The Fairy Tale Bride (36 page)

After a long silence he looked up to see
Peter staring into the fire. He knew Sinclair's sin, and now he
knew the reason for it. An unbroken line from father to son. It was
a lie. Mortimer had been injured in a hunting accident, unable to
father children, and had taken his dying sister's bastard to raise
as his own son. Geoffrey had been afflicted with syphilis and had
conspired with his younger brother to impregnate his unknowing
wife.

"Do you expect me to be comforted by the fact
that we both spring from a line of men who do not know the meaning
of honor?"

"They made sure the blood was true, and that
was what they honored most."

"I cannot be like them. I will not."

"I understand. I tried — and failed."

Looking into the pain-shrouded gaze of his
father, Simon suddenly felt understanding flood through his heart.
He knew why Peter had never come back. It had not been cowardice
but honor. The same twisted Watterly honor that held him here
against his will.

He stood watching his father. The man was
willing to give up the woman he loved, the child he wanted. For
what? Not for the same reason the men in the letters had. Only to
restore Simon's own sense of honor.

Peter rubbed a weary hand across his
sun-weathered skin. "You're going to have to succeed me, Simon. I'm
sorry. I hope you can reconcile it in the years to come. But I
don't see any other way. We're both the true heirs to their
tradition."

"No." Simon stood and went close to the
fire.

"We're not their heirs." He tossed the
generations old papers into the fire and watched them burn.

In the flare of light, his eyes met Peter's.
"We're beginning a new tradition."

Peter eyed him warily, as if he was afraid to
dare believe that Simon meant what he said. "And what tradition is
that?"

Simon crossed to where Miranda still sat,
watching him with hopeful eyes. "The tradition of the happy
ending."

Peter allowed a small smile to soften the
rough-hewn planes of his face. A thread of doubt crossed the older
man's features. "Are you sure you can live with this? Because once
I marry that woman and take her away, I'm never coming back."

"Honor and Truth in all. Our family thought
to circumvent that motto to keep the bloodlines passing from father
to son. We won't pass on that legacy. Instead, we'll begin a new
generation who'll learn what's most important in life."

Miranda rose to face him and asked softly,
"What's that?"

"A happy ending, of course — and no more
lies."

"Except that Peter Watterly is dead." Peter's
eyes darkened.

"Is that a lie?" Simon could not break his
gaze from his wife's dawning joy.

He shook his head slowly. "No. Peter Watterly
died a long time ago."

Simon looked away from Miranda's joyful gaze
for a moment. "Yes, he did. And Peter Watson has a woman who loves
him. I'd have to be a fool to stand in the way of his happy
ending." He held his wife close. "Or my own."

Miranda whispered to him, softly. "To new
traditions, and happy ever afters."

He replied in her ear, "To sons or daughters
as they may come — no more will the Duke of Kerstone put a cuckoo
in his nest to satisfy pride. Honor will out, now and
forevermore."

"Not love?" she teased.

He held her against him, tightly, and yet
without binding her so that she could not breathe. "Of course. How
else can one have a happy ever after, if not with love?"

About the Author:

Kelly McClymer fell in love with Cinderella,
Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White as a child. Her most prized
possession is her copy of
The Complete Tales of the Brothers
Grimm
. These are the stories which gripped our ancestors as
they huddled around the fire at night, which taught countless
children to persevere through hardship and succeed against the
odds. Her favorite fairytale remains "The Six Swans" -- where a
young sister must not speak a word for six years in order to save
her brothers from their stepmother's evil spell.

* * * * *

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