“There is nothing wrong with my relatives.”
“No, they are the best, especially at this distance.”
“Devlin!” Fanny gasped, trying to look outraged, but laughter lurked in her throat. He hauled her closer again, and this time he bent down and gave her an earthshaking kiss that made them both breathless and in desperate need of their bedroom.
Without another word, Devlin rose with Fanny in his arms, kicked the door open, and carried his wife up the stairs and into her bedroom, where he threw her onto the bed as the door shut behind them. Fanny immediately started to unbutton her dress, and with a chuckle over her obvious frenzy, he helped her.
Chapter 25
What Devlin didn’t know was that her relatives weren’t as far away as he thought.
When the bride and groom left the wedding so unexpectedly without any time to say farewell properly, the Darling family was shocked. For a few days they all went around grunting and behaving in a rather unfriendly manner toward each other, until Hannibal had enough.
“For goodness’ sake, stop moping about. Go to her instead,” he boomed to her parents with a roll of his eyes, and a few days later, after finally overcoming their hesitation to commit such inconsideration toward the newlyweds, Fanny’s parents and Rake left in a carriage heading eastwards. Few words were spoken during the long trip; they all had a lot on their minds, and each was worried about what they would find at Pendragon but didn’t want to alarm the others.
They had promised each other to not care what Devlin said, or had the right to, if they found Fanny was miserable and unhappy. If she was suffering in any way, they would take her home with them, even if it meant they would have to use force.
“I will kill him,” George muttered through his teeth. “If she has shed but one tear, he is mine and only mine.”
The last part was directed to Rake, who nodded, just as seriously determined, and Caroline rolled her eyes over their childish declarations. The men of the Darling family tended to be a little too dramatic sometimes, and she had a feeling this was a time their antics wouldn’t be a good thing.
But she knew better than to try talking them out of it, as that would only put more wood into their fire. Instead, she decided on a change of subject, and she looked at Rake, who had a forlorn air about him these last days.
Since the night Penelope had tumbled in through Fanny’s bedroom window, Rake had become more and more silent, until he was like a brooding shadow moving through the house. At first he had seemed desperate to know what Penelope had gone through, but when they kept the lid tightly screwed on, he stopped asking questions.
It was not hard to understand there were deeper feelings than friendship between those two, but they both were stubborn as mules about keeping a distance from each other.
Penelope had asked Caroline to let her stay at Chester Park when Fanny’s wedding was over, so she wouldn’t have to return to London and rejoin the social scene. The Lord Bolton affair had destroyed something inside her, and Caroline had every intention of finding out what lay beneath the surface when she got back from Pendragon.
Rake, on the other hand, had been roaming London with a new beauty on his arm every day, except for the one night when he had a beauty at each arm. He flirted outrageously with every lady he met, leaving piles of broken hearts behind him. Both George and James had tried to talk to him, but their efforts met with such a cold stare they gave up. Solemnly George told his wife that the time for the younger brother to surrender to his heart had not yet arrived.
It had surprised them, though, when Rake had insisted on going with them to Pendragon. The surprise was not because of his non-relationship with Penelope, but that he would leave London and all the ladies currently throwing themselves happily all over him.
Now he sat on the opposite seat in the carriage as they came closer and closer to Fanny, and for the first time since they’d left Chester Park he seemed to actually want to talk.
“Killing him won’t be enough,” he objected. “Dragging him behind the carriage with a snare tightly around his malicious head might do, as a starter.”
“Richard Darling!” Caroline gasped, deeply offended by his crude language, but he didn’t even look at her. George, who rather liked the image his brother painted, ignored his wife too, and leaned a bit closer to Rake.
“I can’t believe he kidnapped her right out of our home. He took our Fanny, without even asking what she wanted. Or more importantly, he didn’t ask if it was all right with us.”
Rake nodded sternly, agreeing with his brother over this incredible insult, while Caroline threw out her hands in despair. “Oh, come on, Rouge,” she said aghast, using George’s old nickname from his libertine days. “She is his wife, and he has all the right in the world to drag her all the way to the colonies if he wants to, and there is nothing we can do about it.”
Both men stared at her as if she had lost her mind, and she continued quickly, before they had a chance to say something.
“It’s Devlin we are talking about. It is your best friend, Rake. You know in your heart he would never mistreat Fanny in any way, because he has a kind heart, and he does love her.”
Rake muttered something inaudible, but in the end he had to give in. Caroline was telling the truth. Devlin wasn’t a bad man. He was honest, straightforward, and brave, and would never go berserk on a woman. “But he still stole her away,” he objected, not wanting to give up the indignation completely.
“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” Caroline sighed. “They were newly married, and he must have wanted to have Fanny for himself when he finally could. He just forgot to enlighten us about his plans to leave immediately instead of staying put for another week.”
“It wasn’t so hard to see that he had forgotten to tell Fanny too,” George interjected harshly.
“He still didn’t do anything wrong. He only followed his heart and didn’t think about how he left the rest of us standing there feeling rather abandoned.”
“I hope she has made him as miserable as he made us,” Rake said with a grim smile, and George nodded in agreement.
Caroline shook her head. These two Darling men had obviously decided they were upset, and nothing she said would change their mission. They would continue their brooding until they had Fanny in front of them telling them everything was all right.
She leaned her head against the seat and closed her eyes, knowing she had to use the time left before their arrival at her daughter’s new home to gain some strength. Strength to hold the stubborn, ridiculously indignant men back, and strength to hold herself from hurting Devlin if Fanny had been in any way mistreated.
She knew what she had said to her husband and brother-in-law about Devlin, but deep in her heart she was too afraid to believe in those words herself.
If Fanny was unhappy, it wasn’t the grumpy men Devlin should fear. No, he should fear the mother—the Saxton daughter without a conscience.
Chapter 26
Unaware of the coming storm, Fanny and Devlin had begun their new life as husband and wife by falling into a nice rhythm that suited both. They slept together in her bed, where they thoroughly enjoyed waking up together and making love before breakfast. The morning meal was spent discussing everything they read about in the newspaper, and afterwards Devlin left to spend his day with Pendragon’s supervisor while Fanny continued her explorations of her new home and its surroundings. They met at the dinner table again and spent the rest of the evening in the library playing games or in bed making sweet love.
All in all, it was a good life.
Devlin had several times told her how amazed he was at how easy life with a wife was and how he couldn’t believe he had feared married life so much before.
Fanny was happy too but couldn’t help feeling a bit lonely. She loved her mornings with Devlin and held on to her shiny happy smile until he left her for the supervisor. But she had to spend the rest of the day all alone, counting the long hours until they met again at the dinner table.
One day she was so lonely she had a carriage drive her down to the village, to the small manor where Mrs. Overton and her family resided. She had endured the overjoyed lady’s gossip for an hour before she went back to the castle and her loneliness.
Devlin thought it was better she spend her first weeks inside her new home learning how to take care of it as a mistress should rather than running around the countryside visiting the neighbors.
Only one little problem with his idea arose: as Fanny had already learned, Pendragon was a household run in an exemplary manner by the more than competent servants. She had next to nothing to focus on when it came to the housekeeping, and she was more a body in the way than an involved mistress.
She searched through the grand library for books about Pendragon and the Ross family, but there weren’t many in that genre, as the former residents of the castle had seemed more interested in the books’ covers than in what they contained.
She spent two days embroidering a cushion she then put on her bed with a satisfied smile, only to find it removed and put in a closet by a servant with better decorating skills.
One especially nice day she spent in the herb garden searching for weeds to pick, but like everything else at Pendragon the garden was in perfect shape. No weeds dared to grow under the sharp eyes of the gardeners.
She asked Devlin if she could join him and the supervisor, but Devlin had only chuckled over her request. He told her it was men’s work, and sent her away to do something more appropriate for a woman.
When she asked him to tell her exactly what this could be, he simply shrugged and changed the subject.
She was so bored she even started to take naps to make time go by. But even with all the time alone she still was happier than she ever had been before, because the time she spent with Devlin made up for all the boring hours.
She was madly in love with her husband, and, when he was with her, life was perfect.
The day the Darling carriage stopped in front of Pendragon, Fanny was spending her day in the library, recounting all the books. She might have missed one or two the first time she inventoried them.
Devlin had left for the supervisor’s office, and as it was pouring rain outside, she had no choice but to spend her time indoors. As there were no specific responsibilities with her name on them, she had to invent some for herself, like counting books.
She had just climbed up the long ladder to be able to count the awkwardly placed but un-dusty books on the top shelf, when the door opened behind her. As the castle was full of servants who quietly walked in and out of rooms, she didn’t look down, not until a very familiar voice cut through her silent counting.
“One would think a man as rich as Devlin could hire someone to dust in the library.”
Fanny yelped and turned around too hastily, forgetting she was at the top of a ladder, and fell helplessly backwards. With a small scream, she toppled straight into her father’s waiting arms.
He immediately hugged her close to him, and she threw her arms around his shoulders with tears streaming down her face. She dug her nose into the curve of his neck, inhaling his familiar scent.
Caroline was next in line for a hug from Fanny, and they both cried as mother kissed daughter thoroughly on nose, chin, and cheeks.
The last one to take her into his arms was Rake. Fanny sank into his embrace, cherishing the sound of his heart against her cheek.
“What are you all doing here?” she squealed, delighted, as she left Rake’s warm embrace.
George arched a perfect eyebrow. “Aren’t we allowed to visit our beloved daughter?”
Rake coughed.
“And niece,” George continued, with a shake of his head toward his brother.
Rake gave him a toothy smile, which the older brother ignored.
“Of course you are welcome. If I had known you were coming, I could have had the servants preparing rooms for you in advance.”
Caroline patted her daughter’s soft blushing cheek. “I don’t mind waiting. You can show us around your new home in the meantime, although perhaps we should wash off the dust of our trip somewhere.”
“Of course.” Fanny smiled and rang the bell. Ten minutes later, her relatives had washed up and everyone was making their way slowly through the grand rooms of Pendragon. It was a lovely castle, and every room had been decorated to perfection with lavish fantasy.
“Where is that husband of yours?” Rake asked as they lingered in the enormous ballroom encompassing the whole north side of the first floor.
“He’s with the supervisor of Pendragon, who also takes care of Devlin’s other business arrangements. They usually spend the day together, so you will meet my husband as he joins us for dinner tonight.”
Rake frowned at her.
“He spends all his days with his supervisor?”
“Yes, he does,” Fanny answered cheerfully.
Caroline and George shared a look, knowing their only daughter. Had she sounded just a little too cheerful?
“So,” Rake continued curiously, “tell me, what do you do when Devlin is busy all day?”
“Oh,” Fanny said with a shrug. “This and that. You know. Wifely things.”
Caroline stopped and stared at her daughter. “Wifely things?”
Fanny nodded and increased her speed, but for nothing. Her mother wasn’t easy to distract when she knew she was onto something, especially when it came to her children. Sebastian had once said he was sure she was clairvoyant, and her children thought that quite logical. No one could know so much without actually being there in some way.
“So,” Caroline said, mimicking Rake, “you oversee the household, plan the dinner menus, and visit the farmers and the neighbors?”
“Well, Mrs. Blair takes perfect care of the household, and our excellent chef plans the dinner menus. However, I do admit, he does it really well, because dinner usually is absolute heaven.”