In Compromise with the Earl by Ava MacAdams
Chapter Nineteen
Oswald grew tenser as his carriage trotted up to Tennesley Hall in London. The two weeks of their honeymoon in Bath seemed like an idyllic dream when faced with the reality of their lives.
The Hall was renowned for its grand architecture with its dark gray bricks and large windows peeking through ivy that covered its facade. Grand turrets were lofty at the corner towers of the Hall and a large marble fountain was in the middle by the drive with carefully trimmed hedges and a variety of flowerbeds that rivaled those of the Royal Palace.
Built several generations earlier, Tennesley Hall had weathered nearly two centuries of Bristol men, their wives and a few unforgettable scandals. He didn’t treasure the thought of showing Aphrodite the gallery that housed his forefather’s portraits and tell her the scandals that came with their names.
Worst off all—his mother. Oswald had no illusion that his mother had miraculously changed her mind about Aphrodite since the two had met. He didn’t want her cold shoulder at dinner that night nor did he want to buffer Aphrodite’s disappointment when it happened.
Slender fingers clasped his hand and gently pried the first Oswald had not known he had formed open. “Don’t worry, Oswald, it will be fine.”
Turning a concerned eyes to her, he said, “I wish I could be so sure, Sprite.”
“Your mother just needs to see that I am not going to abuse your trust or dishonor your Hall like your late wife did,” Aphrodite said, her gaze level and sure. “And I will prove it to her.”
Taking her hands, he rubbed them. “It might be a hard mountain to climb. When my mother gets an idea into her head, it takes a near-miracle to get it out.”
“Well, I plan to be that miracle,” Aphrodite said. “And we shouldn’t keep your family waiting.” With a begrudging nod, he left the carriage and helped her down. Aphrodite smoothed her long-sleeved fawn carriage dress, buttoned up to her neck and blonde straw bonnet; she was the picture of the demure wife.
He extended his arm and as she took it, they mounted the marble steps and were issued into a foyer, the elegantly gold-painted walls showcased a huge painting of a countryside manor in the midst of being constructed.
“That was the barebone of this Hall, a hundred-and -ninety-eight years ago,” Oswald explained. “That painting is more treasured than any rare jewel we have.”
“Yes, it is,” Leo came down the hall, his smile warm and welcoming. “More precious than the treasures of King Solomon, I can assure you.”
“I wasn’t aware they had been found,” Aphrodite said absently while gazing at the portrait. When her words caught up with her, she blushed fire red. “Ah…ah that is to say—”
Leo laughed. “No need to be abashed, welcome to your Hall, dear cousin. And I do like your intellect, and I assure you, you must have it to keep up with this one.”
“Where’s Mother?” Oswald asked, brushing off Leo’s well-meaning jab with a snort.
“Visiting a few friends I believe,” Leo replied kindly. “You have a few hours before her return. The main suite is ready for you so you may rest for a while.”
“I think we shall,” Oswald nodded to the stairs in the room beyond. “Thank you for being here, Leo, it means a lot to me.”
“I’m happy to be here,” he replied.
Aphrodite cleared her throat, “Mister Bristol, later this evening, may I speak with you?”
Leo’s brows lifted and he shot Oswald a look before going back to her, “Yes, and no Mister business, you are family now, it’s Leo to you as well.”
Relieved to find a welcoming presence in what could be a hostile Hall, Aphrodite smiled gratefully. “Thank you.”
She turned to Oswald. “Please, lead the way.” They took the left flight of a sweeping imperial staircase and the corridor leading to the East Wing. His bedchamber was the third on the left. At one glance, Aphrodite let her lips slip open. She had once thought her bedchamber back at Kingsley Manor was large and exquisite, but Oswald’s was massive and had a clear masculine taste in its minimal décor.
“I am aware it is a bit austere,” Oswald said. “I just do not care for frippery.”
A large marble fireplace took possession of another wall. Before it sat two couches, a wingback chair, a coffee table and a large plush rug. On the floor was a round rug with splashes of orange and rust mixed with the brown. Aphrodite spotted a large window and set of double doors.
“A balcony?” she asked in delight.
“Yes,” he said with a permissive nod. “I rarely use it though.” She strode to it, opened it and stepped onto it. The space was about twelve-feet long and seven-feet wide and Aphrodite could see where they could have some seats and even a table there, but that was for a future date. Stepping back into the chamber she saw that Oswald had divested his jacket and waistcoat.
“You’re free to change whatever you’d like,” he said. “I realize the harsh edges around here can be smoothed out with a woman’s touch.”
“Hm,” Aphrodite mused while looking around. “I don’t think I will change a thing. I rather like it.”
His brow quirked while he took the wingback chair. “No lace curtains or paintings?
“I don’t have much of that in my former home, so I don’t see why I should change now,” she took the couch. “The only thing I do need is to have my horse brought here and housed with yours.”
“What else do you enjoy?” he asked.
“Chess with the right opponent, I play the pianoforte when the mood strikes and well, you know, riding,” she said. “A good book when I have it, and a card game or two. Hm…it’s strange. I don’t have that much in common with other ladies. Can’t say I’ve looked forward to having tea and gossip or attending balls if I didn’t have to.”
“Speaking of tea,” he murmured. “Shall I call for some?”
“Yes, that would be wonderful, thank you,” Aphrodite replied and waited until he rang, spoke to the maid and came back. “I suppose I always had strain of difference that made other ladies avoid me.”
“You didn’t dream of finding your husband during schooldays?” he asked, cocking his jaw on a fist.
“No, I dreamed of traveling and meeting people, and when it was clear I might not, I took those dreams to paper.” she shook her head. “A Maharaja of India, a Scot Warrior, or even a Pirate Lord. I wrote a lot of stories but—” she shrugged, “I let it drop. A lady writing fantasy stories to be read by others, what a lark.”
“On the contrary, I think its admirable,” Oswald said while rubbing his jaw. “As far as I know, women have a great hold on creating concepts and transitioning emotions into words.”
The maid came with the tea service and after thanking her, Aphrodite poured a cup. “There was always a stopping point in them through…” she looked up a bit shyly, “I never could make the lovemaking scenes right. Dreaming could only go so far.”
Laughing wryly, he said, “I think you have some experience to base those scenes on now.”
Her brows lifted. “Do you mean you want me to start writing again?”
“I want you to do what makes you happy,” he waved. “If it is writing or riding, I want you to do it. There are no bars here, Aphrodite.”
“Oh, thank you,” she said then rested her cup on a saucer. “I wonder if Father sent my books with my trunks. And you’re right, I do have some basis for those scenes now.” Standing, she went to his chair and lifted her dress to brace a knee on the arm. “But I might need more tutelage in the days to come. You wouldn’t want an unsound story, would you?”
Smirking, Oswald ran and hand up her shin and cupped the back of her knee. Tugging her down, he smiled. “No, one would certainly not want that.”
Looping her arms around his neck she smiled. “I’m your apt pupil, dear husband. Teach away.”
His hand slipped to her nape and angled her head away so he could kiss her pulse point and trail his lips up her neck to kiss her jaw and ear. The teasing moments ramped up her desire. When his mouth finally met hers, the kiss surged with ravenous hunger.
Oswald’s lips were hot, fierce and demanding against hers; their tongues twined, stroked until Oswald pulled away to suckle on her lips. His hands cupped her breasts, and his thumbs strummed over her nipples. She could not taste him or feel him enough and gave into the carnal hunger twisting her insides.
“Take me to bed,” she panted in his ear. “Have your way with me. Consider it the first of many, many, lessons.”
As Oswald made to stand with her and take them to the bed, a series of raps sounded on the door. “Devil and damnation.” He nipped her ear. “Ignore it.”
“We cannot just—oh!” She broke off as his lips kissed a sensitive spot on her neck.
The insistent knock came again, and Aphrodite sighed, “It must be Leo. Let me go find out what he wants.”
Oswald was not pleased and the scowl on his face showed it. “Keep it short.”
As she left the bed, Oswald disappeared into the bathing chamber, she fixed her dress and sucked in a breath. Going to the door, she hoped her composure would not cover up the arousal she still felt thickening her blood.
She opened the door to Leo and his benign smile. “Oh good,” he said. “I hope I was not interrupting you.”
“Not at all,” Aphrodite lied. “Oswald and I were talking about my hobbies and such. Is something wrong?”
“I have to get back to the church this evening for evening prayer,” he said with a wry tick of his lips. “Would you like to have that conversation you were asking for now?”
“Oh, yes,” she said. “Let me tell Oswald.”
Turning to the bathing chamber she saw Oswald drying a wet face and bit back a laugh. “Leo and I are going to talk now before he goes off to church. Don’t worry, I will be right back.”
He grunted unhappily in response. “Try not to be a troglodyte, Dear,” she kissed his cheek then left with Leo.
Gentlemanly, Leo extended his arm. “A short stroll around the gardens cannot be too much to ask, surely?”
They descended the stairs and he took her through a set of French doors to the garden; he took them down a cobblestone path and walked with her to a quiet part of the gardens, making sure her slippered feet were away from walking in the damp grass.
“Now, what do you want to tell me?” he asked.
“I know you were the one who married Oswald and his first wife,” Aphrodite said. “I want you to know that I am not here to compete with any memories you might have of her or that I am here to usurp or obliterate her memory. I think it’s safe to say that there can be places for two different people in someone’s heart, right?”
Leo looked amazed. “You are absolutely right.”
Pulling her arm from his she looked around. “Oswald told me some things about Claire and, while what she did to him was reprehensible in every manner of the word, no one is completely evil. There had to be some good she did, and I don’t want anyone to forget it even while I am here. One must always give the Devil his due.”
Laughing softly, Leo shook his head. “I am astounded, dear. Never in my life would I have imagined someone speaking so fairly and kindly about a lady they had never met.”
She turned to him while a gust of wind lifted her hair. “Well, I’m not like most women.”
“I can see that,” he said while his eyes lowered, and he tucked a stand of hair behind an ear. “My cousin is one fortunate man. I would say twice, but after Claire—”
“How was she?” Aphrodite asked. “From where you stood, how did you find her?”
He took a moment to look off to the trees and from the way his jaw worked she knew he was deciding on the best words to say. “When Claire came to us, she was the picture of the perfect wife, demure, respectful, conscientious. But then, she and Oswald started to have problems, and she came to me numerous times to ask my advice.
“The main one was that Oswald worked too much and didn’t give her the attention she wanted. On rare occasions I would hear them fighting, she would cry and scream when Oswald left the Hall. She would often come to me for help and I spent hours counseling her as best as I could, but I never thought that she would betray him so severely,” Leo said, his tone darkening with grief.
“After she was found dead—by the hands of a jealous lover we assume—her secrets were aired. At least eight men were found to have relations with her, and it put my cousin in a dark place, a very dark place,” he ended.
“How…” Aphrodite swallowed, “how dark?”
He gave a small relieved smile. “Not what you are thinking, he never tried to harm himself, but he was severely hurt, cut to the core and depressed. For days he did not see daylight and became a shadow of the man I used to know.”
“He loved her,” she surmised.
“Deeply,” Leo replied. “My cousin might not show it, but he is a very emotional man.”
“Oh, I’m starting to realize that,” Aphrodite replied. “He can fool anyone into thinking he doesn’t care but you see it in his eyes if you look closely.”
“Intuitive as well as kind,” Leo said, his warm smile emerging again. “I am glad you’re here. I have faith that you can win Aunt over as well.”
Turning to the trees where the sun was starting to dip over, she cocked her head. “I hope so too. I want us to be a true family, one without any hard feelings among us.”
From the corner of her eye, she spotted a peculiar look on Leo’s face; the warm smile was gone and replaced with a hard, stiff-jawed, steely-eyed look. A muscle was ticking in his jaw, and she saw his lips thin.
He must have seen her questioning gaze so he attempted a smile, but it fell flat. “I must say, I want that too, but Aunt can be a little stubborn and it angers me. You will have to prove to her, time and time again that you are not what she thinks you are.”
Brushing her hair away, she replied, “I’ve never been one to shy away from a challenge.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” he said while extending his arm to her. “Let’s go inside before Oswald comes barging down here to take you away.”
Giggling, she looped her arm with his and smiled when he rested his other hand on top of hers with his thumb making circles on the back of her hand. They went inside and just as they came to the front hall where the major stairs were—the front door opened and the Dowager stepped in.
Her eyes landed on Aphrodite while she removed her gloves. “You’re…here.”
The tension that she had hoped not to feel made her body rigid, but Aphrodite pulled away from Leo and curtsied. “Good evening, My Lady.”
“Hmph,” the Dowager snorted, “Leo, would you get Oswald for me? We have a few things to discuss.”
As the Dowager marched forth and took the steps without giving Aphrodite a second look; Leo gave her a pained one, as if saying, I told you so. Swallowing over the hurt in her chest, Aphrodite lifted her chin. The Dowager might be dismissive of her for the time being because of whatever biased ideas she believed about her, but Aphrodite was hell bent on proving her wrong.
But where do I start?
