a cheerful room, is it?” Ash asked, going to the window. “At least our portmanteau has arrived.”
The little trunk sat before the cold hearth. No telling when the rest of the trunks would appear. “Perhaps we should light the fire,” Della said. “The sun is out for now, but evening approaches.”
Ash came away from the window. “Would you like to change into a dressing gown?”
Della had eschewed the services of a lady’s maid—she was a new bride, for pity’s sake—and appreciated Ash’s solicitude.
“Let’s wait for the tray to arrive, then I’ll change.”
“I’d forgotten this place has a maze,” he said. “As boys, my brothers and I played there by the hour. Every large family should have a maze.”
Della suppressed a shudder. “We have a maze at Belle Maison. Susannah fell asleep reading there one summer afternoon, and Mama nearly had an apoplexy when Suze didn’t show up for supper. After that, the earl gave orders to have the hedges cut to waist height.”
“You don’t refer to him as your father?”
They had so much to learn about each other. “When his lordship was alive, I called him Papa. He was in every way an affectionate and doting parent. I think he worried that I would not feel loved once Mama died. Nick says that Papa felt guilty, that the old earl concluded Mama would not have strayed had her spouse been more devoted. Their marriage was a product of an earlier era, so who knows how they went on?”
Ash took a spill from the jar on the mantel. “Here is how we will go on. I will be faithful to you, and I expect faithfulness from you in return. We will be that sort of couple.” He kissed her on the mouth, a now-see-here kiss, then disappeared into the corridor, returning a moment later with the spill lit.
He used the flame to start a fire laid on the parlor’s andirons, then used another lit spill to start the fire in the bedroom hearth. This was probably a typical husbandly consideration, though Della had no way to know for sure.
“The heat feels lovely,” she said. “A declaration of fidelity is also nice to hear. I will not play you false, Ash.”
“My mother strayed too,” he said. “Had an affair with one of my paternal uncles, or so we surmise. Whatever went on, my parents patched it up. My father was no Don Juan, but he was devoted to his damned botany and often left Mama at Dorning Hall for months at a time, awash in children, often with another baby on the way. I don’t intend to be like him.”
The tray arrived, the somewhat awkward mood did not dissipate, but the food helped fortify Della’s spirits. She sat beside Ash on the sofa, passing him the salt cellar and the butter dish and realizing that he must have been famished.
“Will you assist me at my bath?” she asked when a platoon of maids had filled the tub.
Ash eyed the steaming tub, then dusted his hands over his empty plate. “If I assist you at your bath, there will be water everywhere. The tub is not big enough for both of us, though that would hardly dissuade me from my enthusiasm for your naked form.”
“For my—?”
Ash passed her a glass of lemonade. “I could devour you, Della Dorning. All day in the coach, I was aware that the benches fold out into a surprisingly comfortable bed. You were indisposed yesterday, soon you won’t be, and we are married.”
“I’m not,” she said, feeling an odd lightness of heart. “Indisposed.”
Ash rose rather abruptly. “Enjoy your bath. I’m off to reacquaint myself with the maze. You might consider taking a nap after your bath, for I doubt you’ll get much sleep tonight.”
Another kiss, this one involving his tongue and his hand pressed to her breast, then he groaned and all but dashed out the door.
Chapter Ten
Della was a frequent bather, especially in winter, when the bath was one of few places she was genuinely warm. She eased into the tub Lady Wentwhistle’s staff had provided and felt the day’s worries drain from her mind.
She denied herself the pleasure of a leisurely soak and set about her ablutions. To leave London had been lovely, a relief without compare. True, she had also left her family, and any house party had its share of gossip and intrigue, but she was with her husband, and tonight they would consummate their vows.
The worries tried to crowd back, even past the