“We did her a grave injustice, and I would claim her pain as my own, if there were any way to do so.”
Lacey closed her eyes. He could not tell the truth; it would ruin Bridget, so he did the best he could.
It wasn’t long before Lace realized that there was nothing in Gabriel to forgive; it was herself she must forgive. Gabriel must also forgive her. If only he would. For doubting him. For lying about the father of her child.
And most recently, for running away after such a splendid night of love on the word of a hateful busybody like Prout.
“Face facts, my friends. The woman you harmed with your gossip is the least of the sinners among us.”
He looked down at his notes. “Now, I have several problems, not the least of which is this hundred thousand dollars that I find myself tethered to. Bishop, you want a church.”
Suddenly, their high holy leader was all smiles. “Yes, yes!”
“I do not. I think the crofters’ children need a school more, and I don’t suppose the new vicar will let them hold school clandestinely in the carriage house like I have been doing. Now this money is mine, not the church’s. I read Lacey’s mother’s will quite thoroughly this morning. One hundred thousand pounds to do with as I see fit. I would not have to work for the rest of my life, if I so wished. Or I could build a new church for St. Swithin’s. Or I could build a free school for the crofters’ children, and leave money for its upkeep in perpetuity.
He examined the expressions on the faces of his former congregation. “Carpenter Bracken, you are in need of work, yes? To you, I charge the wage-paying prospect of overseeing the building of the new school for the crofters’ children. You will be head carpenter, but you will also hire and pay decent wages to bricklayers and any other tradesmen necessary.”
Carpenter Bracken nodded stiffly, probably dumbstruck to have work again.
“The new Duke of Ashcroft, Nicholas Daventry, my wife’s cousin, has donated a parcel of land for you to build on. See him for the costs of supplies and wages. They will be generous enough for your large family with a little extra for your sick little Jenny.”
Gabriel ran that hand through his hair again. “I leave you, my former congregation, my eternal good friends, with these thoughts. Never doubt the power of love, for it is that very doubt that lost me my love for a time. Judge not lest ye be judged. And be good to one another.”
He stood no longer on the pulpit of St. Swithin’s, but in the aisle near the altar of the church. “I have already signed the money over to his Grace, Nick Daventry. I am packing up my family to begin a new life if I ever find my wife. No need for concern. Newlyweds’ quarrel.”
Chuckles rippled through the church.
Lacey’s heart filled to overflowing, tears coursed down her cheeks.
Gabriel saw, in the last pew, in the beggar’s corner, a cloaked and hooded woman take a cloaked little girl by the hand to rise and step into the aisle.
There, she threw back her hood, exited the pew, and walked the center aisle of the church to meet him at the front. Their gazes locked, Lace looking penitent, but no more so than he. And in love, but no more so than he.
Carpenter Bracken stood. “A cheer of thanks to Vicar and Mrs. Gabriel Kendrick.”
The congregation did cheer—all except for old Lady Prout—though Olivia and the bishop couldn’t seem to hide their reluctant approval, it seemed, as Gabriel and Lacey, Cricket between them, walked down that aisle toward the door, hand in hand, spines straight, chins high.
It seemed to Lacey that they were unutterably happy, even with no home to go to . . . because they had each other, all three.
His former congregation shouted him up. “The best Kendrick vicar that ever there be!”
Cricket turned and faced the congregation. “Huzzah,” she shouted, one arm raised, and Gabe’s flock echoed the phrase as the Gothic doors closed behind them.
Outside, in front of the church, Scoundrel carriages had been lined up, each man standing beside his open carriage door, a significant statement, Lace realized. They were welcome at every home for as long as they needed a roof over their heads.
Powerful stuff, she thought, this bond the knaves had formed. Gabriel went to shake each hand and speak a word of thanks.
But Marcus, who would have been last in line, became a man of action. He lifted Cricket in his arms and set her beside Emily on the gypsy wagon seat with Ivy. “Where are we going?” Cricket asked.
“You’ll see,” Marcus said.
He then took Lace’s arm, walked her to his carriage, and helped her inside. Gabe climbed in behind her, the two of them inside alone.
While Gabriel spent the night just passed telling and showing her how much he loved her, his ultimate declaration had been given in disposing of the money he inherited for marrying her, and renouncing his father’s parish, his dream, for her.
“Gabriel, did you know that I was in church?”
“I think the Scoundrels did, or perhaps the wives; Mac or Ivy did. I imagine so in retrospect, at any rate, because they were all urging me to stop worrying and enter the church as planned.
“As for me? No, I didnotknow, thank God, or I would have botched it. You think I canact dignified, when I’ve been utterly stupid for five years?”
“That’s true.” She pushed her arm up against his and he brought her onto his lap and into his embrace.
Marcus and Jade got inside with them, and he set her down again as the coachman shut the door and they were off.
“Are we being kidnapped?” Gabriel asked.
“No,” Marcus said. “You are being offered a living.”
“Sixteen,” Gabriel said as he slipped a set of missives from his cassock pockets.
Lacey gasped. “They all came today? On a Sunday?”
“No. MacKenzie has been saving them for me so I would have a range of choices and not make the wrong one. Sometimes, my darling, I could wring your old nurse’s neck.”
Lacey giggled. “Me, too.”
Marcus cleared his throat. “Why did you not ask your Scoundrel brothers for work, may I ask?”
“So as not to presume on our friendships,” Gabriel said. “I presumed that you all would have offered. Zounds, just now, you all did offer.”
Jade nudged Marcus to speak with an elbow to his side and a tease of a wink that her husband understood.
“Presuming you read those, I have two more offers for you,” Marcus said.
Gabe sat forward. “I’m listening.”
Lace cleared her throat. “We’re listening.”
He took her hand, placed it on his knee, and covered it with his own. “We are listening.”
“You sent letters of inquiry to estates with which you were unfamiliar. My brother Garrett’s was one of them. He wants you, make no mistake. But he recognized you as a Scoundrel and passed your inquiry to me. His living would be your best choice if not for one other.”
“We were married at St. Wilfred on the Peacehaven Estate,” Jade said, “where I house the Benevolent Society for Downtrodden Women.”
“Where I lived for four years,” Lacey added and Gabe nodded.
“Our vicar is ninety-two,” Marcus said.
“We can’t retire him,” Jade continued. “He’s been so good with the battered women in my care, but we’d like to give him a helper.”
“By helper,” Marcus said, “she means we need a gracious assistant, someone who will take over the greater share of responsibilities while allowing our current vicar to think he’s in charge, until he either announces his retirement or moves on to his just reward. In addition to his vicariate duties, the assistant we need would counsel the women and children who have been battered physically, emotionally, and verbally.
“They live at Peacehaven to escape the brutality of their lives while they learn the skills to make new lives for themselves and their children. Lace used to teach them how to speak and act like ladies so they could get respectable jobs in shops and such.”
Gabriel’s respect for Lace grew, if that were possible. She had been exiled there and made something good of it. Another reason to love her.
“I could do that again and help with your counseling,” she told Gabriel, showing enough eagerness for him to make his decision.
Jade clasped his hand, which Gabe did not expect. “The job is yours if you want it, Gabriel.”
“Do I want it? Did the Israelites want manna from heaven? A fresh start with Lace as my bride? In a village where people lookup to her rather than down at her? Oh, I want it. Lace?”
She squeaked and laughed. “Oh, Gabe, there’s a wonderful house for the— Oh, that’s probably the current vicar’s home.”
“Actually,” Jade said. “He prefers Swan Cottage by the water. With only two rooms, it’s more his size. The larger vicarage is empty and ready for you to move in. I predict that the Peacehaven staff with your NannyMac in charge, will have it shipshape in no time.”
“A new beginning for the three of us, Lace. What think you of that?” Gabriel asked.
Lace straightened his lapels. “No one in Sussex would remember your father’s poor money management, or your grandfather’s drinking, and compare them to you as they do in Arundel daily, or did I jumble your family tree? At any rate, it would be a wonderful new start for us. A clean slate. I’ll not be labeled at Peacehaven, it’s true, and I feel so free at the thought of going where I’m welcomewith you.”
“Thank you, Jade, Marcus. I’m so excited to be going back to the friends I made at Peacehaven. How wonderful to live where no one judges.”
“Oh,” Jade said, her voice cracking. “Bridget and Emmy will become best friends, as will any other children we have. They’ll play in the yard between our house and yours.”
Gabe took Lacey’s hand. “New beginning, love?” he asked.
“New baby, love?” she asked in return.
He winked. “In nine months, I expect.”
“No,” Lace whispered. “In eight months, Iexpect. I tricked you into marrying me, you see.”
“No, I tricked you.” He examined her impish smile. “Didn’t I?”
She held his hand to the slight mound beneath her heart. “Did you, love?”
EPILOGUE
Seven and a half months later
Peacehaven, the Downs, West Sussex, England
“Listen, darling, to what Nick has to say about Olivia.” Lace sat propped up in bed waiting for her twin daughters to be brought for their first feeding.
Gabe, who groaned in a semblance of a response, never moved a muscle as he lay on his stomach, his face against her side, his arm around her waist.
Lace looked down from where the sound had emanated and couldn’t see much more than the covers and an ear near her hip. She traced the shell of that ear with her finger.
“Mmm,” came the muffled reply.
“Poor darling hasn’t slept for days.” Gabe had remained sleepless waiting for their child’s birth, then stayed by her side during every minute of her sixteen hours of labor. Each day of her marriage, she thought she couldn’t love him more and each day she found she was wrong. “You know, sweetheart, you didn’t have to stay up all night watching them sleep.”
Gabe rolled to his side with a huge satisfied grin on his face, his black eyes shining. “They’re wonderful, aren’t they? I can’t believe we’ve two of them. Did you ever see such little fingernails?” He sat himself up to kiss her. “Thank you for such precious gifts. When they looked up at me for the first time, with your big green eyes, my heart expanded so, it almost hurt.”
He kissed her again . . . and again. Pulling away, Gabe ran his hand through his hair and decided he’d better think of something besides Lace’s lips. “What’s this about Olivia? I want to hear nothing about the Prouts.”
“Oh, you’ll find this vastly interesting. Nick writes that Olivia married the bishop. She’s a perfect bishop’s wife, obedient and kind, it turns out, and she dresses now in muted colors more suited to her complexion—I believe Sophie added that part—which seems to make her bishop husband proud.
“Her mother, Nick says, who so obviously fostered the match, likely thinking that a bishop for a son-in-law would raise her own standing and power in the community, now lives inNick’s dower house for which the bishop pays a grand monthly sum.
“Lady Prout, the gossip and church leader, has been dethroned and silenced by her own daughter and son-in-law. There is no pride left in her, and no one, it seems, who cares to visit her.”
“I’m only sorry that she hurt you,” Gabe said.
“It’s in the past. Our present is bright. Oh, listen here. Nick adds that he and Sophie were married at Grace’s home in Scotland, with most of the Scoundrels in attendance, after which the happy couple sailed off in Nick’s ship,The Knickerbocker, heading for America and their honeymoon. I’m sorry we missed the wedding,” Lace said on a sigh.
“Your health and the birth of our daughters took precedence, and when Nick and Sophie come home, they will come back to Sussex. Arundel is not so far distant. We’ll see them. They’ll visit.”
MacKenzie barely knocked then and came in carrying a screaming baby girl. “Here’s a hungry little miss. The other’s still fast asleep but I expect she’ll be filling her lungs before long. Bridget is sitting by her cradleprotecting her while I’m gone.”
Lace beamed. “Thank you, Mac. Come, my sweet,” she told her new little one.
Mac encouraged Lace for a bit, coaching her in providing her milk for the babe then, quick as a wink, the babe latched onto a nipple to suckle greedily.
Gabe chuckled at his ravenous, sable-haired daughter and the look of surprise on Lace’s face. “She looks just like Bridget,” he said.
“Justin Devereux, Duke of Ainsley, and his wife, the Duchess, just arrived from London,” Mac said. “They’re eating breakfast with the Lady Jade and Marcus Fitzalan from the big house. I’m going to check and see if the other missy’s fussin’. Oh, and Miss Cricket will be up to see you and help with her baby sisters as soon as she finishes her Boxty and jam. I insisted that she eat breakfast as soon as these two were being fed. She’s taking this big sister business verra serious.”
Gabe watched Lace nurse their daughter. “You’re more beautiful than ever. Motherhood agrees with you. You have bigger breasts.”
“You don’t think they’ll go away after I’ve weaned the babies? MacKenzie thinks they might.”
“That doesn’t matter. You do. I love you the way you are.” Gabe sighed contentedly. “Do I look like an unhappy man? Three adorable daughters, a beautiful wife.” He beamed proudly.
Gabe was only slightly disappointed that his girls didn’t look a bit like him, but their eyes held all the promise of their mother’s. And their lungs said they were every bit as determined. Well, hearing the second begin to cry from down the hall, he thought maybe they got their stubbornness from him. God help them all.
He walked and cuddled his first content daughter after she finished nursing, until MacKenzie returned with the second. Much to his regret, Mac took the first away for a bath. He took his second daughter’s tiny hand. “We’re a family. A family offive. Imagine.”
Lace smiled at the wonder in his eyes. “How many more of the Scoundrels are due to visit the babies?”
“Angel, one of Patience’s wards, and her husband, Dickon, one of Grant’s former sailors, now a partner, will be coming along with Patience and Grant, as will Grant’s brother, Shane, with his wife, Rose, another of Patience’s wards.”
“A houseful. I’m glad we have MacKenzie to manage it.”
“And Jade. You know that some of the guests will be staying with Jade at Peacehaven.”
“Now,” he patted his daughter’s bottom. “Much as I’d like to stay here, I’ll go down and greet our guests. I know they’ll be clamoring to see the babies as soon as possible.” He kissed Lace again. “Do not move from this spot. I’ll be back to help you change and wash before I bring them
up in small groups. Promise now, you’ll wait for my help?”
Gabe’s concern filled Lace’s heart. “I’ll wait. I don’t think I’m ready to tackle much without your help this morning.”
Two hours later, Faith cuddled a babe wrapped in yellow fleece and Patience exclaimed over her pink bundle. Gabriel chuckled. “I must say, Lace, I think it was smart of us to have a pair,” Gabe said. “There’ll be fewer squabbles among the guests.”
“But do you think they’ll ever giveus a turn?” Lace asked.
“You’ll have your turn as soon as they start to cry,” Jade replied.
“Or anything else,” Marcus added, bouncing his two-month-old son as he paced to keep young Marc from crying.
“Where’s Mama, Amy?” Shane, Grant’s brother, asked his oldest, from just outside Lace’s door.
“Feeding the new baby.”
“May I please see Uncle Gabe’s horses?” they heard Amy ask.
“Wouldn’t you rather see the babies? Aunt Lace has them with her inside this room.”
“I don’t like babies, Papa. We have too many.” The adults in the room laughed as Shane brought Amy inside anyway. Despite her protests, Amy decided girl cousins were nice, which she told Uncle Grant and Aunt Patience as Grant hauled her onto his lap.
Shortly thereafter, Rose joined them. “What will you name the babies?”
Gabe, so obviously the proud father, beamed down at his daughters. “This,” he took the tiny hand of one babe and kissed it, “with her button nose is Chelsea.” He sat by Lace on the edge of their bed. “And our wee puddin’ with the fetching dimples is Gwyneth.”
“Beautiful,” Faith whispered.
“You should consider matching names for twins,” Angel said, having just arrived with Dickon and their four sons. “Like Molly and Polly.”
Rose laughed. “Or Magnolia and Marigold?”
Angel’s eyes danced with mischief. “Cloey and Zoey.”
“This from a woman who named a pig Horatio,” Grant said.
Marcus cleared his throat. “Whatever you call them, Gabe, remember that before you know it, you’ll have to begin husband-hunting for them, all three, Bridget first.”
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