by Fiona Miers
Archie choked on a laugh and he had the most unseemly urge to clap. His wife was incredible. Absolutely wonderful.
The old battleaxe began choking on her own bitterness, her face turning an ugly shade of purple as she screwed up her face.
Charlotte pulled herself up to her full height and looked down at the old dragon.
“If you will excuse us, we need to find a good place to sit so that we can watch the christening of our friend’s child.”
Archie would be told many years later that no one there that day remembered anything that was said except for the fact that Lady Charlotte was indeed in love with her husband and would happily fight off anyone who dared speak ill of him. No one else tried.
Archie looked up proudly from his seat as his dearest friend spoke out from the front of the church.
“Thank you for attending the christening of our son, David. The Duchess’ family have a tradition in their family that they only inform the chosen godparents of their child on the day of the Christening.”
There was a general murmur of agreement from Sarah’s extended family and silence from the rest of the ton. It was most unusual.
“We decided to stick with tradition and have not told our friends that we have chosen them.”
Oliver smiled hugely and the collective group held their breaths. It would be a great honor to be named god parent to the heir to the Duke of Lincoln. The ton knew Oliver and Sarah had a highly unorthodox marriage and Archie knew that no one would be entirely surprised that they had chosen to adhere to some alternative tradition once again.
“We would like to invite the godparents to the front of the church. The Earl and Countess of Tother.”
Oliver and Sarah both beamed and looked expectantly at their chosen champions for their son.
Archie’s heart leapt in his chair and his wife’s hand tightened in his. How could they do this? They had just been shunned by the better half of the ton and now were given the greatest honor that could be bestowed on two people.
Archie looked down at his beautiful, loyal and loving wife and smiled. If Charlotte believed in him, and Oliver and Sarah believed in them as a couple, who was he to try to refute that? He stood up, gently pulling his wife up next to him and together they walked up the aisle.
They moved to the front of the church and thanked the Duke and Duchess of Lincoln, their beautiful friends Oliver and Sarah. Archie calmly took their first born child and heir in his arms and proceeded to renounce Satan and promise to raise David as a loyal Christian.
Archie spent the entire service outside his body looking down. How could he have ever thought he could live a life without his friends and family by his side? How could he have ever imagined that Charlotte couldn’t handle anything that life could throw at her? He was the new heir to the Marquess of Hunting. He was wealthy, handsome and healthy. He had a wife that was surpassed by none and she loved him. Life couldn’t be any sweeter.
Epilogue
Five years later.
“Archie, if you don’t get this book off my table...” Charlotte began yelling at him, cranky as she always was when she was almost nine months heavy with child. Her third in five years, to be precise.
“I’m sorry Charlotte, I shouldn’t have left it there,” Archie said quickly, picking up his book on Stud farms and tucking it under his arm. He had only put it down for a moment so that he could pick up Michael, their four-year-old son, and then had become distracted.
They had two sons, William who was four and George who was two. They were both wonderful children, boisterous and full of life. William looked just like him, with solemn brown eyes and a beautiful smile. He was quieter and liked to have his parents read to him.
George was more like his mother in both looks and personality. He had a temper that could bring the house down, and blue eyes that could melt your heart. Archie knew that Charlotte was hoping for a girl this time, and he couldn’t help hoping for the same. He wanted a little girl with Charlotte’s face and maybe a little of his personality. Another George in temperament and they were in trouble. Each child already had a nursemaid but if they got a little girl with Charlotte’s personality they would be hiring another one.
Charlotte was a wonderful mother, attentive and kind. She loved spending time with the boys and could usually be found reading them stories in the nursery or running around with them outside. However, due to give birth to their third child any day, she was as large as a house and as cranky as Archie had ever seen her.
“Perhaps I could coax you into having a lie down?” Archie asked with a suggestive smile. They hadn’t made love in weeks and he knew it would be months until he could touch her again.
Charlotte gave him a startled expression that soon changed into something more serene.
“Yes,” she declared, putting out her hand so that he could pull her up.
Archie pulled up his wife as gently as he could and then saw a very unusual look on Charlotte’s face.
“What’s wrong my love?”
“I need the midwife Archie,” she explained, putting her hand to her belly as the first cramp hit.
“Oh, oh,” Archie exclaimed, towing his wife gently up the stairs before calling for the midwife who was stationed in the village.
Six hours later, Archie was holding his new baby daughter, Lady Sarah Claire Turner. She had brilliant blue eyes and a mop of black curls. Archie’s heart had melted a little every time he had met his sons, but the moment he met his daughter he knew he could never love anyone more.
“She’s perfect, Charlotte,” he whispered, two tears slipping down his cheeks.
Charlotte sighed and lay back against her pillows.
“As perfect as you are, my love,” she whispered, before she drifted off to sleep for a hard earned rest.
Fiona Miers biography:
Fiona Miers has a super busy life, like most modern women, but always finds time for reading and writing romance. Her love affair with the romance genre started when she was only 11 years old, when her mother, and nana, handed her, her first mills and boon. Since then she's built her own business, become a mother to two beautiful little girls, and fallen in love with the most spectacular man on the planet. (JMHO) Fiona writes MF contemporary and historical romance, writing more erotic stories under the pen name Tamsin Baker. Thank you for reading this, and hopefully you'll love reading about her characters as much as she loved creating them.
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Other books by Fiona Miers:
Sarah’s Duke
Love and Charity