Epilogue #2
“No, I see her clearly.” Berry smiled as she rested her head upon his shoulder.
The midwife allowed their cozy scene for a few minutes then ordered Gideon out. “I’ll take the babe, and then we need to take care of your wife.”
He frowned. “What’s wrong? I’m not leaving her side.”
Dr. Farthingale placed a calming hand on his shoulder. “Nothing is wrong. But there’s blood to clean off her after this delivery. Also, I want to make certain everything has come out cleanly. It won’t take long. I’ll call you back in as soon as we’re done.”
Gideon was too much on edge to return to his study, so he spent the next few minutes pacing up and down the hall.
He wasn’t the only one hovering close. Mrs. Bolton, Harriet, and Horace also found reasons to walk by. Even Melton found an excuse to walk upstairs. Gideon allowed them all to stay, for they loved Berry, too.
They all held their breath when the door opened and Dr. Farthingale stepped out carrying little Lucy in his arms. “Give the midwife another minute with Duchess Berry. In the meanwhile, let me introduce you to the newest little Knight.”
He handed Lucy to Gideon.
The others cautiously peered at his daughter and gushed with compliments even though she still looked like a squashed little thing. But she was squawking and already making demands to be fed or changed, or just wanted more attention.
Gideon returned to Berry’s side with their daughter upon the doctor’s nod.
The servants returned to their stations, and after another quick check of Berry and the baby, the doctor left. The midwife was going to stay on for another few hours, but took the opportunity to go down to the kitchen for a meal.
Gideon liked being alone with Berry and the little bundle he now placed in her arms. Berry looked better, for her hair was now neatly brushed back and she had on a clean nightgown. She still looked so tired, however.
“I think our daughter is hungry,” she said, lowering the sleeve of her nightgown in order to allow their child to suckle her breast.
“My turn next,” Gideon teased, for he adored Berry’s bosom, which had only grown bigger after two children.
“She has green eyes like mine,” she said with delight when Lucy squinted her eyes open for a moment.
He arched an eyebrow. “She’ll be as beautiful as her mother in every way.”
Berry chuckled. “Oh, I doubt I look attractive just now.”
“No, love. You are the most beautiful woman in all the world to me, and shall always be.”
As he sat on the bed beside Berry and their squawking daughter, he realized something that perhaps he ought to have realized when Archie was born. Well, he had thought about it when Archie was born but set the painful thought aside just as quickly as it had popped into his head.
The thought now nagged at him.
He watched Berry nurture her daughter and realized she might have been right when she insisted his mother would never have just left him on a London street without a care. He had two spectacular children now, and a wife who was his very heart.
Perhaps it was time to put aside the anger and resentment.
He had turned over his orphanage file to Homer Barrow after Archie was born because if anyone could figure out where he came from, it would be this man.
Also, Archie was a marquess, and shouldn’t a child with such an exalted title know something about his paternal ancestry?
But there truly were no clues, and not even the clever Bow Street Runner could come up with a single lead after scouring newspaper records for any reported murders, scandals, and kidnappings in and around London and other areas of England.
Whatever had happened to leave a three-year-old child wandering around a London street would always remain a mystery.
But Gideon could now forgive his mother because she may have done this to save his life. He did not know if his father had any role or had merely been a one-night fancy.
None of it mattered anymore, for Berry and their children were his family, his to love and protect, and would never suffer his fate.
With the success of the Brigid doll and her ever-expanding line of clothes, they had been able to extend the orphanage to house two hundred, which meant two hundred children who would be protected from the workhouses and chimney sweeps.
Even if the Brigid doll lost popularity, the orphanage funding was secure because Berry was now the Duchess of Broadingham, and that title came with a vast, entailed estate. He and Lord Berwick were managing it for her while she devoted her efforts to the orphanage’s expansion.
He settled Berry so that she reclined more comfortably in his arms, for she and the baby had drifted off to sleep, the little squawker now quite comfortable with her mouth at her mother’s breast—and a little hand also on her breast to make certain no one would move her away from that position.
Gideon kissed the top of Berry’s head. “Love you, kitten.”
“Love you so much, Gideon,” she purred, stirring awake to smile up at him. “My knight in shining armor.”
He kissed her again.
He had been a restless, troubled orphan.
But he was now a happy husband and father.
Those were the titles that mattered most…husband and father.
But it suited Berry to now be a duchess, for she had always been quality, and it showed in her every graceful movement and compassionate actions.
His very own duchess of Duchess Square.
He thought back to his decision to purchase this house, the tormented doubts he had felt when first putting in his offer and the shock when it had been accepted.
He’d then wondered how he would be received by his neighbors, and whether he was fooling himself into thinking he could ever amount to anything or ever be considered someone worthy of love.
Then he’d met Berry.
And she loved him.
And had married him.
Truly, this marriage thing was working out quite well for him. Perhaps there was love in the air around Duchess Square.
Who would be next?
THE END