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S he was still laughing as their magnificent breakfast was very thoroughly forgotten about.

Breakfast at the Carlton Hotel was an elaborate affair.

Servants bustled in and out of their suite, laying various dishes before them both until the entire table was covered.

Over the table, Freddie met her eyes, widening his in mock horror and making her giggle.

He grinned back in response and her heart flipped.

After all the things they had got up to yesterday afternoon and most of the night, she was surprised by the almost innocent little kick in her chest.

‘Are we expecting guests?’ she asked when they were finally alone.

‘I hope not. Perhaps they are making up for the fact that we skipped our evening meal.’

Emily’s skin grew warm as she remembered what they had been doing instead of eating. ‘We could have been quicker in the bath,’ she said, as she spread a serviette across her lap.

‘You were very dirty after rolling around in the mud all afternoon. It was the least I could do to help you get clean.’

‘Of course, Freddie,’ she said primly. ‘My breasts must have got the brunt of the dirt on them. I recall they seemed to require a great deal of washing, in a wide variety of ways.’

She helped herself to a roll as, to her utter delight, Freddie’s cheeks turned an adorable pink. She sniggered as she began to butter the bread; teasing Freddie this way was far preferable to sniping back at him on the edge of a ballroom.

‘I am sorry,’ said Freddie, leaning forward and suddenly sounding very serious. ‘I think I may have been a bit too distracted and missed cleaning off any actual dirt. There is a streak of mud right there.’

She glanced down at her chest. ‘It looks fine from here.’

‘It is a bit further down.’

She pulled on the neckline but she still couldn’t see what he meant.

‘Lower still,’ he murmured.

She glanced up at him to find his eyes gleaming with satisfaction. She balled up her serviette and threw it at him. ‘I believed you.’ She laughed, as he stood and stalked towards her.

‘I need a closer look.’

She squealed as he swooped, picking her up and carrying her over to the bed. She was still laughing as their magnificent breakfast was very thoroughly forgotten about.

They arrived back at Glanmore House in the afternoon, three days later.

Emily’s cheeks hurt from smiling so much.

Freddie had barely left her side for the entire time of their short honeymoon.

She’d been expecting it to happen at any point, so much so that she had practised a short speech in front of the mirror, reassuring him she was fine with her book for company, making sure that at no point did her smile slip.

She hadn’t needed to. There had been no sign that he was about to head off and find his entertainment elsewhere and she had to believe that he had enjoyed his time with her as much as she had enjoyed hers with him.

She’d braced herself for him to leave her when they returned to Glanmore House, but instead, he got in the way of her and Anna, whom she’d brought from her mother’s house as her new lady’s maid, as they unpacked in her new room.

He pulled her dresses out of trunks, making faces at some of the stiffer items, making it easy for her to discard them and keep only her favourites, the ones which were more comfortable.

He inspected all of the items she used to do her hair, holding a curler this way and that until she showed him how it was used before he finally disappeared.

He returned helping two footmen with a short bookcase, which he deposited on one wall of the room.

After that, he spent considerable time arranging her books in height order while she and Anna hung clothes in her new closet.

Or rather, Anna hung the clothes while Emily watched her new husband, her heart swelling with every book he inspected for size.

When Anna finally left, Emily almost tackled him to the bed, unable to express in words how he was making her feel but hoping that her actions conveyed what was in her heart.

Later, he’d curled his large body around hers and fallen asleep, no indication that he had any intention of heading to his own room.

Now it was dark, the grand house had fallen silent. Either his brothers were out carousing or they had all taken themselves to their personal areas within the house. Freddie’s arms were heavy around her, his steady breath brushing the top of her hair.

The last few days had been a whirlwind of sensation. She had not known it was possible for her body to experience such bliss. When Freddie’s mouth was on her, when his clever hands were making her forget her mind, the whole world disappeared.

Now, in the quiet darkness, she could not stop her thoughts from crowding her.

Since the moment she had become Freddie’s wife, he had treated her like she was a queen.

In the sanctity of their honeymoon, it had been as if it were the two of them against the world.

From tomorrow, their new life would begin in earnest and she would have to see if she was as strong as she had promised herself that she would be.

She had trapped him into this marriage and she would not become a burden on him. She would not complain when he went back to his normal ways. He would never know that she mourned his company.

A light brush of lips against her shoulder sent tingles racing across her skin. ‘You are thinking so hard, I can almost hear it,’ Freddie whispered into her ear.

‘It is strange sleeping in a new place,’ she said, rather than admit to what was really on her mind.

‘Mm,’ he murmured, a slow, sleepy hand skimming up the length of her leg. ‘Perhaps we can think of ways to tire you out.’

She turned in his arms so that her nose burrowed against the skin of his chest, the soft hairs there brushing against her lips. ‘What did you have in mind? Another talk about the trees you are going to plant at Berferd?’

His palm skimmed over her hip. ‘I could…’

‘Or—’ she pressed a kiss to the base of his throat ‘—I could tell you about this book I read about a Roman general who…’

He spun her onto her back, covering his mouth with hers, and she forgot the rest of her sentence and all her worries.

Their first morning at Glanmore House was as surprising as her honeymoon.

‘I am afraid we shall have to go downstairs for breakfast,’ Freddie told her as he dressed for the day.

Emily, who was pulling a brush through her hair, could not see why this was a problem.

She never broke her fast in her room. Even though she might have preferred to avoid her mother, she had never eaten food in her bedroom.

The thought of crumbs in the place where she slept turned her stomach.

‘Why are you afraid about that? Is there something scary downstairs that I should worry about?’

He rolled his eyes. ‘I meant that we might encounter my family.’

‘I like your family, even if I find the duke slightly intimidating.’ Freddie made a dubious noise. ‘Do you not?’

‘In small doses, they are not too bad.’

Emily could not tell if he was joking or not. ‘They have always been very pleasant to me. Besides, we barely saw Lotte yesterday and I should like to see her.’

‘She eats breakfast in the nursery.’

Emily paused mid-stroke. ‘From now on, she should eat it with us.’

‘She should?’

‘Yes. She is the only child after all. She is probably lonely.’

Freddie looked stricken. ‘I hadn’t thought of that.’

She reached out and lightly touched the back of his hand; he instantly entwined his fingers with hers.

‘Do not worry, she adores you and is probably quite used to breakfast this way, but from now on, I think we should include her.’ Having always been an outsider in her own home, Emily did not want to subject the adorable little girl to the same fate. Not if she could help it.

‘Yes.’ Freddie bent down and captured her mouth with his.

For a moment, she forgot all about food and children and the world at large as she pulled him towards her, winding her arms around his waist. They may have carried on and forgotten all about the day if Anna had not knocked on the door to help her dress.

Lotte’s whole body became taut with joy when she saw Freddie and Emily at her nursery door.

Emily didn’t think anyone had ever been so pleased to see her.

She all but jumped down the stairs, babbling away to Emily and Freddie.

Emily only understood about half the words, but watching the little girl’s golden curls bouncing with enthusiasm made something in her heart crack wide open .

‘Tobis,’ Lotte cried out at the doorway to the breakfast room, running ahead of Emily, her arms open wide.

Emily’s steps faltered. She had no idea how the head of the household would feel having his morning meal interrupted by a three-year-old—she hadn’t thought of it. She glanced at Freddie, but he was frowning slightly and didn’t say anything to her before following his niece into the room.

She took a deep breath. If she and Freddie were to live with the three men for the foreseeable future, then she would need to be able to converse civilly with them.

Besides, it would be incredibly odd if she and Freddie remained in the corridor while the rest of the household breakfasted, not to mention cowardly.

All three of Freddie’s brothers stood as she entered the room and her skin heated, prickles of sweat beading on her brow.

She attempted a smile and managed to murmur, ‘Please sit,’ although the words came out far quieter than she intended.

Freddie was busy arranging cushions on a chair so that Lotte could sit on it and still reach the table.

She took a seat next to him, chairs creaking all around her as the large brothers followed suit.