Page 44 of The Lady Who Said No to the Duke

T here had been so much to learn about the house and the household, so many courtesy visits to receive and return in the neighbourhood, that Thea had found no time to do more than glance out of the windows at the gardens.

Besides, the weather had been cold and windy and unpleasant enough for her to take short, brisk walks for the sake of the exercise and to clear her head.

Then, on the nineteenth of December, the weather changed to a light dusting of snow and, by the morning of the twenty-first, to still, frosty perfection.

‘How beautiful,’ she said, standing at the window of the small breakfast room they were using now that it was so much colder. ‘I shall explore the gardens this morning.’

‘You will?’ Hal sounded surprised.

‘Why, yes. I am sure they will look delightful in this weather, and it really is time I looked at them properly.’

Hal cut into his bacon, looking, she thought, as though he were trying to work something out. ‘I will come with you. Show you around.’

‘Why, thank you. I would enjoy that, if you are not too busy.’

‘I would never be too busy for you, Thea,’ he said seriously.

Then why not spend more time in my bed? she thought.

But she smiled. ‘At ten, then, while the sun is shining? It changes so quickly at this time of year.’

They met in the hall on the hour, and it seemed to Thea that Hal was making rather a fuss over whether she was warm enough and whether her boots had soles that would not slip on the frosty ground.

There were formal lawns at the front with statues and urns set about them. She was familiar with that view, the one she had from the windows of her suite, so they walked around to the right where there was a small shrubbery with paths that led to an ornamental pond.

That had affronted-looking ducks sliding on the ice, and she made Hal promise to have the gardeners break it for them.

‘The maze is down there.’ He pointed. ‘But I am not negotiating that in this cold. We will save it until the Spring. This path leads to the South Lawn and the terrace.’

Thea walked with him, her hands tucked into her muff. The South Lawn was one great sweep of grass running down from the terrace to a ha-ha from where the vista of the park opened up.

There was another shrubbery at the far corner, and Thea began to walk towards that.

‘It is too cold…you should come in now.’ Hal put his hand under her elbow and began to steer her towards the house and the French doors that led inside.

‘Not yet, I haven’t seen it all.’ She tugged free and kept walking, in no mood suddenly, to be ordered about.

‘Thea.’

‘No.’

He waited until she reached the edge of the terrace and started down the steps before he strode after her. ‘Thea.’

‘It is warmer in here,’ she said from just inside the shrubbery. ‘Come on, show me what is on the other side.’

‘No.’ Hal caught up with her, stood in front and tried to turn her back.

‘For goodness sake! I am not cold. I am not fragile. I want to see the gardens. My gardens.’

‘I would very much prefer that you turn back now,’ he said tightly.

‘Really? Just as you would prefer to come to my bed occasionally and retreat back to your own room immediately? I suppose that I have to learn to live with that, but I do not have to put up with being barred from one quarter of the garden for no reason.’

‘There is a perfectly good reason,’ he began. ‘One that I do not intend to stand here discussing.’

‘Oh, I was so wrong. You are just as objectionable as you were as a boy, ordering me about, mocking me.’

‘I would not mock you! Thea—’

She saw a flash of red on the ground and snatched up the twig with its one brave scarlet leaf left clinging to the end and brandished it at him.

‘I am just your Twig again, aren’t I? You have married me and you have bedded me and I suppose you are finding me a good enough duchess, but you don’t… You don’t want me .’

‘Damn it, Thea.’ He snatched the twig from her and tossed it aside. ‘I love you.’

‘What? What did you say?’

‘I. Love. You. I love you, Thea.’

She stared at him, saw the truth in his face, the hurt that they were fighting.

‘But why don’t you come to me and… Why isn’t it like it was the first time?’

‘Because you don’t love me. You cried yourself to sleep that night. I saw your face in the morning, felt the pillow soaked with your tears. I had done that.’

‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘No. You had done nothing to make me cry. Only make me happy.’

Thea turned, blundered out of the shrubbery, hardly aware of where she was going, and found herself teetering on the edge of a five-foot drop. Strong hands grasped her shoulders, pulled her back, and she found herself clasped to Hal’s chest.

‘I made you happy?’

‘I love you,’ she managed to say through a mouthful of woollen scarf. ‘I have for so long. And you made me feel so wonderful that night. And then I woke up and remembered that you didn’t love me.’

‘But I do.’ He held her away from his body, his hands firm on her shoulders. ‘I love you and you—you love me?’

‘It would seem so,’ she said with a shaky laugh that was swallowed up by his kiss.

When he finally released her, pulled her in tight again, she said, ‘I thought you didn’t really want me when you came to me as you did, and you never stayed. It is more than a week since the last time,’ she added, recovering enough to be indignant.

‘Well, yes,’ Hal said. ‘But it isn’t a good time. I mean, it is that time, isn’t it?’

‘No.’ Then she started to think, to count. ‘No. But…but it should be. Hal, do you think I might be—’

‘It is too soon.’ He had gone pale, she saw, and his eyes held just a touch of panic. ‘We can’t assume… Doctor. That’s it. Come inside and I’ll send for the doctor. Thea, you almost fell just now.’

‘There is no need to fuss,’ she said, suddenly feeling utterly serene. And certain. Hal loved her and she was carrying his child. ‘If I am, I am not sick. But what did I almost fall into?’

She turned, although his hands held her back from the edge.

‘Oh. You are having an Italian garden built?’ Then she looked closer.

‘No, it isn’t. All those plants are roses, and there is a pool.

And a fountain? And arbours in all the corners.

Is that jasmine and honeysuckle? I can’t tell with all the leaves gone. ’

‘Yes. Roses and jasmine and honeysuckle. There will be lavender and sweet bay too.’

‘You are having my romantic garden built for me and you wanted it to be a secret until it was finished. Oh, Hal, I do love you so.’ She kissed him, then turned back.

‘But this hasn’t been done in the last week or so.

This is work that has been stopped because of the weather. Hal, when did you order this to begin?’

‘The day before you left Godmama’s house for London,’ he confessed.

‘But you thought I would not marry you. You did not love me then.’

‘I hoped. And I think I loved you from the moment I set eyes on you, I just didn’t realise it until I saw you walking down the aisle towards me.’

‘Oh, Hal.’ She reached up her arms around his neck and kissed him with all the love she had in her as he scooped her up into his arms and began to walk back to the house. Their castle.

‘You, my precious duchess, are going to be loved with everything I have. Do you believe me?’

‘Yes, my love,’ she said, laughing up at him. ‘You see, I will say yes to a duke. If he is the right one.’