How to Seduce a Bride

Chapter Nineteen

“This is it?” Daisy asked, astonished. “This is your little country home?”

“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 is magnificent, but I worry that the trailing tulle will get caught in the rosebushes or dragged through the stable yard, or excite the chickens so much they’ll stop laying. Yes, I do have chickens. I hope you’re not appalled. I know gentlemen should have peacocks, but they’re such idiots. Mind you, a peacock’s intellect is a notch below that of a chicken’s, who are no geniuses themselves, but at least I don’t feel guilty about eating a chicken. They are rather dim, you know. Yet still it seems a pity to demolish a wonder like a peacock merely for one’s dinner, as the Elizabethans did. Which is why, I suppose, being beautiful is always an advantage. Did you find it so?”

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.”

“I don’t flatter,” he said in bored tones. “It’s demeaning, at least for the flatterer. I merely comment.”

“Then, thank you,” she said, so pleased and surprised, she didn’t know what else to say.

The room he showed her to was immense, and so opulently furnished that she caught her breath. But unlike most great houses she’d seen in illustrated magazines, for all its size and splendor the bedchamber was filled with light and seemed modern and airy. The great canopy bed, big enough for a family to sleep in, was hung with peach panels and covered with a sumptuous apricot-colored silk spread. The furniture was graceful and light, fashioned in the Chinese style the prince had made famous with his pleasure house at Brighton. Even the mantelpiece over the fireplace was made of rose-colored marble. The walls were covered with yellow and white stretched silk, and the paintings on those walls were of the sea and sky. The windows overlooked gardens, and it seemed they’d come inside as well, because everywhere there were vases and baskets of bright flowers.

Daisy peeked into an adjoining room to see a dressing room, and when she opened another door, found a second one. There were bathing facilities behind another door: a huge bath, fit for a Roman spa, and an indoor toilet. She swiftly changed out of the gown she’d been married in, and washed, admiring the beautiful marble water basin. She dallied only because she’d never seen a toilet that flushed before, but soon shook herself from the novelty of flushing, and dressed. She put on a simple yellow walking dress, comfortable slippers, and a straw bonnet. With a last backward glance at herself in a looking glass, she left her room. She couldn’t wait to see what else lay ahead for her.

Leland was waiting at the foot of the stair. He, too, had changed, and was dressed like a country gentleman, or rather, she thought, like a London gentleman who had dressed as a country gentleman. Because though he wore a scarf tied carelessly around his neck, no squire had ever worn such a well-tailored green jacket, such immaculate linen, such tightly fitting wrinkle-free gray breeches, or such shining brown half boots.

She smiled. He’d be a paragon of fashion if he had to dress for mucking out a barnyard.

“Yes,” he said, as though reading her mind. “Clothes do make the man, don’t you think? Especially when the man isn’t fortunate enough to command a lady’s attention otherwise.” He smiled. “I know, that’s the past, there’s only one lady’s attention I want now. Even so, I suspect it would be hard to get out of the habit of dressing to suit the occasion. I’m afraid you’ll have to put up with a fop. Unless, of course, it disturbs you?”

“No,” she said, smiling. “I don’t think that caring for your appearance means you’re a fop.” Especially, she thought, when one had endured a husband who bathed only when he felt too hot, and whose idea of fashion was to put on a clean shirt.

“Good,” Leland said, offering her his arm, “Now let’s go. I have so much to show you. My housekeeper won’t bother you for instructions because it’s our honeymoon and you haven’t any duties until it’s over. Let us hope it never is,” he added. “The rest of the staff will also stay discreetly out of our way. So we must entertain ourselves. Shall we begin?”

They strolled down paths to see rose gardens and wisteria arbors, herb gardens and knot gardens and rhododendron walks. His gardeners paused to salute him and show her their prize blooms. Her new husband showed her statues and fountains, and then a huge gazebo that overlooked an artificial pond that suited the real carp in it to perfection.

“These fellows are all tamed, and looking for crumbs,” Leland said, seeing her delight when the fish came to the edge of the pond and bubbled up their greetings to her fingertips when she touched the water. “They’re ornaments, really. But we’ve streams that feed a larger lake on the grounds, if you care to see real fish or go fishing. It’s too far to walk today, but if you like, we can ride there tomorrow.”

“I used to go fishing,” she said, her expression turning somber. “Remember, that’s partly the reason I was transported. I helped my father as he helped himself to our neighbor’s fish.”

“I’m sorry to bring up bad memories,” he said sincerely.

“I don’t mind,” she said, looking up at him. “I’d like to see the lake. I actually enjoyed fishing.”

Her straw bonnet was a flimsy affair; the wide holes in the weave let in the sunlight. The sunlight brought out the gold in her ruddy hair, and had already begun to inspire a light dusting of freckles on the bridge of her nose. Her eyes glowed with pleasure. The sunlight also clearly delineated her form, because her gown was so thin. For once, that wasn’t what held his attention. He studied her face instead. She was very beautiful, and very happy, which made her even lovelier.

“We’ll go there tomorrow,” he said. “I don’t want to exhaust you today.”

Her joyous expression vanished. She looked down at the fish again, her eyelashes shadowing her eyes. He frowned, wondered what had dismayed her.

“Oh,” he said. “I see. The comment about not wanting to exhaust you today? Don’t worry, it had no double meaning. It is our wedding night. But if you don’t want to begin our marriage tonight in earnest, or in the marriage bed,” he added, smiling, “we can wait. We have after all, forever. Or at least as long as it takes for you to invite me to join you in pleasure.”

She looked up at him in surprise. Her first husband had taken her away with him the moment the prison ship’s captain had finished reciting the wedding service. Tanner had laughed, grabbed her hand, dragged her to his cabin, tossed her on his bunk, flipped up her skirt, thrown himself on her, and done it. The act had taken much less time than the wedding ceremony and had terrified her even more. Leland expected her to invite him to do that? She sighed. She supposed she’d have to. But at least he was giving her time.

“Thank you,” she said. “I would like to get to know you better.”

“Now that,” he said, offering her his arm again, “is brave of you. Come, I’ll show you the prize of my home.”

He walked her down a path and up another, and then paused. She looked across a stream and another long lawn, and clapped her hands in glee. “A maze!” she cried. “How wonderful! I’ve read about them and never seen one.”

“So you shall,” he said comfortably. “I love it if only because it proves that my ancestors were just such frippery fellows as myself. My father was such a grim, dour, humorless man that I often wondered if my dear mama had got me off someone else, as she did Daffyd. But, alas, no. I resemble my late papa, in features, at least. He didn’t care for the maze at all. Spending a fortune to erect and then maintain it down through the centuries? He considered it wasteful and unproductive. It didn’t produce vegetables, fruit, or wood, and you couldn’t hunt or graze animals on it. He didn’t understand the reason for a maze because the word ‘play’ was alien to him. But luckily he was too conservative to destroy it. I’m very pleased that he didn’t; it’s the only living link I have to anyone in my family who remotely resembles me.”

“Your mother didn’t appreciate it?” Daisy asked.

“My mother didn’t appreciate anything but attention, and though I suppose she could get that if she pretended to get lost in the maze with a handsome stranger, she had no use for it otherwise. My brother Martin is bored by it, maybe because he knows he’s not heir to it and he’s only interested in what is his. Daffyd’s amused by it. Would you like to go in and see why?”

“Yes!” she said eagerly.

The maze was dark green, some twelve feet high, and made of ancient, thickly woven, manicured shrubs. Once they entered the doorway cut into the hedge, the air became closer and the heavy green smell of freshly cut vegetation was strong. The pebbled paths were so narrow, they had to walk close together, and it amused Leland to let Daisy decide the turnings they should take. After a while, she stopped, put her hands on her hips, and looked up at him.

“You are much too amused,” she said crossly. “And I’m much too smart to keep walking in circles. I’ll never find my way out without help.”

“The point is,” he said gently, “to find your way in,” he said, as they began to walk again, taking what seemed like casual left and right turns at random openings in the hedges. “My ancestors would have parties and award prizes to whomever found the heart of the maze first. No one knows the secret path to it but the heir-and my brothers and your friend Geoff, of course. And no doubt, my mama. And the head gardener, and I suppose his helpers, and my butler and housekeeper as well.

“A secret just isn’t what it used to be,” he said, shaking his head in mock sorrow. “I can feel the weight of my ancestor’s disapproval for sharing it so freely. But what if I came in one day and expired on the spot? It would take centuries for me to be found if someone didn’t know the way in. Ah, here we are. What do you think?”

Daisy stepped through another doorway in the hedge and stared. The sun shone brightly on the center circle, a clearing of some twenty feet all around. The centerpiece was a larger-than-life-sized statue of a nude Venus being held by an equally nude and obviously passionate Mars. They were ringed and applauded by a host of nude cherubs. It was so grandly presented, it was hard to equate with the fact that it was positively pornographic.

The statue was framed by four curved marble benches placed at equal distances at the side of the circle, the perimeter was solid hedge, and above them, a clear blue sky.

“It is,” Daisy said carefully, “certainly not conservative.” And then she put her hand over her mouth to stifle her giggles.

“Yes,” Leland said, sounding very pleased. “It drove my poor father mad, I understand. He wanted to take it down, but venerated his heritage too much to touch it. Lucky me. I mean, of course, lucky us. Would you care to sit down a while before we go on?”

He led her to a marble bench, waited until she was seated, and then sat beside her. He stretched out his long legs and gazed up at the sky. “The idea behind the centerpiece, of course,” he said casually, “was that it would inspire whatever lovely creature my ancestor brought in here with him to romance, or a reasonable version of it. After all, she couldn’t leave until he told her how she could. So I suppose he made it a forfeit. And I understand, from ancestral memoirs, that this was a very popular place. Well, but they were freer with morals in those days,” he murmured. Then he turned his head and looked down at her. “Inspired?” he asked with interest.

He was so close that one of his lean, well-muscled thighs almost touched hers. She felt he was even closer. She smelled lavender and lemon, and something else, something intangible, something of sunlight and darkness, sweet and thrilling, which was his very essence. Her body thrummed, knowing he was so near.

He wasn’t a handsome man, not remotely so. But he was compelling, which was fascinating. His eyes were truly beautiful, though, she thought irrelevantly: a different, darker, more intense blue than the sky, filled with intelligence and… desire. She’d recognize that anywhere. His skin was clear, his mouth was well shaped, and he was vital and real, and waiting here beside her. And now he was her husband.

She swallowed hard.

He looked at her lips, then her eyes. He hesitated, and then sighed. “No,” he said with sorrow. “You’re not inspired. Ah, too bad. I suppose you’re listening to the cautions of the ghosts of too many foolish ladies who were lured here. So am I. It was a bad notion. Forget it and forgive me. I don’t want to remember them, either. Well, rested? Ready to go on?”

“To what?” she asked nervously.

“Not to heights of sensual bliss, alas,” he said with such mock sadness, she had to smile. “That’s clear. No, we should go back to the house. The sun is sinking; it will be twilight before long. On the way I’ll show you a lovely brook, and the home wood. There’s a doe that comes to the edge of the wood at sundown; I confess I encourage her to. I carry a small block of salt in my pocket whenever I’m here, and the silly beast thinks it tastes better than anything in the whole wide meadow she grazes in.”

He rose, and so did she. For a moment, standing there, looking up at him, she felt the urge to rise up on her toes and kiss him, so she’d know if what she’d experienced before had been real.

But a kiss could lead to unpleasantness, frustration, and the feeling of captivity she hated, and she found she liked him too much to dislike him so soon. So she simply put her hand on his arm and walked out of the maze with him, head down, watching her steps, thinking she was a coward, and then thinking she wasn’t, she was a realist, and so she said nothing at all. But neither did he.

“Tell Cook she has exceeded herself,” Leland told his butler as he rose from the dinner table. “She was inspired. I’d applaud, but I’m too full to exert myself.”

“She’ll be pleased, my lord,” the butler said, bowing.

Daisy smiled. Dinner had been delicious, but it was just simple, well-cooked English food. Surely a world traveler and sophisticate like Viscount Haye had eaten better.

“I know,” Leland whispered in her ear as they left the room together, “But Cook excels at simple country fare. She does it better than any French chef could. I don’t ask swans to sing, or nightingales to be beautiful: to each his own expertise. A wise man shouldn’t expect more than a person is capable of. The trick is finding that skill and appreciating it.”

“You read my mind,” she said simply. “You do that a lot.”

“Good,” he said. “See you remember that when you sigh over another gentleman, will you?”

“I won’t,” she said. “Sigh over another gentleman, I mean.”

“Don’t be so sure. I don’t mind the sighing. I would, if it were anything more. Now, we could go to the salon, or the library, or wherever you choose. But it is past dinnertime, and our wedding night. I think the staff would be horrified if we didn’t repair to our bed. I didn’t mind one whit what anyone said about me before, but I find I’d be dismayed if we did anything to inspire gossip now. It’s odd how one becomes a slave to one’s servants, isn’t it? Don’t worry, if you’re not sleepy,” he said. “Neither am I. But never fear, I’ll find something for us to do.”

Daisy stiffened. She knew he would. Well, she thought, better now than later. They could get it done, it wouldn’t take long, and then she could act more naturally with him. It wasn’t as if it was something she hadn’t done hundreds of times before. In fact, she didn’t have to do anything but endure it, and try to remember men were men, and so it shouldn’t change her feelings about him forever. Because she did like him, very much.

It would be best to get it over with. She realized she was too on edge now, waiting for the moment, it made her nervous and her conversation stilted. She missed the way they’d been before they’d married. They’d certainly laughed more.

“Go on up,” he said, pausing at the foot of the stair. “I’ll follow, soon.”

She trudged up the stairs, and then remembering the omnipresent unseen servants, raised her head, pasted on a smile, and went bravely to her bridal chamber.