Page 120 of In the Prince's Bed

She cupped his face in her hands, so happy she was beaming. “Oh, Alec, I love you, too. So very much.”

“Enough to marry me?” he said hoarsely. “I have little to offer right now, but if we rent out Edenmore—”

“We are not renting out Edenmore.” She looped her arms about his neck. “My fortune will give us all we need to restore it.”

He scowled down at her. “I meant what I said—I don’t want your money. I can take care of you on my own.”

“If you think I’ll let you march off to get yourself killed in the cavalry or go riding about Astley’s ring with some other pretty senhora, think again.”

That seemed to give him pause. Then he shook his head mutinously. “No, I can’t. Lovelace will claim I used my kisses to gain your fortune.”

“Why do you care what he says? I certainly don’t.”

He arched one brow. “You’ve changed your mind about him? You’ve decided he’s not the better man after all?”

“Of course he’s the better man.” When Alec frowned, she added with a smile, “But I don’t want the better man. I want Alexander the Great, who is reckless and wicked and does exactly as he pleases, who thinks that poetry is boring and that women should speak their minds. I wantyou,Alec.Andmy fortune. I refuse to marry you unless I can have both.”

He began to smile. “Oh, you do, do you?”

“I’m not going to eat Mrs. Brown’s cooking or put up with a sculpture of Lady Godiva in the bedroom because we can’t afford anything else. So you might as well accept my fortune now.”

His eyes gleamed down at her. “All right. But only under two conditions.”

She eyed him askance. “Oh?”

“The first is that you set aside a substantial portion for our children.”

She relaxed. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” She smiled up at him. “And the second?”

“That you invite Senhora Encantador to join us from time to time.”

She smothered a laugh. “I don’t know. Senhora Encantador is very particular. She only likes rakehells.”

“She’ll have to settle for the son of a rakehell. And what about you? Will you take this wild and reckless by-blow of a notorious profligate to be your husband?”

“Yes, my great Alexander,” she whispered, lifting her head for his kiss. “Most definitely yes.”

Epilogue

Some men are simply not cut out to be rakehells.

—Anonymous,A Rake’s Rhetorick

In her recently refurbished dressing room at Edenmore, Katherine frowned at her reflection in the new pier glass, the one that could show her entire form from head to toe. Perhaps she should have had it installedafterher first child was born.

Then she wouldn’t have to see herself in her chemise, looking like an olive on a stick, even at only five months along. What would she look like at nine months—a skewered melon? Surely that would test even Alec’s insistence that she grew more beautiful by the day.

The door to her bedchamber opened, and her mother strolled in, already as comfortable at Edenmore as if it were her own home. She’d brought the children with her for this visit, probably so Katherine’s new servants could look after them.

Katherine rubbed her belly with a smile. Funny how things like that didn’t bother her anymore.

“Are you all right?” her mother asked.

“I’m fine, Mama.”

Her mother led her to sit at the dressing table. “Then why are you standing, my angel? You mustn’t risk any harm coming to his lordship’s heir.”

Katherine smothered a laugh. “It could be a girl, you know.”