Page 64 of The Blind Duke's Ward

Then he stepped forward, caught her about the waist, and swept her to him, kissing her and holding her tight to him. She laughed at his preternatural skill, able to judge exactly where she was by the sound of her approach alone. When the long, passionate kiss was over, she looked up into the most handsome face she had ever seen. He smiled down at her.

“I love you, Gemma Ramsay,” he whispered, for her ears alone.

It was the first time she had heard him use her name together with his. It sent a thrill through her and a desire for the ball to be over and for her to be alone with Nathan again.

“We must attend. I want everyone to know,” Nathan said, as though reading her mind.

Gemma laughed softly. “As do I. A ball arranged to debut Emily and instead it will debut me and announce her engagement.”

“Both our engagements,” Emily corrected. “I just wish that Father had not reacted as he did.”

“He was dealing with the shame of turning his back on me in favor of Dunkeswick’s lies. And the relief of his daughter being rescued and that you had been about to elope. A lot for a man to deal with. I do not know if I would react differently,” Nathan said.

Emily nodded sadly. Richard stroked the back of her neck beneath her hair and she looked up at him adoringly. A knock came at the front door and all looked as a doorman opened it and conversed briefly with the person beyond. He turned on his heel and strode across the room, closing the door behind him. Then he whispered into Nathan’s ear. Gemma saw Nathan’s eyebrows rise.

“Richard, Gemma. I feel that we should excuse ourselves and retire, for the moment, to the drawing room. Emily has a visitor.” He turned to face Emily. “My dear, your father is outside and asking to speak to you.”

Gemma wanted to go to her and hug her but Nathan was already turning to lead her away. Richard seemed torn but Emily nodded to him, kissed his cheek, and whispered something. He fell into step beside Nathan and the three of them left Emily alone. They waited in the drawing room for a long time. The clock had chimed the hour when they were entering the room and chimed the half hour before the door opened.

Walter Carlisle stood with his daughter on his arm. Gemma clapped her hands and Richard cleared his throat, wiping his hands on the sides of his trousers.

“I think it is going to be fine,” Gemma whispered to Nathan.

“Your Grace,” Walter said. “I owe you the greatest apology. I was hoodwinked by that scoundrel Dunkeswick. I am glad the fellow is now in chains along with his brother. For what they have done and planned to do, they deserve the harshest penalty. Not least because they almost destroyed an old and dear friendship. Can you forgive me?”

Gemma saw the glint of a tear in Nathan’s eye, quickly blinked away.

“Old friend. It was forgiven the moment you said it. I could see what was going on. I will not blame you for any of your actions. You are and have been a father to me. All I ask of you is that you do not hold any anger or resentment for your daughter. She is too precious.”

“I do not, Your Grace. I am here to meet the man who has captured her heart. I have discovered much about his record already and think that…well, I will be proud to consider him a son-in-law. If he will accept me as a father-in-law.”

“I will,” Richard said. “Especially as it gives me the right to call you brother,” he said to Nathan.

Nathan bowed his head. “A brother discovered and a father re-discovered. I could not ask for a finer wedding present.”

Gemma squeezed his arm. She and Emily were weeping openly. Nathan lowered his head to hers and she pressed her lips to his temple, whispering her love to him furiously, over, and over.

“Let us attend the ball as a family,” Nathan said. “We will stand before them united and let them gossip and whisper. It will break against the walls of our unity. We have each other and need no one else.”

EPILOGUE

Nathan would have chosen to return to the most savage battlefield of Spain than face the day that was dawning. He sat in the bay window of his Mickelgate residence, now purchased where it had previously been leased. The sun warmed his face but he had not slept since sitting in that chair the previous night. Somewhere else in the house, he could hear movement. Servants, or perhaps his best man, Richard Harper. Walter Carlisle was also in residence.

Gemma and her best friend Emily Carlisle were waking in Walter’s house on the King’s Staith. Despite the fact that he could not see his bride on their wedding day, prior to the ceremony or not, Gemma had insisted on being apart from him on the eve of their wedding. It was a tradition that she had wanted to follow. The sound of footsteps reached Nathan and he deduced that it was Walter.

A tap at the door sounded, a distinctive knock. Then someone entered.

“I thought I would find you awake,” Walter said.

“I have not slept,” Nathan admitted.

“Ah, the wedding day nerves. I remember them well.”

“I did not expect to experience them,” Nathan admitted. “Not at all. Gemma and I have been living as man and wife for the last two weeks. We consider ourselves married in all but name.”

“But, as cynical as you both are on the subject, you are still awed by the concept, my boy,” Walter countered. “Any man would be who takes marriage as seriously as it should be taken.”

“Are you going to try and talk me out of it?” Nathan asked.