Page 13 of The Lyon’s Dilemma (The Lyon’s Den Connected World #86)

“The tooth?” For a moment, Emmeline looked panicked, then she drew herself up. “The tooth has nothing to do with it,” she said.

“Mrs. Dove Lyon, when we met in your office…” Adaline began.

Emmeline tried to shout her out. “Enough of this! Get on with the ceremony.”

Adaline raised her voice to speak over her. “You told me that the tooth had also been a present to you from your husband. I found it with the scroll. I took it to give back to you.”

“That tooth! I have that tooth,” Emmeline said, her eyes wild. “I will give it to you later, Mrs. Dove Lyon.”

“Describe it,” said Mrs. Dove Lyon.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Emmeline replied. “It is a tooth. We have a contract.”

“It is a dragon’s tooth,” Melody piped up. “Dragons’ teeth grant wishes. I wish you would go away, Aunt Crazy Lady. I don’t like you one bit.”

Emmeline took a threatening step toward the child, and Felix grabbed her arm. “Leave Melody alone,” he ordered.

Emmeline sagged against him and looked up through her eyelashes.

“Felix, darling, you don’t want to marry this hag.

Look at her! She is developing wrinkles.

She has had a child, and everyone knows that children destroy a woman’s figure.

Besides, she is my father’s by-blow. A duke cannot marry a bastard. ”

Felix shook her off. “Enough, Emmeline. You have lost. Tell her, Mrs. Dove Lyon. The contract is null and void.”

Emmeline had not given up. “The contract was to deliver the dragon scroll,” she said. “And I did it.”

“The contract was to retrieve the dragon scroll,” said Adaline. “Which I did, with Felix’s help. And I have the tooth to prove it. It is a large tooth, in a silver setting.”

“Then produce it now,” Emmeline demanded.

But how could Adaline do so if it was back at her townhouse, as Felix thought it must be? Adaline set her jaw, and Felix knew she did not have it.

“Well, Mrs. Dove Lyon?” said Emmeline. “Am I to sue you and Kempbury for breach of contract?”

“Excuse me please, but I have the tooth,” said Melody, lifting it by the chain she wore around her neck so that it hung outside of her pinafore.

“Sorry, Mummy. I only wanted my wishes. I hadn’t actually made any yet—except maybe for a puppy—but getting us free seemed to be an important one and I thought maybe I could get a puppy without a wish.

Anyhow, I was going to give it back.” She took the item off and handed it to Adaline, who passed it to Mrs. Dove Lyon.

Emmeline emitted a shriek. “No! That—that’s the wrong tooth! You have it wrong!”

“I think not,” said Felix. “But the truth of the matter is that you have not fulfilled the contract with Mrs. Dove Lyon, nor is the marriage agreement with me valid, since you signed Adaline’s name, and you are not Adaline.

Somerford, can you see if there is a constable anywhere about?

Kidnapping and false imprisonment will do for a start. ”

Before Ben could move, Emmeline hurled her flowers at him. As he fumbled to catch them, she ran off down the aisle, pulling her skirts up to give her freedom of movement. He took off after her. Mrs. Dove Lyon nodded to a couple of her tall ex-soldiers and they followed him.

Felix knelt before Melody. “You are wonderful,” he told her. “I am so proud of you.”

She regarded him solemnly. “Aunt Crazy Lady is gone,” she observed. “The dragon’s tooth does grant wishes, Mummy! My first wish was for us to escape. My second was for her to go away and never come back.”

“She did go away. And we shall make certain she cannot come back.”

There was shouting from outside. Felix ignored it, and so did the others.

Melody tipped her head on one side. “I can tell you my third wish after you marry my mummy,” she offered.

“Then let us do that now,” said Felix. He met his bride’s eyes. “If that is acceptable to you, my love.”

Adaline looked down at her disheveled gown. She must look a dreadful sight. But truly, did it matter, when Felix was regarding her as if the sun rose and set in her eyes? When he had trusted her enough to realize that Emmaline was taking her place again?

She shrugged. “Yes,” she said, and turned to the minister. “Carry on,” she said.

It didn’t take long. Lord Somerford had returned and taken his place beside Felix in plenty of time to hand over the wedding ring, and soon they were signing the register, with Mrs. Dove Lyon and Lord Somerford signing as witnesses.

“You are all invited back to my townhouse for a wedding feast,” Felix told them, which was a step too far, for Adaline.

“I need to stop at my townhouse, Felix, so Melody and I can wash and change.”

“Of course you do,” said Lady Somerford. “May I act as your hostess, Felix, until you and your duchess arrive? Adaline, I am Dorcas, and I am looking forward to having a sister. I have always wanted one.”

Adaline winced and Dorcas noticed.

“That was insensitive of me,” she said. “But you must know that your half-sister was never a true sister to you. We shall start as friends, then, shall we not?”

“I would like that,” Adaline agreed. “Friends and then sisters.”

Lord Somerford had been murmuring swiftly to Felix, who appeared grave. He looked up and met her eyes. “I suggest we go out of the side door,” he said. “Somerton has arranged for the carriage to be brought around to the back.”

“What is it?” Adaline asked. “Did Emmeline get away?”

“Emmeline has gone away…rather permanently,” Felix told her. He lowered his voice so that Melody could not hear. “She ran out in front of a mail coach.”

Adaline couldn’t react with the horror she felt, because their daughter began jumping up and down with excitement.

“The wish worked,” Melody announced. “Permanently means ‘forever’. So we escaped from the bad aunt. That was my first wish. Aunt Crazy Lady has gone away forever. That was my second wish. Shall I tell you my third wish now that you are married?”

She was talking to Felix, but Adaline nodded, too.

“I wished for you to be my real father,” said Melody.

Felix dropped back to one knee in front of her, and held out his arms. “I am, and will always be, your real father, Melody Seward.”

And Adaline felt happy tears cutting streams across her dirty cheeks as her husband and the child they had made hugged for the first time.

The End