Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 86167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“Will the guests be gone now?” she asked after a moment. “I imagine they’ve all left for home.”
“Most of them, yes. It’s no matter.”
“The way they will talk—”
Her voice choked off the word as her eyes filled with tears.
“You mustn’t worry about the gossip, darling. You have the king’s favor, which trumps all else in society. We’ll put about that it was a misunderstanding, that he meant to summon someone else. It can be handled.” He wiped away her tears. “You can handle anything. You’re so resourceful, so strong. I love you, darling, so much.”
“I love you, too. I am so fortunate—” Her breath caught again. “So fortunate to have you. Can you imagine if Fortenbury had been the one at my side in the king’s chamber? At the first talk of ghosts and communing, and the ‘devil’s work,’ his head would have risen from his shoulders and spun.”
“He’d have fainted dead away with his holy book clutched to his chest, and there’d have been no one to carry you out at the end, when you exhausted yourself communicating with the afterlife.”
At last, his wife rewarded him with gentle laughter. “He would have been beside himself.”
“Idiot.”
“Fool. Thank goodness I married you instead.”
Her adoring look, the way she traced the line of his stubble just along his jaw’s curve… It was all he could do not to toss up her skirts and spear her on his thickening cock, but there was no time, and this was not their carriage. They were rounding the corner to their town house, the great tents in the back garden just visible, reflecting the day’s sun.
“Mama and Papa will have stayed,” she said, turning to the window. “And Wescott and Jane, and Rosalind.”
“I’m sure all the Oxfordshire families have stayed, wondering what crime you were accused of by His Majesty. And look, there is Felicity and Carlo’s royal coach.”
“The party in their honor, ruined,” she said. “It’s awful.”
“The tents are still up. We’ll go enjoy it now. There will be plenty of us to make a party. Who needs the rest of the ton when your family and friends are so—”
“Wonderful.”
“Plentiful,” he finished, seeing the crowd of carriages still in the courtyard, backed up practically to the street. “Let’s go put their minds at ease.”
“But what shall we say happened? Papa will be upset if I tell him the king wanted me to speak with his dead daughter.”
August thought a moment as the carriage pulled to the front of the house and stopped. “Do you know, Elizabeth, perhaps it is time to stop worrying about your special abilities and just let them…be? They’ve made me uncomfortable in the past, and perhaps I’ve scolded you for them, but they’re part of who you are. If they disquiet your papa, or the ton, or the bloody king for that matter, it ought to be their problem, not yours. That’s my thinking, anyway.”
The look of relief on her face made him wish he’d said the words sooner.
“And to put you at ease, I have no problem being husband to such a distinctive and mysterious lady. I’m no Fortenbury, and never will be. You’re married and settled in society now, and soon will be a mama to my children. What if they should inherit your gifts? We wouldn’t want them to feel ashamed.”
“Oh, I do love you.” She hugged him, squeezing him tight. “I love you, I love you.”
“I love you, too, darling. I think you might as well tell our families the truth of why the king summoned you, and not feel embarrassed or constrained about it, though we shan’t spread the words to any gossips who might misunderstand.” He reached for the carriage door, then stopped. “You may wish to leave out the part where he ordered me to spank you.”
“Gladly,” she said, laughing again.
So they went into the house, to the nervous family and friends who clustered in the parlors, and related the entire ridiculous story, finishing one another’s sentences, and providing the proper words to express how outlandish an experience it had been.
At the end, her papa rubbed his face and shook his head at the ludicrousness of it. “Well, at least he shall help put an end to the more egregious whispers that plague your peace of mind.”
“I will not let those whispers plague me anymore,” she said, and August burned with pride for her, his courageous wife. “I am as I am, with gifts of perception I cannot refute. My husband accepts my peculiarities and he loves me nonetheless.” August thought he saw her gaze flit toward Felicity as she said it. “So I shall try to love myself as well, and cease feeling shamed about it all.”
“We never meant you to feel shamed,” her mama said.
“We only wished to protect you,” her papa agreed, embracing her. “But I see now you’ve grown into a confident, self-assured woman, with your mother’s strength and resilience. And occasional stubbornness,” he added, eliciting laughter and a playful swat from his dark-haired wife.