His Pregnant Bride

Part One

Cedric Calvert bent down to sweep a mixture of glass and turmeric off the hardwood floor of the shop. His shop. Calvert's Spice Emporium had been opened less than half a year, and as his first endeavor, one pursued independent of his father's financial support, it was all of his pride and most of his joy.

"I'm very sorry Mr. Ca-"

"Cedric. Please, you may call me Cedric," he said, a kind smile lighting up his light blue eyes.

He could tell that the little girl who'd knocked over the jar of exotic spice thought it good fortune to directly address someone of nobility by his first name, but he wished it wasn't so.

Unlike most of the aristocracy in New Towne, Cedric did not believe himself to be above anyone else, and while there might not be a single aristocrat alive who would help out in their own shoppe, he counted himself lucky to be the exception.

"Is this what you were reaching for?" He asked the girl who's chubby cheeks had become almost as ruddy as her ringlets due to the mishap. He brought a jar of apricot preserves down to her level, placing it in her cherub like hands.
She looked upon the treasure with eyes that shone with anticipation, but then, frowning, she pushed the jar back toward him.

"I only wanted to look, Mr. Cedric." She leaned in and whispered, "My ma can't afford sweet things, not ever since Papa took sick."
In that moment, her expression grew sternly concerned, as if a child of her young age was used to doing the sensible thing.

Well he would have none of it. It was his turn to push the jar back in her direction.

"Consider it a gift," he whispered, tapping the tip of her nose with his finger. "A sweet treat for a sweet girl."

The girl was too stunned for words. As it turned out, they weren't needed. The girl threw an arm tightly around Cedric's neck before scampering off to no doubt tell her siblings of her good luck.

Cedric's gleaming eyes followed her to the shop's door where they traveled up the skirts of more entering patrons.

The first was a graying yet still attractive woman, her green eyes darted around wildly as if they wanted to take in the whole of the shoppe in the first few seconds of her being there.
A gentleman a few years her senior followed her, removing his top hat as he did. He nodded towards Cedric briefly before allowing his gaze to inspect their surroundings.

Cedric didn't have the opportunity to be off put by the man's indifference. The young woman who followed him- their daughter, surely- spared him no attention at all.

He did notice her, however. Her skirts were blue and white striped, and though too fine a garment it was to be that of a peasant it was not as grand as her mother's. Her closed parasol was not striped but the same shade of blue as her dress and hung from a loop at her waist along with a small purse. Her blonde hair was fashionably done, but again not to the extent of her mother's.

How curious, Cedric thought, that a youthful lady of good breeding would forgo such extravagances when the mother clearly did not...

Cedric was intrigued to say the least. In a fortnight he would be 26 and he planned on remedying his lack of a wife sooner rather than later. If only he could find both someone his mother approved of and he himself could admire. In other words, an aristocrat who did not carry herself as one. Cedric suspected that the very sort had just walked through his door.

The appropriate thing to do would have been to introduce himself and inquire with her parents as to her marital state. He knew however that mothers could be quite persuasive and, given the size of the Calvert estate, the girl might be compelled to accept his courtship even if she did not want it.