Chapter Nineteen
The evening sunlight filtered through the canopy of leaves and branches to spill in small pools and spots upon the woodland floor. There were still some patches of pale yellow primroses, although the heads of the bluebells had gone over. In their place were the tiny blue flowers of forget-me-not, bright splashes of colour amidst the earthy browns and greens of the soil and grass. A dove was cooing softly, sounding above the song of the smaller birds. Arabella walked on, small dry twigs crunching beneath her boots.
She followed the path as it curved its way around some mighty ancient oaks and then she hesitated, for there, coming closer and closer, was the shadowed figure of a horseman cantering along the pathway towards her. And there was something terribly familiar about the rider. As the seconds passed and as he came closer she recognised the dark clad man.
She stared and her heart seemed to cease beating and her lungs to cease breathing.
He was dressed impeccably in a dark tailcoat and buff-coloured riding breeches, with black highly polished top boots. His hat, gloves and riding crop were held together in one hand. The dappled sunshine touched red highlights to his hair and the breeze had stirred it to a sensual disarray.
‘Dominic?’ she whispered. Was it really him? Or just a product of her own wishful mind?
‘Arabella.’ His face had never looked more filled with love. There was no trace of the anger or hurt she remembered from their last meeting; he just looked glad and relieved to see her. He slipped down from his horse and came towards her, and there could be no mistake.
‘Oh, Dominic!’ She could not prevent herself from running into his open arms. She buried her face against his chest and he held her tight. ‘Dominic.’
She heard the murmur of his voice and felt his kisses against her hair and the stroke of his hands against her back. And then she remembered. Smith. His threats. And she was suddenly desperately afraid of what she might have betrayed.
‘Forgive my reaction. I was a little overcome by the shock of seeing you here.’ Her voice, for all she was trying to sound sober and unaffected did not sound convincing even to herself. She made to pull back, to disengage herself from him, but Dominic’s arms tightened around her so there was no escape. She dared not look at him, not trusting herself to play the role that was required to protect him.
‘You have come to visit Archie.’ Her throat was so tight the words sounded stilted, awkward, teetering too close to breaking down.
‘I have come for you, Arabella.’
There was only the whisper of the wind through the green canopy of the leaves above.
Slowly, unable to fight against it any more, she raised her gaze to his. His eyes were a deep dark velvet. ‘You cannot. You must not.’ She clutched at the lapels of his tailcoat, in a silent plea. ‘You do not understand!’ She looked away, knowing she was handling this all wrong.
‘Arabella, it is all right. I know about Smith.’
Her heart gave a flutter and fear twisted cold and hard in her stomach. ‘You know?’ She felt the blood drain from her face and Dominic’s arms tightened around her. She looked up at him with dawning horror. ‘You cannot,’ she whispered. ‘You cannot know. He will kill you, for pity’s sake! Dominic, he will—’
But he placed a gentle hand at the nape of her neck, calming her panic and forcing her to look at him.
‘Arabella, I have taken care of Smith. He will do nothing. You and Archie are safe.’
‘It was not about me.’
‘I know what it was about.’ He stroked her hair. ‘But I am safe too.’
‘Thank God,’ she cried and held him to her, and pressed fierce kisses to his neck, his chin, his cheek. ‘I was so afraid—but how?’ And the coldness of the thought that followed. ‘Oh, my word, he did not publish, did he, all that he threatened?’
‘He did not publish anything, Arabella, nor will he.’ And then he told her. That Smith was not Smith at all, but Viscount Linwood. And why Linwood had done what he had done. He told her, and finally Arabella understood.
‘You are certain?’
‘Nothing can ever be certain, Arabella, but I do not think that Linwood would risk the damage to his sister’s reputation, nor Misbourne to his daughter’s.’
She thought of the pretty, quietly spoken girl in the apothecary’s shop in London, and this time it was sorrow that she felt for Lady Marianne. ‘You would not really destroy her, would you, Dominic?’
‘You know I would not. But as long as Misbourne and Linwood believe otherwise we are safe.’
She did not know how long they stood in each other’s arms on that silent woodland path. Time lost all meaning. Arabella knew only that he was safe and her child was safe, and that, somehow, everything was going to be all right.
She looked into the eyes of the man that she loved and had so wounded. ‘I have deceived you over so many things since that night in Mrs Silver’s. And I am sorry for every one of them. I love you, Dominic.’
‘I love you too, Arabella. And it is I who am sorry. I cannot forgive myself for what I did to you in Mrs Silver’s, nor for what I did afterwards. I should have helped you, not made you my mistress.’
‘Perhaps,’ she nodded. ‘But had we both chosen a different path it might not have led us to a better place. Would your father’s deception ever have come to light? Would I ever have told you of Archie? We cannot know, Dominic.’
‘We cannot,’ he agreed and he looked at her with such tenderness that she could not doubt he loved her.
The sunlight had faded, casting the surrounding woodland in the mossy greens and deep browns of twilight. The air was growing chilled, but Arabella’s heart was warm.
‘The sun is sinking, Arabella. I had better get you back to your mother before she thinks I have carried you off. She looked rather worried when I appeared at her door this evening, but she did tell me the direction you had taken.’
‘Poor Mama. I am afraid I have not been very honest with her either.’ And she explained the rest of it. ‘So many lies.’ She shook her head.
‘But all are out in the open now.’
She nodded. ‘No more dark secrets.’ It was such a relief. She smiled. ‘When did you arrive from London?’
‘Late last night.’
‘And you are only just come to find me?’
‘There was much I had to organise this day.’ He smiled in a mysterious way and then he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her with a gentleness and care that mirrored the love in her heart.
‘I have missed you so, Arabella.’ His voice was low and guttural and filled with the same need that burned in her soul.
Their mouths merged, their lips revelling in the reunion . Her hand slipped beneath the lapel of his tailcoat, beneath his waistcoat to rest against his chest. Through the lawn of his shirt she could feel the warmth of his skin and the smattering of hair upon it, and she pressed her palm flat, feeling the strong steady beat of his heart. He eased back and looked into her eyes.
‘I had better take you home, before I forget myself upon this woodland path and make us both the talk of the village.’ His fingers brushed against Arabella’s nipple and she gasped with the sensation that shivered through her.
‘I fear we are already that,’ she whispered. ‘Everyone has seen Archie. I fear they have guessed the truth, Dominic.’
‘There is nothing to fear any more, Arabella. Everything is going to be fine.’
‘Is it?’ she asked.
‘Yes, my love. It is.’ And he kissed her again. A deep kiss. A kiss of passion and of love. A kiss that spoke of how he had missed her. She gave herself up to him, wanting to hold him for ever and never let him go, lest this all turned out to be a dream that would escape her on waking.
She felt him deepen the kiss, felt the warmth of his caress and the strength and safety of his arms. And then he stopped and looked into her eyes with such love and intensity.
‘I must take you home now,’ he murmured, ‘or I will forget myself.’ One swift last kiss and then he tucked her hand into the crook of his arm, grabbed the reins of his horse and began to walk her back in the direction of the cottage.
Arabella glanced down at his breeches at his obvious arousal and when she met his eyes again she was smiling.
‘You, Arabella Tatton, are a very wicked woman. It is a good job you are going to church tomorrow morning,’ he said and he smiled.
‘Do hurry along, Archie, or we are going to be late,’ Mrs Tatton scolded as they followed the woodland path the next morning in the direction of the church.
‘Trojan is still eating his hay,’ Archie explained to his grandmother, and gestured to his pretend horse. ‘We shall soon gallop fast and overtake you.’
‘Trojan?’ queried Mrs Tatton to Arabella.
Arabella smiled. ‘It is the name of Dominic’s horse.’ She smoothed down the skirt of pale blue silk and wondered if the dress was too much for the village church, but she knew Dominic would be there and she wanted to look her best for him.
Mrs Tatton smiled in return. ‘I am glad you have sorted matters with Dominic.’
‘I am too.’ Arabella felt a warm glow of happiness.
‘So, what is to happen between the two of you now?’
‘In truth, I do not know, Mama. We have not yet discussed it.’
‘Well, surely the betrothal will be reinstated and he will want to take you back to London?’
Arabella felt the smile fade from her face and some of the old tension was back. ‘I am not so sure about that. The city does not hold such good memories for either of us. But I will do whatever it takes to be with you and Archie and Dominic.’
Her mother nodded, and as Archie galloped his imaginary Trojan past them they exchanged a smile.
There was not another soul about as they neared the church, and, indeed, the church door was closed.
‘We must be very late.’ Mrs Tatton took hold of Archie’s hand, quickly smoothed the dark ruffle of his hair into some semblance of order again and hurried both him and Arabella towards the church.
Arabella pushed the heavy church door open and let her mother and son pass inside before her. After the bright sunshine outside it took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the dim interior of the church porch.
‘Arabella.’ Reverend Martin sounded close by. ‘My dear girl.’ The vicar had a definite air of excitement about him and she wondered what had happened to make him so.
‘Arabella!’ She heard the catch in her mother’s voice.
‘Mama?’ And then she looked through the open door into the nave where her mother was staring. The whole church was filled with flowers and greenery. At the end of every pew a large posy had been tied in place, so that the aisle was edged with flowers of pinks and purples and creams the whole way down to the altar. Garlands had been draped beneath the beautiful stained glass windows, and two massive matching floral displays stood on either side of the altar. Arabella stared in disbelief.
‘What…?’ she began to say and then she saw the two men dressed in their finest dark tailoring standing side by side at the front of the church. The low buzz of conversation increased as those at the back started to spread the word of her arrival and she saw the taller of the two men glance around and meet her eye.
The whole world seemed to stop. Her heart stuttered before racing off at a hundred miles an hour.
‘Dominic,’ she whispered and clasped her hand to her mouth as the significance of it all hit her.
‘I know it is unusual, but in the absence of your dear papa and, if it is pleasing to you all, I thought that Mrs Tatton and young Archie might wish to walk you down the aisle and give your hand to the duke.’ Reverend Martin was looking at her with a gentle expression of understanding upon his face.
‘Thank you, Reverend,’ said Mrs Tatton. ‘If Arabella will have it, I would be proud to.’
‘What is happening, Mama?’ Archie tugged at her hand and stared up into her face.
She shook her head unable to believe this was real and not some dream.
‘Mama?’ Archie tugged harder.
She bent so that she might look him level in the eyes. ‘Dominic is to become your papa and my husband. You are the man of the family and you must help Grandmama take me to him. Will you do that?’
‘Yes, Mama. I would like Dominic to be my papa.’
Arabella smiled and she tucked her right hand into her mother’s arm and took hold of Archie’s little hand with her left. And with Reverend Martin following on behind them Arabella walked down the aisle.
Dominic had never seen her look more beautiful. There was such a look of wonder and surprise upon Arabella’s face that he felt his heart swell with love. And when Mrs Tatton placed Arabella’s trembling hand into his and stood back to leave her standing by his side, he had never felt so proud.
He knew that all of the village were filling the pews behind him. And that Reverend Martin was speaking the words of the marriage ceremony, but Dominic could think of nothing other than the woman standing so tall and beautiful by his side. He loved her completely and utterly. He had loved her since first he met her when she was a girl of fifteen. She was mother to his son, and when they left St Mary’s she would be his wife.
Hunter cleared his throat and passed Dominic the wedding band to slip upon the third finger of Arabella’s left hand.
‘With this ring I thee wed. With my body I thee worship…’ He swore his oath before God and all the village. And Arabella swore too.
‘Those whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder…I pronounce that they be Man and Wife together.’
Arabella was smiling as he took her in his arms and kissed her.
She was his. At last.
It was such a glorious day of happiness for Arabella and it passed far too quickly. After the ceremony the villagers scattered rice over her and Dominic as they left the church, in accordance with tradition, and waiting outside were two gigs, one decorated in cream silken ribbons and pink roses and purplish-blue freesias, the other in pink and purple ribbons with white roses. Dominic lifted her up into the first gig with the cream ribbons, and she watched while Archie and her mother were helped up into the other gig. Then they were off to Shardeloes Hall, where long tables packed with food had been set out on the lawns of the front gardens and a band of musicians were already playing. A great party was just starting to which the whole of the village had been invited.
They ate and they drank and they danced, all the day through. And the sun shone from a cloudless blue sky and the breeze was gentle and soft, and the peacocks displayed the finery of their tails. And as Dominic took Arabella into his arms and waltzed her round the lawn Arabella thought there had never been a more perfect day and she told him so when he led her up the stairs to bed that night.
‘Arabella,’ he sat her down upon the bed. ‘There is still something I must give you.’
She smiled and, taking his hands in hers, kissed his fingers. ‘You have given me everything I could want—yourself and Archie. You have made me your wife. What more could I possibly want?’
He loosed his hands from hers and from a secret pocket inside his waistcoat he produced something she could not quite see, something golden that glinted in the candlelight. ‘I have had it these weeks past; I always intended it to be one of my wedding gifts to you.’ And then he unfastened the chain that was coiled in his hands and she saw it was the locket he had given her all those years ago. The same locket that had been stolen from the room in Flower and Dean Street and that she had never thought to see again. He moved behind her and draped it around her neck. Her skin shivered from the soft brush of his fingers against her skin as he fastened it in place.
‘How on earth did you find it?’ she asked.
‘I hired a couple of very good thief-takers to recover it for you.’ He smiled.
The golden oval lay warm against her breast. She opened it and there inside were the tiny miniature portraits of herself and of Dominic from all those years before when they had first fallen in love. And the curled lock from Archie’s hair that she had placed between. The tears misted her eyes so she could no longer see the portraits properly.
‘Oh, thank you, Dominic, thank you so very much.’ She turned to him and kissed him.
‘More tears?’ he teased softly.
‘I am just so happy,’ she managed to say between sobs and the tears streamed all the more.
He took her face gently between his hands and wiped away the flow of tears with his thumbs, looking deeply into her eyes.
‘I love you, Arabella. You are my duchess, my life, my very heartbeat. Without you there is nothing.’ He kissed her so tenderly, so sweetly. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him with all the love that was in her heart.
‘I love you Dominic. I have always loved you. I will always love you, until the end of time.’ She kissed him, and she knew theirs was a love that would never die. It had survived lies and mistrust and separation. Nothing would ever part them again. And when she felt his fingers against the laces of her bodice she rose to her feet and stood there while he stripped the dress and her undergarments from her body. And then slowly she teased the clothes from his body, brushing her breasts against the nakedness of his skin as she did so, delighting in the increasing harshness of his breathing and the tension that rippled throughout the toned muscles of his torso as she skimmed her fingers across it.
‘Arabella…’ He gasped as her fingers played with the buttons of his breeches without unfastening them. ‘God help me,’ he uttered and divested himself of his breeches at a speed unlike any she had seen before. And then his bare body was against hers, pressing her into the softness of the mattress. She was wet and warm and aching for him. She opened to him and felt him fill her, and she needed him to make love to her, wanted it, to complete their union of this day.
‘Love me, Dominic,’ she whispered to him as she nibbled at his ear lobe, and her hands slid to pull the firm muscle of his buttocks harder to her as if she would drive him deeper within her. They moved together, and he loved her and she loved him, loving and loving, their bodies worshipping each other, until they finally erupted in an exploding ecstasy of love and mutual pleasure and his seed spilled within her.
And when they had rested, they loved again—the whole night through.
A shaft of sunlight streaming through the window woke Arabella the next morning. She looked around her to make sure that yesterday and last night had not been some wonderful dream. But the heavy gold wedding band upon her finger and the large warm naked body snuggled next to hers reassured her it had been real. ‘Good morning, Wife,’ he murmured and her gaze flew to his to find the clear brown eyes awake and watching her. ‘Good morning, Husband.’ She smiled and felt his hand move upon her breast.
The sound of small running feet sounded in the passageway outside the duke’s bedchamber in Shardeloes Hall.
‘Mama? Where are you, Mama?’ a small voice called.
Arabella laughed and rose, quickly pulling on her dressing gown that was lying across the carved wooden chest at the bottom of the bed. She threw the large dark coloured dressing gown by its side up to Dominic.
‘You had best prepare yourself for your son, your Grace.’ Then she hurried to the door and opened it to look out into the passageway where Archie was running. ‘Here I am, little lamb, and your papa too.’ She pulled him into her arms and kissed his forehead. ‘Have you run away from your grandmama again?’
‘Yes, Mama. I have been awake for ages and she is still snoring.’
So Archie came and climbed into the bed between Arabella and Dominic and the three of them snuggled down together.
‘Are you going to let me see Trojan today?’ he asked Dominic.
‘Not Trojan,’ said Dominic.
‘Oh,’ said Archie in a disappointed voice.
‘I thought you might want to see Charlie instead.’
‘Charlie?’ Archie was staring at his father with great wide eyes. ‘My Charlie, that Gemmell made for me?’
‘Your Charlie, indeed, and from where do think Gemmell carved him? The real Charlie has been waiting here for you all along. He is your very own pony, Archie.’
Archie threw his arms around Dominic’s neck. ‘Oh, thank you, Papa! Can we go and ride him right now?’
‘After breakfast,’ said Dominic with a laugh and ruffled Archie’s hair.
Arabella looked at her son and her husband and she knew that this truly was her happy ever after.