by The Viscount
He peered over her at the baby, his eyes narrowed. “It’s very small to cause so much trouble and make you so ill.”
Guy frowned. “Beau, this is your sister, not an it. And I daresay your mother thinks the trouble was worth it, just as she did when you were born.” The reprimand was mild and Beau merely shrugged it off.
“How long will you stay sick?” Beau asked Lily.
“I’m not ill, darling, only tired. In a day or so, I shall be good as new.”
Beau continued assessing the new addition. “All right, but I believe this one will be enough.”
“Kick off your shoes and come up here with us,” Lily told him.
He did as she asked, crawling up on the bed and kneeling between them. He cocked his head and looked at Guy. “Will she learn to talk soon?”
“Within the year, I expect she will know some words,” Guy replied. “Why? Do you need to ask her something?”
Beau rolled his eyes. “No, but we can’t have her calling you Duquesne when she hears me do so. It’s not the thing at all.”
“What shall we do about that? I wonder,” Lily said.
Beau considered carefully, staring at the baby as he thought. “Though it is common, Da is easy to say, I should think. Father would be too hard. Later perhaps she could learn that, but I believe I should call you Da when she’s likely to overhear. Would you mind so much?” he asked Guy.
“Not at all.” Guy’s voice sounded thick. Lily suspected there were tears behind those lowered lids as he spoke. “Thank you, Beau.”
Her son shrugged, reached out and touched the baby’s foot, tracing the tiny toes with a tentative finger. He smiled. “We have to think what’s best for her, I suppose.”
For a long moment a comfortable silence reigned, the four of them there on the bed, the earl standing at the foot of it, observing. But life moved on, consigning the moment to a memory.
“Enough dawdling here,” Beau announced, and scrambled backward off the bed. “Grandfather has promised a game of chess when I’ve done with my Latin.” He shot the earl a saucy grin. “I shall trounce you soundly today, sir.”
“We’ll see about that,” the earl replied with a wink at Lily and Guy.
When the door closed, Lily turned her attention to Guy. “Wishes do come true, don’t they?”
He traced the line of her cheek with his finger and leaned over to kiss her lips. “I hadn’t even sense enough to wish for this. You came into my life after I had accepted solitude as the only way to live.”
“And you into mine, when I needed someone to show me my own strengths. We seem a mad pairing indeed,” Lily said. “Do you think people will ever accept that we’re really sane? I suppose there will always be rumors to the contrary.”
He kissed her again. “I am mad about you and that’s no rumor, it’s a fact.”
“And I, you. We’re good for each other.”
He laughed quietly and brushed her lips with his again. “The vicar’s daughter and Devil Duquesne. A match made in hell. You know, that’s what Londoners call Galen’s neighborhood where we were wed.”
“And it’s led us to heaven,” she replied. “You know, that’s what I call this.” She kissed him back as their little angel lay sleeping between them.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-3731-5
THE VISCOUNT
Copyright © 2005 by Lynda Stone
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