Page 54

Hope bit her lip and looked between the two of us. “Are we going to live with you?”

The despair on Claire’s face almost broke my heart. Now it was my turn to squat before the girls.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Hope and Grace,” I said, kissing the back of their hands.

Their smiles were tremulous.

I looked up at Claire. “What do you think?”

I would do anything for this woman. And yes, that meant adopting two little girls. But with this pair, it wouldn’t be a hardship.

Watching the way Claire had interacted with them at the school, I think a part of me had always known that if I wanted Claire, I would need to have all three. The perfection of that decision settled firmly in my chest.

Claire’s hands were wrapped around her waist, and it took her a moment to gather her voice. “Are you saying…”

I nodded and smiled at the girls. “What do you think? Would you like a new mother and father?”

They threw themselves into my arms, and Claire bent to wrap her arms around the three of us. In that moment, my heart was fuller than it had ever been.

Claire had stormed into my life that day at King’s, her purpose to save me from being trapped in a marriage I didn’t want. And with surprisingly little effort, she’d captured my heart. These two little girls were already warming their way into it as well.

“Let’s go home,” I said, lifting Hope into my arms.

Claire gathered Grace into her arms, and together we made our way to the waiting carriage that would take us home.

Chapter 39

CLAIRE

“I think my father likes you more than he likes me.”

From the amusement in his voice, I could tell he was teasing. But I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been worried about meeting him.

We were in the carriage, and I was sitting in his lap, my head pillowed on his shoulder.

He dropped a kiss on my hair. “You and I have somewhere else we need to be soon.”

I kissed his jaw, just above his cravat. “I’ve heard that making love in a carriage can be quite stimulating.”

He groaned. “Behave, Claire. We don’t have time for that right now.”

I looked up at him. “I thought we always had time for that?”

He kissed the tip of my nose. “Well, yes, there is time, but we are expected elsewhere, and it wouldn’t do to arrive all crumpled.”

I pulled back all the way. “Where are we going?”

He gathered me against him again. “We’ll be there soon enough, and you’ll see for yourself.”

“Should I be worried?”

He chuckled. “No.”

We stayed like that for some time, the gentle sway of the well-sprung carriage soothing. At times I still found it impossible to believe my life had changed so much. I’d sent a letter to my stepmother and sister to inform them of our engagement and to invite them to our wedding, which was set to take place next month. I didn’t particularly care if my stepmother attended, but I very much wanted my sister to be there.

I hoped we’d be able to repair our relationship, and dangling a society wedding over her head might be enough to elicit her forgiveness. I knew, logically, that I’d done nothing wrong, but sometimes it took Georgiana a little while to get past her imagined grievances. She was still so young, and being coddled by her mother hadn’t helped.

When the carriage slowed to a halt, I was surprised to see we were outside Greyson’s townhouse.