The Incredible Honeymoon (Bantam Series No. 46) by Barbara Cartland Page B

anxious for you, but those exotic, expensive houris with whom you spent so much of your time and money last year. ”
    There was no chance of the Duke refuting this, even if he had wished to do so, because the Marchioness’s lips, fiercely, passionately demanding, prevented him from speaking and anyway there was no need for words.
    Later the Duke had extracted himself with difficulty but he was so late in reaching Doncaster Park that dinner had to be put back an hour.
    There was only time for him to bathe, change and greet his numerous relations before they proceeded into the great Baronial Hall which Adam must have designed with just such an occasion as this in mind.
    The Castertons were a good-looking lot, the Duke thought, looking down the table.
    His aunts, his cousins and his grandmother all looked, if not magnificent, certainly aristocratic however old they became.
    ‘Breeding shows itself in bone-structure,’ he thought and was glad that, if he had to marry, his wife should come from an ancient family with a pedigree that was almost the equal of his own.
    This however was not particularly reassuring when he thought of Antonia as a person rather than a name on a genealogical family-tree.
    He had in fact seen practically nothing of her since their engagement had been announced.
    Because the Duke felt that the numerous parties that would be given for them jointly and the endless process of being looked over by each other’s families would prove intolerable, he had insisted on the marriage taking place far more quickly than his future mother-in-law thought seemly.
    There was however the excuse that in July everybody would be leaving London.
    While for economy’s sake the Earl had decided that Antonia should be married in the country at their local Church, the majority of the guests could conveniently come down from London for the ceremony.
    “Indecent haste, I call it!” the Countess remarked tartly. “At any rate it gives me a good excuse to buy you only a small trousseau. Your future husband is rich enough to provide you with anything you need, and what money we have would better be spent on Felicity.”
    Her mother was being disagreeable, Antonia knew, simply because she could not adjust herself to accepting the fact that the Duke had offered for her rather than Felicity.
    “I cannot understand it!” the Countess said over and over again.
    Then finally she found an answer to what perplexed her and the Earl in the fact that Antonia rode so well.
    “He has obviously heard what a ‘go-er’ she is in the hunting-field,” the Earl said.
    “Felicity also rides well!” the Countess said, championing her elder daughter as she always did.
    “Not as well as Antonia!” the Earl retorted.
    Antonia thought during the weeks that preceded the wedding that her mother’s dislike expressed itself every time she looked at her and every time she spoke.
    She had never made any pretence that Felicity was not her favourite child; but now, Antonia thought, what had been mere indifference where she was concerned had changed into something very much stronger and very hurtful.
    There was however nothing she could do about it, while Felicity told her over and over again how grateful she was and how both she and Harry would bless her for the rest of their lives.
    “As soon as you are married, Harry has decided he will speak to Papa,” Felicity said.
    “He had better wait until I come back from my honeymoon,” Antonia advised. “I will then try to persuade the Duke to say pleasant things about Harry to Papa and Mama and perhaps make them see him in a different light.”
    “Do you think the Duke would do that?” Felicity asked. “If he would, I am sure Papa would then think Harry was a suitable husband for me.”
    “I can at least try,” Antonia replied.
    She wondered as she spoke whether it would be easy to make the Duke do what she wanted and give a helping hand for the second time where Felicity was concerned.
    She did