Page 1 of 1797 Club 2nd Epilogue Collection (The 1797 Club #11)

F ifteen years into her marriage to the Duke of Abernathe, the duchess was vastly content.

Oh, their lives were busy, of course. With three children who they adored and friends who were more like family, how could one not be?

And Emma had her charitable works, James his place in the House of Lords.

But he always found time to make her feel like the love of his life.

Gifts exchanged or glances across a ballroom, passionate nights in their bed, Emma knew she was loved.

And she loved James deeply in return. So she had nothing to complain about as she darted around their big country home, Falcon’s Landing, giving direction to the servants who remained as the two of them prepared to depart for a Season in London.

If her eyes filled with tears now and then, well, that had nothing to do with her marriage.

It was only that her two youngest, Adam and Gavin, were both at school now and her daughter Beatrice had left several days prior to study music with her Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Ewan at their rambling estate by the sea.

She would be gone for six weeks before joining her parents in the city .

Emma gave a wobbly smile to yet another footman who was making arrangements and then made her way down the twisting hallways to James’s study. The door was cracked and she peeked in to look at him.

He still stole her breath, even after all these years. Even with a little grey in his temples, even with a few extra laugh lines around his eyes. He was still her fantasy, he was still as golden as he had been all those years ago when fate had brought them together and love had made them stay.

Now he was sitting at his big desk, bent over some paperwork with a focused stare. Every once in a while he ticked a number off a big ledger to his right and then made a little rumble of satisfaction.

She almost laughed, for she knew that rumble well and usually for far more pleasurable endeavors than estate work. She knocked lightly, but he didn’t glance up from his work.

“In a moment, Grimble,” he said.

“Grimble is overseeing some last preparations since a great number of the servants left yesterday to prepare the house in London for us,” Emma said as she entered the room.

James did look up then and for a moment his dark eyes drifted over her from head to toe.

She thrilled at his regard, even though she knew she was not the same young woman he had wed all those years ago.

She had more curves, which he insisted he liked while he ran his hands over them in their bed at night.

But she also had notice a few gray hairs in her brush last week.

Forty was just a few years away now, and some days she felt every one of those years.

“Have you been crying?” he asked, desire leaving his stare as he got up and came around the desk.

She didn’t resist when he pulled her into his arms and cradled her against his chest. She breathed him in for a moment, that warmth and scent of him that she knew and loved so well. It did calm her.

“Oh, I’m being silly,” she insisted. “Just missing the children and feeling a little lost. ”

“I miss them, too,” he said with a small sigh.

She knew he did. Unlike a great many men of his stature, James adored his children. He doted on them, played with them, took immense pleasure in teaching them to fish and play games. He also took great care to impart gentle wisdom on Adam, their eldest son, who would one day become duke, himself.

He leaned back and tilted her face up toward his.

He made that same satisfied rumble before he dropped his lips to hers.

The years she had been lamenting all dropped away when their mouths met.

There was only him, his lips firm, his tongue teasing, then tasting, then claiming as her body grew heavy and tingly beneath his touch.

She clenched her hands around his back, fisting them there as she sighed. He deepened the kiss, slowing it, making promises with his tongue that she knew he would keep. But not in that moment. In that moment, he drew back and pressed quick peck to the tip of her nose.

“Soon enough we will be in London,” he said. “Busy as ever and it will soften the remaining time we have apart before Beatrice returns home and then the boys.”

“Yes,” she said slowly and released him when he stepped back and returned to his desk. “I hope we’ll have a little time together, as well.”

He nodded while he retook his place at his desk. “I’m certain we will. We’ll make sure we do.”

She shifted slightly. She wasn’t certain that was true, even if James meant it. She’d seen his schedule for the next few weeks and she knew her own. They would have to steal time rather than make it.

His brow wrinkled as if he read her mind. “You know I adore you, don’t you, Em?”

“And I adore you,” she said, pushing aside her worries because she did know that. As well as she knew his handsome face after all these years. “I’ll leave you to your work. The carriage will be ready after noon, Grimble said. ”

“I’ll be ready,” James called out as she stepped from the room. He was already back to his ledger, flicking his wrist to mark off more numbers.

She sighed as she went back to her own preparations. She would be back to her old self before they arrived to Town, she knew. She had nothing at all to complain about.

J ames strode down the hallway to the foyer just after noon, his mind spinning with so many thoughts he could scarcely think straight.

He had to make a speech on the floor of the House of Lords in two weeks time, on an issue of workers rights that was close to his heart.

He was nervous about it, truth be told, so he intended to ask Emma if he could practice it on her during their carriage ride.

She was always good at helping him strategize when it came to his political endeavors.

She was good at everything, truth be told.

He could not imagine what he’d ever do without her.

She was waiting in the foyer already and he frowned.

He was five minutes late and he hated that she’d likely been standing around for at least ten since she was always early for everything.

But as he got closer, he could see the frown on her face and it didn’t appear to be for his tardiness.

She was speaking to Grimble in a low tone and she appeared concerned.

“I’m sorry, darling,” he said as he reached her. He looked at Grimble. “You two look worried, what have I missed?”

Emma nodded to Grimble and the butler stepped away to attend to something. She sighed as she faced James. “Robinson showed up twenty minutes ago.”

“Our footman, Robinson? Didn’t he go with the rest of the servants and the caravan two days ago?” James asked.

She sighed. “He did. And the whole lot of them only made it half a day’s travel up the road when they encountered a huge storm. They tried to wait it out and then carry on, but apparently it washed out the road near Greyton. It will take several days at a minimum to repair it.”

“Are they safe?” James asked.

Her expression softened and she reached out to squeeze his hand.

“I adore you for asking that question above all others. Yes. They are safely at an inn, which we will pay for when we eventually follow and they sent Robinson back in the hopes he could catch us before we departed and got ourselves just as stuck.”

James sighed. “Bollocks,” he muttered. “Of course that makes sense. I assume that slows us down at least three days.”

“Robinson recommended four based on the damage and how crowded the roads would be while it was being resolved.” Emma shook her head. “I’m sorry, love, I know how much you wanted to get to your work.”

James ran a hand through his hair and shook his head.

“It’s just this speech, you know? I wanted to put my head together with Graham and Simon when I arrived and there’s that party that Lord Webber is holding in two days, I’d hoped to spend some time pulling him over to my side before we reach the floor. ”

He sighed and Emma reached out to grasp his hand a moment. “Well, I promise I shall stay out of your way so you may do at least some work here.”

James stared at her at that statement. She’d had a strange expression on her face earlier in the day when he’d said they’d be busy in London. And now she was offering to stay out of the way like she was a burden to him. Was that the message he’d been sending lately?

He searched his memories and flinched more than a few times.

The last few months, hell, years, he had been driven to become the exact opposite of the kind of duke his father had been.

Emma had never been anything but supportive of that desire, and she was always doing her charitable work and things with the children, so it never felt like his ambitions bothered her.

But now he wondered.

“What is that look?” she asked with a small laugh .

He didn’t join her in it. He simply closed the distance between them, wrapped his arms around her and kissed her.

He didn’t tease, he didn’t kiss her in a distracted way, he kissed her and lost himself in it.

Lost himself in her taste and the softness of her lips, in the sweet sound of her soft groan of pleasure when he gripped his hands tighter around her back.

He pulled back just a fraction, his lips still against hers as he murmured, “I don’t want you to stay out of my way, Emma.

Ever. If the universe has conspired to trap us in our own house, with hardly any servants, with none of our children and all our work waiting for us in London, I see only one answer to that situation. ”

She blinked up at him and brushed her lips back and forth against his before she whispered, “And what is that, James?”

“To take you upstairs and spend the rest of the afternoon making love to you,” he said before he swept her up, ignoring her gasping laugh of surprise, and carried her up the stairs and to their chamber.