A Family Affair
Page 28
“Don’t watch me from afar. Live with me, instead. Spend the rest of your life with me. Let me make you happy.”
“I can’t,” he whispered. “I have to face Graywood.”
“Why?”
“Why?!” he bellowed. “Because he has had you. He has made love to you. Kissed you…”
His voice broke, and he turned around again, trying to hide his tears from her. He felt her hand on his back, and he took another step to get away from her, but she followed, and this time she quickly scooted around him and found her way into his arms, where she hugged him closely so he couldn’t get away.
At first he was stiff, as welcoming as a plank, trying to force himself to mentally ignore her, but her touch and her scent sent shivers through his body, and with a deep sigh he gave in and folded his arms around her. He pressed her even closer to him before he buried his face in her hair, smelling the wonderful familiar scent of her.
“I love you,” she whispered into his chest.
“I know,” he admitted, while kissing her forehead.
“Do you?”
“Why, yes… At least, I think you do. Don’t you?”
“I just said I did.”
“Ah, yes, then I believe you do.”
He thought she mumbled something about him being stupid, but he wasn’t sure, and he wasn’t going to ask her. They stood silently hugging each other tightly for a while, enjoying the familiarity of it.
“So the duel with Graywood is just because of me?” Fanny asked quietly, breaking the comfortable silence, but she felt the need to hurry on a bit, because soon the others would join them and she wouldn’t have Devlin and his attention all to herself anymore.
“Yes,” Devlin answered stiffly.
“Then you don’t have to.”
“Of course I have to. I have to defend your honor.”
She bent backwards, without letting go of him, so she could meet his eyes. “My bloody honor doesn’t mean anything,” she said disrespectfully, and he glared at her.
“Your honor is important to me.”
“Not to me,” she snapped, and he frowned at her.
“How can it not be? When everything else is gone, your honor is all you have left.”
“No, it isn’t. If you don’t duel, I will still have you.”
He snorted over her illogical arguments, and she had to hide her face for a second, just so he wouldn’t see the smile she couldn’t stop. He was such a wonderful, intelligent, beautiful man, and yet sometimes he was just plain stupid.
“But if I go through with the duel, you will have Graywood,” he pointed out.
“I don’t want Graywood.”
“But why…”
“I just don’t.”
“So why have an affair with him?”
“Have you thought of marriage to all the women you have been with?”
“No, only with you.”
“So, there you have it! Graywood is just a fling. You are forever.”
“But my affairs have been before our marriage. Yours has been during it.”
“So Lady Ashton means nothing to you?”
He actually blushed, and she leaned forward and kissed his lips before he had a chance to stop her. The feeling of his lips against hers was divine, and she had to force herself to end it much sooner than she wanted to. She was starving for his touch, but this wasn’t the time.
“I never bedded Maria,” he said in defense.
“I never bedded Graywood.”
Her confession caught him off guard. “You didn’t?”
“No.”
“B-but…”
She wagged her finger at him, and gave him her best governess look. “You should be ashamed of yourself, Your Grace, for thinking so low of me. I am your wife, and if you had thought about it, you would have known I would never disrespect you or our marriage, and never ever with a friend of yours.”
He had to give her this one.
He had been so full of hate for himself for leaving her he had almost welcomed the rumor when it came, because he could focus on her doing something wrong instead of on his own faults.
He looked down into her face and followed lovingly the lines of it with his eyes. She was so perfect in every little way. Maybe she would never be the beauty queen of the ton, but to him she was the most beautiful woman in the world.
“I love you,” he said tenderly, and tears filled her eyes.
“Don’t say it like that!”
“Like how?”
“Like you are telling me goodbye, because you aren’t. You are going to tell Graywood and the other men you won’t be doing any duels tonight, or any other night.”
“Fanny…” Devlin started but was immediately interrupted by his wife.
“There is nothing to argue about. I said ‘no,’ and ‘no’ it is.”
“All right.”
“Really?”
“Mm-hmm,” he said as he bent forward and put his lips against hers, and when he felt her response, he gave her a kiss that curled her toes.
They were so thoroughly distracted by their kiss they never noticed the men who joined them. Not until a very familiar voice interrupted it.
“Well, well, what do we have here?”
Devlin looked up and met the unreadable eyes of Prinny, who stood there together with Rake and Graywood.
He cursed under his breath. What a good spy he was, who didn’t even notice three men walking up to him in the middle of the night in an empty park.
Fanny turned to see what was causing her husband to stop ravishing her mouth so delightfully and then took a step back so she stood beside Devlin instead of in front of him.
She could tell by the faces of her two uncles they were not going to let Devlin get away too easily. He had hurt her and so he should be punished, and she guessed all she had to do was to try to soothe it slightly for him by standing by his side.
“Your Royal Highness.” Devlin bowed politely before nodding sternly toward the two other men.
“Hereford.”
“Enjoying the moonlight?” Rake drawled, and crossed his arms before his chest. Fanny couldn’t help smiling at the mere look of him. He was the perfect dandy, dressed in spotless eveningwear and looking like he should be in a ballroom, not in Green Park in the wee hours of the morning. He, of course, didn’t miss her smile and arched his eyebrow in a ridiculously high manner, making himself look even more a libertine than before.
“It certainly is a lovely evening,” Devlin answered.
“Rather late for an evening, wouldn’t you say?”
“Then I have to say you are up uncommonly early, Darling.”
“As are you, Hereford.”
“There, there,” Prinny said with a jolly laugh that effectively ended the highly intelligent conversation. “Why don’t we all go down to my carriage to discuss this evening, er, morning’s happenings? Oh, not you; you go home.”
The last sentence was directed to Fanny, who had plastered herself to Devlin as he started in the direction Prinny pointed. She stopped and gave her godfather a look that made it clear she was not planning to obey him.
“I will not.”
Devlin stiffened, knowing how easily offended Prinny was, and neither he nor Fanny had good things coming if he got upset with them.
“You will too.”
“You can’t force me!”
“Oh, yes, I can.”
“Oh, come on,” Rake interrupted. “She’s never going to give in, so why not just let her come with us?”
Prinny looked at Rake and sighed, defeated. “I know. I just thought it was worth a try.”
Devlin frowned at them.
There was too much familiarity between the three of them, and the way Fanny and Prinny had been arguing reminded him of her bantering with her brothers and uncles. “Are you related?” he asked, confused.
“Why, yes.” Prinny laughed. “Haven’t you heard? We are all members of the royal family.”
They all laughed at his joke, everyone except Devlin, who frowned even harder.
“No, really, are you?”
Fanny went to Prinny and put her arms around his waist, leaning her head against his shoulder while his arms surrounded her in a loving embrace.
“He’s my Uncle Gorgeous.”
“Your what?”
“He’s her godfather, you fool,” Rake spat, as his patience with his nephew-in-law and best friend ran out. “And a rather interfering one, for sure.”
“I am not,” Prinny defended himself.
“Oh, yes, you are.” Fanny laughed, and gave his cheek a kiss before she released herself from his embrace and returned to her husband’s side. “But you have never heard me complain about it.”
Devlin closed his eyes and groaned.
This was just getting better and better. Not only did she have the most attentive family, now he would have the Prince Regent of England on his back, too.
“So the duel?” Rake probed.
Devlin looked at Graywood, who stood silent beside Prinny and glared at him. “It’s over, but I tell you one thing, though,” he said sternly. “If you ever, ever do anything to me like this again, I will duel with you, and I will actually try to shoot you.”
Graywood snorted, but Devlin could see he got the apology, and his relief that the truth was in the open was clear to them all.
Prinny clapped his hands together. “What a wonderful outcome to this horrible event. I must admit, Devlin, that I was against the whole thing when Rake and Fanny approached me. But look how well it all turned out. Wonderful, indeed.”
Devlin looked from the Prince Regent to Rake and then to Fanny. “Do I even…”
“No.” Fanny shook her head. “I promise to tell you one day, but not now. Not yet. Let’s just put this aside for now and go home.”
“I still have a lot of things to say,” Rake puffed, but the married couple happily ignored him, Devlin instead grabbing Fanny’s hand.
“If you don’t mind, Rake, I would rather enjoy the company of my wife, if it’s all right with you?”
Prinny grinned and dragged the muttering Rake into the carriage. The driver closed the door, jumped to his seat, and in a minute the Duke and Duchess of Hereford stood alone in Green Park, looking lovingly into each other’s eyes.
Devlin lifted his hand and caressed her soft cheek with so much love in his eyes his wife burst into tears and threw herself into his waiting arms.
She cried and laughed, and cried a little more before she calmed down. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, feeling a bit embarrassed over her emotional behavior.
“It’s okay,” he said softly. “I guess it’s been a little much for you lately.”
She laughed, teary-eyed, and took a step back so she could see his face in the moonlight, without releasing his hands. “Is everything fine between us again?” she asked, her eyes telling him how serious she was.
“It is.”
“And you won’t leave me again?”
“Never.”
“And you will love all our babies, and be the most wonderful father ever to them?”
He felt something wet run down his cheek, and he knew he was crying openly, but he didn’t try to hide it. He wanted her to know how much he cared about her, and how much she meant to him.
He had hurt her so badly, and he guessed it would take some time before she trusted him completely again. But it was a price he was willing to pay because nothing in the world mattered more to him than her.
“I will start with the little girl you’re carrying now, and continue with the rest of them.”
She tried to make sense of what he’d just said. “A little girl?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Why do you think it’s a little girl? It might be a little boy.”
“I know it’s a little girl, the first of many.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “You can’t know it’s a girl, and besides, you keep forgetting I come from a family that has been breeding only boys for generations, so I would rather say it will only be boys.”
“No, it will be girls. Many girls.”
“You are a silly man.”
He started to walk faster, hauling her with him.
“Why are you in such a hurry?” she gasped, trying to breathe as they left the park and hurried up Park Lane, rushing past house after house.
“I want you in my bed. Now.”
“Oh.” Well, she had nothing against his plans, so she walked faster, and soon they were running hand in hand toward their home in Grosvenor Square.
Epilogue
Devlin stood in the corner of the Easton House ballroom and glared at the young beaus who kept staring toward his family with eagerness and determination. He had thought to subdue them by mere looks, but the puppies didn’t notice him at all.
No, they were all too busy drooling over the three pretty young ladies in white who stood between him and Fanny.
When Rake strolled up to him and winked wickedly, Devlin cursed between his teeth. He really didn’t need his friend’s bantering right now, but he knew he had no choice, as Rake wasn’t known for being subtle.
“You know, it’s rather hilarious?”
“It’s not fun at all,” Devlin growled, sending one especially killing look toward a dandy who happened to come too close.
“Oh, yes, man, it is. Here you are, one of the biggest libertines of your time, trying to keep this year’s libertines away from your daughters.”
Devlin sent him a look that would have killed a man with less toughened skin, but Rake only laughed.
“Seven daughters, Devlin, seven! Why?”
“I don’t know why. Maybe it is God’s way of making a joke. He does work in mysterious ways, you know.”
Rake looked at the threesome of girls, who couldn’t hide their obvious excitement over their first ball. “And triplets. You sure don’t know how to make an easy start.”
Rake whacked Devlin in the back before continuing on his quest to harass all his friends, and Devlin looked down at his three oldest girls with his heart almost bursting with love and pride.
It hadn’t been an easy start, Rake was right about that, but he would never want to change a minute of it. They were so lovely, his flowers, and he knew he was silly for wanting to grab them and take them home and force them to stay children forever.
He guessed most parents felt the same way, with a certain amount of grief as the children grew up and turned into young adults. Soon they would be married, all three of them, and have children of their own, and he had to swallow the lump that came into his throat at the mere thought.
Could anything be of bigger moment than his children’s children? Thank God he still had more children at home to love and cherish, although eventually it would be only him and Fanny left, and the children and their families would come to visit and be gone again.
He lifted his eyes and met Fanny’s adoring ones over the heads of their daughters, and he sent her all the love in his heart. She gave him a smile that told him he would have something really nice to look forward to when they returned home, but he guessed, listening to his daughters’ excited voices, it would not be as soon as he’d like.
It was incredible how much love was daily bestowed on him from his wife and children, and he knew they had transformed him into the man he was today.
A man not afraid of love or trust.
A man who gladly opened his heart to let sunshine and laughter in.
He sent a thought to his father, the man who had tried so hard to destroy his son’s every chance of happiness and almost succeeded, and he felt only pity for him.
The orchestra played its first dance, and in a second they were surrounded by eligible bachelors asking their daughters to dance. Fanny agreed before Devlin had a chance to deny them all, and soon the two stood there alone, watching their offspring twirling on the dance floor.
“How fast times fly,” Fanny said, with a sad smile.
“Soon it will be only you and me left in our big old drafty house.” Fanny winked, and he laughed before shocking the people close to them by putting a kiss on his wife’s pretty nose.
Her scent filled his head, and he felt a contentment he knew would last forever. “I love you so much, my darling,” he whispered into her ear.
“And I love you.”
Life was good.
A word about the author...
Jennifer Wenn has been a great lover of romantic books since she read her first Barbara Cartland at a tender age. When not enjoying life with her husband and their children, she spends every last precious minute tapping away on her laptop.
You can read more about Jennifer at:
www.jenniferwenn.com
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