Page 67 of A Dream of Redemption
“To the adults we’ve become,” he replied before he kissed her.
Epilogue
LONDON, ONE YEAR LATER
Clary kept staring across the room at Simon, letting his brother’s reassuring smile stop him from fainting. He expected to wake up at any moment from this dream. With his wife, Helen, standing by his side, her family and friends behind them, he was about to be presented to King George IV who was bestowing him with a patent for services to king and country.
He was being made a baron—Baron Haxby.
Maitland and Sebastian, on Marisa’s urging, had approached the king shortly after Clary’s marriage to Helen and explained that he had thwarted an evil villain using Marisa’s orphanages to sell children—English children to foreign enemies—and in doing so had also saved the lives of both Lady Marisa and Lady Helen, the wife of the Duke of Lyttleton and the sister of the Marquis of Coldhurst.
The fact that the king was godfather to Sebastian’s newborn son, Jeremy, and that Maitland pointed out it would be wonderful to announce a new title in his first year of being king, saw His Majesty agreeing readily. In fact, he’d been quite generous with titles this year.
The only downside was Clary had to agree to become a Tory to get the prime minister on their side. But it was a small price to pay for Helen’s happiness.
Maitland’s backstory about Simon and Clary’s place of birth and upbringing had never been questioned, and he’d wisely chosen a name from the Yorkshire area for his title—Haxby.
His marriage to Helen, even though he was to be given a title, was still considered to be well beneath her, and some in society rarely invited them to their homes. But at least when they visited London, away from their big house in York gifted to them by Sebastian upon their marriage, she could move about freely with her sisters and friends. The expense of one hundred and fifty pounds Clary had to pay to the House of Peers was worth the cost.
He could feel the sweat running down his back under his shirt. He’d never been in front of so many important people before—the king for goodness’ sake, and he wanted to do his wife and her family proud. She must have sensed his unease for she squeezed his hand. “It will be over in a minute. Everyone will be focused on the Duke of Wellington,” who had been given his patent before him.
Finally his name was called, Clarence Homeward, Baron Haxby. On shaking legs he walked forward and bowed to the king as he’d been instructed. He got down on bended knee and received his patent.
The king merely said, “Jolly good show, my boy.”
Clary stood to polite applause, and this flimsy piece of parchment now meant he had a hereditary peerage.
He smiled across at his wife, who only this morning told him she was carrying their first child, and as he stood, his first thought was that if she bore him a son, he would finally have something of value to give his child—the title of baron—when Clary left this world. His son would never be looked down upon.
He walked back to his wife, and she slipped her arm through his and they left the banquet hall together.
“Thanks to your family, our son will have something that no one can take from him.”
She smiled up at him and patted her stomach. “He will always have something that no one can take from him, but it’s not a title. He will have love. Lots and lots of love from us and our extended family.”
Then Simon arrived and bowed deep before standing and saying with a grin as wide as the Thames, “Congratulations, my lord.”
“Stop it.”
His brother patted him on the back. “You best get used to it. Your world has changed but I hope you will still have time for your lowly brother.”
A bit of his joy left him. “Never use that word to describe yourself. Look every man in the eye for you are the equal of any man. And you will soon be a fine solicitor who works exclusively for Baron Haxby.”
“Only if Baron Haxby lets me do work for his orphanages as well. I thought I could turn my back on where I had come from but you showed me that wecanmake a difference. I want to be involved in helping orphaned children.”
His heart flooded with pride at Simon’s words. “We can use all the help we can get for I am determined not to stop until all the Glovers of this world are driven out of London—no, England.”
Sebastian arrived at his side and shook his hand. “The next ceremony is your introduction to the House of Lords in a fortnight.”
He looked at his wife.
“Anne and Claire will keep the children in order until we get back to Yorkshire,” she was smiling as she said it as if to say,You have no excuse to run home.
They had moved Anne and Claire to Yorkshire with them to oversee the training and boarders in their home.
“This title is going to be the death of me, but thank you,” he said to his brother-in-law. “Thank you for what you did for Helen, this means so much to her.”
Sebastian laughed. “It only means so much to her because she wanted something good for you. She couldn’t give a tuppence about society.”
