Page 33 of The Earl’s Second Chance

“I am considering the future.”

“You once avoided considering next Thursday.”

“Age has ruined me.”

She leaned against him. “No. Love has improved you.”

EPILOGUE

Six Children and Eighty-Seven Doors

On the evening before Thomas’s first birthday, Elizabeth found Richard in the foaling stable.

Spring rain drummed upon the roof. A mare had delivered safely, and Richard stood with his sleeves rolled, hair disordered, and straw upon his boots. Twelve months of fatherhood had deepened the tenderness in him without diminishing the hunger with which he looked at his wife.

“You are smiling,” he said.

“I have news.”

“Has your father finally defeated the bishop?”

“The bishop surrendered last Tuesday.”

Richard came closer. “Then what?”

She took his hand and placed it against her abdomen.

For a moment he did not understand. Then joy broke across his face.

“Again?”

“With our habits, can you be surprised?”

He lifted her and turned once, stopping when she laughed and reminded him of his leg.

“I love you,” he said.

“I should hope so. This is becoming a considerable undertaking.”

“Six?”

“What?”

“Children. Three girls, three boys.”

“You order infants as if choosing a matched team.”

“A man may dream.”

By the end of their fifteenth year of marriage, his accidental prediction had become fact.

Thomas was followed by Rebecca, whose solemn eyes concealed Elizabeth’s appetite for mischief; Edward, who loved horses before he could say the word; Anne, named for Mrs. Gardiner and gifted with Mary’s ear; Charles, whose sweetness reconciled even Jane to the name; and little Frances, born laughing and adored by her grandmother.

There were difficult confinements and easy ones, fevers that terrified them, broken arms, muddy carpets, tutors dismissed, ponies outgrown, and nights when passion yielded to exhaustion. Yet it never vanished. Richard still caught Elizabeth’s eye across crowded dinners and made her remember a conservatory scented with orange blossoms. Elizabeth still found reasons to consult him in rooms with reliable locks.

The library remained a favourite. So did the summerhouse after they added a bolt.

Jane and Hartley had four children and a marriage built upon conversation. As Countess of Matlock in time, Jane became known for patronage of rural schools and for a calm refusal no politician could misunderstand.