Birching His Bride (Domestic Discipline 1)

Soon Edwin would realize that there was no point in chastising her and he would give up and allow her to go her own way, preferably to live at Lady Grace’s house. She’d hinted to her mother that things with Edwin weren’t going quite the way she wanted them to, but her mother seemed completely oblivious. Hugh was still courting Miss Chandler and the fathers were quietly negotiating, which was holding the majority of her mother’s attention, and the rest of her conversation was spent praising Edwin. There would be no help or sympathy from either of her parents, it was clear.

******

Edwin knew that his wife was up to something. There was a little gleam of triumph in Eleanor's eye lately whenever she looked at him. In fact he was letting a lot of little instances of bad behavior slide just because he wanted to see what she was saving up for. Curiosity was ruling him at the moment. Later he would have plenty of time to discipline her for the laziness with which she was performing her duties as lady of the house. Although he still reacted to insults or blatant disrespect with an immediate punishment, he had so far not chastised her for ignoring her duties.

Oh yes, he was well aware that the burden had fallen onto his housekeeper, who was really not supposed to be running the household anymore. And she wasn't happy about it either. Mrs. Hester had come to speak with him, hinting that she was becoming frustrated with the current state of affairs. He'd soothed her and offered her a pay raise and told her that soon Lady Hyde would be taking up the reigns of the household, as she was supposed to be doing. At least she'd finally gotten the invitations for the dinner party out and was mostly taking responsibility for planning that. It was a combination of both of their friends, although unfortunately Wesley still wasn't back in England.

As soon as he found out what she was planning he would make sure she knew that things would not continue the way they had been. He had a feeling that it was going to make for a wonderful reason for punishment. And afterwards he'd have even more justification disciplining her for the smaller matters. In the meantime it was delightful to have such a lovely and responsiv

e wife in his bed, although he wished that he saw more of her during the day. That was something else that was going to have to be fixed. She was always out gallivanting around without telling him where she was going or who she was spending her time with. And when he asked in the evenings he was fairly certain that she wasn't being entirely truthful with him.

But he was somewhat distracted by business affairs and getting things in order before their honeymoon so he was letting a lot of little things slip by, like the fact that he was fairly certain she was occasionally lying to him. Soon he'd be able to take care of that. Even when they returned home from their honeymoon his time wouldn't be quite so taken up by business and so he would be able to attend more to her.

There was a knock on his study door and Edwin looked up from the current batch of accounts that he was reviewing. After their honeymoon he'd have to take a visit to the estates. He wondered how Eleanor would take leaving London.

"Yes Banks?" he asked as his butler stepped into the room.

"Viscount Petersham is here to see you, my Lord." In his late forties, Banks had the usual starchy demeanor of a butler. He'd been with Edwin since Edwin had come to London, a stalwart presence that had seen him through several mishaps.

"Ah, Hugh, very good. You may send him in."

The door closed and Edwin shuffled the papers he had been looking at into the proper order. He liked to keep things neat on his desk, everything in its proper place. It only took him a few moments to have everything arranged as he liked it when Banks returned and admitted Hugh into the study.

Grinning, Edwin stood and walked around the desk to clasp his friend and brother-in-law's hand. Within five minutes they were lounging in his arm chairs, armed with glasses of brandy.

"So, how goes the married life?" asked Hugh. "You're still alive so I suppose that means Eleanor's behaving."

"She's up to something," said Edwin, a little anticipatory smile curving across his face.

Hugh shook his head. "And you're looking forward to whatever mad little scheme she has going through her head? You're a braver man than I."

"I daresay you'll find that disciplining your wife is quite a different matter than your sister." The gleam in Edwin's eye made it clear exactly what he meant by that and Hugh gave a small shudder.

"Just remember that your wife is my sister and I don't want to hear any details."

They both laughed, but there wasn't any real vehemence in Hugh's voice. After all, he'd had occasion to discipline Eleanor when she'd been living beneath her father's roof, as it was good practice for once he was running his own household. But there was no denying that family feeling would make it a much less erotic exercise than Edwin enjoyed with her.

“Besides,” said Hugh amiably, “I sincerely doubt that Miss Chandler will ever require anything in the way of correction. She’s a practically a paragon of good behavior.”

"And how goes your own courtship?" asked Edwin curiously. "Will you be joining me in matrimonial bliss shortly?"

Snorting, Hugh took a sip of his brandy. "The idea that being married to Eleanor would produce matrimonial bliss..." He shook his head wonderingly as Edwin grinned and raised his own glass in a salute before taking a drink. "But yes, I believe we've come to an arrangement that suits everyone. The announcement should be in the paper this weekend and the date is set for two months from now."

"I have to admit, I'm rather glad I didn't have to wait, although I know Eleanor would have liked a big wedding."

"Eleanor would like a lot of things," said Hugh, shaking his head and grinning. "It wouldn't be good for her to get everything she likes."

"And Miss Chandler? Is she going to get everything she likes?"

Those little stars flitted into Hugh’s eyes again and Edwin hid his grin. Doubtless Hugh had been up writing abysmal poetry to Miss Chandlers’ eyes again. Fortunately for Miss Chandler Hugh never shared his creative efforts, Edwin and Wesley had happened upon some written for previous ladies and had teased Hugh so relentlessly that he’d never cared to share any again.

“She’ll be well taken care of. In fact, I can’t wait to start taking care of her. I’m looking forward to the end of the Season where we can retire to the country and rusticate.”

"Sounds boring." Edwin quite preferred the bustle of town life, something he and Hugh had never managed to agree on. Although, of course, Edwin would visit the country quite often since both his parents and Hugh were out there.

“From our talks I gather she's a country girl at heart, enjoys spending time outdoors walking and sketching,” said Hugh, ignoring Edwin. “She paints water colors."

"Don't they all."