No one has to know

Chapter 43

The next morning, Bash woke up and rolled over, his arm connecting with an empty bed. He looked around the room wondering where his new bride had gone off to. He dressed and went looking for her.

When he found her, she was in the common room directing the renovation. She was ordering men this way and that.

"As soon as your done repairing the holes in all the walls, you can start painting them and replacing that hideous molding." She said to one of them as she noticed Bash. "Ahh, darling there you are." She said kissing his cheek. "I thought you might sleep all day. We can finally take that awful portrait down without waking you."

"All day? It's barely past dawn..." he started. She barely registered his words.

"You must be hungry." She looked to one of the servants. "Have the kitchen bring some breakfast for my husband."

"Just for me? Aren't you going to eat?" He asked.

"Oh, I ate earlier." Her attention quickly switched back to the men moving things around the room. "Make sure not to ruin that couch, it's my favorite."

"What about this one your grace?" One of them asked, gesturing toward another one. Catherine wrinkled her nose at it.

"Burn it with the paintings." She said

"Catherine, is this really..." he started, Catherine paying no attention.

"Oh, and don't forget the gardeners are arriving later today to plan out the extension." She said to one servant who seemed to be keeping a list of everything she said, and started walking away.

"Well good morning to you too." Bash said to himself. 

"My lord, your breakfast is set out." Said another servant emerging from the next room. Bash sighed and made his way into the dining room. He looked around the empty room and ate his breakfast in silence.

It went on like that for two weeks. Catherine was busy with her extravagant plans. On top of redecorating everything, she planed on expanding the gardens and adding a gallery as long as the entire bridge that held them over the water. Bash attempted to gain her attention for the first few days, but then gave up when he realized it was fruitless. He then tried to help, just to give him something to do, which also proved to be a bad idea. Bash began to get board. He had no duties to attend to, no wife to spend time with, and because of the cold weather, couldn't even go riding to pass the time. Even though she was preoccupied, Bash couldn't help but notice as her figure finally began to alter. She was starting to show, and rather quickly at this point. He began to worry that all this activity might be too much for her.

"Catherine, can I pull you away from all this for a moment?" he said as she was holding up a plan of the property, examining it.

"Can it wait dear? I'm rather busy at the moment." she said, keeping her eye's glued to the paper.

"You've been busy for two weeks." he said turning her around. "Catherine, you really should slow all this down."

"Oh don't be silly. If I don't do it now, it will never get done." she said, turning back around. A servant walked by. "You, take this to the architect, I marked out the area I want him to build on." she said and then took off. Bash sighed in frustration.

Two days later, it started to snow. Bash went outside to watch it. It was beautiful, how it clung to the trees. He wished he could be sharing it with Catherine. He had been sitting there for awhile, by himself, when Catherine came out to find him.

"There you are. I was wondering where you went off to. With the snow, the gardeners had to halt their work." she said as she came to sit beside him.