Epilogue
One Week Later
“It is a boy!” Damien crowed.
Just this morning, a footman had hurriedly pounded on their door, breathless with the news that Caroline’s labor had begun, and Evander and Helena dressed so quickly that Helena’s hair was still half-pinned when their carriage reached Damien and Caroline’s townhouse.
As Helena and Evander stood hand in hand in the foyer, they both smiled as Damien approached them with open arms. Both lifted their free arms and accepted the usually stoic man’s warm embrace.
“Congratulations!” Helena cooed as Damien stepped back. “Where are they? I wish to see them!”
“Come, sister!” Elara called before Damien could answer. They looked beyond Damien’s shoulders and found Elara, grinning and giddy, bouncing on her feet midway up the stairs. “Come, come, you must see! The baby is perfect!”
“And Caroline?” Helena asked, already hurrying toward her sister-in-law.
“She is perfect as well,” Damien said, his pride obvious in his deep voice. “Exhausted, but perfect. Go up. She would love to see you.”
Evander watched as his wife and little sister joined hands and hurried up the elegant gold-and-marble staircase, a smile stretching so wide across his face that his cheeks hurt.
“Congratulations, old man,” Evander offered, turning to Damien after a moment.
Damien pulled two cigars from his inner jacket pocket and extended one to Evander. Just as he was about to take it, a hand shot between them and swiped it up. With a raised, bemused brow, he turned and found Adrian grinning as he popped the cigar between his teeth.
“Too slow, old boy,” Adrian teased, talking around the cigar.
“Where did you come from?” Evander asked.
Damien grunted as he reached into his pocket once more and drew out a third cigar.
“Like a stray cat, that one,” Damien muttered. “He lets himself in whenever he pleases. Little George and Caroline find it amusing, but I have yet to decide so.”
“You love it,” Adrian said around his cigar as he winked. “You just will not admit to it.”
Evander chuckled, then leaned into the lit match Damien offered to ignite his cigar. He took a couple of puffs and then blew smoke rings toward Adrian’s face. His brother scowled and batted them away.
“Do not attempt to do so at our house,” Evander warned. “Helena’s and my honeymoon is far from over, and it seems my darling ray of sunshine has a rage within her that can rival my own.”
“A soul match to be sure,” Adrian offered dryly as he smirked. “So glad you two realized it before she married Jeremy.”
Anger and regret sizzled through Evander’s veins at his brother’s sarcastic remark, but now that his beast was in slumber, he simply grinned around his cigar as he reached out and smacked Adrian on the head.
His answering scowl and the way he rubbed his head had both Evander and Damien chuckling, and before he could give another retort, Damien spoke.
“Speaking of Jeremy, I received a letter from him. He and his man are doing well on their journey. He said he would write again once they arrived at their destination, but he asked that I pass this on to you.”
Damien pulled a small missive from his outer jacket pocket and extended it toward Evander. He reached for it slowly, still wary of receiving letters.
Evander,
Thank you for loving my dear friend Helena in a manner I never could. I appreciate the reminder that we can, and indeed deserve, to be with those we genuinely desire. May both of you enjoy endless happiness.
Yours Truly,
J
Relief and happiness surged through Evander as he carefully folded the letter up again and put it in his pocket, knowing that Helena would be elated once he showed it to her later. No threats, no warnings. Just gratitude.
“Wonderful,” Evander murmured, looking up at his friends. “So very wonderful. I am happy for him.”
“And you, old friend?” Damien asked with a raised brow. “Are you happy?”
Evander’s lips twitched toward a smile, but did not fully make it.
“Helena and I are in a wonderful place,” he confessed.
“But the actions of her father give her good days and bad days. He and Ingram have been sentenced to gaol for the rest of their days, as you know, but the news of Robinson’s terrors has spread fast through the ton.
We have sent Mary-Anne and Alexander to my summer home to get away from it all, but Helena misses them.
I believe that I might have to step away from business for a while so that we may join them. ”
Adrian and Damien’s faces grew solemn.
“Take as much time as you need, brother,” Adrian urged. “We will handle things here.”
“Indeed,” Damien agreed. “And as soon as Caroline and the baby are strong enough, we will visit you. Nothing unburdens a heavy heart like that of a child.”
“We will all come,” Adrian added.
A grin touched Evander’s lips, thankful that they were both so accepting of his departure, and that they understood that it was nothing like the first time he chose to leave London society behind.
“Thank you both,” Evander replied, drawing toward the end of his cigar. “Your presence will be most welcome.”
“My love.” Helena’s sweet voice broke through the heaviness of the moment, and Evander’s heart stirred as he looked up and saw his wife. She seemed to be glowing as she smiled at him. And though such beauty made it hard for him to breathe, he grinned like a fool.
“Yes, my life?” he asked, stepping toward her.
“Might I borrow you for a moment?” she asked, glancing meaningfully at Adrian and Damien. “Privately.”
Curious, Evander excused himself and followed her into a small alcove just off the foyer, tucked away from the noise of the household’s celebration. Helena took both his hands in hers, her green eyes bright with something that looked almost like nerves.
“I do not wish to steal anything from Caroline’s day,” she began softly. “Truly, I do not. But I find I cannot hold this in a moment longer, and I would rather you hear it from me alone before anyone else guesses.”
“Helena, you are frightening me,” he said, though his lips were already curving upward, some instinct in him already reaching for hope before she said another word.
“I am with child,” she whispered.
For one full second, Evander could not speak at all. Then a sound tore out of him, something between a laugh and a sob, and he swept her up into his arms, spinning her once before setting her carefully back on her feet as though she were suddenly made of glass.
“Helena.” Her name came out reverent, disbelieving. He framed her face in his hands and kissed her, slow and searching, before resting his forehead against hers. “A child. Our child.”
“You are happy?” she asked, though she was already laughing through her own tears.
“I have never been happier in my life,” he swore, and kissed her again.
“We should now go see the baby,” Helena gently insisted, extending her hand in his direction. They went back to call for Adrian and Damien, and the latter followed suit.
In Caroline’s room, where his family gathered, Evander took notice of the love and devotion that flowed through all of them.
Elara was standing with her back against Constantine’s chest. Adrian went to Bridget, who laid her head against his shoulder as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
Damien, of course, kneeled beside the bed where his wife and newest son lay, his usually stoic face a mask of affection and awe.
Nora was the only one who sat, and also, unlike everyone else, she was smiling at Evander and Helena, not Caroline and the newborn.
“Mother?” Evander asked, raising a curious brow as her blue eyes sparkled with mirth. “Are you all right? This smile is scaring me.”
“You do not have to be scared for me, Evander. A mother knows,” Nora sighed, her smile widening.
One by one, everyone turned to her with curious gazes.
“Knows what, Mother?” Evander asked.
Nora’s gaze dropped to Helena’s waist, and a bolt of recognition moved through Evander’s heart.
“I do not mean to take away from your happy day, Caroline,” Nora said as all eyes turned to Helena. “But it seems we have another child on the way.”
The room erupted in laughter and congratulations, but Evander barely heard any of it. He only had eyes for Helena, who looked back at him with that same soft, radiant smile she had given him in the alcove downstairs, as if the two of them shared a secret the whole world had just been let in on.
“I never thought I would have this,” he murmured. “Any of it. A wife. A family gathered around instead of mourning a beast. A child of my own…”
“Then it is fortunate that I never once saw a beast. Only ever you.”
The End?