He’d pressed a note into Alana’s maid’s hand earlier about the door and the time, but it wasn’t until the latch had moved so easily beneath his hand that he expelled the breath he may have been holding for hours. She’d sounded so convincing with that business about the convent.

Well, not after tonight!

“Alana?” he whispered, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the near darkness. “Where are you?”

“Over here,” she answered just as quietly, and still from some distance away. “In…in bed. Do you mind that I didn’t light many candles?”

He turned toward the sound of her voice. “No, no, of course not,” he said, and then bit his lip as the toes of his right foot came in sharp contact with a chair leg. He stepped around the chair and, now able to make out the outline of the four-poster bed, headed in that direction. Only more cautiously.

And then he saw her, sitting propped against several pillows, her glorious blond hair undone and falling to her nearly bare shoulders, as she was clad in some sort of sheer, snowy-white confection that completed her quite virginal yet heart-stoppingly welcoming look.

“You’re the most beautiful woman in the world, Alana. You humble me.”

She dipped her chin slightly. “Thank you. Are…are you coming to bed? That is…I thought we’d… But I realize now that you never said…”

“Alana,” he told her as her voice trailed off in clear confusion, “I want this more than I have ever wanted anything in my life. I love you more than life itself. But we can wait, if you wish. It’s only a few more days.”

“Oh,” she said, pulling the coverlet a little higher across her breasts.

Bailey smiled. “You didn’t let me finish. I said we could wait. That didn’t mean I wanted to wait.”

She lifted her head and returned both his smile and his candor. “I was hoping you’d say that. Is that bold of me?”

“It’s honest of you,” Bailey said, reaching for the buttons of his shirt, as he had come to her in his shirtsleeves, seeing no need to waste time shedding himself of his jacket, waistcoat and cravat. “We’re to be married, sweetheart, and if the vows of honesty and trust aren’t in the marriage ceremony, we’ll just have to recite them here, tonight, between the two of us.”

His buttons were open now, and he began pulling the tail of his shirt free of his pantaloons.

Even in the dim light from the bedside candles, he could see Alana’s eyes growing wide as he finished stripping to his waist, tossing the shirt to the floor. He put his hands to the buttons at the front of his pantaloons and then hesitated.

“Yes, that would seem to be a splendid idea. I’ll go first. I, Alana Elizabeth Wallingford, do hereby vow before God and man to be always honest with and trusting of you, Bailey Richard Armstrong.” And then she added, “Now I shall be completely honest by saying that, intrigued as I will admit to being, I would greatly appreciate it if you’d please blow out that candle before you remove any more of your clothing.”

Bailey’s bark of laughter could have betrayed them, were Redgrave Manor not such an enormous old pile. He then quickly did what Alana asked, even as she turned to use the snuffer on the candle on her side of the bed.

Her side of the bed. As opposed to his side of the bed. Their bed. From this day forward. They would never sleep apart, as his own parents did, as most couples who could afford separate chambers did. No, never.

He’d add that to his list of vows when he recited them for Alana.

But not right now.

Right now he was much more interested in ridding himself of the rest of his clothing and sliding beneath the covers and, now that the room was lit only by thin moonlight coming in through one of the high windows, convincing Alana that neither of them needed clothing for what they were about to do.

But he wasn’t about to rush her. So thinking, he propped himself against pillows he’d moved closer to hers, and made sure the coverlet concealed him to his waist before turning to press a soft kiss against her temple.

She sighed audibly, and didn’t flinch at all when he then slid his arm across her waist.

“I spent the hours since we made our announcement to Kate thinking over everything you’d said to me this afternoon, sweetheart. I don’t know how to do anything but ask you outright—do you know what’s supposed to go on here tonight? Did your mother, or Kate perhaps, tell you?”

She shook her head. “No, not either of them. But I…I’m not entirely stupid, Bailey. And the dowager took me aside right after you and I were betrothed,” she told him. “She was…most explicit.”

Bailey barely suppressed a groan.

Alana hurried into speech. “Oh, no, it’s all right, Bailey, really. I still had some questions but…well, I thought she’d told me enough to go on with. Besides, according to the dowager, it isn’t so bad if you do it wrong, but if you do it right, it’s glorious. She meant you, Bailey, not me. Doing, you know…the doing. So…so I’m trusting you to…you know.”

“Do it right,” he grumbled. “Wonderful.”

He almost asked her if she had a decanter of wine in her chambers, but knew she wouldn’t, and besides, that would be cowardly. But the dowager had explained things to her? If rumor was to be believed, the woman had entertained more than one man in her bed over the years since the late earl died. All in all, just from the little Bailey knew of the lady who preferred to be called Trixie, she could have spent half her life tipped back on her heels. Good Lord, what had she said to Alana? Had she sketched her pictures?

“Come here,” he said at last, as Alana had begun twisting the coverlet in her hands. “I have an idea. Let’s learn together.”

Tags: Stephanie Laurens Regencies Historical
Source: readsnovelonline.net