Chapter Text
Eddie's grand tour of the northern farms took longer than he expected and much longer than he wanted. Everything is fine of course, just administration, which is partly why he volunteered for this task, just to check off another task in his future wife's brain.
She's in his office, sitting at his desk, wearing his engagement ring, he can't think of a more perfect sight. He has to pause at the door to take her in, brown hair, minimal makeup and his forest green sweater around her frame. She whips her head up to face him, smiling warmly, he loves her smiles, he never sees it enough.
Chucky's voice rings across the room, so Edward makes sure to shut the door as quietly as possible, taking slow yet assured steps under her gaze. "So, this is the next big thing right? We're going to be rich Suze!" Susie's already rich. "We can wash all the money you want, and it's fucking delicious. You like 'em? You can have as many as you want for the wedding, on the house 'eh?"
"I don't think that'll be necessary." Eddie isn't sure what Chucky wants this time but it will probably not turn out well.
He kicks off his shoes and relaxes back onto the loveseat with a sigh, he'll wait patiently, watch his wife— in about a month— work. Susie has other ideas, because she puts herself on mute and stands, barefoot, padding across the carpet towards him. She pauses in front of him, smiling before sitting down onto his lap, curling herself into him, burying her face into his neck. "Hello Darling." He muses, pressing kisses into her hair, inhaling the scent of her, darkly floral and vaguely spicy. "Rough day?"
"Not particularly." She admits, kissing his cheek as he all but cradles her close to his body, "Dad's losing it and…" She gestures to the phone in her hand.
"Ah, I missed you too." She laughs sweetly, playing with the buttons on his shirt. He reaches down to finally kiss her lips, deeply and passionately, like her love is necessary for his survival. He can't wait to marry her, she's his rock and his safe place, the only one who is able to corral him out of the darkest parts of his brain.
Chucky's voice breaks them both out of their lover's trance, "Sister Suze? That all sound good to you?"
She cranes her head to her phone and takes herself off mute, ignoring his attempts to distract her with silent kisses to her bare neck, holding her hair, wavy and loose in his fist. "Yeah, yeah, all that's fine, just keep me posted, yeah?" He hits a particularly sensitive spot on her neck and she's forced to suppress a gasp, he'll pay for that later.
"Love youse Susie! Give my best to that Duke of yours." Eddie smiles into her neck.
"I will Chucky. Ta." She hangs up her phone before Chucky can say anything else and tosses her phone onto the table beside them.
"What did he want this time?" He was taken aback with the corn dogs and the fusion, and even the fucking specialty acai bowls, he can't be surprised now.
"Apparently, all the kids are into chocolate with pistachios, so he wants cakes and cookies and the like. Something about these strange furry creatures too, like toys but strange and popular."
"Jesus." They'll have to eat any and all of Chucky's new business ideas eventually.
She kisses him again, letting themselves fall deeper and deeper into the other. This wouldn't be the first time they've fucked in his office, but before they can go any farther, she breaks the kiss, dropping her forehead down, he kisses in between her brows tenderly. "Your mother is cross with you." Her gaze narrows.
"What did I do now?"
"You missed supper." Susan was there as was Tarquin and Charlotte, Eddie doubts his mother even noticed he wasn't there.
"Not the first time."
"We did the cake tasting. Tarquin was more than happy to take your place." He's three now and somewhere bouncing off the walls no doubt.
"And what did we decide?" His mother and sister have taken on the bulk of the wedding planning, futzing over the minor details so Susie can work. His mother was insistent that she be involved every step of the way, she has always had a soft spot for Susie, especially after finding out that Susie's mother would never see her own daughter marry.
"Vanilla bean, raspberry jam, with champagne buttercream." He kisses her lips and swears he can taste the tart berry.
"I cannot wait to marry you." He blurts out, causing her to laugh into the crux of his neck. "You'll be perfect." There were many women who were qualified to be a Duchess, but Susie is the only one who is uniquely skilled enough to be both his partner and his Duchess. "Should've done it earlier. The moment I saw you."
She scoffs, "If you had proposed to be at your father's funeral, I'd've shot you." Of course she would have, it's one of her most endearing qualities. Hell she might have shot him if he proposed at any time other than at midnight on the balcony outside of his room as they decompressed from a gala. No one could've stopped him then, the view of her in her white and gold dress would've been too much for anyone to withstand without dropping to their knees and begging to marry her.
"I love you too." It took way too long for them to even admit it to each other, now they get to say it everyday, often multiple times. "You'd done your 'Duchess lessons?" Sabrina's attempts to let Susie into their world which usually end in the two women drinking wine and laughing together. They've become quite close confidants in their shared endeavours to keep Edward from going to the dark side.
"I've passed with flying colours." She brags. Susie is a chameleon, capable of blending into any situation flawlessly, "She said I was always meant to be number 13." Susie loves Sabrina's praises more than anything.
"You won't be the thirteenth Duchess." He interjects.
"Excuse-moi?" She raises an eyebrow.
"Not the 13th. I think there's been upwards of twenty. Bella for one." It took him a while to get to the point where he could mention Bella in basic conversation. Mostly, thanks to Susie of course, she kept him from collapsing under the weight of the grief, of Bella and the life he spend so long thinking he deserved. "But the 5th Duke had something like six wives, so he's responsible for a good chunk."
"Divorced, Beheaded, Died… sound right?"
"Possibly. Though I'm fairly certain it was more of the latter two."
"Right." Susie brings a new meaning to 'til death do us part, mainly in the way that they know each other too intimately to ever get divorced. From the moment he meant her, Edward Horniman had a sneaking suspicion that he would never be free from Susie Glass. Little did he know, it would be the best damn thing to ever happen to him. She leans back towards his mouth, "Now, where were we?"