Oh Ella, you are the embodiment of loveliness and vibrancy.” Tolling church bells sent ripples of excitement across the yard, half drowning Matilda’s close whisper.
Ella took her sister’s gloved hands. “Only because I am so happy.”
“Yet not so much as him, I daresay.” With the words, her sister’s gaze flew to where the groom was being engulfed by the arms of his son. “Now go and say your goodbyes too, Lady Sedgewick.”
Ella hurried a kiss onto her sister’s cheek. “You had better take the best care of him.”
“With mother in charge, you may depend on it.”
Ella’s laughter mingled with the last chime of the bell. Despite the rules of consanguinity and affinity, the vicar had been willing to perform the wedding ceremony. She was no longer just the woman who loved Lord Sedgewick.
She was his wife.
With one hand rescuing her trim from muddy ruin, she swept to the landau, which had been crowned with wreaths, tulips, and sweet-smelling lilacs.
Henry planted Peter back on his feet. “Have you no kisses for my bride, Son?”
With eyes strangely shy, Peter glanced up at her. “Are you not Miss Pemberton anymore?”
She bent next to him before she remembered the soggy ground. “No, Peter.”
“You’re not Miss Woodhart either.”
“No, I am not.”
Tiny brows came together, with an almost knowing smile. “What shall I call you?”
With mirth bubbling over into another laugh, Ella pulled him against her, pressed loving kisses against his cheek. “You may call me Mamma if you wish. What do you say to that, hmm?”
His arms tightened around her neck. When he finally pulled away, the sweetest moisture brimmed his gaze. “Can I come too?”
“Oh rubbish, dear.” This came from Ella’s mother, who snatched his hand in her lace glove. “One never takes a child on a wedding trip.”
“Why not?”
“Just because,” she said. “We shall find many more pleasures at home. You shall see. Now blow them both a kiss, my dear—and the two of you be off!”
They needed no more prodding. In one quick motion, Henry hoisted Ella from wet grass and whooshed her inside the landau.
A servant shut the door behind them. “All ready, Lord Sedgewick?”
“Yes, carry off.”
The bright yellow wheels turned through mud, several hands waved in cheer, and one last dong sounded from the bell tower.
Henry reached for her hand. With a smile that traveled from one glowing cheek to the other, he peeled away the glove from her fingers. “I like it better this way,” he said, as his lips caught her knuckles. “Do you not agree, Lady Sedgewick?”
She laughed, nuzzled her nose into his, then dropped an eager kiss upon his waiting lips.
As the landau carried them away, the strangest silence befell them. It was comforting, serene, a thrilling world exotic to them both.
For the first time, there was no curse.
And the silence was beautiful.