“I’m so pleased!” Frances gushed.
“So am I,” Marisa admitted, accepting her mother’s kiss on her cheek. “Now if only Tanner and Diana can know such happiness again.”
~
After a week of Naomi’s remedies Diana’s fever broke, she didn’t cough as often, and her cheeks began to bloom with a pinkish tinge. “I think you’re healing,” Naomi advised her. It was a lovely late December morning. A chill was in the air, but the glow from the fireplace warmed the room. “I’ll find Tanner for you.”
“Naomi,” came Diana’s strengthened voice from the bed. “I want to thank you for saving my life. I know how hard this must have been for you, because I understand the way you feel about me.”
“Tanner explained all to me,” Naomi admitted.
“Then you don’t hate me?”
“No, Diana, I do not hate you.”
“Can we be friends?” Diana held out her hand.
Naomi took it, and for the first time that Diana could remember, she saw Naomi’s face light up with a lovely smile. Diana realized then why Harlan had fallen in love with her. “Yes, we are friends.”
When Tanner entered the room seconds later, he kissed Diana’s lips. “Mother told me that you’re doing better and that you’re going to be fine.”
“Yes, and we’ve made peace with each other, thanks to you.”
“All I did was explain about the lie Kingsley told me, a lie I foolishly believed.”
Tanner sat on the bed and held her against his chest. He stroked her hair then held her hand. “Everything’s all right now, Diana. We’re going to have our baby and be a family. You’re mine, my love, forever.”
“Not quite, Tanner. You’re forgetting one very important point.”
“What?” he asked, troubled.
“We’re not legally married.”
Tanner nodded. “Our first wedding anniversary was last week, but you were too sick to celebrate it.”
“Aren’t you going to marry me again?”
“Hmm, that’s an interesting question. I seem to remember that the first time I asked you, you refused me.”
“I didn’t, and anyway you forced me into it, Tanner. Don’t you want to marry me?”
Tanner shot her an assessing look before squeezing her arm like a garden tomato. “You’re rather scrawny.”
“And you’re impossible! So, I suppose I shall have to bury my pride and do the asking, and I shall ask you but one time. Tanner Sheridan, will you marry me?”
“Yes.”
“Good. And don’t ever tell me you were tricked into doing the right thing by me!” Diana retorted with a mischievous gleam in her eyes, until Tanner seductively silenced her with his kiss.
26
“I feel so sinful to be doing this,” Diana complained to Tanner with a naughty twinkle in her eyes. “What if Jenny wakens and needs me?”
“Then Hattie will tend to her,” Tanner said and took her hand to guide her away from the house and toward the river. “Jenny is three years old now and has slept through the night for the last two years. So you have no excuse not to indulge your husband in a midnight tryst.”
“I’m always indulging you, Tanner Sheridan.” Diana laughed up at Tanner, his face made more handsome by the brilliant light of the full moon. What she said was true. No matter what Tanner wanted Diana indulged him, for she realized early on that his needs were hers and vice versa. He seemed contented looking after her, Jenny, and Briarhaven. Under his hand, Briarhaven was now a thriving rice plantation again. Jenny was the most adorable child, a miniature of her father, and Diana was the happiest she’d ever been in her life. There was nothing left for her to want except many more years of the same. “But what about prickly pine needles and gnats? I don’t want my backside to be permanently engraved or to serve as a feast for hungry insects.”
“We have a blanket,” he reminded her, and when they reached the bluff, he laid it upon the ground and gently lowered her onto it.
“Sometimes I think you’re depraved.”
He joined her on the blanket, took her in his arms, and nuzzled her neck. “And aren’t you glad for it?”
Diana laughed and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “Yes,” she admitted. “And speaking of depraved, I forgot to tell you that I ran into Gabriella Fox last week when I visited Anne.”
Tanner reigned tiny kisses on her neck and parted the bodice of her gown, totally absorbed in his task and not paying any attention to what she said until Diana repeated herself. “What about Gabriella?” he asked.
“Dear Gabriella is having a child again.”
“How many will that make?”
“Four. It seems that old Mr. Fox wasn’t quite as old as Gabriella originally thought. He’s not about to leave this life without making Gabriella earn her keep as his wife and the mother of his children.”
“Good for old man Fox,” Tanner mumbled as he pulled the bodice away from Diana’s shoulders.
“But the tart had the audacity to insinuate that something was wrong with either you or me because we have only one child.”
“So?”
“Doesn’t that bother you, Tanner? Don’t you wonder if there may be something amiss with us. After all, Jenny is three years old and I haven’t conceived again and…”
“Diana.”
“What?”
“If you don’t be quiet and let me kiss you, then we may never be able to match the Fox brood.”
Diana’s smile dazzled and bewitched Tanner as she arched against him, inviting him to take what had belonged to him from the very first moment they met. Her voice was a breathy whisper in his ear. “Whatever you say, my love. We have a great deal of catching up to do.”
END
Book 1 in the Liberty’s Ladies collection, Pirate’s Bride, is available now. Find it and other of Lynette’s books at:
http://www.amazon.com/Lynette-Vinet/e/B001JSBEHA
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About the Author
Lynette Vinet is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, and a member of Romance Writers of America and Creative Minds Writers. She has always been intrigued by the history of her native city and the South, as well as Colonial America and the British Isles, probably because her ancestors were born there. An avid genealogist, she is also a member of the Genealogical Research Society of New Orleans. Over the last two decades she has published eleven historical romances as well as a number of genealogical articles. She is a wife, mother and doting grandmother.
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Ebooks by Lynette Vinet available now or coming soon to Amazon (from Steel Magnolia Press)
Historical Romances
Pirate’s Bride, Book 1 in the Liberty’s Ladies Collection
Savage Deception, Book 2 in the Liberty’s Ladies Collection
Wicked, Wild Eden
Knight’s Caress
Midnight Flame
Emerald Desire, Book 1 of the the Emerald Series
Emerald Enchantment, Book 2 of the Emerald Series
Emerald Ecstasy, Book 3 of the Emerald Series
Love’s Golden Promise
Rapture in His Arms
Passion’s Deep Spell
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About the Author
Savage Deception (Liberty's Ladies) Page 32