Page 113 of One Night with a Prince

“A definite no.”

They’d reached the drawing room now, but he paused outside the doors to take her hands in his.

“Never doubt for one minute that I love my life, I love my children, and I love you.”

“I don’t doubt it,” she replied, her own love shining in her eyes. “But we’d better go in. I amnot going to be fodder for their teasing again.”

“I’m not sure you can ever entirely avoid that. You’re married tome , after all, and it will be some years before my brothers stop making me eat crow for the many times I swore never to marry.”

How true it was. The minute they walked in, Draker hailed them with a smug smile. “You know, Byrne, once you marry, your appetite is supposed to decrease, not increase.”

“And how’s that working for you?” Gavin shot back, as one of his footmen offered him a glass of wine.

“Here we go again,” Christabel murmured under her breath.

But then a cannon shot from outside the window made them start.

“They’ve been at it all day,” Iversley said, gesturing to the window with his own glass of wine. “PrinnyGenerated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlhas been ruling for years already, yet you’d never know it to hear them.”

“Did you attend the coronation?” Gavin asked Draker.

“I did. The Queen turned it into a damned fiasco.”

“One thing you can say for Prinny.” Gavin remarked, “He’s never boring.”

“Rather like his sons,” Christabel said from beside him.

Gavin smiled. “Yes. Exactly.” He took a glass of wine from the footman and handed it to her, then lifted his own. “On this day, of all days, we need a toast, don’t you think, gentlemen?”

“Absolutely.” Iversley lifted his glass, and said, “To the Royal Brotherhood of By-blows.”

They echoed the toast as one, even the ladies.

As they drank, Gavin looked round at the men who’d truly become his brothers and at their wives, who would walk through fire for one of their own. Just like his mother. Just like his own wife. He stared down at Christabel, who was beaming at him, her face brimming with love. He raised his glass again. “And to our royal sire. Long live the king.”