Authors: Julia Ross
Clandestine (44 page)
“And Lord and Lady Moorefield?”
Guy became very still and took a moment to answer. “May stew in their own misery down in Devon. Yet I believe the earl's pride is finally broken, which may make him a better man. He'll have to accept now that his brother's his heir, and he'll have a hard time beating his wife again, especially if he can only walk with assistance or not at all.”
Sarah closed her eyes. “I cannot feel too sorry for him when I think of the misery he caused, yet I'm glad that neither you nor Lord Jonathan had to shoot him.”
“So am I,” he said. “But enough about everyone else. What about us?”
She rubbed her cheek against his hand. “I rather hoped that you and I could continue to be mad romantic fools here in England,” she said.
He spun her about. Moonlight glimmered in his dark hair and outlined the fine bones of his cheek and jaw. “Why? Because you and only you stir my soul in a way that I'd never imagined possible? Because I would lay down my lifeânot just as a figure of speech, but my very life's bloodâif it were ever required, only for you? Because I burn for you as ardently as any man ever burned for a woman?”
“Well, yes,” she said, “if you like.”
He laughed in real joy. “Then will you marry me, Sarah?”
She reached up to cradle his face in both hands, so the moon silvered her fingers and glimmered on her arms. “Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, I will marry you. Yes, I want to give you babies of your own. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, if you'll have me, with all my heart and soul I will marry you.”
Guy laughed as he swung her up into his arms and carried her back to the bed. He slid in beside her, then tugged her nightgown off over her head.
His fingers trailed in erotic little patterns over her hot skin. “This is what you want?”
Desire flared as her palms feasted on his firm flesh, and she laughed.
“I've wanted it forever, Guy. Don't you know that?”
PILOGUE
Chateau du Cerf, February 1830
My dear Sarah,
Claude and I are just thrilled with your news. So Berry will have a cousin before next Christmas! You know that any baby of yours will be as dear to me as my own, and we're very, truly happy for you, dearest, and for Guy. I'll love him forever for rescuing Berry, and so will Claude. I can't tell you what it means to both of us to know that you and Guy are so happy together. I'll wager you're almost as happy as we are! Living here at the chateau really is like living in a fairy tale.
Is Birchbrook just heartbreakingly lovely right now? Remember the snowdrops at our house in Norfolk? How very brave those little flowers were to defy the winter frosts like that, poking their white faces up through the snow in the woods, so confident that spring was coming, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary!
We both did that, didn't we? Defied the threat of winter to find the perpetual summer in our hearts.
Berry is quite the little master now. He can talk French just as well as English, and Claude is as proud as a peacock. He'll always be our firstborn, so it's nice to know that there's none of that silly business with entailments. Even if we have another son, Berry will one day inherit the estate from his father.
Meanwhile, I can't say that I'm sorry to hear that Lord Moorefield's faction was so soundly defeated in the House of Lords. Though I'll never understand politics, whatever the Duke of Blackdown's party proposed must be right!
Oh, and there's news that will amuse you about Betsy Davy. She loves Berry as dearly as ever, of course, but she's also been walking out with one of Claude's grooms. Though her French is still lacking and his English more so, the language of love must transcend all of that, for they're to marry next April, and will no doubt set up a nursery of their own. Claude doesn't mind, since he indulges his little English wife in everything, and Betsy and her new husband will be given their own cottage in the grounds as soon as they're wed.
I regret nothing now, dearest, except that I ever lied to you and Guy, and caused you both so much pain. But all's well that ends well, they say!
In the greatest affection, believe me your ever-devoted cousin,
Rachel d'Alleville
UTHOR
'
S
N
OTE
Jack and Anne's story was told in the bestselling
Night of Sin
, first released in January 2005, where Guy first met Rachel to take her out for that fateful day on the yacht.
Games of Pleasure
followed in November 2005. Ryder plunged his horse into the sea to rescue a lady cast adrift in a small boat, only to find her unconscious and half-naked. That lady was Miracle, though Ryder had no idea then what she'd been doing for a living.
And Olwen's daisy path? That's an exact description of a footpath I discovered in Devon while researching
Clandestine
.
Further details may be found on my
website at www.juliaross.net.
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR
Julia Ross
was born and grew up in Britain. A graduate of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, she has won numerous awards for her novels. Julia now lives in the Rocky Mountains. Visit her website at www.juliaross.net.
