Illusion of Innocence: Regency Rebelles Series

Epilogue

3rd March 1817 - St. James’s Square, London

Verity took a sip of her first cup of tea for the day and looked across the table at her husband, mostly hidden behind the morning newspaper.

‘We’re like an old married couple already. Reading the mail and the newspapers over breakfast.’

‘Not old, but definitely married,’ Sin growled, lowering the paper to waggle his dark brows at her over the tops of his reading glasses.

Verity blinked, stared for a moment then burst into giggles.

‘I don’t think I’ll ever get used to you with those—gig lamps—on your face. They make you look so—studious.’

‘Not sexy?’ he asked, his eyes bright with amusement.

‘No. I didn’t say that. Actually, they kind of—make me—want to—’

She dropped her gaze to the letter waiting by her plate, her cheeks hot. They’d been married over two months and still couldn’t seem to keep their hands off each other.

‘What?’ Sin demanded, his eyes twin orbs of stormy wanting.

‘—make love to my sexy professor,’

‘Professor? Hardly my style, but—I’d take my ravishing faerie goddess any way I can have her,’ he warned.

Verity was just wondering how shocked the staff would be if master and mistress disappeared back upstairs with instructions not to be disturbed when her gaze actually focused on the letter by her plate.

Addressed to Mrs Verity Wolfenden.

Wallowing in the delight of her new moniker written for all the world to see, it took another moment to recognize the precisely formed letters of Charity’s handwriting.

‘This letter is from Char,’ she muttered, all thought of sexy professors pushed to the back of her mind. ‘It must be important for my over-worked sister to put pen to paper.’

Wiping her butter knife on her napkin, she broke the wax bearing her father’s seal and hastily unfolded the closely written single sheet.

‘Oh,’ she whispered in dismay as she read the first paragraph. Typical Char, terse and straight to the point.

Dear Very,

I’m sorry I’m going to spoil your honeymoon, but I imagine you’d want to be here at this time. Lord Highbrooke is dead from a carriage accident and Ben is critically injured also. Whether he will survive or not is also very much in the balance.

Frantically she scanned to the end, learning that Victoria was at Highbrooke helping to nurse Ben.

Vic nursing Ben? When the two could hardly speak two words to one another? But of course, she would. It was what Vic did. Nurture. Heal.

And Ben, who was now Earl of Highbrooke. If he lived.

‘What is it, Very?’ Sin asked, almost leaning over the table to reach her.

‘Oh Sin,’ she whispered. ‘I have to go home.’

Wordlessly she handed the letter across the table to him.

‘When do you want to leave?’ he asked after silently absorbing the shocking contents of the missive.

‘You will come with me?’

‘Of course.’

‘There’s no ‘of course’ about it, Sin. I know you have obligations, business at the docks—’

‘Where you go, I go, Very. If you could wait until tomorrow, I could settle a couple of pressing issues at the warehouse this afternoon and we could leave first thing in the morning. And then I can stay as long as you need. Come here, my love,’ he commanded softly, holding out his arms to her.

Verity scooted around the table and fell into his lap, allowing him to use his napkin to wipe away the tears she hadn’t realized were rolling down her cheeks.

‘Oh God, Sin. Poor Aunty Connie. Widowed and—likely to lose Ben as well. I can’t begin to understand how one could withstand such grief—even how I—’

‘Of course you can’t,’ he soothed. ‘That will take time. All you need to focus on today, my love, is being ready to travel tomorrow. How about we go upstairs now and alert Clara and Saju? We’ll take two carriages, one for us and one for them and the luggage. Want me to carry you?’

‘No,’ she said on a watery hiccup. ‘I’m not incapacitated, just—terribly sad.’

Sin wrapped his arm around her and Verity rested her head on his shoulder, content to be held close as they ascended the ornate oak staircase.

At the door of her room he stopped and cupped her face between his warm palms.

‘I will speak with Saju and then head down to the docks. I shall be back for dinner and then I intend you shall be distracted from all grieving thoughts by your sexy professor.’

Verity slipped her arms around Sin’s neck and clung tightly, raising her face for his deep, lingering kiss.

‘If anyone can distract me it would be you,’ she whispered. ‘And thank you for believing in me. For loving me. You are everything I could possibly have wanted in a husband.’

‘And you, my love. Are so much more than I ever dreamed I wanted in a wife.”

‘Ha,’ she muttered, leaning back to dig a finger in his chest. ‘You didn’t want a wife.’

‘True,’ he said, pulling her close again under his chin. ‘But now I have you I’m never letting you go.’

The End.