He had never wanted children. He had known he would need to sire an heir, as Nicholas had reminded him a while ago, but he had notwantedthem.
Now, there was a baby in his care. He knew he could have long ignored her cries, let Sibyl handle her, but he had been quicker than lightning every time he heard her distress.
Something inside him truly was cracking open, revealing the humanity he thought had left on the docks of London the moment he started searching for Edmund and Letitia.
“I loved my sister,” Gabriel murmured. “But she drove me half insane with her antics. She let me fret, let me stew in my worry. She did not let me take care of her. Can I take care of you, Rosie? Will you let me, sweet precious girl?”
Rosie gurgled, her tiny hand reaching up to him. Gabriel started at the contact but then quickly relaxed. He held her tiny fingers against his waistcoat and smiled down at her fondly.
“You are ever so sweet,” he said. “I really hope that you will like me as you grow older. That you will accept me as much as I haveaccepted you. That… that I can be here, no matter what you go through. It is a strange thing for me to even want that, but I do. You have bewitched me, pretty Rosie, just like your mother has.” He laughed softly. “How could I have ever known what joy you both would bring to my life?”
Soon, Rosie was asleep in his arms, and he tucked her into her cot. But instead of returning to his study, he went into Sibyl’s chamber. He stripped down to his breeches and slipped beneath the sheets, whispering that it was him when she startled awake.
“I would like to stay here,” he whispered.
His wife laughed sleepily. “It is your home. You may stay where you please.”
It is our home,Gabriel corrected inwardly.
Sibyl shifted into his arms as if she belonged there, and in turn, he held her to him. He sighed happily, nuzzling her hair.
“Thank you for coming into my life,” he murmured.
Sibyl made a sleepy questioning noise, but Gabriel had already fallen asleep.
Several evenings later, Gabriel raised an eyebrow when Sibyl tugged on his hand and pulled him up from the dining table shortly after the dishes were cleared.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Just come with me,” she urged.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Just—” She huffed an exasperated laugh. “You can surprise me often, but I cannot surprise you?”
Gabriel cocked his head, letting her pull him out of the dining room. “It is not that you cannot, but?—”
“Relinquish control for one night.” She pressed a chaste kiss to his cheek as if to soften her words. “Trust me.”
“I do, implicitly.”
That made her pause in her eagerness to take him wherever she had planned. He wondered if she was leading him to her chamber, but that would not be a surprise since they had fallen asleep together many times.
“What have you planned, Duchess?”
“Will you stop asking questions and just follow me?” she groaned.
Gabriel finally fell silent, smirking at her, and followed her lead. Her fingers around his feltright,and he only hoped that wherever she led him was far enough that he did not have to let go for a while.
How soft you have become,he told himself, but it did not sound like an insult.
Sibyl led him through the servants’ quarters and out into the gardens, and his surprise grew.
“Sibyl, it is dark outside,” he pointed out, glancing up at the night sky.
“And? The stars are out. They will light the way.”
“That is terribly romantic of you,” he muttered.
