| |
Millie is a timid and young lady betrothed to Charles, the duke of Camborne. Her life seems perfect until her mother reveals to her, that what will happen on her wedding night will not be pleasant for her.
Charles is looking forward to a loving marriage with Millie, but when their wedding night turns into a disaster, their relationship stagnates and never have a change to blossom.
Ten years later a chance encounter at Charles’s mistress gives them the opportunity for a second wedding night.
***
London, 1792
Millicent Fawkes, Millie, was probably the most beautiful woman in the room. No, definitely, the most beautiful woman in the room. Perhaps in the whole city, Charles Montagu, the sixth duke of Camborne, corrected himself as he looked at his bride to be.
She was wearing a pale grey dress with so much silk embroidery that it looked silver. It accentuated her ice blonde hair and her light blue eyes, giving her an ethereal look like a fairy queen. Charles had to stop himself from constantly looking down at her as they walked around the large ballroom decorated in gold colors in Camborne House, talking to the guests at their engagement party, her at his arm.
“We’re so looking forward to the wedding,” everyone said, and Millie would smile, nod, and make a sweet and charming comment. Charles could only stand back and watch. She was perfect in that way. He found it difficult to small talk with people he hardly knew. His friends, other members of the party and people he had known his whole life he found easier to talk to. But it was beyond him to manage the innate nonsense of people he cared little about in a way that seemed as natural and kind as Millie’s.
But it was not the only way that she was perfect. She read a lot, as did he, and they had several conversations of philosophy, science and even politics. He could imagine them sitting by the fire at night, discussing the books they were reading.
And later, of course, they would retire to the bedroom. Charles found it difficult to wait until she was completely his. He constantly had to stop himself from thinking of what their wedding night would be like in order not to have an erection in front of five hundred of the most important people of the ton.
Even though it was a match arranged by their fathers years ago, Charles had thought it a splendid idea when he saw Millie again earlier this year. He had not seen her for three years but seeing her sweet smile and talking to her had convinced him that, even if his father had not arranged the match, he would have pursued her himself.
His father had died last year, leaving Charles with the responsibility of the dukedom at the age of five and twenty. He had thought it best that they married since he had no brothers and thus a distant cousin was his heir. Since Millie had just turned eighteen earlier that year, it could not be a more ideal time.
“Would you like a refreshment?” Charles asked as they returned from their round of the gold decorated ballroom and were back to her parents.
Millie nodded and smiled.
“Yes, please,” she said in her sweet voice. For a moment her eyes rested on him before she shyly looked away. Charles felt his mouth go dry. He had yet to kiss her, afraid that if he did, he would take it too far.
“I’ll be right back,” he said as he made his way towards the anteroom with the table of refreshments.
Someone slapped his shoulder as he entered the room and he turned to see his schoolfriend, Hugh Winterbottom. Charles slapped him back, although not as fiercely; they were not adolescents any more. Soon he would be a married man.
“She seems nice,” Hugh said as they made their way to the table.
“Nice,” Charles mumbled, because it did not seem to cover at all what Millie was.
“A bit timid though, but I think the two of you will suit,” Hugh said as he took a glass of champagne.
“Do you think so? That she’s timid,” Charles said as he took a glass of champagne for himself and a glass of lemonade for Millie. He had not thought her timid at all. Perhaps she was not the most outspoken, but they always seemed able to find a topic for their conversations when they had a moment to speak just the two of them.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t think that it would bother you,” Hugh said as they made their way into the ballroom again. “After all, you are rather timid too.”
Charles looked around and shushed him with a smile.
“People aren’t supposed to know that,” he said, “They are to think that I’m aloof and arrogant.”
It was a joke between them. Hugh was by far the more outgoing where Charles was more introverted. Hugh used to say that he was the smart and charming one, and Charles would retort that that would make him the brilliant and contemplative one.
They had reached Millie and her parents, and Charles handed Millie the lemonade with a slight smile. He received a slight smile in return and felt something bubble in his stomach – or was it his chest? – that made him smile wider. Millie returned his smile before she looked away again. Yes, she was certainly going to be the perfect wife.
***
Millie walked aimlessly around her room, opening the drawers of her dressing table for the tenth time to make sure that everything had been packed. Most of her belongings had already been sent to Camborne house. Tomorrow she would be the sixth duchess of Camborne, but more importantly, she would be the wife of Charles Montagu.
He was by far the handsomest man that she had ever seen. He was tall, had dark blue eyes and golden hair that was cut rather short since he found it beneath him to spend too much time on his appearance. He had not told her as much, but she had gathered it from their conversations during the past few months.
He was too busy to be a dandy and spend hours tying his cravat in just the right way. He wanted to make a difference. Use his power as a duke to change the world for the better for those less fortunate, at least just a little. Again, not something that he had told her, but something that was written between the lines of everything he said and did. He was the most perfect man that she had ever met and in only fourteen hours she was going to be his wife.
Millie tried to sit down but found that the butterflies in her stomach made it impossible to sit still. She got up again, aimlessly surveying the room. Without her belongings here the light blue walls and the white furniture seemed simply a shell that anyone could inhabit. But this was how it was supposed to be. Even though the match had been arranged by their fathers she had known that she would readily have accepted him had it been a formal courtship.
Her hope was she could make Charles proud. She had noticed at their engagement party that he would stand back when they were talking to somebody as if he was assessing her. If only he did not find her wanting. She so wanted to please and help him with his work in the House of Lords as best she could.
There was a firm rap on the door and Millie stopped her aimless wandering around the room and tried to keep her voice steady as she said:
“Enter.”
Her mother stepped in the moment after, closed the door and sighed deeply.
“Well, this is always the awkward part about your daughter marrying,” she said as she took a seat in the chair by Millie’s dressing table and made Millie sit on the bed with a gesture of the hand.
Finally. Millie could feel the butterflies tenfold by every second that her mother was not speaking. This was when she would finally learn what was going to happen on their wedding night. She of course knew that the wedding night entailed that they would share a bed and be intimate in some way, but still had not figured out how that was going to happen.
“Well, there is no reason to procrastinate,” her mother said as she was looking at the candle on Millie’s nightstand and not at Millie. She moved her gaze to Millie’s and held it as she said: “What is going to happen tomorrow night is not going to be pleasant.”
Millie sat back startled but did not say anything.
“It will most likely hurt,” her mother went on as she was looking at the candle again. “But your husband won’t want to know about that. He will want to take his own pleasure from your body. You can only pray that he will be satisfied after doing it once.”
Millie felt her jaw go slack. That sounded even more terrifying than what she had been expecting.
“What...” she began but had to clear her throat. “What exactly is going to happen?”
She needed to be prepared. She could not believe that Charles would hurt her, but perhaps there was no way around it. At least from what she had picked up in the ladies retiring room at parties the act was necessary to have children. And she did want those, at least four of five, so she would have to endure it multiple times it seemed.
Her mother cleared her throat still not looking at her.
“You know that men and women are created differently,” she said, motioning slightly towards her lap.
Millie nodded. She had found a book in the library where men and women were depicted without their clothes on. She had been startled to see the contrast between the man and the woman, but also utterly fascinated.
“Mama, won’t you please tell me? I’d like to be as prepared as possible,” she pleaded as her mother did not go on. She usually never pleaded, but she needed to know.
“Well, he will lay on top of you and put his... manhood in between your legs,” her mother was telling the candle on the nightstand. “This will hurt,” she said as she looked directly at Millie. Then she looked back at the candle: “After the first time it usually doesn’t hurt as much.”
Millie gulped. That at least was reassuring. The thought of Charles laying on top of her seemed intimidating though. He was a lot larger than her. Perhaps some of the pain came from being crushed?
“The best you can do,” her mother continued talking to the candle, “is to spread your legs and wait until it is over.”
Millie looked at her hands in her lap. She was fidgeting with the skin around her nail which she knew her mother hated and immediately stopped. She looked at her mother, her whole face turning crimson even at the thought of asking, but she had to know:
“Is there no pleasure in it for the woman?”
Her mother shook her head fiercely as she looked at her.
“None, whatsoever, and you should not expect to find it, Millicent. And now I think that we have covered all there is to say about that. Goodnight.” She quickly left the room, leaving Millie to stare at the candle on the nightstand as if it might hold some answers.
***
Want to read more? A Second Wedding Night can be found permafree where you normally buy your books, for example Amazon, Apple Books, Google Play and Kobo.