15
FOUND
Temple stood before his parlor fire at his Bloomsbury terrace and let the quiet settle around him.His terrace had been filled with happy noise all day long, and now it had drained away with his family out the front door.
Diana waited for him abovestairs.Intheirroom.And now he would go to her, strip her bare, and make her his.He took one last swallow of whisky and untied his cravat.His skin burned for her touch.
“Temple.”
Hell.That not Diana’s soft huskiness.He faced the doorway with a forced grin.“Father.I thought you’d left.”Translation: You should leavenow.
“I will, I will.Do not worry.I merely wanted a quiet word with you first.”
“If it is about what happens on a fellow’s wedding night, I’m aware.”And aching to get to it.He’d done his family duty with the breakfast, more than that when the entire lot of them had stayed the whole day and on into the evening.He’d wanted to kick them out.But Diana had seemed too happy surrounded by them, so eager to know her new family.
“I should hope so, but, erm, your bride… she might not be.Those transcendents aren’t always the most forthcoming about things, particularly with women.”
“And we are?”How many secrets was he keeping now?Those from his family, those from his king, those from wife.
“True, true.Let me come to my point.”
“Glad there is one.”
His father settled at the fireplace across from him, one large shoulder propped against the mantel, his arms crossed over his barrel chest.He studied Temple’s face, though what he searched for there… damned if Temple knew.
“Diana is a lovely woman.But she’s, eh, not who you say she is.”
“No.”No use keeping a lie once you’d been found out.
“Is the marriage legal?Her name in the registry?—”
“Is hers.Her real one.Everything is legal.”
“Why?”A single word that asked more: Would giving her the Grant name imperil the family in any way?
Hades’ hellfire, Temple hoped not.“She needs protection.”
His father’s gaze settled on Temple’s ring.Another question there.
“Iwantto protect her.I would not have married her if I thought her situation would harm the family.”Everything he did for them, for the man standing before him now.
His father nodded, a solid sort of thing Temple had seen many times in his life.It meant the man’s mind was settled so firmly, there was no changing it.Like a set and polished metal, there was no more twisting and shaping it.
His father slapped him on the shoulder.“Well, no matter what her name once was, it is Grant now.Any union that begins with alchemist rings is a union that will serve you well.”He stepped away from the fire but paused, the motion of his body held steady on a precipice.“You did not have to obey the king.We would have stood by you.”
“I know.”And he would stand by them, twist his life until he didn’t recognize it to build back what his actions had broken.“Do not worry, Father.This is what I want.Diana is what I want.”
“Mmm.We are not a forthright people.”
“I’m aware, Father.”
“But between an alchemist and his wife?—”
“Father,” Temple groaned.
“There should be no secrets.There.Now.Done with the lecture.Go get her, my boy.”He swept into motion once more, a fire raging back to life, and then he was gone.
Temple stood in the silence of his father’s absence for several quiet breaths.He grabbed the end of his cravat and tugged it slowly off his neck.
