Page 91 of Her Bear of a Duke

"I would like you to humor me," he said gently into her ear. "You are yet to say the words, and I wish to hear them."

"And what words might those be? I have certainly not heard them from you, and so I could not possibly fathom what they are."

He grinned at her devilishly, and then lifted her up into the air. She shrieked, telling him to put her down, but he simply laughed at her, spinning her around.

"I love my wife," he proclaimed loudly. "My wife is Dorothy Lockheart, and I wholeheartedly adore her!"

"Morgan, stop," she giggled, and at last he relented, placing her back on her feet.

She was dizzy, partly from the spinning and partly from what he had said, but he steadied her, looking deeply into her eyes.

"There," he smiled. "Now it is your turn."

"Very well," she nodded, "though I cannot proclaim it as loudly as you."

"I do not want you to. I want to you to say however you feel, and to do so as it pleases you."

"Good, because I do not want you to think that I feel any less for you than you do for me. I love you, Morgan. I have for a long time now. I love that you protect those you care about, I love that you have rescued me from more than you could ever know, and I love that you would do anything to make me happy. I love you Morgan, more than all the flowers on Earth."

"All the flowers on Earth?" he asked, an eyebrow raised. "Do not say things that are not true. It is very unbecoming, and–"

She cut him off with a kiss, deep and passionate. His hands fell against her waist, and he returned her kiss with even more enthusiasm.

They left for home that evening, Catherine ecstatic to have even more family than she thought. Dorothy, meanwhile, rested against her husband and thought about how truly fortunate she was to have a family that loved her so much.

As well as one that she loved in equal measure.

EPILOGUE

"Do you suppose that we will ever have a moment's peace?" Morgan asked as they boarded the carriage, though he did not mean it.

Dorothy hoped that he did not, at least, especially as he was well aware of what was to come, and so it could not truly been seen as a surprise of any sort.

What had been a surprise, however, was how quickly everything had happened. They received word that Emma had at last gone into labor, and by the time they arrived everything was over with. The baby had been taken away to be cleaned and checked over, and Emma was lying on her bed, exhausted. Cecilia and Beatrice looked on in amazement, telling her how wonderful she had been, and Dorothy did not know what to say.

"I am sorry," she said gently, making her way toward the ladies. "I should have arrived sooner."

"You could not have known," Emma sighed warmly, her breathing returning to normal. "Cecilia and Beatrice happened to be here, but if they were not then they would have missed it too."

Dorothy accepted it, but she felt guilty even so. She had arrived when everything was good, and missed all of the difficulty, and she did not feel like a good friend at all.

"Dot," Beatrice said gently, "truly, there was nothing that you could have done. It is vital that you and your family take some time to simply be together after all that has happened."

"And, given what we know now, it is quite right that you take all of the time you need," Cecilia agreed.

"What you know now?" Dorothy echoed. "What precisely do you know?"

The ladies looked to Emma, who nodded softly.

"It is quite all right. I would like to rest for a while. Although you must tell me how Dorothy feels about all of it when I awaken."

They left for the drawing room, and a tea arrived. Dorothy was not hungry, and her two friends white as sheets and did not seem to have much of an appetite either, but they sipped their tea politely.

"The entiretonknows about this," Cecilia began. "It is a wonder that you have not heard about it. Lady Annabelle was ousted!"

"Ousted? What do you mean?"

"Cecilia has gotten ahead of herself," Beatrice chuckled. "You see, her family has been struggling since her sister's disappearance. Her father pretended that she had gone to live in the country with a relative, but suspicions have been mounting for a very long time that it was not the case."

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