‘What you wanted to do about your father. Louis wants to sue the boots off him, I favour leaving him to stew in his own juice.’
‘I will write to Lucas. I do not want to be estranged from him and I suspect if he and Anthony encourage my father to start a new building project he will soon retreat from reality into that. And perhaps one day he will be...stable enough to want to see his grandchild.’
‘So we have put the world to rights between us.’ Gabriel stretched, languorous as a big cat.
‘We have put our corner of it to rights at least,’ Caroline leant over to kiss his smiling lips.
‘Our new world,’ her husband said. ‘And it will take us a lifetime to explore it, my love. Beginning now.’
Epilogue
Half Moon Street, London—February 14th, 1821
‘We are definitely going to have to move house. We cannot even hold a christening party without it resembling the crush at a royal Drawing Room and Alex’s valet is becoming fretful over the dressing room becoming a nursery.’
Tess sank down on the end of the sofa in the window alcove, the only available seat left in the drawing room, and tucked Dominic Alexander Hugh Tempest and all his yards of christening robe snuggly into the crook of her arm.
‘Perhaps this fashion for huge skirts and ridiculous puffed sleeves will subside.’ Kate, the Countess of Allundale, squashed her own skirts up to make more room. ‘Although that will only help with parties, not bedchambers. I worry that our new house in Brook Street isn’t big enough.’ She laid one hand over the spot where a myriad of heaped ruffles concealed the third of the Rivers’ brood, due to make an appearance in July. ‘Grant has become so enthusiastic over suffrage reform that he keeps throwing political receptions and dinners so the downstairs guest bedchamber must be sacrificed to extend the drawing room.’
‘You don’t mind London life and parties any more? No, don’t move, I’ll just slide round and prop myself up on the back of the sofa which is inelegant, but does wonders for my back.’ Caroline sighed with relief. ‘Don’t say anything, but I have just taken off my slippers.’
‘What a good idea,’ Kate said. There was some surreptitious rustling and two more sighs. ‘How we suffer for fashion. And parties. But, no, I enjoy them now. I’ve even become used to being a countess. Almost. I still keep thinking people are going to point at me and cry “Imposter”, but it hasn’t happened yet. I can hardly believe how much my life has changed. Do you know, I even found myself arguing with the Prime Minister about married women’s property rights the other evening?’
‘Goodness. What did he say?’ Tamsyn arrived, set a footstool in front of the sofa and sank down in a cloud of amber silk and blonde gauze, careless of what anyone might think of a marchioness virtually sitting on the floor.
‘He huffed and puffed and called me dear lady and escaped as soon as he could, but I’ll corner him yet. We’ve all taken our slippers off,’ she added in a whisper to Tamsyn who promptly did the same.
‘My ankles are swelling,’ she grumbled. ‘No one tells you these things.’
‘You— You’re not expecting, too?’ Caroline managed to keep her voice down to a muted shriek.
‘Shh! Yes, but I haven’t told Cris yet. I saw how Alex fussed and Gabriel and Grant seem almost as bad. But today is St Valentine’s Day, so I have ordered a special supper and I am going to tell him then.’
‘You are looking smug,’ Kate observed. ‘I assume a new negligée is to hand?’
‘Definitely. Sea-green silk. That should keep his mind off fussing.’
‘So the four Lords of Disgrace are going to be the proud and respectable fathers of four babies within a year,’ Tess mused. ‘Just think, if one of you has a boy and two have girls, perhaps in twenty years’ time we could be sitting down and planning two weddings.’
‘Tess, you are a hopeless romantic,’ Caroline teased. ‘But what a wonderful thought. We all had such a rocky path to finding our true love and the men were there for each other...’
‘Here they are.’ Tamsyn waved to Cris, who stood with his friends, the four of them making the room seem crowded with masculine energy.
‘And so beautiful, all of them,’ Kate said with a sigh as their husbands crossed the room to them. ‘And not looking in the slightest bit respectable, thank goodness.’
‘What are up to, my ladies?’ Cris asked, stooping to kiss his wife.
‘We were just saying how handsome you all were.’ Kate batted her eyelashes at Grant as he stretched out a hand to her.
‘And what else?’ Alex demanded. ‘You are scheming, I can tell. I’ve come to claim my son for five minutes,’ he added as he took the sleeping baby from Tess.
‘Yes, we are,’ Caroline agreed. ‘But you can all relax. You will not need to worry for, oh...twenty years at least.’
Gabriel looked from his wife to his friends. ‘Gentlemen, I suggest we retreat to the study and take young Dominic with us. I have no idea what our wives are up to, but he is going to need all the advice we can give him if he is to end up as happy as we are.’
* * * * *