by Anne Gracie
Yours etc., Radcliffe.
Epilogue
Thou art my life, my love, my heart,
The very eyes of me:
And hast command of every part
To live and die for thee.
—ROBERT HERRICK, TO ANTHEA WHO MAY COMMAND HIM ANYTHING
Three months later
It was the night before the grand ball to launch the three Rutherford girls. For weeks the household had been a frenzy of preparation. Cal lay in bed with Emm.
“I should have just auctioned off those dratted girls,” he grumbled. “There’s been more planning and fuss over this one ball than there was for an entire campaign against Boney. It’s completely exhausted you.”
She laughed. “No, you’ve exhausted me.” She stretched languorously.
They’d made love, dozed off, woken and made love again. And now they were in that postcoital state of quiet bliss.
“It’s all working out, isn’t it, Cal?”
“Couldn’t be better. Even Aunt Agatha approves of you now.”
She gave him a shocked look. “Who, me? The badly dressed nobody who dared to marry into the Rutherford family?”
“You might be a nobody,” he informed her loftily, “but at least you have a spine.” He’d told her about that one, of course.
She laughed. “I’m glad she approves of my spine.”
“I approve of it too,” he said, demonstrating.
After a while she said, “I didn’t mean that. I meant our marriage. Are you happy with how it’s all going?”
He wrapped his arms around her. “Do you even need to ask?”
“Not really. It’s just—everything changed so quickly and I know it’s not what you wanted when you asked me to marry you, so sometimes I wonder. I mean I’m happy, and you seem happy enough, but—”
“Well, now you come to ask me, I have to admit that things haven’t turned out the way I wanted them at all. Not at all,” he said severely. “You were supposed to be a convenient wife. I married you for one reason and one reason only.”
“To look after the girls, I know. And I did. I do.”
“You did. You do,” he acknowledged grudgingly. “But what of all the other things you did that were not part of the bargain?”
“You mean all the trouble I caused you?”
“Exactly. You turned my big gloomy house into a home!” He fixed her with an indignant look. “What’s more, you filled it with laughter. And flowers!”
“I’m sorry,” she said humbly.
“So you should be. And then you turned a lonely man and three unhappy girls into a family. Turned my life upside-down, you did, without so much as a by-your-leave.”
She clapped her hands to her cheeks in dismay. “Oh, dear, did you want a by-your-leave, Lord Ashendon?”
“Lady Impudence! I didn’t know what I wanted.” He kissed her. “But you gave it to me anyway. “
He kissed her again. “You gave me a purpose in life, a home, a family and most of all you gave me yourself, my strong, loving, loyal, beautiful—”
“Not beautiful.”
“Don’t argue—I said beautiful and I meant beautiful. Now where was I? Oh, yes—I thought I was one of the coldhearted Rutherford men—immune to love. But you, my beautiful, precious one, are the love of my life.” He cupped her face in his hands. “I love you, Emmaline Margaret Westwood Rutherford, with all my heart, with all my body and all my soul. And. I. Thee. Worship.” He punctuated each word with a kiss.
“Oh, Cal,” she said tremulously.
After a long, loving interlude, when they lay quietly in the aftermath, Emm said quietly, “There’s something else you should know.”
“What?”
“Remember how I’ve been getting tired a lot lately? And how I’ve been weeping at the drop of a hat?” She took his hand, placed it on her stomach and said mistily, “I’m afraid I’m going to turn your life upside-down again.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anne Gracie is the award-winning author of the Chance Sisters Romances, which include The Summer Bride, The Spring Bride, The Winter Bride and The Autumn Bride. She spent her childhood and youth on the move. The gypsy life taught her that humor and love are universal languages and that favorite books can take you home, wherever you are. Anne started her first novel while backpacking solo around the world, writing by hand in notebooks. Since then, her books have been translated into more than sixteen languages, and include Japanese manga editions. As well as writing, Anne promotes adult literacy, flings balls for her dog, enjoys her tangled garden and keeps bees. Visit her online at annegracie.com.
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