CHAPTER 28

‘Lady Madison, we are going to be late.  Please wake up,’ Beth urged.

‘No, I am tired,’ Madison groaned and snuggled deeper under the covers.

‘The duke’s been ready for an hour,’ Beth hoped that would get Madison out of bed.  ‘The carriages are all packed.  Even Mrs. Famworth is done with breakfast.’

‘Oh dear,’ Madison smiled and reluctantly threw off the covers.

Beth was pleased to see the broad smiled plastered across Madison’s cheeks.  ‘You are in a good mood this morning, Lady Madison.’

‘I am---so, so happy Beth,’ Madison stretched and hopped out of bed.

‘Why on earth are your shifts on the wrong way?’

Madison looked down critically at her night garments.  ‘I put them on in the dark.’  This was the truth.  After Chadwick had left her chamber, Madison had sleepily pulled her shifts over her head, not caring about how.  ‘Have you got hot water for me to bath with?’

‘You had a bath last night my lady.  Perhaps you can just wash this morning.  We are late,’ Beth reminded her.

‘I would like to bath please Beth,’ Madison avoided meeting Beth’s eyes.

‘Very well, I shall fetch two jars.  We must hurry.’

When Madison was all cleaned up and beautifully dressed in an emerald green velvet riding gown, she made her way downstairs, none too concerned about keeping her fiancé and her retinue waiting an entire hour.  She waltzed into the dining hall.  It was empty save for two familiar faces at a table.  It seemed the grooms had completed breakfast and were in the carriages.  Chadwick stood up as she approached their table.

‘Good morning,’ she beamed a smile at Chadwick.

‘Lady Madison,’ he greeted courteously.  He had hoped to leave an hour ago, but his gorgeous fiancée was having a time, getting out of bed, it seemed.  He could hardly admonish her, as it was he that had gone into her chamber and kept her awake until a godforsaken hour.

‘Morning Granny Jean,’ Madison dragged out, disappointed at Chadwick’s lukewarm greeting.

‘Did you not sleep well dear?’ Jean observed the dark shadows under Madison’s eyes.

‘It was rather warm last night,’ Madison’s cheeks coloured.  ‘I will just have some tea, then we can be on our way.’

‘Sit down and have breakfast,’ Chadwick instructed.  It was going to be many hours before luncheon and he did not want her fainting on him.

‘I am fine---I---.’

‘Sit down,’ Chadwick’s eyes brooked no argument.

Reluctantly Madison lowered herself into a chair.  She caught the hovering grin on Granny Jean’s face.  Madison scowled, picked up the menu and placed an order.  Chadwick ordered more coffee.  Jean declined anything further.  Madison had thought Chadwick was upset at her for keeping him waiting for an hour, but she found he was in a jovial mood, making conversation, teasing both ladies.  Granny Jean was in hysterics at his observations of the folk of the little village they had spent the night at. 

Madison was pleased when Chadwick offered her his arm as they walked to the carriage.  She stole a glance at him, but he was looking ahead at the carriages in front of them.  He helped Granny Jean in, indicated to Beth to follow the Battleaxe and just as Madison attempted to climb into the carriage, Chadwick held her back, captured her mouth and stole a kiss. Madison gasped.  Her finger instinctively went to her mouth, as if following Chadwick’s lips on hers.  She looked to see if they had been observed, but thankfully his broad shoulders had been a protective wall. 

‘In you get,’ he whispered huskily.  Madison slowly let out her breath and climbed into the carriage. 

It was an overcast day, pleasant enough to make riding bearable.  Granny Jean was relating a story about the last trip she made to Cricklewoods with her beloved late husband.  When Madison found a gap in between Jean’s ramblings, she laid her head against the headrest, deciding to make use of the time to catch up on the sleep she had lost the previous night. 

           "Would you like more champagne dear? Chadwick smiled as they rode to d’Angerville.

‘Yes please,’ Madison smiled at her husband, happy that he was riding with her in the carriage and not sitting in front, steering the horses.

They had been married a week ago.  Her mother had almost fainted at how gaunt Madison had looked, when she’d first glimpsed Madison.  Thankfully when she saw how radiant and in love her daughter was, all was forgotten. Baron Sanford had forgiven his daughter for the family embarrassment, now that she was to wed a duke, who annoyingly seemed to have no desire to use his rightful title. Madison had been overjoyed that Chadwick had been sensitive enough to order her a wedding gown.  She had cried tears of joy when she touched the intricate garment of extravagant silk; lace and satin.  She had turned a bright hue of pink when her mother had informed her that Chadwick had given the modiste instructions on how he wanted the gown designed.  Nobody dared challenge the duke’s desire for the gown to have a plunging neckline and almost bare back, save for the lace that hardly provided any modesty really. 

What had surprised and angered Madison most, was Chadwick’s absolute refusal of the more than generous dowry Baron Sanford had offered him.  In her most verbal and defiant stance Madison had attempted to persuade Chadwick to reconsider, she was summarily lashed with his coldest and most brutal glare. 

He had growled at Madison and warned her not to meddle in the affairs between men.  Madison had run out of her father’s library and sought solace in the garden.  She had not understood his stupid pride.  Had he not said, he had used all his own funds to settle his father’s debts?  Had he not cautioned her to be frugal after they married?  Madison was fast learning that her marriage to Addinell Chadwick Busquent d’Angers the ninth Duke of d’Angerville was on his terms and his terms only.

She had to credit him for being a romantic though.  After the wedding, he had taken her to an idealistic country hotel that was favoured by honeymooning couples.  Madison had spent four blissful days and nights there with her attentive husband.  He had been the charming, flirtatious, boyish man she had fallen in love with it seemed a long time ago now.

The three ducal carriages were on their way to d’Angerville now.  Chadwick had promised to return in a month’s time for Lady Sarah’s wedding.  Tonight they would put over at an Inn, by afternoon tomorrow they would reach d’Angerville.  Madison was looking forward to being in her husband’s arms tonight.  He could be loutish and arrogant most times, but at night, he was the most attentive and consummate lover. 

Madison had commandeered the full time services of her personal maid Beth and the groom Buttons.  Much to Chadwick’s consternation, Madison had made the risqué request to her husband to relieve the ailing butler from his former master, Rankin Swain the Earl of Craggvale.  Chadwick had nearly gone ballistic, when she had made the request.  But when he saw the compassion in Madison’s eyes as she related how Rankin exploited the butler and did not attend to the old man’s medical needs, he yielded to her impassioned plea.  He instructed Nester, his butler in Cricklewoods to take the man a few bags of gold coins.  That should see the old man nicely into retirement.  Chadwick wondered now if the unpleasant surprise he had in store for his new wife was too harsh.