Epilogue
One month later
T he coach sat squat and heavy before Clearford House, laden with trunks filled enough to supply the newly married Duke and Duchess of Clearford across the English Channel and through as many countries as they desired to travel. But Samuel passed it by, his wife on his arm, their sisters trailing behind them, as he clipped a path toward Hyde Park.
“You can leave now, Samuel,” Juney called out. A hand on his back gave a little push, and when he looked over his shoulder, there she was, glaring at him.
“We’ll leave later, Beetle.”
“We can walk in the park on our own.”
Beside Juney, Briar snorted. “We will not be on our own. There is Aunt Georgie and all your older sisters and their husbands and—” She groaned. “So many chaperones. A veritable plague.”
Emma laughed, leaning her head against Samuel’s shoulder. “We are unwanted, it seems.”
“A fine welcome for all we do for them.” At the end of their interlocked arms, Samuel’s fingers were threaded through Emma’s, and he squeezed her hand, tipped the corners of his lips into a smile just big enough for her to see. “What if we wish to stretch our legs before entering the cramped coach? What if we wish to enjoy a stroll on steady land before walking across rolling ship boards?”
“They think nothing of our legs.” Emma shook her head with a heavy sigh.
“Is it me,” Glenna whispered much too loudly, “or are they quite insufferable?”
A chorus of agreement behind him.
“Insufferable?” Samuel caught his wife’s eye. “Do you hear that, luv? We are insufferable.”
“I think they exaggerate. It might be insufferable if I, oh, I do not know, fluttered my eyes at you?” She did just that.
“Or,” he said, “it might be insufferable if I raised your hand and kissed it.” He placed his lips on her knuckles, the soft cotton warmed by her skin, and held her gaze, loved the soft pink heating her cheeks.
The girls behind him groaned.
“I think it’s sweet,” Felicity mumbled.
“Perhaps we might be insufferable,” Emma said, “if we called one another names.”
“Such as sweetling.”
“Or darling.”
Samuel leaned closer and whispered in his wife’s ear, “Or moon maiden. Or Duchess Clearly Lusting.”
That soft pink raged into red, and she swatted his shoulder. “ Shh .”
“I am shh . Besides, they are no longer listening.”
And they weren’t. Hyde Park had appeared, and they’d rushed off to greet it with raised arms and loud voices, crying out to older sisters and new brothers dotted about the green.
“Hoydens.” Samuel sniffed.
“Our hoydens.”
“I’m going to miss them.”
“Let us see as much of the continent as we can as quickly as we can and return home.”
He kissed her knuckles again. “We are of one mind.” Amazing how responsibility felt less like a burden when it was shared.
The shade of Hyde Park, the soft rumble of voices gossiping, sharing, celebrating, and mourning, gathered them in, and Samuel slowed his stride as he set them on the same path he walked every week with his family. Better to make the moment last. It would be some time before he next stepped foot here.
“Thank you,” he said, “for delaying our departure an hour or two. I’ve been on this same walk every week for a decade, but I cannot imagine doing without it.” He laughed. “They used to be so nervous, darting around to different acquaintances, whispering as if afraid of their own voices, exchanging…” Hell. Had he missed something? He’d missed something. He groaned. “Books. They were exchanging books. Do you think…?”
“They were naughty books? I do.”
“I’m a nodcock.”
“You are”—she grinned—“not. How were you to know, after all, your sisters were erotic masterminds bent on infiltrating the highest reaches of society with their brazen books?”
“Can we say that in a bit more of a whisper?” Tipping his hat over his brow to hide a wince, Samuel decided to forgive himself for being entirely oblivious. And to keep a more astute eye on the remaining unwed six. “Or not at all.” Emma’s chuckle made him tip his hat back up so he could better see her. “Aren’t you being brazen, Your Grace, with such talk? What if someone heard, found out?”
“What if they did?” She tipped her chin in the air, every inch a duchess. “We would still have each other.” She spread her arms wide, as if all of Hyde Park belonged to her. “And them. I am not scared, Duke.”
“And I,” he said, stopping her, holding her elbows so she faced him, and bending low so they were almost nose to nose, “love you.” Such small words, almost incapable of holding the wave of emotion in his chest. “From the moment we met, I knew I was meant to know you in some way. I was grateful for a single moment, but now I am greedy for all of them. From now until forever, I love you Emma Merriweather.”
“You did not know. In the garden that night. You could not have. The light was so dim, you could barely see a thing, certainly not our future.”
“That is where you’re wrong. I always see the bullseye clearly, and I always hit the center.”
She glanced down at her chest. “I see no knife.”
“It’s in your heart.”
“Should I be dying?”
“God, don’t do that. You’ve lost the thread of the conversation.”
“I always know where the thread is.” She held up her wrist, putting the embroidered edge of her glove—blue on white—just beneath his nose.
He laughed, and words tumbled out with it. “I love you. Will you scandalize the ton and let me embrace you? Here, now, in front of— oof .”
She threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him. Chaste but full of promise, as was her gaze when she pulled away, setting them back down the path, arm in arm. “Some things are worth the risk.”
He loved Emma proper and prudent, but he loved her just as much when she set all her worries into the wind and did as she pleased.
But her bold actions had birthed a bit of shyness that tumbled her gaze toward her feet and fumbled her fingers in the folds of her pelisse. “ You are worth the risk. What I mean to say is… I love you, too, Samuel.”
He’d never tire of hearing it. He’d tell her every day and thank God when she said it back. Their steps lengthened together, sharing a pace and rhythm, and Samuel inhaled, exhaled, the spring air bracing, invigorating.
“Were you pleased with the wedding?” he asked.
“It was lovely. Lottie and Aunt Georgie did a wonderful job planning it.”
“And you were not… upset we’re doing this instead of a breakfast?”
“I love this .” She raised her face to the sky, letting the sun caress her.
“And you were not upset that… your father was not there?”
“No!” She stopped and squeezed his hands. “Samuel, not at all. It was perfect. Everything has been perfect.” She hooked her arm through his and set them back down the path. “Especially that little clause in your contract with him. The one about how he loses his monthly payments if he shows up uninvited.”
“It only seemed prudent.” He kissed the back of her wrist between glove and sleeve.
“I will not miss him. Not on this day or any other.”
After several steps, Samuel pointed his chin to the side of the path and mumbled, “I will miss them .”
Just there, Lottie, Andromeda, Prudence, and their husbands chatted, their eldest children wrestling with one another nearby as Lady Templeton attempted to corral them.
“I understand,” Emma said, placing the lightest kiss on his shoulder.
At the far end of the path, Isabella and Imogen and their husbands stood beneath a tree. No doubt Trent had sneezed, and they’d moved to shade to keep the conversation free from further disruption. Nearby Admiral Garrison and his wife strolled arm in arm.
“I know you do.” Samuel kissed Emma’s temple, and they continued down the path. At its end, Felicity, Glenna, Briar, Diana, and Juney laughed. Sisters. What a damn delight. Those who sought to court them had better understand and appreciate their worth.
“Samuel, you have that look about you like you want to stick a knife in someone’s gut.”
“Just considering courtship.”
“Please. Do not. You’d better leave it to the experts.”
“And that would be you?”
Emma stopped and smiled, and the curve of her lovely lips slipped around his heart, wrapped it up tight in a bow. “Naturally. I have recently learned what I so long misunderstood about matchmaking. I could never quite get the love match right, but now…”
“Yes?”
“Now I know such a match cannot be made by others. One’s own heart is the only matchmaker when it comes to love, the only guide worth reading.”
“Ah, I see now. Quite clearly. The flaw at the center of my guide. Hubris to think a Guide could speak my sisters’ hearts.”
She kissed his cheek. “The Guide spoke your heart, Samuel.”
Perhaps it had.
His heart was full now with other things. Worry still lurked like a dark bird in the sky, an omen on an otherwise sunny day. It likely always would. No banishing it entirely. But damn. He’d never thought to feel so much sun there, either, to have it filled to brimming with so many smiles and so much laughter.
He’d never expected to feel light again.
But he was damn well floating. And the world didn’t seem so sharp anymore. And he did not have to be sharp in it. With Emma on his arm and his sisters happy, he could be soft as moonlight and openly, devotedly, with every particle of passion in his body, kiss the woman he loved and who loved him in return.
And, feet halting on the path, and palms seeking silken cheeks, and lips greeting lips, he did just that.
The End
Thank you for reading Dukes Court for Keeps!
This was the final book in Charlie Lane’s A Gentleman’s Guide to Courtship series.
We find ourselves still basking in the afterglow of romance and adventure. We've laughed, we've cried, and we've fallen in love over and over again with characters that feel like old friends.
But as one door closes, another opens. It is with great excitement that we introduce you to the start another series by the wonderful Charlie Lane that we're confident will capture your heart just as much.
From the vibrant ballrooms of the Regency era comes a romance that sparks with wit, charm, and the delightful dance of two hearts destined to find each other. USA Today bestselling author Charlie Lane ushers in a new series with a story that promises to be as brilliant as its characters.
A group of unconventional debutantes is turning heads and breaking hearts, in the glittering ballrooms of Regency London. The Debutante Dares series follows these audacious young ladies as they defy societal norms, challenging the ton's most eligible bachelors to fall madly in love. Get ready for a whirlwind of passion, wit, and scandalous romance that will leave you breathless.
Start with book 1, Daring the Duke .
To save her family, bluestocking Lady Tabitha must marry well. Can she convince the Duke of Collingford — her opposite in every way — that she will make the perfect duchess?
Dive into this fun, and sizzling Regency Rom-Com!
Read on for a sneak-peek!