Barely a Bride (Free Fellows League 1)

“Mama was right,” Alyssa muttered, beneath her breath. “I should have memorized Debrett’s before I married.”

“Pardon?” he inquired politely.

“Touché, Your Grace.” Alyssa curtsied.

“Pax, Lady Abernathy.” Sussex held up his hands. “I come in peace.”

“As you appear to be our nearest neighbor, I appreciate the peaceful overture, Your Grace,” she said. “But I am puzzled by why you would deign to come at all. Especially without invitation.”

“I have an invitation,” he informed her. “Your charming mother bade me call upon you when she learned I was traveling this way. She’s been concerned about you.”

“She could not have been too concerned,” Alyssa remarked, “or she would have come in person.” The smile she gave the duke told him, in no uncertain terms, that she knew how false his statement was. In fact, the last thing Lady Tressingham said to her youngest daughter before Alyssa boarded the coach that would bring her to Abernathy Manor for her honeymoon had been: “I did my best by you. You could have been a duchess, but you made your bed, Viscountess Abernathy—now lie in it.”

“She did ask me to call upon you,” he answered, truthfully this time.

“No doubt hoping that I’ve become a widow already.” Alyssa looked up at the duke and met his unrelenting gaze.

He cocked an eyebrow. “There is always that possibility.”

“Yes.” Alyssa closed her eyes and counted slowly to ten. There was no question that the Duke of Sussex was one of the most gorgeous examples of the human male she had ever seen. But he also appeared to be one of the most arrogant, most ill bred, most obstinate and obtuse peers of the realm she had ever met. The man simply could not take a hint. “There is always that possibility, Your Grace. It’s called war. And it makes a great many widows. But I am married. You are not. That means that it’s quite improper for you to call upon me in spite of your lofty rank.”

“Not at all, my lady,” he replied. “For a duke is welcomed in any household. And it’s quite proper for me to call so long as we are properly chaperoned and so long as I bring a wedding gift.”

“We are not chaperoned.” She glanced pointedly at his empty hands, and then turned her attention to the morning salon. There wasn’t a sign of a wedding gift anywhere in sight. “And I don’t see a wedding gift.”

“Outside,” he told her. “My wedding gift is outside.”

Alyssa narrowed her gaze at the duke. “It had better not be a horse,” she warned. “Or a foxhound.”

Sussex laughed. He reached out to take her by the elbow. “Come, Lady Abernathy, let me set your mind at rest.”

Intrigued in spite of herself, Alyssa allowed the duke to lead her out of the morning salon and through the front door.

A beautiful bay stallion stood tied to a wagon.

“He’s not yours,” Sussex informed her. “He’s mine. What’s in the wagon is yours.”

He led her closer. Inside the bed of the wagon were two canvas-covered squares, one larger and one smaller. A carefully packed crate sat beside the covered squares.

His Grace lifted the canvas aside to reveal the two wooden cages beneath it. Inside the larger of the cages was a pair of mute swans.

The duke grinned. “I heard, my lady, that your intent is to transform Abernathy Manor and its gardens and grounds into an estate to rival Sussex House’s gardens and grounds. Since every magnificent garden comes complete with swans, I found these very apropos.”

“Thank you, Your Grace, they’re lovely,” Alyssa answered honestly.

“They are that,” His Grace agreed. “But swans can be very ill-tempered creatures. Especially when they’re mating…” He gave Alyssa a meaningful look. “They mate for life, you know.”

“Yes,” she said quietly. “I know.”

The duke glanced down at the toes of his boots. “Well, in any case, I thought you and Lord Abernathy would appreciate that quality.”

“I do.”

“I, on other the other hand, appreciate the fact that these particularly nasty tempered creatures are mute,” Sussex elaborated. “Unlike their new owner.”

It was Alyssa’s turn to laugh.

Sussex exhaled the breath he had been holding. “Oh, and I brought you these.” He nodded toward a pair of peafowl—a male peacock and his hen. “A bit of competition just to make certain the swans don’t become too full of themselves.”