Page 102 of The Moonstone Marquess
She laughed. “Indeed.”
“See, your moonstone marquess is no fool.” He led her upstairs, both of them glancing up as thunder rumbled overhead. “That’s quite a storm coming on. Are we just going to look at moonstones? We could spend the rest of the day in bed, you know. I’ll have supper brought up to us. We needn’t leave our bedchamber until tomorrow. In fact, this is what we must do or we’ll anger the moonstone gods.”
“I don’t think there is such a thing.”
“But why take chances?” He led her into their bedchamber and kicked the door closed behind them.
They sent their apologies to Cain and Hen.
They did not come out for the next three days.
Epilogue
Moonstone Landing
July, 1819
Cormac’s nieces hadtheir faces pasted to the carriage window and huge smiles on their faces as it drew up in front of Westgate Hall. The carriage had hardly stopped before Ella threw open the door and would have leaped out if her father had not stopped her. “Dear heaven, they still like you and Phoebe better than they like us,” John jested, also smiling from ear to ear. “Wait a moment, girls.”
Cormac laughed as both little ones ignored him and held out their arms for Cormac’s embrace. “One at a time,” he reminded them, for they never could remember he had one arm.
“We missed you, Uncle Cormac,” Ella said, giving him several dainty pecks on the cheek.
He hugged her and then handed her over to Phoebe just as Imogen was about to hurl herself at him. “My littlest duckling,” he said, so happy to see her smiling face. “Look how you’ve grown.”
“I’m seven now.”
“Already? Your Papa had better start preparing for your come-out,” he teased as John hopped down after the girls and assisted his wife out of their carriage. “Come onto the terrace with us while Melrose arranges to have your bags brought upstairs. There’s a lovely breeze off the water.”
“We have lemonade and strawberry tarts for you on the terrace,” Phoebe said, still holding on to Ella’s hand while Cormac remained with Imogen on his arm. “Chloe and the others will join us for an early supper tonight. They cannot wait to see you girls again. Of course, they are also eager to see you, John, and Charlotte.”
Charlotte laughed. “As we are to see them again. The girls could speak of nothing else all year. I must say, John and I are intrigued and cannot wait to spend the month with you.”
“Well, we have lots planned for you,” Phoebe said, now pouring lemonades for everyone. “Even a little exploring around Moonstone Landing. Lord Crawford has been maintaining a correspondence with Cormac about his own explorations. He will be leading an expedition to Mesopotamia next month and is quite excited about it. In the meanwhile, he has kindly been sending us interesting bits about ancient Cornwall. We thought we might make a few day trips to these places.”
“Sounds fun,” Charlotte said. “What do you think, girls? Shall we all become explorers?”
The girls nodded enthusiastically.
“But first we must have our strawberry tarts,” Imogen said.
Cormac set her in a chair and winked at his brother as Imogen and Ella both began to dig into their tarts. “Phoebe and I have something more to tell you.”
Charlotte gasped. “I knew it. Oh, I did not mean…but I took one look at Phoebe and… Do tell us.”
“I am five months along, so it is hardly a surprise.” Phoebe patted her stomach.
John clapped his brother on the back. “I should have realized immediately by that banshee grin on your face when we arrived. I thought you were happy to see us. But I see you are happy for completely other reasons.”
Cormac held up his lemonade in a toast. “We are overjoyed to have you with us and hope to have three of us to greet you when you return next year.”
“Four,” Imogen said, licking a bit of strawberry off the corner of her little bow lips.
“Yes, four,” Ella confirmed.
Cormac and Phoebe exchanged glances.
Cormac knelt beside the girls’ chairs. “What makes you say that?”
