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A footman walked quickly into the family dining room, interrupting breakfast. ‘A carriage is approaching, Your Grace.’

‘How far away?’

Drew looked towards the windows, as though he would be able to see.

‘Five minutes, perhaps.’

Would Kilbride be fool enough to come here? Drew stood.

John glanced at him, his expression saying he had the same thought.

Caro had not come downstairs. She was eating in her rooms. At least if it was Kilbride she would be nowhere near and he could not abuse her in any way.

Drew walked from the room. The feet of Mary’s chair scraped on the parquet floor as she rose to follow him.

Other members of her family followed too.

Drew ignored his audience and walked through the hall. A footman hurried forward and opened the front door. Drew walked outside. If this was Kilbride, he would face him head on. By the time he walked down the front steps, John had caught up and walked beside him. Mary caught him up too, and her hand slipped into his.

As the carriage came into view, he was surrounded by all the men of her family.

‘It is Lord Brooke!’ Drew shouted. The shield emblazoned on the side was that of his friend’s.

The men about him drifted away.

He let go of Mary’s hand as the carriage driver pulled the reins to halt the horses. John’s grooms rushed forward, and one man opened the door before Drew could reach it.

Peter stepped down, grinning broadly. ‘Good day, my friend. I told you I would call on you.’

Harry stepped from the carriage behind him, then Mark behind him.

Drew embraced them all, one at a time, realising he had always known love. He loved these men. He also knew them well enough that he saw through their tactics, they had arrived en masse to make it harder for John to turn any of them away.

But when Drew glanced at John, he merely smiled, and nodded at Peter in a way that said, hello. To the others he said, ‘Welcome. There is breakfast on the table if you are hungry.’

The pride of Pembroke lions had turned away, but Mary hovered.

‘Would you mind if I walk through the park alone with them, sweetheart?’

She smiled and nodded her acceptance. Her father offered his arm to her.

Drew was a fool to have fought her family. They were never against him, just for Mary. He and her father had always been on the same side really.

Brooke held Drew’s shoulder. ‘Oh, ye of little faith, did I not say all would be well? The rest of the world shuns you and your wife’s family takes the wolf into the fold.’

‘He was only ever a lamb really.’ Harry laughed.

‘I am still working on my prose to win Miss Smithfield,’ Peter said.

‘Oh, about your prose…’ Drew felt a smug smile pull up his lips. ‘Mary never liked it. It was no help at all. It was the words I added that she liked.’

‘Dammit, then I have no chance!’ Peter protested, smiling. ‘You shall have to write my love letters, that is all.’

‘I think Mary would be better at it, you may ask her.’

Drew looked at Mark and Harry. ‘Has Peter told you? Mary is expecting a child.’

‘No, I saved that thunder for the proud papa.’

Mark and Harry could not hide their shock.

‘My God.’

‘Good grief, I will be an uncle.’

Yes, these men were his family. His surrogate brothers. He wished them all to be in his child’s life.

When Drew saw Mary striding out in their direction, they had been walking and talking for a long while. ‘Would you like to come into the house to take tea?’ Mary called when she was within hearing distance.

His friends declined. They were not a home and hearth bunch. It made Drew look through a window into his old life, when he would have said the same about himself.

He preferred his new one, and he would make the most of every day of it.

Mary stayed with them until they said farewell. They all kissed her cheek, and she invited them to visit again, making sure they knew they were welcome here. Drew held Mary’s waist as they waved his friends off.

This was his home – she was his home. A woman who loved him with her whole heart, and a woman he loved with the whole of his. His Mary.