Chapter Twenty

December 23, 1812

“You know,” Frederick jested as the carriage jostled them, “it would have been a great deal easier to just stay engaged.”

Edie laughed and a glow spread through him. It always did whenever he was able to make Edie laugh. It was a gift. Having her in his life was a gift. And now…

“Yes, I can see how difficult wedding planning has been—for you,” she teased, tucking a curl behind her ear. “Getting the special license, sending out invitations for the wedding a mere week in advance. You poor thing!”

Frederick grinned. “Glad to see I am finally getting the recognition I deserve!”

Their carriage filled with their giggles and he wondered whether he would ever again be this happy.

It was starting to become an occupational hazard of being around Edie—being ridiculously happy. He had been happy that morning, when he had first seen her at the end of the aisle. He had been even happier when Lord Stewart had stepped with her along the nave, placing Edie’s hand on his with a stern but fair look. Frederick’s happiness had increased as the vows had been spoken, as he’d heard them echo around the small church. When they had stepped out of the church, their families processing out of it, and Frederick had stolen a kiss—

Well. Happiness was not really the right word for the sudden spark of contentment that had soared through him at that moment.

And now here he was, only minutes later, traveling back to the Stewart house with his wife beside him.

His wife.

“My wife,” Frederick said aloud, knowing he would never tire of that particular phrase.

Edie raised an eyebrow. “Yes, husband?”

His stomach lurched, a pleasant sensation. A sense that finally, his dreams of the future had come true. That the hopes he’d had for a life with Edie, a life he had thought lost to him forever, was actually his.

Not just in the grasp of his hand, but a world he could now walk into.

“Did you enjoy our quiet wedding?”

Edie snorted. “Quiet wedding?”

“Well, we only invited nine people,” Frederick pointed out fairly. “Your father and stepmother—”

“I still can’t believe they got their own special license and married before us,” she interjected with a shake of her head. “My father was hardly quick off the mark.”

“—and my three half-brothers—”

“ Brothers ,” Edie corrected with a knowing look. “You know that’s how they think of you.”

Frederick did not bother to argue with her. She may have been a Chance now—in his opinion, the finest one of the bunch—but that did not mean she completely understood the decades-long complexity of the Chance brothers.

“My brothers, then, and their wives,” accepted Frederick with a small shrug. “And Maudy. That is only nine people. I never expected—”

“Did you not?” Edie laughed, her veil shimmering in the watery winter sunlight. “I knew half the ton would turn up.”

How, he was not sure. It had certainly been a shock to watch the little church they had chosen fill up, and up, and up, until it had been standing room only at the back. And even that had been almost full.

“Why on earth they would want to—”

“You are jesting with me, aren’t you?” His new wife narrowed her eyes. “You cannot honestly be surprised so much of Society wanted to watch the scandalous marriage of two very non-scandalous people?”

Well, she has a point there. “The flourishing rose and the thorns?”

Edie nudged him in the ribs. “You do talk nonsense.”

“Something like that,” Frederick said lightly.

His chest did not feel light. Oh, the wedding had happened, and she was his, and there was nothing that could separate them now—nothing. Yet there was still that fear something terrible was going to happen. A sense all this goodness was not his, that he had not earned it. That at any moment it could all be taken away.

Frederick swallowed. And the thought of Edie being taken away…

“Besides, I think in truth that most of them were disappointed,” she was saying calmly. “After all the things we had printed”—Frederick laughed—”I believe they thought there was going to be a duel at the altar, at the very least.”

“So you’re telling me you think we should have given them more of a show?” he teased.

Edie nudged him again as she giggled, the carriage rattling along the London streets. “I don’t know what we could have done!”

“Oh, I don’t know,” said Frederick, a flicker of need dancing just below his stomach. “Something like this, perhaps… “

He had taken the precaution of ordering the very largest carriage to transport them from the church to the Stewarts’ house. Not because Edie’s gown was particular voluminous. In fact, it was a rather elegant thing that swept down to the floor with very few layers, as far as he could make out.

But after their journey back to London from Wickacre Hall in which he and Edie had pushed the space within the small hired carriage to the limit, Frederick had been determined. This time, the carriage would be large.

At least large enough for this…

“Frederick!” Edie exclaimed in apparent surprise as he leaned over her and pressed a kiss on her neck. Then, “Frederick… “

He had taken a second precaution too, which Frederick was delighted he had foreseen. A little coin pressed into the driver’s hand had ensured that instead of taking them directly to the Stewarts’ home, where the wedding breakfast was to be hosted, he would drive them…

Well. Anywhere.

The instruction was to keep moving until Frederick told him to head, finally, to the Stewart house. And not a moment sooner.

Which meant that unlike Edie, gasping and squirming with delight under his lips and fingers, Frederick knew they would not be disturbed. Not until they wanted to be.

“We can’t—we mustn’t—” Edie gasped.

How she was managing to do that, he did not know. He was doing his utmost to make it impossible for her to speak.

“Be quiet and kiss me,” Frederick said in a rasping voice quite unlike his own.

“But we—”

“I paid the driver,” he said hurriedly in a low voice, lowering his mouth so it reached the cresting peaks of her breasts. Oh, God, but she was perfect . “We’ll be driving around until we’re done. Until you are undone.”

Edie’s gasp may have been one of desire, or surprise, he did not know. He did not need to know. Frederick’s fingers had finally managed to discover the hem of her gown and were now creeping up her leg, past her knee—

“Frederick—”

“Do you want me to stop?” he asked raggedly, halting.

Pulling back, Frederick looked at the woman he adored in fear that he had perhaps gone too far. Unlike so many of the gentlemen of the ton —though thankfully none of his brothers, and as far as he knew, no one in the Dulverton Club—he did not consider a woman to be property after marriage.

Edie had her own desires and her own needs. Sometimes, that need could be for him to halt.

“I… No,” she admitted, face flushed and lips parted. “But someone will hear—”

“You’ll have to be quiet, then,” Frederick said with a teasing grin as he returned his lips to hers and his fingers continued stroking up her thighs.

It was heavenly, to taste the sweet, aching need on her lips, to delve his tongue into her wet mouth just as his fingers slipped into her welcoming folds.

Edie squirmed against the carriage seat, her breathing quickening. “Frederick—”

It did not take long. He knew precisely what she wanted, how she needed him to ease, to slowly build a rhythm around her nub as his fingers darted deeper, deeper, stroking the wet ache in her until Edie’s whole body shuddered and she moaned in his mouth.

When she finally fell back against the seat, Frederick’s need for her was exquisite.

Well, that was just something he would have to learn to life with. It wasn’t as though—

“Edie?” he murmured, confused.

Because it did not make any sense. Why on earth had Edie slipped onto the floor of the carriage, kneeling there as though she were searching for a hairpin she had dropped?

“What are you—”

“I think it’s about time that you received a little attention in this marriage, my Lord Pernrith,” Edie said slowly, leaning forward and twisting him so that he faced her, diagonally, across the carriage.

For one heartbeat longer, Frederick did not understand. “But what are you—”

Then her fingers started unbuttoning the front of his breeches.

His eyes widened. “You can’t—”

“Oh, can’t I?” Edie said wickedly, mischief and desire in her eyes. “You think I have never wanted to do this?”

Frederick groaned. This was too much—yet if she didn’t follow through on what she was suggesting, he was half-certain he was going to come in his breeches, anyway. “But if I groan or shout—”

“You’ll just have to be quiet, then,” said the minx, repeating his own words back to him.

He had a very cutting and witty retort to shoot back at her—and would have done, if Frederick hadn’t suddenly been forced to tilt his head back and bite his lip as Edie took his manhood and—

Oh, Christ, this is heaven. Her wet lips parted and gently kissed the leaking slit at the end of his manhood, and Edie slowly inched him into her mouth, taking him deeper and deeper until Frederick could no longer hold himself back. He thrusted forward, sheathing himself in her desperate mouth, and he groaned.

“Edie, oh, Edie… “

With his head back and his fingers splayed in her hair, Frederick could do nothing but lie there, helpless in the wake of her sucking mouth, a rhythm building slowly as she acclimatized herself to his length.

It did not take long. Frederick had been yearning for her the moment they had agreed on their real engagement—agreed they would not touch each other again until they were husband and wife.

When he exploded into her mouth, Edie suckled and twisted her tongue around him, expanding the pleasure through his whole body. Without saying a word, she released him and returned to the seat beside him.

The two of them lay back, panting, otherwise silent. Frederick was certain the world would stop spinning at some point, but he wasn’t sure when.

Eventually, after blinking for several minutes, he turned to his wife. “We should—”

“I know,” Edie said ruefully, attempting to tug her gown into a more decorous position. “They’ll be wondering where we are.”

“Ah, the vagaries of London busyness,” Frederick said with a grin. “We can’t be blamed if there was a carriage overturned, or a cart halted across a road, or… or something.”

He tapped the roof of the carriage most reluctantly, and the vehicle took a left at the next turning.

“True,” said Edie quietly, slipping his arm around her waist and pressing a kiss onto his neck. “But until we get there… “

Frederick entirely lost track of where they were, but no one could blame him. A beautiful woman who was now his wife kissing him furiously? No man could be expected to be aware of one’s surroundings in such a situation.

It was slightly awkward, however, when a person cleared their throat. Loudly. And it wasn’t Edie.

Frederick and Edie jerked apart. The carriage had ceased to move—moreover, the door was open, and a Stewart footman was standing there, pink in the face and eyes averted.

“I didn’t—we weren’t,” Frederick began. Then realization dawned and he chuckled. “We are married, Edie.”

His new wife was just as pink as the footman. “Yes, I know that.”

“That means we can do whatever we want,” he said cheerfully. “Excuse me, my good man.”

Edie began to laugh as the footman, confused, took a step back. “Frederick, you can’t—”

“I can, and I have,” he said, snapping the door shut and returning a modicum of privacy to them.

“But you can’t intend for us to sit in the carriage on the drive, and… well, and kiss while our guests wait for us?”

It sounded an excellent idea to Frederick. In fact, he had never heard better. “And why not?”

Edie stared, open-mouthed, her lips bruised by the fervor of his so recent attentions. Then she wet her lips, causing a dart of lust to shoot through Frederick. “Well, if that is what you wish, who am I to deny my husband?”

Frederick groaned as she returned to his arms. “Dear God, I love you… “

Minutes passed. How many, he was not sure. But when Edie’s head was tucked into his neck and he was stroking her mussed hair—the veil had been lost long ago—Frederick knew he had to say something of what was in his heart.

“I… I cannot believe it. I am married. To you.”

Edie’s chuckle was gentle, but pressed as she was into his side, he could feel it as well as hear it. “You were waiting for me for a long time, were you?”

Frederick’s stomach lurched. “You cannot know how long.”

All those years he’d thought he would never find anyone who would wish to reduce herself to his circumstances. All that time he’d spent in company, knowing not a single woman there would even consider him as a partner.

God, his life had been empty. He had always known himself to alone, but Frederick had not known how truly lonely he’d been until Edie had walked into his life.

When she had walked into that little alcove at Lady Romeril’s ball, with no idea who he was…

“My life is so full, with you in it,” Frederick breathed, his voice choked.

Edie lifted her head and stared seriously. “You do know I love you, don’t you?”

“I do know. Of course, I would like to hear it every day. You could have married anyone—”

“I married you,” she said firmly.

“But you didn’t have to.” Frederick could hardly explain just what it meant to him that she had chosen him. Her! Miss Edith Stewart, the flourishing rose of the year’s Season!

Edie’s golden-brown gaze was steady as she examined him. “Yes, I suppose there might have been… Well. Other options. But my father wanted me to marry a good man, and I have.”

He well knew the hopes Lord Stewart had had for his daughter. Hopes that had now been dashed—though Edie’s revelation that her father had known of their foolish scheme from the very beginning had certainly been an eye-opener.

“But I think I have done one better,” Edie continued softly, splaying her hand against his chest. Surely, she could feel his pulse, rushing forward at a great pace. “I didn’t just marry a good man. I married the best man I have ever met.”

Frederick’s mind rebelled against the notion. “My heritage—my background—”

“That is just the beginning of your story.” There was fire in Edie’s eyes now.

It was strange; since their re-engagement, for want of a better term, she had been almost vehement in her attempt to convince him his scandalous beginnings were not so very scandalous after all.

She had not quite convinced him—but Frederick had to admit, it was a pleasant sensation, to know how he had been born did not matter to the person who mattered the most.

“Well, if that is just the beginning,” said Frederick with a raised eyebrow, “does that make this my happy ending? Ouch!”

Edie had tapped him on the chest. “You do not think you have got enough already while we’ve been in this carriage?”

“I’ll never have enough of you.”

Her expression softened. “Oh, Frederick.”

“Besides, I did not mean it like that,” he added with a chuckle. “You have a far more scandalous mind than I do.”

“That is what comes, I suppose, of reading the Whispers of the Ton every day,” Edie quipped with a grin. “Anyway, I don’t think this is an ending, not really. It’s more… the beginning of a new story.”

Delight spread across Frederick. This woman. This kind, and caring, and soft, and delicate, yet strong and determined woman.

There was no one like her. Never before had he encountered someone with the ability to learn and adapt as Edie Stewart. They may not have been made for each other—they were from entirely different walks of life, his title of Viscount Pernrith notwithstanding.

But they had loved each other, and that had made them right for each other. Over time, there would undoubtedly be difficulties. There was no real life without challenges. But having Edie by his side would make them infinitely more bearable. Besides, he was starting to think Edie would be far better suited to facing the world than he was.

“If you give me half a chance,” Frederick said seriously, placing a hand over her own on his heart, “I’ll… I would do anything to make you happy, Edie.”

She leaned forward and kissed him. “I don’t want half a Chance—I want you, all of you.”

“Oh, you know what I—”

“And you know what I meant,” Edie cut across him with a wry expression. “Time to stop thinking of yourself as half of anything and start allowing the people who care about you to love you. I’m… Well. I’m honored to be your wife.”

Frederick’s affections seemed to expand. “You are?”

Edie nodded, and ignoring the waiting footmen, the waiting guests, and their family, who were undoubtedly concerned about where they were, she moved back into his arms. His hands came around her, pulling her tightly into his embrace. He breathed her in, felt the movement of her, and knew this happiness was one he simply could not believe.

“I am honored to be your wife,” Edie murmured.

He swallowed back tears. “And I am honored to be your husband.”

“Well, that’s settled, then,” she said lightly with a kiss pressed onto his chest. “We’ll be the Chances together. Two whole Chances, wholly in love.”

And Frederick knew the happiness he felt, that expanded with every moment with Edie, that he could not contain and did not understand—that happiness would only grow with every passing day.

“No longer half a Chance, but two Chances,” he murmured. “I like it.”