“You were dying.” She rolled her eyes again. “Don’t be obtuse. I picked you, you idiot. You! I picked you. You’re all I want. You’re all I’ll ever want.”
A knock sounded at the window and Claire went to thrust it open. Ronald climbed over the sill and landed on the floor. “Can’t you use a door?” Finn grumbled.
“Can’t you use a window?” the gnome grumbled back. He had him there. If Finn could come and go through windows, he might be inclined to do so. “I have word from the Trusted Few.”
He held the note out to her.
She read it quickly, placing a hand to her heart. She read short phrases from it aloud. “Robinsworth, as an ambassador between the two lands, has come forth with a proposition…” She paused, reading some more, looking up at Robin occasionally. “…By decree of the Trusted Few, you may keep your wings on a probationary basis…” She read some more, her brow furrowing. “…Mentor fae that would like to shift from world to world as your penance, and teach those who grew up the way your younger sister Rose did to embrace their magic…”
She stopped reading. Her eyes filled with tears. “Some penance,” she said.
“Does this mean we’ll have a fae household in London?”
“Apparently. Does that bother you?”
She passed him the note. At the bottom, the instructions also said, “That man you tossed into a painting must be located.”
“Can’t we just leave him there to rot?”
“Where did you send him?”
Claire shrugged. “I’m not certain. We can check the paintings when we get home and go look for him.”
“Wherever he is, my lord, I imagine he’s a bit confused,” the butler said from the doorway. “Like me.”
“You’re in the land of the fae,” Robin chided. “What do you have to be confused about?”
“I just saw a unicorn prance by, and it turned its nose up at me, Your Grace.” The butler laughed.
“They hate to pull carriages. Way too high in the instep, if you ask me.” Claire giggled. God, he loved that sound.
Finn reached for the lump at her temple. She had a good-sized bruise on her cheek as well. “Mayden had better hope no one ever finds him in that painting, because I will make him pay for hurting you if he ever comes back.”
“I love you,” Claire said, clutching his hand.
“Because I was about to die?” he asked. He was teasing, but she wasn’t.
She was dead serious when she looked into his eyes. “Because I need you, love you, want you, and can’t live without you.” She placed his hand on her belly, which had grown even rounder.
“You told me not to fall in love with you,” he reminded her.
She pressed her lips to his. “It’s a good thing you’re not a good listener.”
Epilogue
Claire’s ankles were swollen to the size of loaves of bread. And her back felt like someone was on the inside, wringing her spine in his hands, twisting until she writhed with the pain. At least the pain was coming and going. It had been since the night before, when Claire and Finn had made love into the wee hours of the morning.
“Sophie swears to me that making love is what brought their first child into the world,” Claire said.
He pulled her to sit in front of him in front of the settee. “Then I think we should do it over and over until we bring her into the world,” he growled in her ear as he massaged her shoulders.
His hands slipped down and hefted her naked breasts in his palms. “I want to see my son or daughter suckling here,” he said quietly in her ear.
“Any excuse to look at my breasts,” she teased, slapping at his hands. She turned in his lap and laid her head on his shoulder, her legs draped over the arm of the chair. She was completely naked and so beautiful. He almost hated for her to put clothes on at times. He loved watching her body grow, talking to her belly, and rubbing her all over when she was achy and stiff.
A kick rose against his hand, where it lightly stroked her belly. “Ouch!” she cried. “This one is going to be active,” she said.
“You need something to keep you busy,” he said.