“I think I love him.” Eloise dried her eyes with the shawl Lenora had given her. “Not in the swoony way that you love Perth or Annabel fawns over Ezra, but in a when-he-isn’t-driving-me-mad-I-do-enjoy-spending-time-with-him sort of way.”
“Have you discussed marriage?”
“We haven’t even discussed a courtship. Not that I’d want one,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “We’ve already doneit. I don’t see why we’d have to go throughthat.”
“You couldn’t move to America,” said Lenora firmly. “I wouldn’t permit it.”
Eloise glanced at the pond. “We’re not going to be moving anywhere if they kill each other.”
“For heaven’s sake. This has gone on long enough.” Exasperated, Lenora got to her feet, went to the edge of the pond, and clapped her hands to get her husband’s attention. “Perth! Perth, you have to stop. Fisticuffs is unbecoming of a father-to-be.”
With water dripping off him, Perth froze. “What?”
“I said, fisticuffs is unbecoming of a father-to-be.” Lenora splayed her hand across her belly as a smile blossomed across her entire face. “You’re going to be a father, my love.”
“Go on.” Bleeding from a cut above his eye and already sporting a bruise on the side of his face, Adam gave the duke a hard slap on his back. “Get up there and congratulate your wife, you damned toff.”
“Watch your step, you bloody yank.”
Lenora rolled her eyes. “Perth Stewart, are you climbing out or not?”
Perth pointed at Adam. “Sir Kensington sends his regards.” Then he was bounding out of the water and lifting his wife into his arms. “A baby,” he cried, the one-time scoundrel turned proper husband positively beaming from ear to ear. “We’re going to have ababy.”
“Yes, we are…” Their voices trailed away as they walked back to the house holding hands, leaving Adam and Eloise alone with her on the bank and him in the water.
“You have some blood, there,” she said, gesturing at his brow.
He swiped it carelessly away. “Your brother-in-law fights like a girl.”
“I’d say you were equally matched. Another few minutes, and–”
“I love you, Eloise.”
Her lips parted. Her heart skipped a beat. “You…you what?”
“I love you.”
She waited. For what, she wasn’t completely certain. A bended knee? A sonnet? A declaration of undying devotion? But then, it wouldn’t be Adam telling her that he loved her. It would be someone else. Someone who wasn’t gruff, or stubborn, or cold. And she loved him because of those traits. The good, the bad, and the foot-stompingly annoying. All of it. All of him.
Was he sure that he loved all of her?
“You don’t have to, you know,” she said generously.
“I don’t have to what?”
“Love me.”
“You say that like I have any choice in the matter. I don’thaveto love you, Eloise. Ineedto love you. I must love you. My soulrequiresme to love you.”
“But what…what about Lady Renalta?” The shawl dropped to the ground as Eloise wrapped her arms around her trembling torso. “What about your perfect bride?”
“I’m staring right at her.”
She didn’t know who moved first, but suddenly they were both running. Adam out of the water and Eloise into it, they met in the middle and then she was in his arms, and he was kissing her, and itwasn’tperfect.
It was even better.
Epilogue
