“I understand the frustrations,” Dominic muttered dryly. “I am quite determined to stay alive that way.”
“Apparently,” she snapped. “But no longer. If what you say about my George is true, then it doesn’t seem as though I have anything left to lose anymore. I am nothing without my boy.”
Dominic saw her intent to fire the weapon in time. He released the dagger he’d held at his side and let it fly. The handle neatly knocked the pistol out of Lady Devonly’s grasp and gave him enough time to run across the room and tackle her to the ground. She tried to retrieve the weapon, but his strength and weight were no match for her own, and Dominic overpowered her easily enough.
Lexie was quick to react as well and threw open the doors to the parlor as she shouted for help. Two footmen soon appeared in the doorway and blinked in surprise at the sight of their mistress being pinned to the floor by the Duke of Cuthbert.
She hastily explained the situation, and they gathered Lady Devonly from the floor and took her out of the room and outside to Dominic’s coach. He turned to Lexie. “It would be best if you didn’t come with us. The horrors of the Tower are something I would spare you from. I will hail a hackney for you.”
He could tell she considered arguing with him, but she slowly gave a nod. “Very well. In truth, I could use a drink.”
His mouth kicked up in a grin when he would have imagined it impossible to do so. “I daresay I could do with the same. Pour a brandy for me, and I will join you at home shortly.”
As he escorted a scowling and sour-faced Lady Devonly all the way to the Tower, he followed that up with a stop to the palace to see the king. If he had any hope of ensuring that the two people responsible for all his turmoil would be properly reprimanded, he needed the backing of the Crown.
Once that task was over, Dominic sat in the coach and let his head fall back against the velvet squabs. For the second day in a row, weariness like he’d seldom known stole over him, but the instant he walked into the townhouse and spied Lexie, he was cured from any ill that might have afflicted him before then. She was a sight to behold, and he still couldn’t believe his fortune that he had managed to secure the hand of such a remarkable woman.
While it hadn’t been the first thing he’d intended to say to her, he walked into his study where she held out a drink to him, he said, “I would marry you this instant if you were agreeable.”
She sipped from her drink and appeared to consider the prospect for a moment and then shrugged. “Very well.”
He sputtered on his drink, the fire coursing down his throat enough to rival that of the twitching cock in his trousers. “Pardon?”
She set down her glass and wound her arms around him. “It has been a day that I should like to forget for all eternity. But the prospect of becoming your wife makes it a bit more bearable.” She sighed. “And while I would be glad to drag some poor, hapless vicar here to perform the ceremony, I think I should like to leave London, for good, if possible, and live in boring contentment at your estate for the rest of our days. A new start with the man I love.”
Dominic had been listening intently to her, until the very last. “What did you say?”
She scrunched up her nose. “You heard me. Now truly, take me home.”
“I’ll be glad to do just that.” He nuzzled the side of her neck. “But there’s one more thing I have to do first.”
CHAPTER 23
Dominic stared out the window of the Crown & Sceptre and considered that this was the last time Avalon would be making an appearance. The office was still a mess of papers and ledgers and other such things, but nothing that he cared to remove and take with him. He no longer had anything to hide because he was leaving and never looking back.
Thank God.
“You won’t miss it just a little bit?” Amos asked with a smirk, his fearsome eyepatch not quite so formidable with a small swaddled baby in his arms.
“I might miss you from time to time, but I doubt it,” Dominic teased. He glanced at the bundle Amos held. “How are you acclimating to grandfatherhood with young Annalise?”
“Oh, I think I can get used to it.” He gazed into the babe’s cooing face, the eyes dark and expressive, and his face turned melancholy. “I never thought another woman would steal my heart again, but I think this one will get pretty close.”
Dominic crossed his arms and leaned against the desk that now belonged to Amos. “Are you sure you won’t reconsider marrying again if you found the right person?”
Amos winced. “Dear God, you are starting to sound like Porter now. If you start spouting off sonnets…”
“Don’t tell me he did that,” Dominic said with a chuckle at the mention of their mutual friend.
“He is a changed man. I wouldn’t put it past him,” Amos grumbled. He tilted his head and studied Dominic. “I can see the change in you too.”
“So do I,” Dominic concurred. “It was time. Past time, really.”
Amos snorted. “Women have a way of dragging us out of the mire when we have confined ourselves to it. So deeply that we feel there is no hope, and yet, we become reformed.”
Dominic clapped him on the shoulder. “You’ll make a superb Avalon, I’m sure of it.”
“My name is Amos,” he returned firmly, but there was a glint of amusement in his gaze. “If anyone compares me to that scoundrel, I’ll make sure to have words with them straightaway.” He held out his free hand to Dominic, which he accepted. “It won’t be the same without you.”
