Miss Felicity's Dilemma
Page 16
Felicity found herself blinking like a stunned calf. “I’m sorry...”
This time he brushed a gentle finger along her cheek, leaning even closer. “Your threat if I followed you. I thought I would do my best to protect my poor cods by informing you that I don’t think a swear is valid if the thing you swear on is not available. Your grandmother is alive. Therefore, there is no grave to swear upon.”
She became caught on the pertinent part of that ramble. “I have a grandmother?”
She knew her voice sounded unpardonably small. But the news flummoxed her. She simply did not know how to take it. Her whole life she had insisted that she had no interest in a family. Especially a family that had no interest in her.
“Do you think—-”
“That she knows about you? I doubt it. If she had, she undoubtedly would have descended on that school like the Furies and swept you away.”
Felicity attempted a smile. “Is she a dragon as well?”
He laughed. “I believe she taught the other dragons. You’ll like her. She will love you. You have her spirit.”
Felicity closed her eyes, unwilling to take that step towards actual hope. She shook her head. “I think I shall put that revelation away for another day. This one has already been far too full.”
Flint pulled her close again and she let him, because she simply didn’t have the strength to resist. She wanted even a few more moments there.
“Felicity.”
Still she kept her eyes closed. “Shhhhhh. Let me enjoy this a bit longer before I have to go.”
She could feel him stiffen. “Go? Go where?”
“Where I belong.”
It seemed that was the wrong thing to say. Suddenly he pulled away, his hands clamped around her arms, his expression fierce as he glared down at her.
“How many times must I tell you that I will not have that kind of talk? You belong here, Felicity Chambers. In this house, with me. With my staff who will surely revolt if I drive you away. With my Aunt Winnie, who will need your strength and certainty.” Pulling her close, he rested his forehead against hers. “With me, Felicity, because even knowing I wasn’t supposed to, I’m afraid I’ve fallen quite in love with you and cannot let you go.”
She felt tears rise again. She battled the terrible pain of hope. “Why?” was all she could think to ask.
His laugh was breathless. “Damned if I know. All I know for certain is that if you leave this house, I must too. Because I cannot imagine living in it without you.”
She lifted her head and met his gaze to see more than she ever could have hoped there. “Are you certain? This will annoy your father terribly, you know.”
His grin was sudden and brash. “Yes,” he agreed, “it will. Won’t it?”
She pulled back a bit. “Is that what this is all about?”
He scowled. “Did that kiss feel as if my father was all this was about?”
She thought about it a moment and was forced to smile. “No. No it did not.”
He nodded. “In fact, I have—” He reached into his pocket only to come up empty. “Blast. I must have dropped it when I caught sight of that tableau in Aunt Winnie’s room. Wait right here—-”
Felicity held on more tightly. “I don’t think so. I believe whatever it is can wait a few moments more.”
He tilted his head, his eyes sparkling, “Even if whatever it is involves emeralds and diamonds?”
Again, she made a show of thinking on it. “Even then.”
She kept her silence through another protracted kiss that left both of them breathless.
“However, I wouldn’t wait too long. Aunt Winnie will walk off with it.”
Aunt Winnie tried. But she was no match for a woman who had finally found a home for her heart, especially when the ring was accompanied by a broken gold chain holding a battered locket. The duke might have huffed several times when Flint finally slipped the square-cut emerald on Felicity’s finger and kissed her, but his outrage seemed less than sincere. In fact, Felicity had the strangest feeling that this was the ending the duke had planned for all along.
She found that she didn’t care. She was home.
Epilogue
“Are you quite sure about this?” Felicity asked, pausing yet again on the steps of the red brick townhouse on Grosvenor Square.
It wasn’t a big house, but it was impressive, with stone pediments and four bays of sparkling windows. And it was on Grosvenor Square.
Laying a hand against her back to urge her forward, Flint chuckled. “Of course, I am. You might not want to meet her, but she wants to meet you.”
“I didn’t say that exactly...”
It had been only two weeks, during which her life had been completely upended. She was no longer a teacher, but a fiancée, a nascent Society lady with a burgeoning wardrobe, a new family she was still trying to acclimate to and a fiancé who seemed to fit her like a glove.
And now, she had a grandmother.
Drawing a deep, unsteady breath, she let Flint guide her through the black wrought-iron gate and onto the front stoop to be greeted by an open door and an absolutely precise butler, who bowed the perfect depth and greeted them with a sonorous voice.
“My lord, welcome,” he intoned. “Miss Masterson.”
Something else to get used to. A new name to go with her new wardrobe and fiancé. She had balked at first when her Uncle Robert, Uncle Andy’s brother, had proposed officially adopting her. She liked her own name. She had wanted to keep it as something that was still completely her own. But the marquess had seemed so sincere, so heartfelt in his offer—and his wife so gentle—that she found she couldn’t say no. So here she stood, officially known as Felicity Chambers Masterson, and she was still trying to make it fit.
Although as Flint had reminded her, she wouldn’t really have to since in another three weeks she would be a Bracken.
“Miss Masterson,” Flint said with a grin, “this is Parsons. Parsons, Miss Masterson.”
“A pleasure, Miss.”
Felicity couldn’t tell if it really was, as was the way with all butlers, but she took him at his word. “I as well, Parsons.”
“Your grandmother is waiting in the Great Salon,” he said and turned to lead the way.
The news did not help Felicity’s nerves. So, it wasn’t to be a visit as much as an audience. Great salons tended to be the size of ballrooms and decorated to intimidate.
She could have told them all that they didn’t need to go to extra lengths. She was already intimidated. There were cherubs on the arched ceilings of the entryway and Ming vases in the niches along the walls, a Rubens above the staircase and a Canaletto view of Venice along the hallway.
“I’d love to go there,” she sighed, seeing it.
“On our wedding trip?” Flint asked.
She hadn’t meant to say that out loud. She shook her head. “One thing at a time. This thing is my grandmother.”
“Lord Flint Bracken,” the butler intoned. “And Miss Masterson.”
For the brief, breathless moment before she stepped across that threshold, Felicity held onto her all the uncertainties, the losses and yearnings and betrayals she had built up over the years, the family she had imagined and the one she had been given. And then, because she knew that, no matter what, he would be both of those things, she took tight hold of Flint’s hand.
“Ready?” he whispered.
She nodded. “Ready.”
And stepped into the room to be hugged by a weeping, white-haired woman who kept repeating her name as if it were a benediction. And behind her a room of people behind her who smiled in greeting.
Later Felicity would remember those moments as the greatest revelation of her life. Because in meeting the family she’d never thought to have, she made an even greater discovery. Even without them, with Flint she would have had family enough.
But it certainly was nice to have the rest.
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Additional Titles from Eileen Dreyer
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Korbel Classics Collection
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Jake’s Way
Simple Gifts
Timeless
Perchance To Dream
A Soldier’s Heart
A Rose For Maggie
A Walk On The Wild Side
Some Men’s Dreams
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Korbel Classics Humorous Collection
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The Ice Cream Man
Isn’t It Romantic?
A Prince of A Guy
The Princess & The Pea
A Fine Madness
Humorous Boxed Set
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Drake’s Rakes Series
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Barely A Lady
Never A Gentleman
Always A Temptress
It Begins With A Kiss
Once A Rake
Twice Tempted
Miss Felicity’s Dilemma
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Other Regency Romance
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Dueling with the Duke (featured in the Duke’s by the Dozen Anthology)
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Medical, Mystery & Suspense Titles
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A Man To Die For
Nothing Personal
Brain Dead
Bad Medicine
If Looks Could Kill
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About the Author
New York Times Bestselling, award-winning author Eileen Dreyer has published 40 novels and 10 short stories under her name and that of her evil twin, Kathleen Korbel in contemporary romance, paranormal romance, historical romance, romantic suspense, mystery and medical forensic suspense. A proud member of RWA's Hall of FAME, she also has numerous awards from RT BookLovers and an Anthony nomination for mystery. She is now focusing on what she calls historic romantic adventure in her DRAKE'S RAKES series. A native of St. Louis, she still lives there with her family. She has animals but refuses to subject them to the limelight.
Find out more
www.eileendreyer.com