“See you soon,” Frederica called back.
“Give the pair some peace, Dorothy.” Stephen’s words were only just caught by Frederica on the wind. “They need it as a married couple.”
Frederica’s hand dropped to her side as the carriages moved away. She stood numbly on the step, unsure what to do now. It was only after the final carriage had left that she caught sight of her new husband.
Lord Padleigh, or Allan as he had asked her to call him in the ceremony, waved off the carriage and moved from the driveway toward her on the step.
“How about a tour?” he said suddenly with a much more relaxed smile than he had worn all morning.
“A tour?” she murmured, not because she had misheard him but because she was so baffled by this change of manner.
“Come, I wish you to see your new home. I’ll show it to you.” He gestured for her to follow him. “First, how about the garden?”
Frederica stepped off the front stoop and moved to follow him. There was a curiousness in her now, a need to see who this version of Allan was.
“Here’s the formal garden.” He moved around the side of the property where they were faced with a wall of yew bushes. He reached for a gate and pushed it open.
Frederica moved to follow him, stepping through the gate where she found herself met with a world of colorful roses.
She had seen the house before, of course, when she had visited Dorothy, but she had not been to every part of it. Usually when she came to see Dorothy, they went to the library or walked the wider estate. This formal rose garden was a part she had never seen before.
“There’s a Palladian beyond the garden here,” Allan walked on with sudden purpose, and Frederica raced to catch up with him. “Walk around this part of the house, and you’ll find more formal borders with a pond.” Like his shadow, she followed him, her senses full of the roses, their scents wafting up to meet her pleasantly.
At the back of the house, they came across more formal borders and a large formal pond, banked with white stones and dappled with white water lilies.
Allan stood before it, smiling down at it.
“The garden means a lot to you?” Frederica asked, coming to a stop at his side.
“It’s my escape,” he explained, not looking at her but at the lilies. “Isn’t it what we all need? An escape?” He turned to face her.
She bit her lip and nodded. Honora’s house had been her escape.
“Now, for the house.” He led her inside again through a back door. She had to hitch the skirt of her column gown a little higher to aid in her walking after him so fast. “I know you know the library well, and you have of course been to the dining room this morning. Let me show you the other rooms.”
He walked through a double set of doors, the grand wood inlaid with rich white carvings. She turned her chin up to gaze in awe as they entered a room with a mural ceiling, great fireplaces, and fine ornaments that glittered in the sunlight.
“The ballroom,” he said, waving a hand toward it.
“I’ve never known you to hold a ball here.” She turned on the spot in the very middle of the room, amazed. “I didn’t even know you had a ballroom.”
“We.”
“What?” She turned to face him.
“Wehave a ballroom now. What’s mine is yours, remember?” he said with a smile. She tried to return it but struggled. It was hard to think of all of this as hers when just days before she was facing being outcast from the ton entirely. “Let us move on then.” He strode away, and she raced to catch up with him again.
They passed through two parlors, a smaller breakfast room that was not as grand as the dining room and needed updating, then a music room. This chamber was somewhat sparse. Apart from a harpsichord and a rather tired-looking piano, there were no other instruments, no harp or fiddle, and no sign of any sheet music. Frederica looked around the walls; there was no art either.
This room is in need of some attention.
“You are fond of your music and art, are you not?” Allan asked, leaning on the doorframe.
She turned to face him, surprised to find that he had been watching her as intently as she had been looking at the room.
“They are your escape as mine is the garden,” he suggested. Slowly, she nodded. When she still didn’t say much, he sighed quite loudly, and she wondered if she had been the cause of it. “Let me show you the upstairs.”
He left the room swiftly once more, and she moved to follow him.
