Page 100 of Never his Duchess

“I know,” he said and kissed the side of her head. “I spoke to Julian just recently. Have you heard the latest? Julian has written to me and told me that Lady Charmaine and Lord Halston have been seen together.”

“Goodness gracious,” she said. “That I did not see coming.” She laughed. “But they do make a good pair. Although heaven have mercy on whoever they set their sights on.”

“Well, it will not be either one of us, that is for certain. They will never come near us again.”

Indeed, Julian and Lady Annabelle had ensured that Lady Charmaine received the talking-to from her father that she richly deserved. After a thorough dressing-down, she had written aletter of apology to Evelyn and Nathaniel and vowed to stay away from them from now on.

Halston, on the other hand, was not quite as apologetic. But since he was not yet a peer in his own right, they would not have to worry about him for some time. His father—still young at fifty years old—was going to keep his title and position for a very long time. Besides, Nathaniel had finally shared the truth about Halston and his actions with several of his new allies, and thus freed himself from that burden.

Once he had spoken up, other people had said similar things about Halston, and his reputation was currently teetering on a very sharp edge.

“We can hope that the two of them will decide to move elsewhere and leave London alone. Given neither of them has stellar repute.”

“That is true,” she said. “Annabelle did mention that Charmaine had designs on France.”

“Let the French have them,” he laughed. “Although I think right now is probably not a good idea, what with the war.”

“Indeed. Let us not talk about them anymore. I saw you had a lot of letters from Lord Pendleton?”

“I did. We have made further progress on the climbing boys. There will be tight regulations on their working conditions. Anda workhouse will be established where they can sleep and eat each evening. They will be able to wash and rest properly and not on warm coals.”

“Good. But it isn’t quite enough.”

“No, it isn’t. But it’s a start. And sometimes that is worth something. Also, I hear you have set your sights on teaching the underprivileged to read?”

“I have. It is dreadful that there are so many who do not know how to read. We will assemble a collection of books to be used for teaching. We will have free classes once a week. Each lady is going to teach two or three poor souls to read and write. It is so beneficial for them to know how to do so.”

“Indeed, it is,” he said and smiled at her. “You are marvelous. Do you know that?”

“Once upon a time, you did not think so. You rather thought me a pain in the side.”

“You are. And sometimes you still are,” he said. “But you aremypain in the side, and thus, I do not care.” He stopped and took her hands in his. “I cannot wait for our child to be born. We will teach him or her everything. We will raise them upright. We will make them strong. We will teach them to fence and to speak for themselves, and to read and write, of course—and to be righteous.”

“You sound as though we are going to raise a king or a queen.”

“Perhaps we will,” he said with a smile. “But whatever we do, I want to be sure that our child knows it is loved and valued for who they are—and not for what they can do for our position.”

“Indeed,” she said. “We both know the burden of being the heir or the eldest. I never want my child to feel such a burden.”

“Our child won’t. None of our children will,” he cupped her face, “because they have a magnificent mother who will teach them to roar like a lion if they?—”

“And a father who can teach them to use their words wisely.”

“Indeed,” he said.

Then he placed his lips on hers. Her eyes fluttered shut, and at once, butterflies stirred in her stomach, filling her entire body with a pleasant, warm tingle of love.

The End?