Free The Baron's New Wife: Regency Romance by Emily J. Rose Page B

smiled at all the eyes glaring at her. Her life as a daughter and young maid would soon be ending. Already she had lost her dearest acquaintance and soon she would be leaving her home and family for new strange lands. Admittedly the thought of leaving her mother did not trouble her so much, but she would definitely miss her father’s occasional tender words and generous acts. The future was a great unknown except for one daunting man, Baron Hester, of whom she knew very little.
     
    Chapter 2
     
    The wedding day arrived too quickly for Anna, she was still accepting the engagement and the loss of her governess to be excited for the actual marriage. She had had several sleepless nights crying and then when she finally slept she would awake from dark ominous nightmares. Repeatedly she would dream that she was running through a large mansion desperately trying to escape the shadowy figure that haunted her. Each time she would run out of the main entrance only to find Baron Hester standing at the door and then she would awake. This same dream came to her the night before the wedding and with no hope of abandoning her obligation, Anna assumed the dream was a foreshadowing of her marriage to come.
     
    With bleary sight and dark rings under her eyes Anna washed herself and prepared for the long day ahead. The maid entered and helped her dress in a pure white gown with gloves and a pearl tiara. When Anna looked at herself in the mirror before leaving her room she did not feel like a blushing bride but rather a ghostly maiden, pale, thin and dispirited.
     
    The house was alive with action, servants rushing around preparing for the wedding breakfast and Anna’s mother dressing and then changing outfits repeatedly. Once Lady Kemp was satisfied with her own attire she turned her gaze to Anna and realized that the bride looked positively gloomy.
     
    “Your father has found you the most suitable husband, dressed you in expensive fabrics and you still stand there looking sorry for yourself!” Lady Kemp walked over to Anna and started to pinch her cheeks. “You look ill! Do you think the Baron will want to marry you when you look as white as a sheet?” Anna stood there and let her mother continue to pinch her cheeks in the hope that that she might create a rosy dew but the effort was pointless. Anna had long decided that she was simply moving from one prison to the next with her main duty being to look pretty. She no longer cared if the pink had drained from her skin or if her once shiny hair had matted; she was simply a commodity that had been purchased.
     
    “Let us to church ladies.” Lord Kemp descended the staircase and headed straight for the door, the ladies following in suite. They sat together in an open top carriage and briefly enjoyed the few rays of sun that graced their journey.
     
    “Now my dear,” Lord Kemp leaned toward Anna from his side of the carriage. “After the ceremony we will return for the celebrations and then you will journey with Baron Hester to your new home in Staffordshire.” Anna’s father talked slowly so that she would fully understand the conclusion of the day. He showed some empathy in his tone but still remained factual as to a business transaction. “You have always been a dutiful daughter, obliging and agreeable. Now you go on to start your own journey as a wife and hopefully mother. We will be sure to visit.”
     
    Anna looked into her father’s eyes hoping he would sense her desperation to be free of her fate but he simply patted her hand and sat back in his seat. She knew that once she was married and carried off to the north there would be no visit from her parents. Her mother who had always been hard and cold would not want to take the time or expense of a visit and her father would always be preoccupied with business.
     
    The church slowly came in sight and Anna’s stomach knotted up and her palms became sticky. The arched wooden doors opened and an organ started to play as