Epilogue #3
Some emotion, there and gone, flickered in Damian’s eyes for a moment before his usual enigmatic froideur settled back into place.
“I do beg your pardon,” Damian replied, a sardonic bite to his words that made Hetty clutch Gideon’s arm.
“Damian—” Gideon began, only to be silenced by an arctic glare from his brother.
Damian turned back to Cilly, moving to the side and sweeping his arm to show her the way was clear. “I should never wish to be accused of stopping you from leaving, my lady.”
“Good. For I should never wish to be st-stopped,” Cilly replied, only stumbling a little over her words as she made her dignified exit.
Damian watched her go, frowning, before turning back to Hetty. “Is she foxed?” he demanded.
Hetty met his eyes. “Possibly a little, yes.”
“Well, aren’t you going to do something?” Damian demanded, glaring between them.
Hetty frowned, knowing there was a good chance Cilly would cause a scene if she tried to suggest she go for a lie down. “Well, I would only—she’s been getting so frightfully cross with me recently when I try to—”
“Since we married, she’s been a touch—” Gideon began defensively, noting Damian’s expression growing thunderous.
“Then I suppose I’d best ensure she does not cast up her accounts in a potted palm. She already despises me and her vitriol is unlikely to penetrate my thick hide. I shall leave you two lovebirds to bill and coo.”
He stalked off, leaving Hetty and Gideon staring after him.
Hetty glanced up at Gideon. “He’s going to look after Cilly?” She hesitated. “Should we perhaps—”
“No.” Gideon shook his head, his expression thoughtful. “Damian seems to be trying to turn over a new leaf. I think… I think he is tired of being reviled, of having people look at him like he’s the devil made flesh. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt, eh?”
Hetty watched Damian’s broad shoulders as they disappeared from the terrace into the hotel before looking back at Gideon.
He trusted his brother in this, no matter his reputation, and she trusted Gideon.
She sighed. “Very well. I shan’t fret over her.
My worrying only seems to make her worse in any event. ”
Gideon slid his arm around her waist and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. They stood side by side, looking out at the glorious expanse of blue sea and a slight chink in the clouds through which a shaft of sunlight penetrated.
“Cilly will be all right, love. Whatever happens, we’ll make sure of it.”
Hetty nodded, touched that he had taken on his responsibility as Cilly’s brother with all the earnestness and care that he did everything.
“We’ll look after Damian, too, no matter what,” she assured him, looking up to see the worry in his eyes.
“I wish I could set him free as he has done me,” he said, his voice heavy with sorrow for his brother. “I wish—”
“I know.” Hetty took his hand and laced their fingers together.
“But you know, not everyone who has a close relation who is so… unwell, like his mother, ends up like them. I told you about my aunt, and she was one of a kind in our family. I think too that we often label people too easily. Your mother suffered a tremendous shock. If you presented me with your mistress’s child and expected me to raise it, I think I should lose my mind too.
And it would not be because of any taint in my blood, but because my heart and mind simply could not handle the pain. ”
“Hetty!” he said, eyes wide with alarm.
Hetty laughed softly and shook her head. “Oh, I don’t mean I think you ever would. I know you could never do such a thing to me, but your father did it to her, and it destroyed her. That does not mean it must destroy Damian too.”
“But he’s so reckless, so quick to anger and to do things that—” Gideon shook his head. “I’ve never understood him.”
“I know, because you are too different, but I am not so very unlike him, my darling, and I do not believe he is beyond saving. Perhaps… perhaps he just needs a little help to save himself.”
Gideon gazed down at her, and Hetty wondered how she could ever have found him hard to read, for everything he felt shone in his eyes: love and admiration, respect and desire.
Hetty felt herself bloom under the warmth of that look, knowing that she could be entirely herself, that she could grow into a woman she could take pride in as the years went by, and never feel hemmed in or stifled.
Whatever she chose to do, Gideon would always support her, as she would support him.
“Thank you.”
Hetty smiled, staring up at the man who had stolen her heart and given her everything she could ever want. “You’re welcome.”
“You’re wrong, you know,” Gideon said softly.
“That sounds unlikely,” she said with a huff, giving him the benefit of her haughtiest expression.
“You are a miracle, my darling Henrietta, and you have made the sun come out as you always do.”
Hetty’s heart leapt at the compliment and then turned to look as the clouds parted and the sun burst through, sparkling on the sea as though it scattered diamonds over a bright blue cloth.
“Oh,” she said with a sigh. “Isn’t that just perfect.”
And it was.