Page 25 of A Marriage is Arranged

In the foyer, Lisle stepped forward and said, “It is the best of occasions when a house welcomes its new Lady. I speak for us all when I say this is a happy home, and we hope and pray your ladyship will be happy in it. My lady, my lord, we offer you our heartiest felicitations on your wedding and wish you a long and fruitful life together. Be assured of our devoted service to that end.” He raised his glass, “A toast to Lord and Lady Shrewsbury!”

The staff repeated the toast and drank. Then the Earl said, “Thank you Lisle. I am confident that her ladyship will trust and rely on you all as much as I do. I have instructed my man of business to give you all a week’s extra wages this quarter in honor of my marriage and to thank you all for the hard work I know the preparations must have entailed.”

There was a murmur of approval. Lisle bowed. “Thank you, my lord.” Then to the staff he said, “You may return to your posts.”

They dispersed amid bows, curtseys, and chorused good wishes.

“Should I serve tea early, my lord?”

The Earl looked at his wife. “Shall you want tea, Louise?”

Louise was still trying to process this new vision of her husband as a thoughtful and popular employer. “Er, no thank you. The dinner was delicious and I shall just run down to thank Mrs. Bootle. Then, then I….” She stopped in confusion. I expect to be going to bed with you? What should she say ?

But her husband had already turned away. “Then I’ll see you back in the drawing room. Thank you, Lisle. We’ll ring if we need anything.”

Louise walked slowly down the kitchen stairs, glad of the opportunity to regain her composure.

When she came into the busy kitchen all chatter stopped.

“Oh, please carry on,” she said. “I just came to thank you, Mrs. Bootle, for the wonderful dinner and the wedding breakfast. I hope everyone down here had a chance to taste some of it. It was the best food I have ever eaten.”

They looked at her and had the same thought they’d had upstairs. But they absolved her of her plainness and were inclined to blame Rose. Why hadn’t she, so pretty herself, done something to help her mistress?

Mrs. Bootle was astonished that the young bride had come down on her wedding day and immediately became her fervent supporter. “’andsome is as ’andsome does,” she said afterwards to Mrs. Smith. “Better than some flibberty-gibbet who don’t even know downstairs exists.”

Louise made her way back upstairs even more slowly than she had come down, wondering what was going to happen next. She went into the drawing room and found her husband looking at the discarded newspaper.

“So they think Bonaparte is plotting an escape,” he said, standing as she came in. “It wouldn’t surprise me. For one thing, that new king of theirs seems a poor fellow. The nobles, or such as are left of them, will support him, but the people will want a real leader. Bonaparte, for all his faults, was admirable in many ways.”

They both sat down.

“I understand he did a great deal for the education of boys,” replied Louise, “but not, unfortunately, of girls.”

“Ah, we are back to your hobby-horse. But perhaps now is not the best time to discuss it further.”

Her husband looked at her, his hooked nose and craggy features accentuated by the candlelight and his eyebrows drawn together. But he didn’t seem annoyed, and Louise remembered what his grandmother had said about his dark look being just a trick he had when he was thinking about something, or hadn’t quite made up his mind.

“Look, Louise,” he said abruptly. “Let’s not beat about the bush. Are you prepared to consummate this marriage? If you’d rather wait, I will fall in with your wishes.”

“Oh, no!” She burst out. “I would much rather not wait! The contemplation of the event has already given me enough sleepless nights. Let’s just get it over with!”

“I’m sorry it appears such a hurdle,” he replied a little coldly, “but it is the purpose of the marriage after all.”

“Yes,” and to herself she added, That is my whole purpose. I am to be the receptacle of the heir.

“Then let us, to use your words, get it over with.”

They both stood up. Her husband opened the door and led her upstairs.