Page 88 of Starlight and the Duke
Fiona must have felt his absence, because she now stirred. “Rob? Could you not sleep?”
He smiled. “Best sleep I’ve had in years, love.”
She donned her nightgown, which had lain unused on their bed, and padded to his side. Holding her face up to the sun, she sighed. “It’s going to be another perfect summer day.”
He drew her into his arms. “A hot day. Look how strong the sunlight is upon the water already.”
“No, Rob. There’s no sunlight.”
He arched an eyebrow in question. “No sunlight?”
“Only starlight,” she said, smiling up at him. “Beautiful, sparkling starlight.”
“Is that so?” he said with a light chuckle.
She nodded. “Nothing but shimmering stars.”
“Then I am mistaken and it must still be nightfall. Care to join me back in bed?”
Her smile broadened. “I can be persuaded.”
Epilogue
Shoreham Manor
Near Brighton, England
July 1819
Rob had expressedno objections when Fiona insisted on holding another of her summer house parties, since it had been a long-standing tradition at Shoreham Manor. Last year, she had ceded the annual party to her cousin Gawain and his wife, Cherish, because they wanted to show off their newly refurbished home, the neighboring Northam Hall.
But Fiona was eager to be back in full force as hostess.
“Sure, love,” Rob had said when she first brought up the topic. “Who do you want to invite?”
“Well, I was thinking…” She had shown him a neatly written list, obviously something she had been giving thought to for weeks, possibly months.
And now their guests had begun to arrive.
Fiona was smiling broadly, glad to have reclaimed the role of hostess.
But this year’s party would be more of a family affair rather than a crush of debutantes and bachelors hoping to make advantageous matches. Bromleigh and Cherish now had a newborn daughter, while Reggie and Margaret were the proud parents of a son. Ramsdale and Ailis had sent their regretsbecause she had just given birth to twin girls and the trip to Brighton was simply too much to undertake.
Lynton and Eden had come down with Lynton’s children, who seemed to thrive under Eden’s nurturing. His sons had made fast friends with the Milbury boys, which proved a little hard for Priscilla, Lynton’s youngest, for she was the only girl among them and feared she would be left out of all the fun. However, Milbury’s boys turned out to be very kind lads and went out of their way to include her in all their adventures.
Eden and Lynton went along to supervise the children, because adventures usually meant trouble, and this was something they were eager to avoid.
Jocelyn and Camborne were the last to arrive at the week-long party, happily making the trip down from Scotland to be among friends. They would stay on for an entire month before returning home because it was nonsensical for them to come all the way down here just to turn around and head north again. “This might be the last trip we make in a while,” Camborne announced with pride. “With the Lord’s grace, we may have a little bairn before the end of the year.”
“Congratulations,” Rob said with hearty enthusiasm, grinning at Camborne, whose buttons were about to pop because his chest was so puffed up with pride.
Jocelyn stood smiling beside her husband. “The midwife told us it’s to be a boy. I have no idea how she can tell, but she claims it is obvious by the shape of my body. If the weight gain is all up front, it is a boy, she insists. I’ve heard she is never wrong.”
Rob spared a glance at Fiona, worried that she might be feeling some heartache now that so many of their friends had started families of their own. But she seemed fine and surprisingly at ease with all of this domesticity.
A schedule was developed, the children dining early and then being sent upstairs under the watchful eyes of two ofFiona’s most trusted maids. The Milbury boys often slept over, which proved easier, since the Lynton children and Milbury boys got along famously and never tired of playing with each other. Nighttime treats were plentiful—milk and cakes, biscuits, fruit, and hardier fare if any of the children were particularly famished, which they always were.
The adults dined later on their own, and it was on a balmy summer evening with the full moon aglow that they sat around the table discussing what thetonwas to do now that there were no more Silver Dukes on the Marriage Mart.
