Phoebe was watching them with a grin. “Papa thought you would not be nice to Aunt Sibyl,” she blurted.
Sibyl laughed when Gabriel tensed next to her.
His gaze slid to Charles. “Is that so?”
“It is,” Charles confirmed. “I had my doubts, and I voiced them to you after your wedding. I made myself clear, so I have no shame in admitting that I doubted you.”
“And now?” Sibyl asked.
Charles softened as he looked at her. “Are you happy, Sibyl?”
To be asked that by Isabella and Hermia in private was one thing; to be asked in front of Gabriel made her understand why he had been so intent on changing the topic when they had dined with Nicholas.
It was not shame that kept her tongue tied for a long moment, but unwillingness to admit something she didn’t know if Gabriel wanted to hear. She didn’t want to put pressure on him or whatever was growing between them.
Yet she couldn’t deny it either.
“I am,” she finally said. “It has taken me some turns to get there, but I am happy.”
“Turns?” Hermia frowned.
“Trials,” Sibyl corrected herself. “Gabriel and I are… We are…”
“Discovering one another,” he filled in.
“I am sure,” Hermia sniggered. She turned to kiss Charles on the corner of his mouth, their affection so easy. “Darling, do you remember when we first starteddiscovering one another?”
“I do, indeed,” he murmured, capturing her chin and making to kiss her, before quickly pulling away. He cleared his throat and glanced at Phoebe, reigning himself in around the wise little girl. “I do recall.”
Hermia giggled, and Sibyl smiled at her as they each continued to unpack sandwiches, bowls of fruit, a bottle of wine, and sweet treats. When Sibyl spotted a bundle of raspberry croissants in the corner, she sighed happily.
“You were right about these,” she told Gabriel. “Theyareworth returning for.”
“Nicholas did try to tell you, but you were too busy laughing at the fact that he had jam around his mouth,” Gabriel smirked, unwrapping a croissant.
His hair fell over his forehead as he investigated, before tearing off a flaky bit and popping it into his mouth.
“You two really seem a lot closer,” Hermia observed. “Gabriel—do you mind if I call you that? We arefamily, after all.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Well, Gabriel, are you happy?”
Sibyl held her breath, but Gabriel answered immediately. “I think I’m the happiest I have been in a long time.”
Sibyl could only blink at him, unprepared for the honesty in his voice or even his declaration. He looked right at her when he finished speaking, offering her half of his croissant as if he had not just made her heart soar.
Heavens, shewantedhim.
She wanted this beautiful Duke of hers, his sincere honesty and all.
Chapter Eighteen
Gabriel did not know what was happening to him.
One moment, he had been reserved, closed off to life while drowning in grief that turned into vengeance; the next, he was softening, his heart opening up to the beautiful woman he had married.
When he had first seen her in the kitchen at Kerrington House, terrified and cowering in the men’s presence, he had not thought anything about her other than surprise.
