“We will scandalize the household,” she said airily. “But I am terribly charmed by your willingness to take a walk with me on the wild side.”
He blinked and stared at her as if he could not figure her out. Phoebe flushed but refused to lower her gaze from his.
“I can be quite capricious,” she murmured. “Now it is your turn to tell me one of your qualities.” For she was desperate to know something more about this man she would soon be married to and one she would be bound to for the rest of her life.
Dear God. Her heart started to race. This was forever. Marrying a man she knew so little about.
His fingers lifted, then he hesitated, and she felt his frustration like a tangible entity. For a moment, she had forgotten his limitation.
His condition struck her forcibly then. The man she was about to marry was mute. So many questions crowed through her mind, and her heart ached for him. Had he always been mute or was it the cause of an accident? A soft breath shuddered from her at the realization learning about each other would prove even more challenging.
“I…I…” She was not certain what to say.
His expression shuttered to polite civility, and he guided her from the room. Phoebe snuck a few glances at his side profile, unable to understand the sudden pounding of her heart and the anxiety she felt. When Caroline saw them, she stared at their feet for a bit before she smiled and hurried ahead to the chapel. There was a connecting door that they went through, down a narrow corridor. The floor beneath her feet was chilly stone but smooth, and the walls of this hallway, which led to the chapel, were gray stones.
The door was already open, and when they stepped through, Phoebe faltered. Caroline waited at the front with the older man from yesterday. He appeared a bit wan, but he was impeccably dressed in a jacket and suit, with a gray striped waistcoat and cravat.
A man who looked to be a clergyman also waited. She could feel their stare on her high rounded belly, then to her stocking clad feet. The old man looked ready to growl when he noted the Viscount was also without shoes. A slight tug on her arm had Phoebe sliding her feet forward and grabbing Hugh’s arm tightly.
This is my new family. A pounding ache went through her heart. She did not want to lose her old family, even though she knew the duke and duchess would not look at her with such patience and understanding. It baffled her that the older man and Caroline could regard her without any condemnation despite her ruination.
They halted before the man and Caroline. He removed his arm from her and signed. She gathered this was an introduction.
The old man nodded a few times, and his green eyes upon her, while not exactly warm, were not cold, either.
“I am very pleased to meet you, Lady Phoebe,” he said with a gruff yet sincere charm. “I am Edward Winthrop, the Earl of Albury. Welcome to our family.”
Her throat went tight, as too many emotions rippled through her heart. “Thank you for your kindness, Lord Albury,” she said, dipping into a curtsy.
“Well then, let’s get on with it. I won’t live forever,” he said grumpily.
Startled, Phoebe glanced up at Hugh to see that there was a hint of a smile across his mouth, and his eyes were warm with humor. They were all so different from what she had feared; it made no sense. She was obliged to think she had fallen in with a family of charming eccentrics. Inexplicably, she felt overwhelmed, and as they turned to face the Minister, Phoebe tried and failed to suppress a chuckle.
It wasn’t soft or sweet, but rich and full-throated, one the duchess usually rebuked her for. The viscount squeezed her fingers and she glanced at him. “I do,” she said softly.
He stiffened, and then a slow and an utterly alluring smile curved his lips. The earl grunted and sent her such a suspicious glare, it wiped the smile from her mouth. When they faced forward to say their vows, Phoebe silently promised to make the best of her marriage.
Even if there were no love, she would not mind, for she did not need that bit of silliness in her life again. But I’ll make us work. I vow to respect this second chance I am given; I will always act with dignity and decorum…and our marriage shall not be cold at all.
Chapter Seven
About an hour after the minister had pronounced them husband and wife, it occurred to Hugh that he had no notion of what exactly to do with his wife. Staring at her carefully contained expression as she ate the last morsel of cake on her plate, he wondered, What now? He’d satisfied one of his father’s biggest hopes, but how did the cog of her fit into the wheel of his life? Her role once they reached London society was evident to his mind, but what about before then?
It would be months, perhaps even a year, before they could venture to England. It would not be safe for her to travel too often given her pregnancy. Those were the strict instructions of the doctor this morning, and Dr. Edward was a man renowned in Edinburgh for his medical talent.
Phoebe’s confinement should be as stress-free as possible to ensure the safe delivery of the child. And afterward, she would need a few months to recuperate her health and energy.
There it was again. That odd weakness that assailed his heart whenever he thought of the child and that in a few weeks he would assume the role of a father.
What will be required of me?
Taking a deep breath, he steadied himself against the feelings.
“It starts,” his father muttered crossly by his side, tugging at his cravat. “Bloody hell, I warned you, didn’t I? And what did you do? Ignored me and now it has started!”
“What starts?” Hugh signed distractedly, keeping his gaze on his wife.
His heart jolted. He might never get used to the idea that he now had a lady to call his own. The idea that he must marry and now seeing the reality of her were vastly different experiences.
“You are staring at her like a hungry wolf,” the old earl snapped, thumping his cane and drawing Phoebe’s and Caroline’s attention. “First, acting so scandalously in wearing no shoes to the chapel and then this! I can tell that bit was her idea!”
“It was.” And how bold and sweet she had been, very reminiscent of the lady who had penned those fascinating letters. The fear and the uncertainty of the previous night had melted away this morning, and what had glowed in her eyes had been a sort of watchfulness as she took stock of her surroundings and the people in the castle. “I admire that she does not bow to conventions.”
That admission made his father’s scowl turn blacker. “You’ve not been able to take your gaze from her for more than an hour! That is unseemly, my boy, and your preoccupation already shows that you find her compelling.”
Do I find you compelling, Phoebe? No immediate response came back to that silent demand, but he would be a liar to deny that something different and unknown had been stirred inside him from that very first letter he’d received, and it had not abated.