AgeofInnocence Read Online Free

her since he’d proposed, for reasons
she would not understand.
    “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”
    “The flowers you sent were lovely. And the ring too.” She
held her fingers at an angle, admiring the emerald.
    “Oh, it was just something I picked up.”
    “Thank you,” she said.
    “Lettie, there is something I need to explain.”
    “No, there isn’t. I know it was all very sudden and that you
had no immediate wish to marry.”
    “You are correct about the immediacy, however, I have never
been opposed to marriage. I had hoped for a favorable union. Someday.”
    “I hope you have found that with me or that you will find
it. Someday.” Her gaze was shimmery, as if there were some heartfelt emotion
behind her words.
    The longer they talked, the more his thoughts skimmed to the
night ahead. There would be houseguests, enough that they would be kept busy
for several days. And possibly nights. Ferd would make sure they were all
properly entertained.
    He had no plans to enter his wife’s bedchamber while anyone
resided in the home. Postponement was a temporary strategy, one that a
non-virginal wife might not appreciate. It was also why he had made no
arrangements for an excursion to the Continent or to the country. He was not
ready to be alone with his wife.
    Ferd had thought about his new life’s condition. “I do not
think we will make each other unhappy.”
    “I have loftier goals, Ferdinand Ford. You see, I intended
to be deliriously happy. And I hope you will be happier than that.”
    She gave him one of those bright smiles again before
glancing away and staring out the window. Happier than deliriously happy? For
him, that was only going to happen if he could sustain an erection long enough
to impregnate his wife.
    Flowers.
    Green eyes.
    And a happy spirit.
    Peace was a strange emotion. He hadn’t felt it in six weeks,
but after hearing her declaration and sitting across from the woman who now
bore the title of Mrs. Ferdinand Ford, he did know for sure they would not be
unhappy. In fact, he thought they might already be closer to the middle than at
either end. For how much more did he dare hope?
     
    Outside Whitfield House, a fabulous gift from her ducal
husband, the carriage rolled to a stop and Lettie glanced out the carriage
window to see all was in order. Several of the guests had already arrived and
their children were waiting outside to shower them with flower petals as they
exited the carriage.
    There were more than flowers. The petals rained down,
someone released several doves and then there was the sound of several popping
fireworks.
    The cacophony made her husband smile while she clapped her
hands, as delighted as any of the children. She did feel strangely happy.
    Lettie gripped her husband’s arm as he led her up the marble
stairs and into a foyer teeming with guests. Perhaps it was the joyful chatter
of the crowd or the loud and laughing children that seemed always underfoot,
but the mood in her home was astoundingly festive and continued thus throughout
the day.
    She understood the mood as many of her friends kissed her
cheeks or clutched her hands and said, “I hope this time it lasts.”
    It was a strange, sad sentiment amongst the well wishes.
Deep down, where doubts and fears resided, she desperately hoped it lasted too,
because staring at her new husband made her feel as if she would lose something
precious if it happened again.
    The doors had been pushed wide and the dance floor had been
arranged with tables and chairs while the far walls were lined with colorful
decorations and one long table that held mounds of food—sweets and cheeses and
fruits along with breads and jams, cured hams, rashers of bacon and hot plates
that covered several egg dishes.
    The toasts began almost as soon as Lettie and Ferd had taken
their place at the head table. His brothers toasted with naughty rhymes, his
sister teared up and couldn’t finish what it was she wanted to say.