Mad Duchesses by Eliza Lloyd

Author:Eliza Lloyd
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ellora's Cave Publishing Inc.
Published: 2015-11-12T00:00:00+00:00

Outside Whitfield House, a fabulous gift from her ducal husband, the carriage rolled to a stop and Lettie glanced out the carriage window to see all was in order. Several of the guests had already arrived and their children were waiting outside to shower them with flower petals as they exited the carriage.

There were more than flowers. The petals rained down, someone released several doves and then there was the sound of several popping fireworks.

The cacophony made her husband smile while she clapped her hands, as delighted as any of the children. She did feel strangely happy.

Lettie gripped her husband’s arm as he led her up the marble stairs and into a foyer teeming with guests. Perhaps it was the joyful chatter of the crowd or the loud and laughing children that seemed always underfoot, but the mood in her home was astoundingly festive and continued thus throughout the day.

She understood the mood as many of her friends kissed her cheeks or clutched her hands and said, “I hope this time it lasts.”

It was a strange, sad sentiment amongst the well wishes. Deep down, where doubts and fears resided, she desperately hoped it lasted too, because staring at her new husband made her feel as if she would lose something precious if it happened again.

The doors had been pushed wide and the dance floor had been arranged with tables and chairs while the far walls were lined with colorful decorations and one long table that held mounds of food—sweets and cheeses and fruits along with breads and jams, cured hams, rashers of bacon and hot plates that covered several egg dishes.

The toasts began almost as soon as Lettie and Ferd had taken their place at the head table. His brothers toasted with naughty rhymes, his sister teared up and couldn’t finish what it was she wanted to say. Lettie’s only brother had waved away the attention, not wanting to say a word.

She rode the tide of emotion that swept her up and down throughout the morning and into the early afternoon. Ferd had disappeared into the crowd and when she had started to miss him, he turned up at her side.

“Ferd,” she whispered. “It feels as if this is the first time I’m getting married.”

“Me too,” he said with a boyish smile. “Come, you need to meet my great aunts.”

“I thought I’d met everyone in the kingdom.”

“Not everyone. My aunties seem to think the world revolves around them. I don’t think they would mind if you greeted them as Your Highnesses.”

“Then I shall.”

Ferd charmed them, which reminded her how he always seemed to dance with the dowagers at ton functions and how he never seemed interested in the younger, single women. He also managed his mother and father, mostly keeping his mother from becoming overly excited when a punch bowl was dropped on Lettie’s hard wood floor.

Her mother hung on Ferd’s every word, but since Papa had died, Mama had loved male attention no matter the source.

By late afternoon, most of the guests had departed.

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