The Gamekeeper's Wife
Page 27
‘I knew almost as soon as I set on eyes on him that he was yours. Then he recognised me from a photograph. He called me Daddy.’ Kit’s eyes filled with tears. ‘When I knew he was our son I can’t begin to say how that felt. ’ He crushed her against him. ‘My first thought was that you must have died. I couldn’t believe Mother had taken him in.’
‘Your mother has been marvellous. She and David adore each other – and she has been so good to me.’ Hesitating a moment she added, ‘She has become for me the mother I never had.’ She looked up at him. ‘It’s hard to believe but it’s true.’
‘She said the same of you. She loves you.’ He smiled at her, his heart swelling as he saw the love in her eyes. ‘Mother told me you’re not married. That you never were, as far as the law is concerned. Oh, Martha, will you marry me? Please say you’ll marry me.’
‘Of course I’ll marry you, my love, my life, my Kit.’
Kit gasped, holding her against his pounding chest. ‘We’ll have to tell Mother the news. And we have so much to ask each other. So many gaps to fill in. All that lost time apart. And Jane – oh, my dearest, I am so terribly sorry about Jane. I had no idea.’ He looked into her eyes. ‘How you must have suffered, losing her. And I knew nothing of it. You know I would have come. I’d have been there. To share your grief. To say goodbye.’
‘I knew you would have come if you’d known.’
He pulled her against him again, scarcely able to believe that at last they were to be together. He smiled at her and pushed a stray lock of hair away from her forehead. ‘There’s something we must do first. Before we tell Mother, before we do anything else.’
‘What’s that?’
‘I’m going to saddle up Hooker, lift you up in front of me and we’re going to ride as fast as we can to that little cottage in the woods so I can take those ridiculous breeches off you and make love to you until you beg me for mercy.’
Martha laughed. ‘That will never happen.’
‘What? You won’t let me make love to you?’
‘I’ll never beg you for mercy. I’ll never ask you to stop.’ She lifted her face and kissed him again.
As they walked hand-in-hand out of the garden, the robin fluttered down from the branch of a maple tree and perched on the edge of a sundial.
* * *
The End
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Acknowledgments
With thanks to Clare O’Brien, Mary Longhurst, Susannah Sewell, Lynn Osborne and JT Carey for your helpful pre-publication read-throughs. Thanks to my editor Debi Alper, my cover designer Jane Dixon-Smith and to Helen Baggott my proof-reader. And to Roz Morris who inspired me to try out a short break in a property of The Landmark Trust – it was there that the initial idea for this book came to me.
Last but not least to Jay, Jill, Margaret and Maureen for your always insightful Friday feedback.
About the Author
Clare Flynn is the author of nine historical novels and a collection of short stories.
A former Marketing Director and strategy consultant, she was born in Liverpool and has lived in London, Newcastle, Paris, Milan, Brussels and Sydney and is now enjoying being in Eastbourne on the Sussex coast where she can see the sea and the Downs from her windows.
When not writing, she loves to travel (often for research purposes) and enjoys painting in oils and watercolours as well as making patchwork quilts and learning to play the piano again.