Page 70 of A Love to Remember
Her son preened like a little peacock. “I know. I am dressed the same as Father, and he said you only have eyes for him because he is the handsomest man in the world.”
Everyone in the room roared with laughter.
Philip’s face went red. “You weren’t supposed to tell her that.”
The boy frowned up at him. “But you did say it.”
“That I did, son. But sometimes things we talk about are best left between us men.”
Drake’s little chest puffed out with pride at being seen to be aman,and one who was able to share secrets with his father. “May I go and play with Henry now, please?”
Philip ruffled his hair and nodded, and Drake raced off to the far corner of the room where the boys had set up a battlefield with toy soldiers. Henry was busy trying to pry a cannon out of Jackson’s pudgy hand.
Philip bent down and kissed Rose’s cheek, and then his mother’s, as he stroked Drury’s head. She loved the light of happiness in his eyes and knew she’d never been so content.
Soon it was time to open presents, and the room was filled with the excited cries of the children and the more subdued conversation of the adults.
Philip, knowing that Drake’s gift would create mayhem, kept its presentation till last. Just when Drake was on tenterhooks wondering if perhaps there was no gift for him that night, Philip carried in a box. A box that made scratching sounds and small whimpers under its lid.
Drake’s eyes grew big and round and he rushed to take off the lid. He reached in with an excited squeal and lifted out a little puppy.
“What is his name?” After his first squeal of excitement Drake handled the little animal with awe and cuddled him close, obviously sensing the puppy was scared by all the noise.
Philip crouched down beside him. “He is waiting for you to give him a name. What do you think it should be?”
The puppy was an English Pointer and all white except for a large brown patch around his stomach. Drake studied him for a moment. “Xury, Robinson Crusoe’s loyal friend.”
Philip nodded. “That is an excellent name. If you treat Xury well he will be your best friend forever. Xury will grow quickly and he will need lots of exercise each day. You will have to run him through the fields, and you’ll let Timmins help you train him.”
Timmins was the keeper of the hounds.
Drake flung his arms around Philip’s neck. “Thank you, Father. I’ll take special care of him.”
“That’s good,” Philip said. “Because he will need lots of care.”
The little boy nodded. “May he sleep in my room tonight?”
Rose was about to protest, but the question had been directed at Philip. “If your mother agrees.”
She saw the look of hope on Drake’s face and couldn’t bear to watch it die. “Very well.”
He beamed from ear to ear. “Thank you, Mother,” he said in the grown-up voice he was starting to assume around adults. But then he dissolved into a child again, thrilled and excited by the puppy and the future joy of play. Soon he and Henry were rolling around with the puppy—and ignoring anyone else.
None of the other presents given out that evening could match the excitement of Drake’s.
Except that Rose had a secret.
Later that night as they walked up the stairs to bed, Rose knew of only one thing that would make her life even more perfect. A little girl. Or perhaps another little boy. She really didn’t care.
As soon as the door to their bedchamber closed behind them, Philip pulled her to him. “If I’m the handsomest man in the world, you—my gorgeous wife—are the most beautiful. I swear you grow more radiant every time I look at you.”
She didn’t want to spoil the mood, but since her thought downstairs she had to ask. “Do you know, I was actually grateful to Kirkwood tonight.”
Kirkwood and Francis had been found guilty of attempted murder—hers and Drake’s—and been sentenced to death. Rose, however, had requested leniency. Instead, Kirkwood was stripped of his title and lands, and both men were sent as convicts to Australia. Philip told her it would have been kinder to let them hang.
“Do you think,” she said slowly, “that you would have asked to marry me of your own free will if Kirkwood had not kidnapped me?”
A haunted look flashed across Philip’s eyes, the one she used to see in them when he thought of Robert. “I’d like to think that I would have, but I will never know. I can tell you this—that you own my heart now. I love you more than the air I breathe, and I thank God each day for bringing you to me. Can you live with that?”
