Scandalous Miss Brightwells [Book 1-4]

By the portico of the Pavilion just behind the privet hedge, he went down on one knee and took her hand, bringing it to his lips.

“It seems I have lost my desire for the larger expenses I thought were the lifeblood of excitement. No, Thea—if I can call you that now—I want nothing more than to have you for my wife, to live with you in mutual happiness and harmony and to have as many darling little ones as you wish, even if it means I have to cater to a brood as large as that belonging to our good Duke of Clarence.”

Miss Brightwell’s sigh of pleasure was audible and his own heart hitched in response.

He cleared his throat, emotion making his voice break as he murmured, quietly but with passion, “Miss Thea Brightwell, will you do me the very great honour of becoming my wife?”

Tenderly she touched his face, her tearful smile answer enough until she whispered, “Nothing would make me happier…Mr Sylvester Grayling.”

He would have replied, except that a loud screeching was borne upon the air and they looked up in time to see the basket passing low across the moon, highlighting the horror on Bramley’s face as he shouted, “I’ve been tricked!”

This was followed by Miss Brightwell’s shrill response, “It is I who has been tricked! Where is Mr Granville? What have you done with him?”

Across the lawn a flurry of shouts could be heard: “A thousand pounds if you ask her to marry you, Bramley!”

“Fifteen hundred!” shouted others.

“Two thousand if she says yes!” came another cry.

Sylvester had no desire to hear more but his conscience was ready to do business when Thea cried anxiously, “We have to rescue her! Look, the basket is dropping and there’s the rope!”

And so Sylvester leapt to his feet, not because he was a hero, or had a particular desire to extricate Miss Minerva Brightwell.

Not for any reason other than that Thea made him remember what it was to be a good man. A better man. The best man he could be.

And he dashed forward when no one else was bestirring themselves and took hold of the rope which had enough slack that he was able to tie it to a tree.

And thus he became not only Thea’s hero, but also Minerva Brightwell’s, who shortly thereafter declared she would favour Thea in her will as Thea had finally done the sensible thing by choosing a husband who clearly respected Minerva Brightwell as a woman of her consequence demanded.

Chapter 22

Ten Months Later

Thea stretched out an arm and gently caressed her husband’s cheek as she opened sleepy eyes to find him watching her.

“You’ve been in a deep dream. A pleasant one, I think.” He was leaning on one elbow, gazing at her intently, as if he’d been committing her image to heart. “Young Jamie has been waiting patiently for his morning feed.”

Only then did Thea realize the infant was wailing fit to bring the house down as his nurse brought him out from the nursery. Thea had insisted on feeding the child herself, despite the disapproval of almost everyone, especially Antoinette who’d declared that Thea could not possibly have fun if she were so bonded with a creature that would make her his slave.

“I already am,” she’d replied, “and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Now she arranged herself comfortably and cleared her throat, deciding how to phrase what was so important to her.

“Maybe we should get Jame

s a playmate, Sylvester, darling.”

Her husband’s warm hand on her thigh, exploring higher made her realize he misunderstood. Especially when he complained that she was being awfully impatient and shouldn’t she wait until she’d fed James and the nurse had taken him away?”

“No, I mean a little fellow he can play with in the nursery. Like a brother.”

Sylvester frowned. “Foster a child?” he asked, and though his arms were just as warm and loving, the tone of his voice made clear his antipathy to the idea.

Thea snuggled against him. He was always at his most amenable like this. “No, not foster or adopt,’ she said calmly. “Just invite a playmate to the house on occasion to keep James company.”

Gently she began to massage her darling Sylvester’s temples and immediately he closed his eyes to savour the sensation. Thea had learned the way to her husband’s heart through gentle touch and persuasion, just as she’d learned to manage the household accounts with the same care she’d learned during the lean years growing up. Sylvester had voiced his wonder on more than one occasion that three seemed to be able to live just as comfortably as one. Yet now he’d made certain economies there was far more at his disposal than he’d realised.

“But he has his cousins, George and Katherine.”