Page 45 of My Secret Duke

November 1818

Grantham

T he bells rang out at the Grantham village church, and despite the chilly weather Olivia had never seen so many smiling faces. Everyone said it was the most anticipated wedding in a very long time. Her family was there, even her mother and her new husband, and of course the Fitzsimmonses.

Ivo stood at her side, so serious as he repeated his vows, and then giving her hand an encouraging squeeze when she found herself choked up with emotion as they were pronounced husband and wife.

Her friend, her love, and her husband.

They had been on a long journey, and now they were at the beginning of another one, a life together, and she was so looking forward to it. When she left Grantham, it would be for the last time with it as her home. Whitmont would be her home now.

Grandmama, who had seemed resigned to the inevitable when told her granddaughter would be marrying the very man she had forbidden her to spend time with, had set aside her disappointment and organized a celebratory meal. As the wedding party arrived, Olivia sat down at the table. All about her were the faces of the people she knew and loved. Edwina was bouncing in her seat, particularly excited, having been a flower girl at last, her dream come true.

“Justina and Charles have asked me to be their flower girl too!” she said excitedly. Antonia laughed, but Georgia screwed up her face. Jealous, of course.

Ivo leaned closer and reached for Olivia’s hand. “How are you feeling?” he whispered under cover of the chatter around them, his green eyes anxious.

“Better than I was earlier,” she whispered back, and smiled.

Ivo was the only one who knew that their last tryst, the night he had saved her life on the salt marshes, had borne fruit. Olivia was excited to think that she was carrying his child, but a little daunted too. Just as well they were marrying quickly enough to muddy the waters of those who liked to count backward from a child’s birth, although there would still be gossip.

There would always be gossip when it came to Olivia and Ivo. It was something she had come to accept.

Ivo had been quite overcome when she had told him about the baby.

“A child? Our child?” He had put his hand gently on her belly, and his eyes had filled with tears.

After they had held each other, and wept a little, Ivo had begun to tell her all the things he would teach their child. She’d given him a narrow look. “No, you definitely won’t take him out onto the salt marshes.”

Ivo’s gaze had been too innocent to be believed. “Of course not, sweetheart. Not until he can walk.”

“Or she.”

“Or she.”

Olivia had had to be satisfied with that. She trusted him, believed in him, but he would always be a Fitzsimmons at heart.

She glanced up now and saw that Bourne was seated farther down the table, watching them. He had come to the wedding and the dinner in his capacity as Ivo’s spokesman in Portside, but they had known each other for a lifetime. He smiled, his gaze shifting to Ivo, and she thought he was pleased to see that the wild boy duke was finally settled. Olivia had asked Ivo if he missed being a smuggler, but he had assured her those days were gone.

“There is enough excitement for me at Cadieux’s,” he had said. “And the new club. Charles and I are going to call it Fitzsimmons . Soon, I will have enough money to buy you whatever your heart desires.”

Then she had teased him with more and more outrageous choices, but the truth was, she already had what her heart desired.

The servants were clearing the table for the next course. “Harrowby and I were in Paris.” Her mother’s voice rose above the clatter. “I think Ivo and Olivia should go there for their honeymoon.”

“I want to come too!” Edwina cried.

Vivienne bent her head to the child, gently reminding her that flower girls did not go on honeymoons. Gabriel was watching them, a smile on his face, and Olivia wondered at the tenderness she saw there. Was Vivienne enceinte too?

“What are you scheming about?”

Ivo’s whisper in her ear brought her attention back to him.

“How do you know I’m scheming?”

“You have that look in your eyes.”

“Perhaps I am looking forward to when we can go to our room, just the two of us.”

He kissed her in what was meant to be a chaste brush of lips but turned into something much less innocent.

There was an “oohh” sound from some of those at the table, and Edwina giggled.

“I was just thinking,” Olivia said dreamily. She cast her gaze over her sisters. “I was wondering who the next Ashton girl will be, after Justina and me, to settle down.”

Just then, Roberta gave a loud laugh at something Will Tremeer said. Was the world ready for Roberta Ashton to be unleashed upon it? Olivia wasn’t at all sure.

Gabriel cleared his throat and stood up. “A toast,” he said loudly. “To the Ashton family and all those they love, and all those who love them!”

The responding roar shook the rafters and threatened to turn the east wing into a pile of rubble.