When he turned around, it was to witness Heath guiding Sir David off the premises.
He started after them. Ravenna stopped his progress. “Have you been fighting?” she said, contemplating him with narrowed eyes.
“Me? I’ve been looking for you.”
“And you, Rhys?” she asked.
Her brother refused to meet her regard. “I should help Heath,” he said, holding up his skirts to step through the rhododendrons.
Jane signed in dismay. “And I shall feed the gossips some mindless snippet to distract them from our current disgrace.”
Simon’s eyes kindled. “Thank you, Jane. I am indebted to you and Grayson.”
More deeply in truth, than he could express. Without their intervention, he might not have married the woman he now faced alone. He scrutinized her costume in admiring silence.
“Clever disguise.”
“You didn’t recognize me,” she said.
“I would know your delectable person from a mile away,” he asserted.
“You would not,” she said. “You walked straight past me and Jane in the hall. Furthermore, this is a duplication of the costume I wore on the very evening we met. I felt quite nostalgic when I put it on. Do you remember that at the end of the play my character marries a most powerful duke?”
“I haven’t forgotten anything,” he said, his voice thick. “Not the play you and your family gave in the castle, or how I failed to impress you, despite the fact I thought you were the loveliest girl who ever lived.”
She swept off her hat. “And now?”
“Lovelier every time I see you.” He drew her slowly into the protection of his arms, then glanced down in alarm. “Except that you are wearing a codpiece.”
“What if I am?” she said, tilting her face to his. “Is this the first time you’ve encountered such a garment?”
“I performed a few theatricals in my youth,” he said dryly. “I attended school.” He rested his chin on her head, promising, “I shall manage to remove the contraption when we are alone.”
“We’re not staying the night?”
He drew away with a thoughtful frown. “One small matter begs my attention before we leave.”
“It doesn’t involve fighting?”
“I doubt it. I cannot allow Rhys and Heath to carry out Sir David’s dishonorable discharge from Society without my help.”
Did her body feel different? Was his child forming inside her? He was filled with hope and tenderness and intrigued by the thought of fatherhood.
“Simon, are you all right?” She slipped her hand under his shirt to covertly probe him for bruises. “Are you wounded? Is Rhys? Did you and my brother plan this behind my back? He was supposed to be conspiring with me tonight.”
“Can’t we share him? And don’t be angry. Ours was a last-moment conspiracy. None of it is important now.”
She dropped her hat and pulled him into her arms, disregarding the guests still waiting in the shadows for exactly this kind of behavior.
“You are a shocking young man,” he said, and kissed her softly on the mouth to prove his claim.
“You have taught me well.”
“Too well,” he admitted. “My netherparts are pinched in these breeches.”
“The breeches must have been made for a smaller man,” she whispered against his throat. “Next time we attend a masque perhaps you’ll listen to me.”
“About what?”
“Your costume. I was the one who suggested you dress as a wizard because what you do to me is nothing short of magic.”
“Then the next time I will oblige, flowing robes and all.”
“They would have been easier to remove. I’ll help you undress as soon as we return home and find a way to alleviate the pinching that distresses you.”
Which she did several hours later in their bedchamber. Simon, in turn, expertly removed her codpiece and made slow, gentle love to her. He had not discussed David, except to vaguely mutter that the scapegrace would be sailing off to an unknown destination at the first tide.
“We should return to the party for breakfast,” she said with a long sigh.
“Why?”
“We left without explanation.” She reached for the robe folded under her pillow and rolled to the edge of the bed. “I shouldn’t have abandoned Rhys.”
He sat up and removed the robe from her hand. “You mustn’t have heard the latest about him.”
She stared at him over her bare shoulder. “Is it reason for alarm? Will it appear in the morning papers?” She struggled upright in annoyance, her hair flowing down her arms. “He isn’t fighting a duel?”
“Would we be frolicking in bed if he were?” He smiled and urged her back into the notch of his body. “It’s nothing of an honorable nature. The courtesan Mrs. Watson won the raffle for an evening in his company. I don’t expect we shall hear from him today.”
“His ballerina left him for an older man,” Ravenna murmured.
“In that case, I wouldn’t look for him until next week.” He raised his hand. “Not that I am speaking from experience. I still don’t know why Mrs. Watson cursed me with that embarrassing name.”
“Oh, I do,” she said, rubbing her foot against his calf until he grew hard and moved against her. “You have earned your titles, Simon. All of them, in fact.”
“Is that good? Or bad?”
“It’s everything,” she said contentedly.
“Ravenna.” He disengaged from her arms and turned onto his side, staring at her intently. “There’s a softness about you that I have not perceived before. May I hope we have cause to celebrate?”
“I can’t be certain,” she said, her eyes locking with his. “I do feel plumper and sleepier all of a sudden.”
He inclined his head to kiss her, but not before she noticed the smile that crossed his face.
“I wouldn’t want you to be disappointed if I’m mistaken,” she added.
“I have you,” he said, his lips brushing her mouth in a whisper-kiss that melted her heart. “I have so much. Children would be a blessing. But there is time.”
Epilogue
Another month passed before they made Caverely House their official residence. Primrose and Glynnis returned to bring a carved rosewood cradle for the nursery and to select a sunlit bedchamber for their future visits. Then, to Ravenna’s surprise, they hastened back to London without further interference. This was not typical of their nature. She’d half-expected them to stay for months.
According to Isolde, the aunts hurried departure had nothing to do with Ravenna. In their view she no longer needed their intervention. They would meddle again right before the heir was born. Until then they had evidently decided to embark on a wife-hunt for Rhys.
“Poor fellow,” Simon murmured. “He doesn’t stand a chance.”
Rhys had purportedly been warned of their intentions and had volunteered to travel to Scotland in search of the evasive Brandon Boscastle. Heath had implied that an element of danger might be involved in the mission. Rhys understood and planned a long stay to forestall the inevitable wedding trap.
As Ravenna’s pregnancy progressed she felt a bit like a helium balloon and eager to meet the tiny being inside her. She took regular walks in the woods with Simon. She would not slip on a patch of toadstools in his care.
In most aspects he had not changed at all. His scowl still gave her pause. His smile rendered her susceptible to his every whim. How could she resent him when he only wanted the best for her and their unborn child?
“It’s time to turn back,” he announced, squinting into the horizon. “Caverely House is not a castle, my love, but it is home.”
“I love it more than I do the castle. But think of the adventures our children will have in Wales. And we have half an hour before the sun sets.”
“Didn’t we ask Dr. Brewster and his wife for supper? I’ve invited them to the christening. Oh, and Kieran has selected the sire for our son’s first pony. I’m having
a cart designed by my coachmaker.”
“At the rate of your imagination, Simon, we shall have grandchildren before we finish our walk.”
“What sort of parents shall we become?” he mused.
“The worst, I fear. Isn’t that usually the case with those who ran wild in their youth? We don’t want our children to repeat our mistakes, but we do have wildness in our blood.”
He grinned. “You and I are not a mistake.”
His hand gripped hers. The scent of impending rain hung above the trees. The numerous chimneys of the house below puffed the smoke of home fires into the sky. “You are good to me,” she said. And she knew that he would be the best father possible, stern but gentle, capable of turning the pain of the past into wise instruction. The losses of their early years had taught them both to treasure what they had once taken for granted.
“I wish,” he said, “that I had told my sister I loved her. I didn’t. Not once.”
“My brothers have never said the words to one another, but I believe it’s understood. Susannah knows.”
He guided her back toward the leaf-strewn path. Mist enshrouded the estate. Figures moved about like characters in a fairy tale. The undergardener chased a dog out of the vegetable plot. A scullery maid threw a carrot at him and ran off laughing.
Timpkins strode towards the bakehouse with his monthly budget book under his arm. Isolde’s pretty face peeped out from behind the bedchamber curtains. He stopped and acknowledged her with an impertinent bow. She promptly disappeared.
Simon and Ravenna smiled at each other.
The family tree would grow. The future would unfold one branch, one leaf, one bud at a time. Their offspring would give them silver hair, sleepless nights, and unimaginable happiness.
Sorrow might come.
Scandal, however, was assured.
Also by Jillian Hunter
The Scottish Collection
A DEEPER MAGIC
GLENLYON’S BRIDE
FAIRY TALE
DARING
DELIGHT
INDISCRETION
* * *
The Boscastle Series
THE SEDUCTION OF AN ENGLISH SCOUNDREL
THE LOVE AFFAIR OF AN ENGLISH LORD
THE WEDDING NIGHT OF AN ENGLISH ROGUE
THE WICKED GAMES OF A GENTLEMAN
THE SINFUL NIGHTS OF A NOBLEMAN
THE DEVILISH DESIRES OF A DUKE
WICKED AS SIN
A WICKED LORD AT THE WEDDING
THE WICKED DUKE TAKES A WIFE
A DUKE’S TEMPTATION
A BRIDE UNVEILED
THE DUCHESS DIARIES
THE MISTRESS MEMOIRS
THE COUNTESS CONFESSIONS
THE DUKE OF A THOUSAND DESIRES
* * *
The Fenwick Sisters Affairs
FORBIDDEN TO LOVE THE DUKE
* * *
Other Romances
HEART OF THE STORM
SHADOWS OF SPLENDOR
TIGER DANCE
ABANDON
THE HUSBAND HUNT
RUINED / UNDER THE BOARDWALK, a novella
The Duke of a Thousand Desires Page 27