Page 55 of Love, the Duke
CHAPTER16
MAN’S PRACTICAL GUIDE TO APPREHENDING A THIEF
SIR BENTLY ASHTON ULLINGSWICK
A pleasant distraction may cause a thief to surrender.
Hurst walked out his back door and looked out over the well-tended garden. He thought he was supposed to be nervous on his wedding day and have a spot or two of brandy to get him through the pageantry of it all. Surprisingly, he wasn’t the least anxious and he hadn’t had a drop to drink. He was eager to wed Ophelia and begin his life with her. Truth be told, he would have married her the day she came to his house as Mr. Warcliff if there hadn’t been a waiting period on getting the special license to wed.
He’d wanted sons and daughters and the opportunity to be the kind of father his father never was. It had taken him time to admit to himself she was the one for him and he’d almost let her slip through his hands, but fate stepped in and sent her to his door.
After she’d rejected his first proposal, if she hadn’t come to him, he would have been back to her door again and again until she said yes. She was passionate and curious about life and what happened in the marriage bed. There had been no doubt about that when he’d held her in his arms and kissed her. Her response was everything a man could expect from a lady’s first experience with sensual feelings. The excitement between them had been fervent and earnest. He couldn’t wait to be alone with her.
Sunshine glared brightly in his eyes. The blue sky appeared to be popping white cotton ball clouds across the expanse. The tepid air felt more like midsummer heat than mid-spring chill. Birds chirped, bees buzzed around, and a couple of butterflies fluttered nearby, sipping from the blooms on the extra pots of flowers brought into the garden for the wedding. From the far end of the lawn a pianist, cellist, and violinist played softly.
The few guests he’d invited had assembled and were chatting. As if they’d been watching for him, Wyatt and Rick excused themselves from their wives and headed his way. Hurst had no doubt what they wanted to talk about before his bride arrived. In truth, he had no problem indulging them a little.
“You’ve been avoiding us,” Wyatt said as he stopped and propped a foot on the bottom step where Hurst stood.
“Is it any wonder?” he replied with a bit of humor in his voice.
Rick snorted a laugh. “Not at all. I would have been avoiding you too if I had been caught in your position. That was a hell of a sparring match you and Miss Stowe were putting on when last we saw you.”
“With good reason,” Hurst didn’t mind saying.
“No doubt about that, but I want to know,” Rick said with a quirk of his head, “did you win or lose?”
Hurst grinned. “As for the argument between the two of us, it’s anyone’s guess, but I won her hand and that’s what I wanted.”
“After all these years you have looked for the right lady, are you sure she’s the one you’ve been waiting for?”Wyatt asked, all teasing and amusement gone from his tone and features.
“Completely,” he answered with no wavering. “After all she and I have been through since we met, I can’t wait to make her mine.”
“Did you know she was the one for you the first time you saw her as you always suspected you would?” Wyatt continued his probe.
“Yes, and no,” he admitted honestly as he caught Rick’s mother, the Dowager Duchess of Stonerick, smiling at him. He gave her a nod.
“And that doesn’t bring up any doubts that she might not be the one for you?”
Hurst inhaled a deep breath and looked at the colorful flower-and-vine-covered arbor he had erected. He knew and understood why his friends were tackling him with questions. By no means would he tell them everything, but perhaps they deserved a few more details given their long-held friendship.
Looking from one to the other, he acknowledged without qualm, “She was dressed the way you two saw her the first time we met. The situation we found ourselves in at that time didn’t lend itself to be one of thinking along the lines of romance, marriage, or even fate.”
“And are you all right with that? And her dressing as a man?” Rick asked.
“No,” Hurst said with a shake of his head. “I’ll explain it all one day. Today’s not the time.”
The friends looked at each other with what could have been mild concern. Wyatt was the first to speak. “I don’t mind admitting that I’m dying of curiosity the reason she was dressed as a man when we saw her.”
Rick rubbed the back of his neck. “And I find myself lying awake at night wondering what the devil she wasdoing in a chest tied with a bow and why she had cause to slap you when she came out of it.”
The three men looked at one another and all started laughing. That would cause one to scratch his head looking for a reasonable answer to something that wasn’t reasonable. Hurst wasn’t going to try to explain that.
“Keep wondering and lying awake at night, my friends. I can’t tell you everything I do or that has happened, but I have no doubts she is the lady for me.”
“Then she has our blessings,” Wyatt conceded.
Rick agreed with a smile, a nod, and a shrug.
