Epilogue
Once alone together, Tony took his bride into his arms and kissed her softly.
Wife. My wife. It was such a strange feeling to know that he was responsible for the happiness of another, and vice versa.
He had noticed that Lucinda had a new calm about her.
Not even the whirlwind of wedding plans had caused her any stress.
She was happy. And that made him happy. There was no need to rush into love making tonight.
They had all night. They had the rest of their lives.
He stripped off his clothes and waited for his bride to join him.
Lucinda kicked off her slippers before climbing into Tony’s large bed. “May told me something very interesting today.”
“Did she?” He played with one of her delicious auburn curls at her shoulder.
“She thinks I am increasing. I will have to have a doctor confirm it, but I have not had my courses for over a month. She said it was a sure sign.”
Tony should not have really been shocked, but he had just come to terms with being a married man, and now he was to be a father?
“Are you happy?” Her eyes showed her worry. “I may not be, it is just… well, she knows things like this.”
He kissed the shoulder he had exposed. “Of course. I want to give you as many children as you want.”
She frowned. “How many to do you want?”
He pulled down the other side of her nightgown. “I have no particular number in mind but four is a nice even number.”
“And what if they are all girls?”
He laughed and palmed one breast through her nightgown. “Then I will love them anyway. In fact, if they look like their mother I might even prefer it.”
She moaned as he took one nipple into his mouth.
“I would like at least one boy,” she said, clutching his head and threading her fingers through his hair.
“One with sandy-blond locks and blue eyes like his father. And he shall get away with tormenting his sisters simply because he will have his father’s smile. ”
Tony lifted his head. “I feel sorry for him already. Three sisters!”
They made love, slowly and with care that every inch of each other was explored and worshipped.
In the morning, while May was brushing her hair, Tony lounged in her favorite red and silver banyan. The one he had worn the night they met. She met his eyes in the mirror.
“I want you to go,” Lucinda said.
“I’m not going anywhere. I am having far too much fun watching you,” he replied.
She turned in her seat. “I mean to find Markham.”
He crossed his legs. “I knew what you meant. I cannot leave you for months.”
“He would do it for you. Is that not what you once said?”
He frowned and sat forward, meeting her eyes in the mirror. “Circumstances are different now.”
“I will wait for you,” she said. “I will always wait for you.”
“That is not the point.”
“What is the point?”
“You are with child, my love.”
May grinned at her in the mirror.
“And May tells me it will take… How many months, May?”
“Nine, miss, I mean milady.”
“There, you see?”
“It could take weeks to even get to his last known location. He was in Spain! Lord knows where he is now, if he is even alive to find.”
“And what if he is alive, waiting for rescue and no one comes?”
“I will not leave you.”
“I will have my family around me. Grandfather is coming back to London next month and the duke has asked him to stay here. Marianne and your mother will return to Ashtonvale at the end of the season, and I may go with them. I want to meet Max and walk in the gardens and Marianne and I shall draw and read, and I will sew things for the baby. I shall be too busy to miss you.”
“I do believe you are talking yourself into letting me go.”
“I do not want you to have regrets. I will not be the reason that you let your friend down.”
May left the room with a quick bob and Tony was pulling his wife into his arms before she had even closed the door.
“I will think on it, but if I am to replace Stafford as Spymaster, I cannot go. I was thinking Beckett may be the man to find him. He is part rat catcher, part hunting dog. If Markham is to be found, he will find him. In the meantime, I want to kiss my wife.” He kissed her lips, then her neck in that place just behind the ear that always made her giggle, and down the column of her neck to the little dip near her shoulder.
“I am going to make love to you again. You are like an addiction. I cannot get enough.”
“May just did my hair.” But there was a smile on her lips.
“I promise not to mess up your hair.”
“Promise?”
“Let me show you.”
Afterward, they lay tangled together and Tony interlinked their fingers, holding them up between them as he had the day they had found the formula within her ring.
Her engagement ring shone in the firelight, a green square-cut emerald with a small pearl on either side.
He wanted to ensure that this ring was a token of his love and commitment to her.
It contained no scandalous secrets, no hidden panels, simply their initials inscribed within and the word “Forever.”
The End