“I don’t care if people gossip about me or not,” he said with a shrug. “As long as I have my wife by my side always.”
“That’s a lie if ever I’ve heard one.” Lionel butted into the conversation, stepping up to Phin’s side, looking as fashionable and mysterious as ever. “You’ve always loved it when people talked about you.”
“Yes, but they’ve spent all this time talking about me without knowing it’s me they’re talking about,” Phin told him.
“Oh?” Lady Beatrice blinked in confusion. “How is that possible?”
Lenore, Phin, and Lionel all exchanged looks. “Perhaps it’s best you didn’t know,” Lenore said, unable to hide her grin.
“Perhaps you’re right,” Lady Beatrice agreed with a sigh. “Harrison is always saying that innocence is bliss.” Her voice dropped at the end of her sentence and she glanced across the room to where her beau, Lord Harrison Manfred, was laughing at something with Lord John Darrow.
It was all Lenore could do not to grin at the wistful look in Lady Beatrice’s eyes. “Don’t worry,” she said, patting Lady Beatrice’s arm. “Your turn will come soon enough. I wager you’ll be engaged by Christmas.”
“I certainly hope so,” Lady Beatrice said before wandering over to join Lord Harrison.
“Don’t worry,” Phin echoed Lenore’s words of comfort, turning to his brother with a wink. “I’m sure you’ll be engaged by Christmas as well.”
Lionel barked a laugh that was in direct contrast to his usually preternaturally calm manner. “And pigs will be flying by Easter,” he said. Though Lenore noticed that his gaze shot directly to his friend and business associate, Mr. David Wirth, with a look of longing that Lionel wasn’t quick enough to hide. Lionel had brought the handsome, dark-haired, clever Mr. Wirth along to the reception as his guest, though Lenore wondered if he had other intentions in socializing with the man. She knew full well what Lionel’s interests were, but she hoped for his sake he was careful about it.
“Miracles can happen,” Phin said with a shrug. “We managed to convince Hazel to let Mrs. Merriweather mind Father for a week so that she and the girls could come down for the wedding.”
He nodded across the room to where Hazel was in deep discussion with Fergus O’Shea. They made quite a pair, Fergus in his wheelchair, a patch covering the eye he’d lost, and Hazel with her new gown carefully constructed to downplay her missing arm, her hair styled to draw attention away from her burned face. Knowing the two of them, they were comparing battle scars and arguing over which of them had gained more independence, in spite of their injuries.
“Maybe Lionel could work his magic and find her a suitor with a title?” Lenore suggested, buzzing with happiness to see Hazel actually enjoying herself.
“Hardly,” Lionel laughed. “Hazel has much more rugged tastes. And I don’t blame her one bit. That blacksmith she has her eye on is like cake smothered with honey.”
Lenore raised a hand to cover her snorting giggle. Lionel was shameless, and she loved him like a brother for it.
“Oh, dear,” Lionel sighed, his blue eyes sparkling with fondness as he glanced back to Mr. Wirth. “David looks completely out of his depth. I really should show him how this whole socializing with nobs thing is done.” He arched one eyebrow, cheeks glowing pink, before breaking away from Lenore and Phin and crossing the room to join Mr. Wirth’s conversation with Lord and Lady Campbell.
“He’s going to land himself in hot water someday,” Phin said with a wry grin.
“Knowing your brother, he’ll probably enjoy the hot water and treat it as a spa,” Lenore laughed, hugging his arm.
“But he’s the one who uncovered the proof that your marriage to Swan wasn’t legal, wasn’t he?” Freddy asked, stepping up to take the spot that Lionel had vacated, Reese by his side.
Lenore let go of Phin long enough to hug each of her friends in turn. “He was,” she said, mischief bright in her eyes. “I should have known Bart didn’t follow the proper channels to file the marriage license.”
“And I should have guessed that Lionel would find a way to prove he didn’t, even if he actually did,” Phin added in a wry tone.
“So which is it?” Reese asked, grinning. “Was your marriage to Swan legal or not?”
“I’m not sure I’ll ever know,” Lenore said, sobering a little. “But from what Papa said in his last letter, it’s fairly likely Bart will hang for the murders he committed. So in the end, it’s a moot point.”
“And no one is going to question the legality of our marriage,” Phin added.
Lenore stepped back to his side, hugging his arm. Even if someone did question it, she rather relished the idea of the scandal that would erupt, should it be discovered that she and Phin were living in sin instead of being legally married. She’d married him in her heart, and that was all that mattered. But the prospect of a second, lavish wedding to make things legal wasn’t entirely unwelcome. Only the future would tell if they would have that new scandal on their hands.
“What is it that Shakespeare says? And I know how you Brits love Shakespeare,” she added. “All’s well that ends well?”
“It does and it is,” Phin said, gazing down on her with enough love to light the skies with fireworks. “Although with us, the ending is probably only the beginning of an entirely different adventure.”
I hope you’ve enjoyed Lenore and Phin’s story! They really are each other’s match. The savvy History nerds among you might notice that I shifted the dates of the Wyoming Range Wars—also called the Johnson County Wars—forward by a couple of years. The bloody and shocking confrontations in
