“Of course I’m all right.” She cast him a tremulous smile. “I’m with you, aren’t I?”
“You will always be with me, if I have anything to say about it.”
Joshua came up to them and murmured, “He’s dead. I’ll send for Fitzgerald. I’ll explain everything to him. You might want to take Vanessa out of here, though.” He glanced behind them. “It looks like Gwyn has already whisked your mother away.”
With a nod, Sheridan looked over to find Vanessa staring back at Bonham with horror on her face. “Come, sweetheart, let’s go outside.”
In the courtyard, she could see the winter roses and the ivy and all the things that made her happy. And he could keep an eye out for when Lucius Fitzgerald, undersecretary to the War Secretary, arrived and needed to speak to him. Thank God for Joshua and his connections in government.
As soon as they were out there, he caught her to him and kissed her forehead and cheeks and every part of her face dear to him, which was pretty much every part of her face. “I love you, my sweet, brave duchess. I should have said it before I had to face the possibility of losing you, but—”
“You love me?” she said, her eyes alight. “You mean that?”
He smiled. “Cross my heart and hope not to die. At least not until we’re old and gray.”
“Then I suppose I can admit I love you, too, with all my heart and mind and body.” She kissed him just long enough to have him craving her again.
But when he tried to deepen the kiss, she pulled away. “What about Helene?” she asked hesitantly.
“What about her?”
“You said you didn’t want to love again. Because of her.”
“To quote my brilliant sister, ‘You don’t choose love; love chooses you. You have no say or recourse, and when it happens, resistance is pointless.’ I’ve been fighting hard to resist you, with absolutely no success.”
He tipped up her chin, emotion clogging his throat. “In the past few days I’ve learned that the past shouldn’t eclipse the future or one ends up like Bonham—stuck, which is a dangerous place to be. I’ve been stuck in the past for far too long. I loved Helene once, true, but I’ve finally put her back where she belongs. You’re my present and my future, the woman I want to have children with, the woman I love. You’re my rising sun and my harvest moon. You’re everything I need, and nothing I have ever had. Until now.”
Her flirtatious smile snagged his heart. He’d thought he might never see it again.
But before he could kiss her, she straightened his cravat in a very wifely way. “It appears I was telling the truth, after all, when I informed Grey a year ago of my interest in a poet. You are more poet than I realized, my love.”
“That only proves how you underestimate me.” He cocked up one eyebrow. “I am not merely a duke under the covers, you know.”
“No, indeed. You’re also an excellent shot and a fine lover. Although I haven’t had enough experience in the latter to be sure. Perhaps we could use a bit more practice later, after Mr. Fitzgerald has come and gone?”
His blood heated just at the thought. “You know what they all say, my dear wife. Practice makes perfect.”
Epilogue
December 1809
Vanessa didn’t know if she would survive the Christmas house party at Armitage Hall. According to Sheridan, it had been years since anyone had contemplated such a gathering. For Vanessa, having never hosted one so large or even attended one with forty guests, the sheer size of it was overwhelming.
While most of them were family, she and Sheridan had chosen a few of the dowager duchess’s close friends to cheer her up after her shock at discovering that Mr. Bonham had been systematically picking off the people she loved (and some she didn’t). Vanessa’s tactic must have worked because the dowager duchess had been eager to help, and more than eager to chat with the guests.
The Enceinte Trio, as Vanessa had privately been calling the three pregnant women in the family, had initially vowed to help, too. Then Beatrice’s baby had been born three weeks ago, and Gwyn’s twins had been born last week, and that only left Cass, who, fortunately, wasn’t due until sometime next year. Vanessa’s sister-in-law Cass had a talent for arranging and organizing, so Vanessa had been relying on her quite a bit. Besides which, Cass and Heywood lived right up the road, so she and Vanessa were rapidly becoming friends.
Cass came up to where Vanessa sat at a table in the drawing room, putting together kissing boughs. She wanted lots of them, one for every hall and public room in the manor. “Lady Hornsby wants to be in a bedchamber that adjoins Lord Lisbourne’s. Are you fine with that? Also, our mother-in-law has put your uncle in the room adjoining hers, if that’s all right.” Cass arched an eyebrow. “At the rate we’re going, your party may end up in all the gossip rags.”
“I don’t care. And it doesn’t matter to me who adjoins whom, as long as they don’t ask me to change the sheets when they leave, if you know what I mean.”
A laugh burst out of Cass. “You are quite an outrageous lady, aren’t you?”
“I try. Why do you think Saint Sheridan married me? He needs someone to poke holes in his halo on occasion.” Vanessa paused in her work to examine her map of the house. “Now I have to move other people around. Did your aunt and your cousin come? I was planning to put Lady Hornsby in this darling little suite in the east wing, but with her changing rooms it would be perfect for them, although I would swear it hadn’t been cleaned in years, until yesterday.”
“No, they couldn’t attend.” Cass shook her head. “Kitty is throwing a party of her own in London, and I shudder to think how it
