Page 67 of If I Loved You
Stunned, Zach re-read the letter twice.
The old man knew!My God, the old man knew. Zach gave a short bark of laughter, even as his eyes misted. He stood and gazed at the portrait of his father behind his desk, painted with such devotion by his mother.
“You old devil,” he breathed in wonder. Apparently, neither fate nor serendipity played any role in he and Emma finding one another, just the over-ambitious and hopeful will of his father.
Now, upon discovering this, and rather than feeling as if he’d been hoodwinked into his coming marriage, he only laughed yet more. He felt not deceived or tricked; he felt blessed. Just as it didn’t matter that Emma and he had different standings, or came from different backgrounds, it didn’t matter how it came to be. Zach was only thankful that ithadcome to be.
And yes, he would thank the old man when next he saw him.
It was several moments before he recalled that his butler had delivered two items. He scanned the words, penned in his bride’s pretty script, upon the second envelope, which was attached to a small and flat, neatly wrapped package.
To be opened after vows are said. I love you. E
Epilogue
“FATHER! FATHER!”
Zachary Benedict heard the shrill cry of Bethany, coming from somewhere deeper in the house, as he strode down the stairs, carrying his youngest, sweet little Anna, fresh from her nap.
Bethany burst into the foyer from the first-floor parlor. “Father! Oh, there you are.” She met him at the bottom of the stairs and turned her dazzling blue eyes to him. He saw an argument in his very near future. “Mother says I may not go to Amelia’s house for the weekend. She thinks their country house party is no more than a shallow ruse to mislead some young man into dastardly behavior which might see a poor, unsuspecting girl wed not to the man of her dreams.”
“Oh, dear,” he said, and bit back a laugh. He consulted Anna’s expression, to find his little blue-eyed sweetheart staring groggily at her sister. To Bethany, he mused, “She said all that, did she?”
He continued on, moving away from the stairs to find his wife, the one who was sometimes entirely too explicit with their children, even as it often worked to great effect.
“She did,” Bethany griped, following beside him, clearly wanting to state so much of her case before they were in the presence of her mother once more. “I’m fourteen now, father. You said yourself I possess solid judgment and a principled breadth of reason. You said you trusted me to always behave appropriately, so why should she—”
Her words stopped abruptly asshe, the countess, appeared at the doors to the parlor only seconds before Zach would have pushed it open.
“Shealso trusts your judgment and decision making capabilities,” Emma said pointedly to her daughter, with a strict frown at her, “but she does not trust that of many young men, who are led not with their minds and hearts at this age.”
Bethany groaned and tipped her head back, her expression effectively displaying her disagreement with her mother’s statement.
Emma turned to Zach and Anna, her face dissolving instantly into first, motherly adoration, as she claimed her smiling baby from Zach’s arms. She kissed Anna’s soft and downy hair and fixed her gaze onto her husband of more than a decade, her smile now intimate and happy.
Zach’s heart flipped.
Oh, but he was a lucky man.
He leaned in and met her lips, lingering longer than he should have, until he felt Emma’s mouth curve with a smile at the length of this kiss, until he heard Bethany’s, “Ugh,” just before she stomped away from them, into the parlor.
“No house parties?” He asked, his voice low, as he knew the room behind was filled with little pictures with big ears—all their children.
“No. Not at fourteen years of age, and with you and I having previously decided that Amelia’s parents are about as useless as guardians as would be a dressmaker’s mannequin.”
“Right,” he agreed, vaguely recalling that conversation.
Emma was a loving, but ever-vigilant mother. Their children may not always like her answers or rules, but they could never doubt they were cherished so greatly.
They stepped into the drawing room, where the other children, Caralyn and Michael and Will, were gathered around Mrs. Smythe, who had served brilliantly as their nurse since Mr. Smythe had passed just before Emma had brought their eldest, Michael, into the world. The former innkeep’s wife, who seemed not to have aged a day since he’d first met her, and who delighted in the Benedict children, had her gray head pressed against three light brown heads as they peered earnestly at some gadget Mrs. Smythe held.
“Will’s dragon lost its wing again,” Emma explained.
Zach squinted, seeing now that Mrs. Smythe indeed was trying to re-attach the moveable part into the socket of the toy dragon’s body.
Emma sat on the floor as she often did, neatly spreading out her skirts while she gathered nearby toys with which to amuse Anna, who had just started sitting up on her own.
The four heads pressed together lifted all at once, with Mrs. Smythe proclaiming, “Aha!” while Will screeched in delight. Young Caralyn smiled happily for this successful endeavor and Michael watched his brother skitter away, flying the toy around the room.
