tell you about the time my brother burned down the chicken coop?”