Page 103 of Undercover Duke

“So,” Vanessa called out, “you’re not publishing under Juncker’s name anymore?” She and Sheridan had scarcely been married a week when her husband had told her about Juncker’s and Thorn’s “arrangement.”

“How did you know—” Thorn scowled at Sheridan. “You told her.”

“Only because I realized that everyone else already knows,” Sheridan said.

“Mother?” Thorn asked.

“Sorry, son, but all it took was me seeing one play to know you wrote it,” she said.

“Grey?” Thorn asked.

Grey laughed. “Did you really think Beatrice and I didn’t notice your behavior that day we discussed ‘Juncker’s’ plays in the carriage?”

“And you already know thatIknew,” Gwyn said. “Which means Joshua knows.”

“Good Lord,” Thorn said, shoving his fingers through his hair. “Juncker is going to kill me.”

“You pay him,” Joshua said. “He shouldn’t care.”

“Exactly. I am his main source of income. And he really likes being the author of the Felix plays.”

“I suspect he’ll recover,” Olivia said with a laugh. “Last time I talked to him, he was working on something new. Besides, we’re your family. We’ll keep your secret.”

When Thorn eyed her askance, everyone else laughed.

“WhereisJuncker, anyway?” Vanessa asked. “He was invited.”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you,” Sheridan said. “He couldn’t come until closer to Christmas.”

Vanessa narrowed her gaze on her husband.

Sheridan lifted his hands. “I swear! He won’t be here until next week.”

Grey approached to stare down at the table. “Whatisall this, anyway?”

“We’re making kissing boughs,” Olivia said as she returned to take her seat at the table. “Vanessa wants them everywhere.”

“Good idea,” Thorn said, and came over to sit next to his wife. “I’m all for the kissing boughs. So how does this work?”

“You’regoing to make a kissing bough,” Vanessa’s mother-in-law said skeptically.

“Why not?”

The other men looked at each other. Grey said, “Why not, indeed?”

Then they all crowded in around the table with their wives and started picking up sprigs and wire and ribbon. They were short a chair, so Vanessa rose and said, “I have some hostess matters I must take care of anyway.”

Besides, she could feel the tears gathering in her eyes, and she didn’t want to embarrass herself in front of the others. She hurried from the room but didn’t get very far down the hall before Sheridan came out after her.

“Vanessa, are you all right?” he asked when he caught her blotting her eyes with her handkerchief.

“I’m fine,” she managed to get out through her tears. She came back to where he was standing just outside the drawing room. She looked inside. “It’s just so beautiful. I’ve never had a family like this.”

“And now you do,” he said, smiling as he took her hand in his.

She blotted her eyes some more. “You don’t mind having to endure Mama for my sake?”

“Not a bit. You’re worth it.”

They stood a moment, absorbing the scene.

“You were right, you know,” he went on. “Depriving oneself of love to avoid pain is indeed like refusing to ride for fear of falling off. Some things are just worth whatever pain or discomfort they give. Because what they offer is better than we can imagine.”

And as he slipped his arm about her waist, she smiled at her new family.

Definitely better.