The Werewolf's Pregnant Bride (2 page)

Chapter 3

Nathaniel shut the door to his chamber just as two large dogs rushed forward to greet him. He fell to his knees to wrap his arms around the neck of each and give them a greeting hug. Snow and Winter were his constant companions. They were pups from his very first litter and both were now too old to birth any further litters. The younger dogs preferred wandering the estate but Snow and Winter, in their old age, liked the warmth of the house. Besides, back when they were born he had not been selectively breeding for thick coats. Now, his dogs all had coats warm enough for the coldest winter nights but that could be brushed to a thin layer in the warmer summer months. The coats had the added benefit of being just the right texture to spin into yarn. It was not near as efficient as wool of a sheep but it was warm and soft nonetheless and something he had begun breeding for as soon as he realized the quality. Mercy had actually been the one to suggest it and a servant had attempted to spin the hair and made a very fine yarn. Then the servant had used the yarn to knit socks and he had been impressed by both their quality and warmth.

"It has been a rough night," he confessed to the dogs as he took off his boots. He rang the bell and a moment later Reggie appeared. Reggie had been a footman as a youth and then worked his way up to a valet. These days he performed valet duties for both Eldon and Nathaniel while their father had his own personal valet.

"I am retiring early," Nathaniel explained. Reggie helped him out of his clothes and into a longcloth nightshirt. The ball was still going on downstairs but he did not feel like joining in and now there really was no point anyways. Even if he danced with the woman of his dreams he was still duty bound to marry the American girl carrying his brother's child.

"Will that be all?" Reggie asked after his bed was turned down. Nathaniel nodded. Once Reggie had left he climbed into bed. Snow and Winter joined him and the warmth from the dogs removed any need for a fire.

He decided he should be grateful that his marriage was not a love match. Some husbands who fell in love with their wives shared a room with them. There was no room in his bed for both a woman and his dogs and he much preferred the company of his dogs; unlike Eldon who had left Claire's bed every morning since their marriage had taken place. He had run into his brother several times in the hallways but even if he had not seen his brother sneaking in the hallways he would have known. His brother's room was beside his own and the sound of him pacing at night had often bothered Nathaniel's sleep and kept his dogs on high alert. In the last fortnight they had all been sleeping much more peacefully though Nathaniel was pretty sure that peaceful sleep would not be possible tonight.

"It is not much but I hope it will do until better arrangements can be made," Mercy said as they entered a bedchamber that was small but adequate for a single guest.

"I wish your servants could have been given more notice of my visit," Sophronia said.

"I do suppose that was not possible. I am sorry for your circumstance," Mercy said taking Sophronia's hand. The girl was young and pretty. Sophronia doubted that she had ever known any true hardship in her life from her gentle gaze. The girl had heart. She would be a finer sister than the sisters she had left in America.

"I never expected it to happen," Sophronia said.

"May I inquire as to how it happened?" Mercy asked.

"In the usual way," Sophronia said. Mercy chuckled.

"I meant the circumstances. It is out of character for Nathaniel to do something so ungentlemanly."

"There was a ball that I was invited to. Several of my acquaintances were going. They were daughters of my father's associates. My father thought it would be good for me. The ballroom got so hot and the music combined with the heat gave me a headache. I needed to escape for a time. The retiring room was nearly full but one of the women suggested that the library might be a place where I could rest in quiet.

I entered the library and laid down on a chaise lounge there. I think I may have fallen asleep for a bit but I cannot be sure. I was awoken by a gentleman kissing me."

"I cannot imagine Nathaniel being so bold!" Mercy said clearly indignant at her brother's poor behavior.

"He was heavily drunk."

"I have never known Nathaniel to drink in excess."

"If he was not used to drink that could explain his forwardness. Of course I protested and he apologized. He sat down beside me and we talked for a bit. I was still feeling the affects of the headache so I could not tell you now what we spoke of," Sophronia said. That was not true. She could almost recount word for word the things Eldon had said but doing so would surely give away her secret.

"Most likely his dogs. It is the thing my brother most likes to speak of."

"I suppose it could have been," Sophronia said. "He had a flask with him and he offered me a drink. My mother is quite opposed to spirits so I had never indulged. I knew I should not but I was not thinking clearly."

"It is so unusual of Nathaniel," Mercy said shaking her head. "Please tell me my brother did not force you."

"No. It was the drink. I cannot blame anything that happened on anything but the drink," Sophronia said. In truth the spirits had tasted so foul and burned her throat so much that she had gulped more than she should have. At the time she had only thought of upsetting her mother. Then, she did remember Eldon kissing her again. She had awoken in her own room and thought everything a dream but the girls she had been out with said they had found her in the library with her clothes ruffled and disarrayed. They had hid her condition as best they could by saying to their chaperone that she was unwell and had fainted. They had been very kind to her and she was thankful.

"I am sorry that you have come to our family in such a way."

"As am I," Sophronia said.

"Soon it will all be in the past. You will soon be a Wolstenholme by marriage and everything will be corrected as much as it can," Mercy assured her. She rung a bell and a maid appeared.

"This is Ruth. She will assist you in getting into the spare nightgown we located for you. It appears we are similar heights though it may be tight around your middle."

"I am grateful anyways," Sophronia assured her.

After Mercy had left and the maid had helped her into her nightgown and turned back her sheets Sophronia climbed into bed.

"Tomorrow we will see what can be done about some clothes. These will not do at all. That babe needs room to grow," Ruth said putting away the dress Sophronia had been wearing.

Sophronia nodded. Her clothes were bordering on uncomfortable now. She had not given much thought to the babe inside her but now she thought that the maid might be right and that perhaps such tight clothes had stunted the child's growth. She had not meant to do the babe any harm. Really, other than concealing its existence she had given it very little thought at all.

Chapter 4

"Sophronia chose to take her breakfast in her room," Mercy told Nathaniel as soon as he seated himself at the table after filling his plate from the choices on the sideboard. He had been up early to see to his dogs and he was feeling ravenous now.

He spread marmalade on a roll and nodded to Mercy who was cutting a piece of kipper into delicate lady like pieces.

"I was terribly nervous on my wedding day. Do you think perhaps she is overwhelmed with emotions?" Claire asked. She was delicately removing the shell of a boiled egg.

"I think perhaps there is less for her to be nervous of than there was for you," Eldon said. He had chosen to forgo food and instead was sipping ale.

"I don't think that is true. I knew you for many years before marriage. She is a recent acquaintance is she not?" Claire asked looking towards Nathaniel.

"Very recent," Nathaniel said biting into his roll.

"I had not meant nervous about the groom. I meant nervous about the wedding night. Obviously she knows what all that is about," Eldon said.

"Perhaps this is not a topic we should speak of with your sister in the room," Claire said softly.

Eldon looked over at Mercy whose cheeks had pinked and then nodded and said, "Quite."

"I suppose it is also possible that she may be nervous about her manners. I do not know how I would feel dining at an American table. How would one know if they were acting properly or not?" Mercy said.

"I do not think it matters much to them about propriety," Eldon said.

"Do you think we should broach the subject with her and ask if she needs any assistance learning our ways?" Claire asked.

"I think you should leave the girl alone," Eldon said. "She is not really one of us and never will be whether or not the babe in her belly ends up a were-child or not."

"You can hardly expect us not to treat her as a sister," Claire said.

"Why would you?" Eldon asked.

"She is marrying Nathaniel," Mercy said.

"Under the worst of circumstances," Eldon said. Nathaniel brought his hands to his lap to hide the clenching of his fists. Was his brother too drunk to remember whose baby the chit carried inside her? It hadn't been him in the bed with her. Had his brother forgotten?

"Suppose we talk on better topics. I am afraid my food will not digest properly with such unhappy talk," Mercy said.

"Brother, have you found a way yet to improve on racing dogs?" Eldon asked. His tone indicated he was poking fun but Claire and Mercy looked over at him expectantly.

"Not yet but you will be the first I alert when I do."

"Only to compete with my dogs. I have had Dalton working with them. I daresay that the newest pups will be able to best my father-in laws."

Dalton was the groom who tended to the household dogs. Nathaniel had hired a groom especially for his. Jonah had an affinity for dogs much in the same way he did. He did not see them as a substitute for horses as Dalton did but as a special creature all on their own. Eldon wanted dogs that could race while pulling a carriage which was well enough but the dogs Nathaniel was breeding were made for stamina more than speed as well as hunting prowess. They were not built for racing sports.

"In my father's defense, my stepmother does not allow him as much time to train with his dogs. She likes him to join her while she receives visitors. She thinks it will help his business success to rub elbows with the wives and daughters of the elite who she is well acquainted with," Claire said.

"At our wedding I asked your father about letting me use one of his dogs as a sire. Blaze is the only one none of mine have been able to beat," Eldon said. "He refused me of course."

"I am sure he did not want to give you any unfair advantage," Claire said.

"I have a perfect bitch to breed him to. Sires are important but it is the bitches that make or break the quality of pup."

Nathaniel's food suddenly looked unappealing to him. He had only managed the roll but he no longer had the stomach for the rest.

He pushed his chair away from the table.

"You should stop by the study to see if father has returned with the special license yet," Mercy said.

"I will do that," Nathaniel said though he had no intention of it. He wanted to be out with his dogs. He did not want to deal with either his bride or his marriage until the last possible moment.

Sophronia took a sip of tea before returning to her letter which was not coming easily. Letters to her mother rarely did.

She had so far written:

Dearest Mother,

Her greeting was more out of politeness than the feelings of her heart.

She dipped her pen in the inkwell and pushed on.

You will be pleased to know that I have fallen in love with the younger son of Marquess Wolstenholme and I will be marrying him this day.

It was better if she told her mother a fictitious story of her circumstances than leaving the details to her father.

I will be remaining on the Wolstenholme estate which I knew would please you. By the time father returns to you with this letter I fully expect to be carrying my dear husband's child.

Sophronia winced at that line. How many lies could one letter contain before it was more fiction than letter?

I wish you and my dear sisters well. I hope you can find matches for them of the love and prestige I found for myself.

Your Dutiful Sophronia

Perhaps it would be easier to let her father tell her mother the tale of her fall. After all, she likely would never see her mother again and if she was angry enough perhaps she would not bother with letters. Sophronia could be completely cut off from her family and free to-

Free to what? She was less free now as a wife and soon to be mother than she had ever been at home.

She sighed and folded the letter. Perhaps she would give it to the servant who delivered her trunks or perhaps not. She would decide later.

She turned her head to the sudden knocking on her door.

"It is Claire and Mercy," a female voice said that could have been either woman. The door muffled the sound and Sophronia had not yet met Claire.

"I am still in my dressing gown," Sophronia called.

"We do not have anyone else with us," the voice said. Sophronia had meant to deter them but it seemed that her state of undress did not bother them.

"Come in," Sophronia said.

The door opened and both women came in. The girl with Mercy was taller by a head but her countenance made her look smaller. She was dark haired and dark eyed against porcelain skin. Her body disappeared in her dress and she looked as if there was next to nothing to her figure.

Mercy on the other hand had hair that was the color of straw and her skin was beige. She had hard features while Claire had soft. Still, she wasn't plain or unpleasant to look at though Claire was the handsomer of the two by far.

"We have been sent to help you prepare for the wedding. We brought a dress for you to wear. We were told your trunks had not arrived yet," Claire said.

"Father came home with the special license and wishes for the wedding to proceed before luncheon."

"It is all very rushed," Sophronia sighed.

"I believe he wants to be sure that the baby is not born before the wedding."

"I have months left to go," Sophronia said.

"It seems to me that anything regarding babies makes men nervous," Claire said.

"Except the actual making of them," Sophronia added.

"Except that," Claire said with a giggle.

"No maid could be spared to help me dress?"

"I am sure that one could be and I can call Ruth if you wish but it is our family’s custom for the bridesmaids to prepare the bride," Mercy said.

"It is too bad you had no sisters here to help you," Claire said.

"I suppose it is for the best. My mother would not want me seen by them in such a condition." Sophronia let her soon to be sisters-in-law pull off her dressing gown and nightdress until she was before them in nothing but a shift, stockings, and her drawers.

Claire pulled a petticoat over her head while Mercy laced up her corset and then she helped Sophronia into the corset cover leaving her to tie it while Claire hooked the corset to the petticoat. Once she was finished Claire pulled a fancy petticoat over her head. It had barely blue lace and a bow.

The skirt and bodice were next. Both were also blue though a light shade of it that looked rather like the sky behind a fluffy white cloud.

Mercy helped her put on long white gloves.

Sophronia looked in the mirror and that was enough to break the damn of emotions that had built up inside of her and tears began to flow unbidden down her cheeks.

"I am sorry that the marriage had to be rushed," Claire whispered putting her arm around Sophronia which only made her cry harder.

"It just isn't what I had planned," Sophronia said. She hadn't planned to be married now let alone heavy with child.

"Marriage is not so bad though I daresay Eldon and I knew we were to be wed since we were barely twelve years old," Claire said.

"Was the marriage arranged?" Sophronia asked. An arranged marriage would certainly explain why Eldon had been so willing to bed a stranger.

"Of course not. My father would never force me to marry anyone I did not love. You might say we chose each other very young. I suppose I could tell you the story while Mercy fixes your hair," Claire said.

"I would enjoy that," Sophronia said. It was only half true. She would be glad of the distraction but at the same time a story of fairies or elves would certainly have been preferable to the tale of how the father of her bastard child came to marry his wife. She may not have had feelings for Eldon but she thought she could grow to like Claire. Hearing of their epic romance and knowing it was his babe she carried would certainly ruin much of the magic of their love story.

"We were small children when we first met. Eldon's mother and my mother were cousins. When my mother died I went to live with Eldon's grandparents for a time while my father courted my stepmother.

Nathaniel and Mercy were babes in arms and his mother worried for them traveling to Manchester where his grandparents had just relocated. It was a growing city and they wanted to take advantage of the opportunities there."

"I visited Manchester briefly," Sophronia said. It was one of the places her father had gone to make business acquaintances. In fact, it had been in Manchester where she had met Eldon at the party where she had become pregnant with his child.

"Eldon and his mother were unfortunate enough to visit just when an outbreak of scarlet fever presented."

"Oh my," Sophronia said. She had heard of epidemics of measles, scarlet fever, and influenza but she had never suffered through one. She could not imagine the horror of it.

"I had already had scarlet fever as a child so there was no concern for my welfare but Eldon had not. He was not terribly sick but too much to leave when they had planned and their visit was delayed. On the night before they were scheduled to leave Eldon's mother went to see a performance at the opera house. It was a sad twist of fate that on the night she should choose to see a play the opera house caught on fire. It was the gas lighting I was told later but I knew nothing of all that at the time. His mother perished," Claire said.

"Does it upset you to hear the story?" Sophronia asked Mercy who had just put the last pin in her hair.

"I suppose that it should but in truth I do not remember her at all. There is a portrait of her in the library but if not for that I would not even know what she looked like."

"Eldon of course was the oldest and terribly fond of his mother. I had just lost mine so it gave us a certain kinship for the time it took for his father retrieve him from Manchester. Shortly after that my father married and I returned home as well. My father had been married only a year when Vivian was born. My stepmother and I never were close and once Vivian came my step-mother had no affection at all for me which was just as well. I missed my real mother and wanted her back. My father had a bout of influenza right before I turned eleven. He recovered but it left my stepmother nervous about what should happen to me if he was to die. He assured her that I would be removed to family but she wanted a marriage arrangement made. I told my father how fond I was of Eldon and he wrote Marquess Wolstenholme and that was that," Claire said.

"I am glad you have a husband you are so fond of," Sophronia said though she wondered if Eldon had the same deep affection for his wife that she obviously had for him. Having a marriage where the love was one sided would be torment. It was much better for both partners to be without affection as her union would be.

"Are you ready?" Mercy asked. Sophronia took one last look in the mirror. She looked beautiful. If her stomach did not stretch the fabric nearly to tearing she could almost imagine she was any bride on her wedding day.

"As ready as I expect I can be," Sophronia whispered.