“I don’t deserve you, Marcus. I don’t,” she said, her voice muffled. “But I’ll make you proud, I swear it.”
Puzzled, he set her back, looked into her tear-bright eyes. “You’re everything I’ve ever wanted, Penny. I couldn’t be prouder to be your husband. If you don’t know that, thenI’mdoing something wrong.”
“I do… I do know it.” She bit her lip. “It’s just that I… oh, I’m overwhelmed. Thank you, Marcus. For the necklace. For loving me.”
“You’re welcome,” he said softly, “though no thanks are necessary.”
She expelled a breath, smoothed her skirts. Nabbing a handkerchief from the vanity, she dabbed at her eyes. “Heavens, I must look a fright. And with guests coming at any moment, too.”
“You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” he said solemnly.
“Don’t—you’re going to make me cry again.”
“All right. I’ll save my praise for after the party.”
“That you can do.” In one of her lightning quick changes, she flashed a sultry smile that made his blood run hotter. “At that time, I’ll give you your proper thanks, too.”
“We have a deal.” He offered her his arm. “Ready to greet the mob, Lady Blackwood?”
“Of course, Lord Blackwood.”
They went down to welcome their guests.
Chapter Twenty-Five
December 1829
The smashing of China greeted Penny as she entered the foyer, Marcus at her side.
“Ethan made me do it!” Owen immediately jabbed a finger at his brother.
“I did not. You’re just a clumsy oaf,” Ethan shot back.
“I’m not an oaf!” Owen’s face turned red. “If you hadn’t pushed me when we were going round the corner, I wouldn’t have bumped the table, and the vase wouldn’t have fallen. It’syourfault.”
“I saw everything,” Jamie volunteered. “Owen was running too fast,andEthan pushed him. Therefore, it was both their faults.”
“Tattletale,” Ethan muttered.
“Boys.” The dowager’s cane rapped the marble floor. She came up slowly behind the squabbling trio, her eyes narrowed above the froth of black lace that covered her to her chin. “That’s quite enough out of you. Your parents have only just arrived home, and there you are carrying on like residents of Bedlam.”
Before the dowager could scold them some more, Penny intervened. Opening her arms, she said, “Come say hello, my darlings.”
They rushed forward. She hugged them each in turn, inhaling their little boy smells and kissing their sweet, squirmy cheeks. Lord, how she’d missed them.
Jamie escaped to his father. “I learned a theorem by Pythagorus this week, Papa,” he said, man-to-man. “I can derive a proof from it.”
Marcus clapped a hand on their eldest’s shoulder. “That’s quite an accomplishment, son.”
“I’ve been reading all about the Romans.” Ethan bounded over. “I know the Emperors by heart, beginning with Augustus.”
“Well done, Ethan. We’ll hear a recitation before supper,” Marcus said.
Owen approached his father last. He crooked his finger, and Marcus obligingly bent down so that their youngest could whisper something in his ear. When he straightened, his lips were curved.
“That’s quite an accomplishment, lad,” he said.
Owen beamed with relief. “You think so, Papa?”
