by Lucy Adams
“Lord Irving!” shouted another man, slamming Lord Irving on the back with a heavy hand. “You scoundrel!”
“I have done nothing wrong!” Lord Irving cried, his face now bloodless. Clearly, he had not expected Grayson to be proven correct, although why he had not expected Lord Thorngood to notice the altered box, Grayson did not know. “I have no understanding of what has occurred.” Rising to his feet, he sliced the air with his hand, rendering the room suddenly silent. A little concerned about what was to happen next, Grayson moved towards Dinah, putting one hand on her shoulder and feeling her fingers touching his as he did so.
“I have done nothing wrong,” Lord Irving protested, glaring at Grayson. “This is a mistake. This fellow,” he gestured to the dealer, “is not known to me. Lord Thorngood may have discovered a dealer’s box that has been tampered with in some way, but I have nothing whatsoever to do with it.” His voice was loud and filled with authority, leaving Grayson to fear that the gentlemen would believe him and that thereafter, he would have to play again against Dinah. Perhaps this was not over, as he had first thought.
And then, Dinah spoke.
“How very strange that is,” she said, her voice seeming to fill the room even though she spoke with quietness. “For I was certain that it was you who encouraged the dealer to the table and who, thereafter, fetched the dealer’s box and set it in its place.” She tipped her head and looked steadily back at Lord Irving. “If there is a question over your honor, Lord Irving, then I must truly wonder whether or not I can trust playing against you.”
“And I will not be silent,” Lord Thorngood said, waving the dealer’s box around a little unsteadily. “You have done such a thing before, Irving. I know of it, as do many others.”
“Thorngood,” Lord Irving grated, his warning clear, but Lord Thorngood shook his head, evidently emboldened by Dinah’s words to carry on.
“No, Lord Irving, I shall not be silent,” the man continued, saying the very same thing as he had done before, as though to emphasize his lack of unwillingness to keep his secrets. “Lord Irving has cheated on many a game before this time, using boxes such as this and dealers to whom he has promised a share of the winnings.” He swallowed hard and looked at Lord Irving, who had gone a shade of purple such was his evident fury. “I know this because I have been used in such a way myself.” He shook his head, hearing the angry murmurs that followed thereafter. “It is my shame, and I will not shirk from it, gentlemen. I have been struggling to recoup some of my losses, and Lord Irving suggested this scheme so that I might change my circumstances and, to my sorrow, I admit that I accepted it without question.”
Lord Irving shook his head, his jaw working furiously.
“You have been found out, Irving,” Grayson said firmly. “This is at an end. The debt is forgotten. You shall not have Dinah nor shall you remain victorious as you had intended. Instead, the shame you intended to push upon me has now become your own.” He smiled down at Dinah, who rose from her chair to lean into him, her head nestled on his shoulder. “We are free of you, Lord Irving, just as society shall soon be free of you, I think.” He gestured with his free hand to the many gentlemen, who were now clearly very angry with their gazes turned towards Lord Irving. Men who suspected they had been cheated out of winnings. They would not allow Lord Irving’s behavior to go unpunished. Society would be free of him now, just as he and Dinah would.
“Let us go home,” he murmured in Dinah’s ear, as Lord Irving began to protest, putting up his hands in a gesture of defense to those who began to approach him. “Let us go home so that I can tell you just how wonderful you are, Dinah, just how brave and determined and overwhelming in your beauty.” Unable to help himself, he bent his head and caught her lips quickly, seeing the tears in her eyes that came with one of the most beautiful smiles he had ever seen. “I love you desperately.”
“As I love you,” she whispered, before Grayson led both her and Titania out from Elders View.
Epilogue
“And that is the last of them.”
Dinah sighed in contentment as Lord Whitehaven threw the last of his vowels onto the fire, watching it burn up quickly as the flames consumed it. Lord Whitehaven watched the flames for a few moments, clearly thinking about what had occurred, before turning towards her and smiling warmly. She held out one hand to him, which he accepted at once, coming to sit down beside her. Nestling into his shoulder, she closed her eyes and felt a peace coming over her. It was a peace she had never experienced before, for it filled her with both joy and contentment, telling her that now, finally, they were to be freed from all shame, all fear, and all doubt.
“I could not believe it when I saw you step into Elders View,” Lord Whitehaven murmured, his lips close to her forehead. “You were quite determined that I should not be left to deal with my shame alone.”
She lifted her head and looked at him, seeing the way his eyes burned with love for her. “Lord Irving was cruel, Whitehaven. He tried to take your shame and multiply it so that you were forced to deal with something that ought not to have been yours. The punishment he wanted to inflict was for his own gratification so that he might feel powerful and victorious when, in truth, he was nothing but a cheater himself.” Smiling gently, she ran one hand down his cheek. “I will not pretend that I was fearful that I might lose the game and, in turn, lose you, but I had faith that all would turn out aright.”
“And it has,” he told her, the air growing thick with both desire and anticipation. “It has shown me clearly that I do not want to be without you, Dinah. I want you to be with me every moment of every day. I do not want to be parted from you.”
Dinah swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat at his words, feeling her heart quicken. “You know that I feel the very same, Whitehaven.”
He nodded but did not look away. “I have spent too long fighting my feelings,” he continued softly, his hand finding hers. “I should have confronted them long ago. But now, you know of them in all their entirety.”
“Yes,” she whispered, “I do.”
“And you trust me.”
She nodded. “Of course. I do not doubt for a moment that you love me, Whitehaven.”
A smile lifted his lips, his eyes aglow. “As I can see in your every action, your every word, that you love me also,” he finished, reaching up to cup her face. “Say that you will marry me, Dinah. Say that you will be my wife.”
She did not need to answer, for reaching up to kiss him, she told him precisely what she wanted. Whitehaven held her as close as he could, his kisses making her heart burst with love within her chest, her hands going about his neck.
“You have made me the happiest gentleman in all of England this day, Dinah,” he whispered against her mouth. “And you shall go on to make me an ever better gentleman than you find me at present.”
“I have found my path,” Dinah whispered back, her eyes closing again as she rested her forehead lightly against his. “And it has led me to you.”
Smiling gently, Lord Whitehaven lowered his head again to kiss her – only for the sound of a door slamming open to take them both by surprise. Springing apart, Dinah stared up into the astonished face of Lady Whitehaven, who had only just returned from her evening engagement. She did not know what to say, for the lady appeared so astonished, so overcome, that Dinah almost wanted to laugh.
“Mother,” Lord Whitehaven said, a little awkwardly. “I have some news for you.”
Lady Whitehaven said nothing but dragged her eyes away from Dinah to fix them upon her son.
“I am engaged,” he said, gesturing towards Dinah, who smiled at Lady Whitehaven, seeing how her eyes lit up with evident happiness. “And I am certain that you will approve of my choice of bride, Mother, for you know her to be just as wonderful as I.”
Lady Whitehaven clasped her hands together and looked up at the ceiling for a moment, as though taking a second or two to send up a prayer of thankfulness to heaven.
“I do a
pprove,” she said at last, reaching out to grasp Dinah’s hand. “I approve of the match entirely. How truly wonderful a day this is!”
“Indeed,” Dinah replied. Her eyes filled with the sight of the gentleman she loved, as he smiled back down at her with all the hope and the promise of the days that would come.
Want to read the prologue in its entirety?
Lady Eliza’s Broken Heart, London Season Matchmaker Prequel is available for free!
Although The Duke’s Return does have a short chapter length prequel at the beginning of the book, you can download the extended short story version of the prequel for free!
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Author’s Note
Thank you for downloading my London Season Matchmaker Box Set! This was my very first writing of Regency Romance. Over the past year, I’ve learned a lot about the Regency time period!
From what I hear, many of you have greatly enjoyed this series. So I’m super happy to tell you I’m working on a new series as we speak! It’s turning out to be a very intriguing set of stories. I’ll be bringing you more excitement this time around with a Regency Spy Romance.
The books of the new series will be based on a group of noble gentlemen who work as spies for The King’s League. And this will likely be the series title.
So if you like a bit more mystery served with your Regency Romance, stick around… we’ll be getting immersed Regency Spy Romance soon! The first book will likely be published no later than December 2019. I’ll see you then!