"I love you beyond the starline and the galaxy's boundaries," Daisy whispered, as Etienne set her down on the straw-covered stable floor, the open doorway illuminated by moonlight, the soft rustle of the horses moving in their stalls audible in the quiet night. "And I don't care anymore if a thousand generations of de Vecs roll over in their graves when you divorce."
"You never had to even consider anything so noble," Etienne softly said, enclosing her in his arms. "You're not the reason or cause, only the impetus for a divorce I should have gotten years ago."
"I feel sad at times," Daisy quietly said, "being the agent for your disgrace with certain of your world."
"Lord, Daisy, don't say that, don't even think it." He lifted her chin gently with the pad of his forefinger and said very low, "You're the reason, the heart of any joy I've ever known."
Her eyes were enormous in the moonlight. "You're not marrying me… just… because… of the baby." The consideration overcame her reason at times, although she'd never put her reservations into words before.
"No—never—although I would of course, if I hadn't… Oh, hell. No," he began again, "I'm not marrying you for that reason. I'm marrying you because you're crucial to my life. I can't conceive of living without you." He sighed, his hands drifting down her arms. "Although I hope you have patience. It's going to be endless months yet."
"We could be married tonight," Daisy said, her voice hushed, hesitant at the very last—embarrassed she was pressing him.
"Tell me how," the Duc said without debate, a dream being offered him he wouldn't refuse no matter what the requirements.
"My gods aren't your gods… but they're benevolent spirits."
"Through thousands of years," Etienne softly added, the totems vivid in his mind, their existence integral to all tribal cultures, understanding Daisy was offering him marriage in the way of her world.
"I will take you for my husband. I have said it now and it is so." Her warm breath spiraled up between them, her body close and warm, her face lifted to his, radiant with love.
"I will take you for my wife." His hands slid up to her shoulders and he bent to touch the heated softness of her lips, thanking the benevolent spirits who spoke on the wind and in the blue sky and in the darkness of the night—the gods who protected the Absarokee from unknown demons and known enemies, the gods who loved The People of the northern plains.
"And it is so," Daisy whispered, sealing their troth.
The next weeks were idyllic, a time of holiday and work and ornamented pleasure, a season of flourishing and growing closeness between two people who hadn't realized what infinite nuances of intimacy existed.
They shopped for baby clothes one day, although Daisy had developed a case of cold feet at the very last before entering the fashionable store catering to wealthy parents.
"Tell them you're buying the clothes as a gift," Etienne suggested. "That should be innocuous enough."
But as they left the shop later, carrying their numerous packages, Daisy declared in a faintly anxious tone, "Did you see them whispering as we left? They didn't believe me."
"I wouldn't have either when you stammered and blushed so." His grin was cheerful.
"We should have left."
"But then we wouldn't have all these little embroidered things. It doesn't matter what they think."
Stopping abruptly, Daisy drew in a deep breath. "Father tells me to be less concerned with opinion."
"Excellent advice," the Duc lazily replied. "And now you have the baby clothes you wanted."
"They are darling, aren't they?"
"Absolutely."
"Let's go home and look at them," she said, her voice buoyant with joy.
"Let's," the Duc agreed, taking in the flushed and happy face of the woman he loved. And any of his acquaintances at his Parisian clubs would have been flabbergasted at the notion the Duc de Vec was about to spend his afternoon admiring baby clothes.
They went on holiday for a few days upmountain to Daisy's lodge tucked away in a secluded highland pasture. The weather was ideal, the fall leaves a panoply of color in the valleys below, the sun closer, it seemed, and warmer at the higher altitude, the stars at night so near they seemed within touching distance. They lay in the sun in the afternoons and under the stars at night, their bodies entwined, their hearts in accord, their feelings of contentment and love too pervasive and overwhelming to be neatly contained within the spare perimeters of those two simple words.
They talked of their plans—how Etienne wished to explore buying a mine, how much longer Daisy's counsel would be required in the litigation currently in court. They spoke of the possibility of traveling to Paris before too long.
"Once the divorce is final, we should be married in France," Etienne suggested, "in order to assure our child's inheritance."
"I'm not in need of your money."
"I'm concerned our child—children," he corrected with a smile, "have legal access to my wealth."
"I have money of my own."
"I'd like our marriage legitimate in French courts. Besides, your father's money is shared with the tribe."
"Blaze's fortune is more than enough for the family. As children, we have trust funds."
"If we're not married in France, inheriting not only my estates but my titles could be in question."
At Daisy's skeptical expression, he added, "Why not let the children decide… about the titles? Is that fair?"
She hesitated for a moment, struck with the fact her child would be titled, she too. How odd, she thought, the belief in aristocracy so far removed from the normal pattern of her life. There was no excuse, however, for her own prejudices biasing her children's choices, so she agreed. "It's fair of course.
