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“I know. Tony has them, and we need not think of them again. I’ve told him that I am taking you home. I don’t want anything to do with that part of the world. I need to leave it behind. I am only concerned about the future. Our future.” He picked up her hand and kissed her knuckles. The ones with the abrasions on them. “I heard you punched that man at the Badger’s Tavern. I could not have been prouder. That when you were lost you had the forethought to get here to the Duke of Warrington’s home. You amaze me every day with your intelligence and courage.”

“It was not courage that got me lost in the first place. It was cowardliness. I should have stayed but instead I ran like a child scolded. I am sorry that I made so many go out to find me.”

“I am just thankful you are unharmed. Shall we say goodbye and gather our things from the Ashtons’ and go home?”

“We are really going home? To Milford?”

“Yes.”

“But what about the files and that man Stafford?”

“Tony has other men who can help him. He just thought of me as I was involved in the incident, but I am no longer interested in who Stafford was working for. My future lies with you not a dead man.”

Elena reached up and wound her arms around his neck, kissing him with all her heart. “I will never keep anything from you again,” she vowed.

“Hopefully, there will be no need as I have no wish to put you in such a position again.”

“There is something I must tell you. I was waiting to know for sure, but I think I may be with child. A doctor will be able to tell for sure but according to my calculations I must be at least two months, maybe even more. I stopped chewing on the St Agnes Lace seeds after we married in the Catholic church before Cadiz.”

He kissed her soundly on the mouth and then rubbed her flat stomach. “I am so happy, Elena.” He pulled her down onto the sofa. “I must confess that Lucinda told me just before we went searching for you. I was angry at first as it was just another thing you had kept from me. Then Tony made me realize that the timing may not have been right for you to tell me. I am glad you told me now. It is another reason why I must leave this world behind. I’ve done my part, but do you know what I have learned through all of this?”

“What is it you learned, my love?”

“This life I was living no longer suits me. That no matter what, love and family are the most important things in life. Without love we are just marking time. I used to be so selfish, thinking my life as a spy was more important than anything else. I was duty bound to my king and my country. It was important but I let it rule my life. I left my mother and sister unprotected and I was slack in my duty to Lucinda as well. All because I was so focused on me and what I was doing. Now my duty is to my family, to you and the babe you carry. I no longer need to be that man who risked his life day in and day out.”

She kissed him again and then threaded her fingers through his fingers. “There is no more honorable a position than that of a father and husband. I may have fallen in love with a reckless rogue, but I am more deeply in love with the man who gives his heart to me every day. Who gave up the job he loved to love me. Who knows he is not perfect but is perfect for me.”

Tomas stood and pushed a curl behind her ear. “Let’s go home.”

Epilogue

Thomas watched as his wife directed the workmen on the new glass house. She was heavily pregnant now and he loved to feel the soft swell of her stomach at night, know it held a future member of his family. He especially loved to feel his child kicking. It amazed him constantly the love he already felt for his child.

Elena’s English had come on in leaps and bounds thanks in no small part to his sister June, who decided she would learn Spanish in return. Lucinda had faithfully written to Elena of her trips with his friend Tony in the Lakes District. And his wife would agonize over every word that she wrote back.

His mother had taken a little longer to accept his wife until a few weeks ago when she had fallen ill with a cold. Elena had made sure that she had plenty of fluids in the form of elderberry tea with lemon and honey for her sore throat and a mustard plaster for her chest. She even made her very own chicken soup. The doctor did not need to be summoned, and his mother was feeling much better in just a few days.

June and Elena worked together and had worked wonders with the home garden. One section for vegetables and another for medicinal plants. Elena had even germinated Thomas’s orange seeds and, much to his mother’s annoyance, they sprouted and now happily lapped up the sun on the windowsill of the parlor. They would be big enough for pots by the time the glass house was finished.

He did not hear from Tony or the duke, which was just as it should be. Thomas spent his days riding with the new land steward and making sure that the tenants were happy. He came home every day, exhausted but content. That was how he had imagined it would be, only there was a sense of calm about his life now that he had not expected.

Elena got up from the sofa to kiss him good night. She tired easily these days and did not sleep well. She had just made the doorway when she gripped her stomach and a gush of water landed on the marble floor of the entryway. She looked over her shoulder at him as his mother and sister rushed to her side.

“The baby is coming,” Elena said. “You must go for the midwife.”

Thomas looked around him, his mind a whirl.

“Thomas!” his mother said in her stern way. “The midwife.”

“Yes. Yes, of course.” He rushed to the door. “Should I carry you upstairs first?”

Elena nodded, and he scooped her up and ascended the stairs to their room. He put her down and pulled the covers back.

“No. I need to walk around the room. It will keep the contractions coming.”

He had no idea what that meant, but he kissed her and flew out of the room, down the stairs, and straight out to the stable to get his horse. He did not even wait for the sleepy groom to saddle his horse but did it himself, hauling himself into the saddle and down the drive in record time.

The midwife smiled when she saw him panting in her doorway. “Anyone would think it was you who was having the babe,” she said with a laugh. “Let me get my things. Betsy, ye better come wit’ me. First babes can be tricky. Oh, Captain, don’t ye faint on me; you have gone pale as a ghost. It will be hours before the child is born.” She let him into the modest cottage. “My boy will get the cart ready, and Betsy will be packing it up with everything we will need.”