Page 19 of Kiss the Duke Goodbye
Clari. She treasured the endearment. He’d said it the first time while they were making love eight short days ago, a moment burned into her memory. “Because I love you more than I’d imagined I could love someone. Because I’m happy, truly happy. Because I want to have your children, I want to be yourwife, not your mistress. A situation that would destroy us. And I was getting desperate enough to consider it.”
Clarissa pressed a smile into her knotted fingers at his thunderstruck expression.
By heaven, she’d done the impossible.
She’d silenced Knoxville DeWitt.
His gaze dropped as his lips moved, although the crackle of the hearthfire was the only sound in the room. When he looked back, she was entranced to see his cheeks were flushed, his eyes bright with what she suspected were tears.
“I—” He coughed into his fist, and rocked from boot to boot before he strode across the room. Dropping to his haunchesbefore her, he rolled his bottom lip between his teeth and tried again. “I came here today to ask you the same question. Last night, in the moonlight, you sleeping, with my body and mind sated, I decided I could not,wouldnot, live without you. I’m not willing to let my obligations rule this aspect of my life when it rules so many others. I love you endlessly, beyond measure. There is, in fact,nomeasure. Then, despite my impulsive planning, blast all independent chits, you end up asking first.”
She grasped his hand, winding her fingers through his. He hung on, tightly enough to let her know he was never letting go. “Ihadto ask, Knox. Because I won’t have you believing you’ve made a sacrifice for me.”
His gaze narrowed, his grip tensing. “You’re worth any sacrifice, Clari. Don’t you understand that?”
“It was only my pride, darling, which in the end is hardly worth mentioning.”
He let her go, bracing his hands on his knees, but he didn’t leave her. “You asked Pemberly for your dowry.”
She laughed, delighted. “I asked him for aloan. I would never take his money without the promise of returning it in full, with interest. He’s no more than a banker to me, merely one I knew wouldn’t boot me from his office. My threat to expose our relationship was quite enough to get him to agree. I’m quite the handiest blackmailer in the family.”
Knox’s lips parted, his breath streaking through them. “You didn’t.”
“Oh, yes, I did. He deserves that and more.”
Knox rolled his shoulders, his gaze dancing about the room, avoiding hers. “I don’t feel good about this. And I’m a bit terrified of you, truth be told.”
Clarissa slapped his knee, getting irritated herself. “What’s the difference? You were willing to take any number of society settlements without complaint.”
“Of course, but I don’t love those women! While I wish most humbly foryourrespect, your love.”
Clarissa stilled, appeased. This made sense to her. She must be learning to speak Duke. “Can we think of this, always, as our money? Our life? When you and your brothers’ investments come to fruition, that will be more than my shop will ever make.”
Wiggling his signet ring off, he held it out to her. “When I can, Iwilldo better, but until then, this comes with my heart and my promise to make you incredibly happy until the end of my days. It comes with everything, Clarissa. If you’ll only agree to become my duchess. I have a lifetime of vows I want to make to you.”
She sniffled, letting him place it on her finger. Knox normally wore it on his pinky, so it fit her ring finger rather well. A dab of candle wax on the inside of the band, and it would be perfect. The garnet shimmered in the lamplight, the facets dancing over her skirt. “Duchesses make the finest bonnets, or so I’ve heard.”
He hauled her against him and rolled them to the floor, the amorous devil. “Is that so?”
Curling her fingers in the silken strands above his ear, she guided his lips to hers. “Don’t argue with your intended, Your Grace.”
“I wouldn’t dare, Miss Marlowe. Not after what I know about her extortion expertise.”
He kept his promise to not disagree with her for an entire day.
But he kept the other promise for a lifetime.
EPILOGUE
Although there were occasional brotherly fisticuffs and gentlemanly brawls, the Troublesome Trio had died a contented death, with all parties involved the happier for it.
Because they were now a family often.
Cort and Alex had two girls, Kathleen and Caroline. Damien and Mercy had contributed to the total with the arrival of Crispin and Quincy last fall. (After all, twins ran in the family.)
In three months, he and Clari would make it a breathtaking, incredibleeleven.
Knox placed his whisky on the balustrade as happiness rippled over him like a gentle breeze. As they were wont to do these days, the DeWitt clan was gathered at the family estate in Hampstead. They spent every summer here, away from the strife and smog in London. Away from the responsibilities and the demands. The Duke of Herschel dropped his mantle in the country, becoming what he’d always wanted to be, a man. Clarissa DeWitt’s befuddled but forever besotted husband. Brother. Uncle.