CHAPTER TEN
The setting sun was hanging over the waters of Morecambe Bay when their carriage pulled up to the front of a large, elegant looking stone hotel located on the waterfront. Daniel helped Anne out of the carriage and took her arm as they went inside. All of Daniel’s arrangements were in order, and a liveried servant escorted them up a flight of stairs to their home for the following week.
The suite of rooms was lovely, with painted white and gold furniture that looked French to Anne. There was a balcony off the sitting room that looked directly over the bay, and another with the same view in the single large, airy bedroom.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry,” Daniel said as they stood on the sitting room balcony while more servants brought in their luggage. “I understand the food in the dining room is very good. Would you like some dinner?”
“Yes,” Anne answered. Anything that postponed the inevitable ending to this day sounded appealing to her.
There were two dressing rooms off the single bedroom and a hotel maid came directly after Anne rang the bell. The maid helped her change her travel dress for a pale pink gown that had a deeply scooped neck. The soft silken material was gathered under her breasts a la empire, and it swirled around her legs as she went down the stairs with her husband to a dinner she didn’t think she could possibly eat.
As the new bride and groom entered the dining room, a number of the couples already dining looked up to see who had come in. Anne kept her eyes on the waiter’s back, but she could feel the looks, and they weren’t directed at her. As the waiter pulled out the chair to seat her, she distinctly heard a female voice say in French, “Qui est cet homme beau? Il a visage d’un ange de Michel-Ange!”
Anne glanced at Daniel but his expression never changed. What thoughts were behind that finely sculpted face she wondered. He was so different from anyone she had ever known. What had motivated him to want a house like Grex so much that he had agreed to marry a penniless girl to get it? He was a mystery to her, a mystery who looked like an angel.
Once they were seated and looking at a menu that featured seafood, the waiter asked Daniel about wine. He ordered champagne. Anne never drank wine, but she held her tongue. They studied the menus in silence, and when the waiter came back with the champagne, Anne picked up her glass and took a sip. To her surprise, she liked it. She took another sip to confirm her first impression.
Daniel was watching her with a smile. She said, “I’ve tasted champagne before and didn’t like it, but this is delicious.”
“I’m glad you approve.”
As course followed course, Daniel ate hungrily, but Anne only managed to choke down a small amount of food. She asked him about India, and listened with interest as he told her about the Maharajah he had worked for and how his state was run. Every time the waiter returned and saw her empty glass, he poured more champagne into it. Toward the end of the meal Daniel said, “I’m pleased you like the wine, but if you have much more of it you’re going to have a bad headache in the morning.”
But Anne liked the way the wine was making her feel, and she waved her hand dismissively at Daniel and asked him another question. She felt pleasantly distanced – from Daniel, from the hotel, from everything. When the waiter removed her plate and went to pour more wine into her glass, Daniel held up his hand. “You’ve had enough, I think. It’s time we went upstairs.”
Anne stared at him in bewilderment. “We haven’t had pudding.”
“You haven’t even eaten your dinner, you don’t want pudding.”
He came around the table to offer her his arm. She stood, then frowned at the floor, which seemed to be moving rather like the waves in the bay. She rested her hand on the sleeve of his black coat, blinked twice, and said, “Oh dear.”
“Exactly. Can you make it to the stairs or do I have to carry you?” He sounded amused.
She lifted her chin and the movement made her dizzier. “I can walk,” she said loftily.
“Hold onto my arm.”
Anne already had a death grip on his arm. She put one foot in front of the other as she walked with him through an oddly tilting world. She wasn’t nervous any longer; the champagne had given her a glorious feeling of detachment.
The detachment lasted, even after Daniel left her in her dressing room with the waiting maid. She stood like an obedient child as the maid undressed her and slipped a thin ivory satin nightgown over her head. Anne looked down at the nightgown, which had been given to her by Aunt Julia, and said to the maid, “Isn’t it pretty?”
“Very pretty, my lady. There now, your hair is all brushed out. You look very beautiful, if I may say so.”
“I do?”
Anne walked over to the pier glass and looked into the mirror. She saw a tall, slim girl with porcelain perfect skin and long shining hair streaming down her back. Her eyes looked very large and dark. “I think I might have drunk too much champagne,” she confided to the maid.
“Perhaps that’s not such a bad thing, my lady. Now you should get yourself into bed. Mr. Dereham will be waiting for you.”
“He’s my husband,” Anne said with dignity.
“Yes, my lady, I know. Let me open the door for you.”
“I’m not afraid,” Anne confided. “I’m very brave. My Aunt Julia always tells me how brave I am.”
“I’m sure you are, my lady.”
With that pleasantly disinterested feeling still intact, Anne pushed the door open and went into the bedroom. “He’s not here,” she frowned, and turned to the maid who was in the act of closing the dressing room door and departing. “Where is he?” Anne asked.
“He’ll be along shortly, I’m sure.” The maid came into the room, took Anne’s arm and steered her to the bed. She lifted the satin coverlet and coaxed Anne to get in between the silk sheets, which Anne did with great dignity. “Just stay there,” the maid said.
“I will,” Anne promised. She was feeling sleepy but before she could close her eyes and get comfortable, the door to the second dressing room opened and Daniel came in. He was wearing a black brocade dressing gown and his feet were bare.
Anne frowned at him. “Where are your shoes?”
He said, “I don’t need shoes, Anne. I’m going to bed. You don’t have shoes on, do you?”
“No.”
He sat on his side of the bed and regarded her with amusement. “I gather you don’t drink wine very often.”
“No. I don’t like it, and it’s too expensive.” She looked at him. “I’m not afraid anymore,” she informed him. “I’m very brave, and nothing you do to me will be worse than losing Grex.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” he replied, taking off his dressing gown and getting into bed beside her. “Do you know what we’re going to do tonight?”
She stared at his bare torso. For so slim a man he had a lot of muscles. “Aunt Julia told me,” she said. “And I’ve seen animals, of course. But don’t worry. I won’t cry. I’m very br…”
“I know, you’re very brave.”
“Yes,” she said, lifting her chin and exposing the graceful line of her long elegant neck.
“Do you think you’re brave enough to kiss me?”
He got a long appraising stare in return. Then she said haughtily. “Yes.”
“Then come here to me,” he said softly.
Anne, who was indeed very brave, went.
# # #
When she awoke the following morning, it was to find Daniel watching her, the sheet pushed back from his shoulders, his chin resting on his folded arms. “Good morning,” he said in a soft voice.
Anne looked back into those crystalline blue eyes, remembered last night, and flushed.
He gave her a boyish grin. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Annie. We’re married, remember.”
Every inch of Anne’s body remembered vividly.
“I hope I managed to disprove your Aunt Julia’s notions about ‘marital congress.’”
He looked flushed and happy, with his hair sticking up like a little boy’s and his celestial blue eyes smiling at her. She relaxed and smiled back. “You certainly did.”
There was faint stubble on his cheeks and chin, which for some reason made him seem even more attractive. His shoulders and abdomen looked very strong. He held out an arm and said, “Come and cuddle a bit.”
Anne slid over and nestled her head into his shoulder. It fit as if it belonged there.
“What would you like to do today?” he asked.
“What are my choices?”
“We could walk on the beach, walk on the cliffs, rent horses and ride along the cliffs, rent a boat and view the cliffs from the bay…”
“I seem to see a pattern here,” Anne said.
“The cliffs?”
“The cliffs.”
“I gather they’re one of the main attractions. The other is an 11th century church – St. Peter’s – which is attached to the ruins of an equally old chapel that St. Patrick is said to have established. Those are the respectable visitors’ sites. There is also another hotel famous for its gambling rooms.”
Anne stiffened. “Do you like to gamble, Daniel?” she asked tensely.
He touched his lips to her hair and said, “I grew up poor, Annie, and now I have a fortune. I promise you, I have no plans to be poor again. No, I don’t gamble.”
“I’m glad,” she said, relief washing through her body.
“You are never to worry about losing your home,” he said sternly. “Grex is my home too now, and I give you my word I will never give it up.”
She turned her face into his shoulder and said in a muffled voice, “Thank you, Daniel. Thank you.”
He kissed her ear. “You’re such a sweetheart, Annie,” he said softly. “So pretty and so honest and so very sweet.” He turned her face up to his and lowered his mouth to hers. A moment later she responded by reaching up to lock her hands around his neck. His mouth moved from her mouth to her neck to her breasts, and she shuddered with anticipation. Aunt Julia hadn’t known what she was talking about.