His future wife smiled. “I could not be happier.”
“I’m not truly the heir,” Kip said quietly as he and Aslyn strolled through the gardens near twilight. “I feel like a bloody impostor.”
“You have been the heir since the moment you were born. You have been raised to become a duke.”
“As though that takes a great deal of learning. Trewlove could pick it up in a night.” He sighed. “Father is transferring all the nonentailed properties over to him.”
“And you’ll have the entailed properties.”
“At least I can’t gamble them away.”
“You probably shouldn’t gamble at all.”
He nodded, slowly, thoughtfully. “I lost my way there for a while, Aslyn, and in so doing I lost you.”
With her arm wrapped around his, she pressed up against his side. “Before that, I’d begun to doubt we were well suited to each other.”
His brow furrowing, he looked down on her. “Why?”
“It’s difficult to explain. My doubts began when you kissed me.”
“You didn’t like it?”
“It was without passion.”
“It was a gentleman’s kiss.”
“But it shouldn’t have been.” Stopping, she faced him. The blossoms were closing up for the night, but their fragrance still hung heavy on the air. “I love you, Kip, but I’m not in love with you.”
“There’s a difference?”
She smiled softly. “Yes, and one day I hope you will meet someone who will intrigue you in such a way that you’ll fully comprehend the difference.”
“So, you’re in love with Trewlove.” He said it matter-of-factly.
“Desperately.”
“If you’d not discovered he was legitimate—”
“The circumstances of his birth matter not one whit to me. I’d already decided that I would have him.”
“As a future duke, I do not have the liberty of following my heart wherever it might lead.”
“If you truly love her, and are in love with her, you won’t care, and there will be nothing strong enough to keep you from her.”
By the time the wedding took place in August, his beard was back, dark and full, evenly trimmed. While Aslyn missed seeing the little dent in his chin, she knew where to find it. Besides, it was his soulful eyes that had drawn her in from the beginning. The blue that called to her.
The blue that looked down on her now as they snuggled in their marriage bed.
“I can’t believe you’re mine,” he said, skimming his fingers over her hair down to the ends that curled around her breast. “My wife.”
“Not too many eyebrows were raised.”
He grinned. “Oh, plenty were raised.”
The church had been packed. They couldn’t prevent people from entering the church, but the wedding breakfast at Hedley Hall had been a more intimate affair. Her heart had squeezed painfully and expanded at the same time when Mick had danced with his mum and then the duchess.
“I don’t care what people think. You’ll win them over. Most of the men already admire you, and the ladies are quite jealous that you settled on me.”
“I didn’t settle. If either of us settled, it was you.”
“Well, I certainly didn’t settle, so there.”
Leaning down, he kissed the tip of her nose. “I love you, Aslyn. I want you to be happy.”
“Then show me some fireworks, husband.”
They were the brightest, most colorful, most glorious ones she’d ever experienced.
Epilogue
Two Years Later
Mick didn’t know if he’d ever get used to the sight of his mum taking tea with the duchess in the hotel gardens. It had become a weekly ritual for them, and he often found an excuse to be in the gardens when they were about just so he could listen to their laughter. Today he was pushing a pram holding his infant daughter along the path while his wife strolled beside him, her hand tucked within the crook of his elbow.
“They’re good for each other,” she said. “The duchess is getting out so much more, and they are both so involved in the running of Safe Harbour that I’m hardly needed.”
She’d opened a home for unwed mothers and their children to live without shame. Staff watched the youngest while their mums worked, many of them in the shops Mick leased.
“I need you.”
She smiled up at him. “I suppose I can be content with that.”
“Mum is finally ready to live elsewhere. I think it’s time we moved, as well.” He glanced down at his wife’s slightly rounding stomach.
“What did you have in mind?”
“I found some pretty land just outside London. I thought to build us a large manor on it, and then a small cottage for Mum so she isn’t too far away.”
“I like that idea.”
“I’ll purchase us a nice residence here in town as well, so it’s convenient to visit the duke and duchess when they’re in the city for the Season.”
“A fine notion, because one of these days your daughter is going to need a Season.”
“Not for a while yet.”
“Probably sooner than you’ll be ready for.”
“You do know she’s not getting married. There isn’t a gent in all of England who will be good enough for her, to whom I’ll give my blessing.”
Some years later, he did give his blessing—to a duke. He gave his blessing to each of his daughters and to the gentlemen who loved them. Titled or not, legitimate or not. Mick cared naught about pedigree. He judged their suitability on how well they loved his daughters. As for the women who married his sons—his boys took after him and showed good judgment when falling in love.
With a dozen children, half of them adopted, he was kept quite busy giving his blessing to marriages, but still found time on sunny afternoons to slip away to the park with his wife for a bit of peace.
Author’s Note
I took a bit of literary license with this story. It’s doubtful any babes would have been delivered to Ettie Trewlove’s door. Baby farmers generally met their “clients” in alleyways, never advertised their names and seldom provided their addresses. Although the practice of baby farming was widely known and used, there was a clandestine aspect to it that allowed it to flourish in horrific ways.
Sometimes when an author is researching one thing, she discovers something else by happenstance that plants a seed and captures her imagination. Baby farming was a plot point in The Viscount and the Vixen, but still I couldn’t let it go. Hence, Ettie Trewlove’s bastards were born and survived.
As for the duchess mistaking whose baby she carried and the circumstances that led to her confusion—that, too, is based on a true account, although it occurred nearly a century later. DNA testing wasn’t available when the child was born and placed for adoption, but many years later when it was, resulting tests indicated a DNA match for the birth mother’s husband. This story too has haunted me.
Ettie Trewlove’s bastards have more tales to tell, more sins to reveal. I hope you’ll continue on the journey with them.
Warmly,
Lorraine
Gillie’s story
Coming up next
Gillie’s story
After rescuing a duke from an attack by a gang of ruffians and nursing him back to health, Gillie finds her life turned upside down when the duke asks her to help him find his sister, who disappeared in London’s underworld.
About the Author
LORRAINE HEATH always dreamed of being a writer. After graduating from the University of Texas, she wrote training manuals, press releases, articles, and computer code, but something was always missing. When she read a romance novel, she not only became hooked on the genre, but quickly realized what her writing lacked: rebels, scoundrels, and rogues. She’s been writing about them ever
since. Her work has been recognized with numerous industry awards, including RWA’s prestigious RITA®. Her novels have appeared on the USA Today and New York Times bestseller lists.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
By Lorraine Heath
Beyond Scandal and Desire
An Affair with a Notorious Heiress
The Viscount and the Vixen
The Earl Takes All
Falling into Bed with a Duke
The Duke and the Lady in Red
Once More, My Darling Rogue
When the Duke Was Wicked
Lord of Wicked Intentions
Lord of Temptation
She Tempts the Duke
Waking Up with the Duke
Pleasures of a Notorious Gentleman
Passions of a Wicked Earl
Midnight Pleasures with a Scoundrel
Surrender to the Devil
Between the Devil and Desire
In Bed with the Devil
Just Wicked Enough
A Duke of Her Own
Promise Me Forever
A Matter of Temptation
As an Earl Desires
An Invitation to Seduction
Love with a Scandalous Lord
To Marry an Heiress
The Outlaw and the Lady
Never Marry a Cowboy
Never Love a Cowboy
A Rogue in Texas
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
beyond scandal and desire. Copyright © 2018 by Jan Nowasky. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Digital Edition JANUARY 2018 ISBN: 978-0-06-267601-6
Print Edition ISBN: 978-0-06-267600-9
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HarperCollins is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers in the United States of America and other countries.
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Beyond Scandal and Desire Page 31