She snorted. “I’m not mad, Papa. Hurt. But I’m not mad,” she said. Eddie had explained to her and Joc why he had done what he had. And what had gone wrong. Joc understood. He was, after all, a horrible actor. But she was good at hiding her feelings. At least from everyone but her parents.
“Eddie doesn’t want to lose your love, ma fille chérie. And he’s afraid ye won’t be forgivin’ him for costin’ you yer husband’s affection.”
She wiped away a tear as she choked on a half laugh and half sob. “Eddie didn’t cost me Luc’s love. I did that all on my own.”
“Are ye sure that mon doesn’t still love you?” he asked.
“How can he? I tried to kill my father. Or who I thought was my father,” she said.
Joc was silent, allowing the wind to whisper through the ropes. “I told him what ye said in Zanzur. About not wanting to kill ye father anymore.”
She looked to the sky and stared at the brilliant stars overhead as clouds gently floated past. “And did he believe you?” she asked.
“Why don’t you ask me?” Luc asked from behind her.
Peggy startled, but wouldn’t turn around. How could she after what she had done? She heard Joc straighten and move past Luc. A moment later, Luc settled on the bowsprit beside her, but facing the opposite direction.
She couldn’t ask the question again. Peggy had never been afraid of anything in her life. Except, maybe, being alone. But she couldn’t ask Luc if he could forgive her. Because if he couldn’t, she didn’t know if she would be able to survive.
After an eternity, he shifted beside her. He reached over and slowly turned her face up to his. His beautiful blue eyes gazed down at her, making her heart pound against her ribs.
“The answer, Lady Margaret Renée Stoughton, is yes, I believed him. Joc said you decided to give up your vendetta because of me. That you loved me and didn’t want to lose that love. Is that true?”
Peggy blinked away the tears in her eyes. She couldn’t get any words past the lump in her throat, so she just nodded.
“Well, that is good, Lady Margaret Stoughton. Because I’m in love with you too. And I don’t want to lose you either.”
Peggy bit her lip and stifled another sob. Then she just turned into his arms and launched herself at him. “Oh my God, Luc, I love you.”
“And I love you,” he said, and then he kissed her.
Epilogue
He was going to kill his brother. Luc didn't care that Gabe was one of the highest members of English society. He didn't care that he would most definitely hang for the offense.
"Gabe, if you bump into my wife one more time, I am going to put a bullet through your empty head, you clumsy oaf," Luc threatened.
"Your brother doesn't mean it," Katie said.
"Oh yes he does, Katie," Peggy assured the two of them in a bright cheerful voice. "The man has been impossible to live with since he discovered I was pregnant."
"You mean he wasn't beforehand?" Gabe asked. He extended his arm to escort Peggy from the walled in garden at the back of hers and Luc’s new home.
"Yes, he was a bit difficult then too. But since he discovered I was increasing, he has been a proper bear," Peggy said as she allowed his brother to escort her.
"Most husbands are, my dear," his sister-in-law said as she followed them.
Gabe glanced back at his wife, whom Luc was dutifully escorting. He didn’t want to offend his sister-in-law, but he would rather have Peggy on his arm. The look that passed between the couple was one Luc now understood all too well. Nonetheless, his teeth clenched at the dig.
He hissed at his brother, "Gabe, if you don't do something about your wife I am going to . . . going to do something . . . really awful."
He couldn't of course. Luc adored his sister-in-law almost as much as he loved his brother. Katie had been a Godsend to his wife. And to him as well.
"See, I told you he was acting like the proverbial mother bear where I am concerned. And to tell you the truth, I'm getting quite tired of it," Peggy told them, her voice echoing off the walls of the nearly empty townhouse. "It isn't reasonable. And frankly, I have no intentions of putting up with it for the next several months."
Bless his brother for finally coming to his defense. "Give the pup a chance, Peggy. He’s only just learned he is going to be a papa. It took me a little time to get used to it also.
Katie snorted, but didn’t comment.
They all arrived at what was to be Luc and Peggy’s drawing room. His brother settled Peggy into one of the only chairs in the room. Luc escorted his sister-in-law to the other one and settled her.
As he stood up, Peggy fixed her eyes on him and in her old "Captain Peri" voice decreed, "Fine. I'll give him another week of being boorish about all this." Her chin rose and her eyes sparkled. "Maybe two. But that's the limit of my endurance, Gabe. After that you have to take him until after this baby is born."
"Oh no, we don't," Katie piped in, "I already have one overbearing husband to deal with. You, dear sister, have to deal with your own pea-brained husband."
Luc was saved from responding by their new butler. Another former soldier who was missing a leg and looked more like a pirate in formal wear.
"My lord, the Earl and Countess of Kiterman. And a Mr. and Mrs. Montfort to see you," Sorby intoned in his best imitation of a proper butler.
Luc would have to have a talk with his old comrade. With friends and family he didn't think it was necessary to use the new title bestowed on him by the Prince Regent. Lord Hastmann was just too formal for his liking. But then again, the earl and countess were family. And although the name sounded familiar, Luc had no idea who this Mr. and Mrs. Montfort were, so Luc would let the man have his due.
"Still not used to the title, are you?" Gabe whispered as the earl and countess came through the door.
"No," Luc said curtly.
"It takes a little getting used to," his brother responded.
"Have you? Gotten used to the damn title yet?" Luc asked. His brother had avoided becoming the Duke of Belfort for more than a decade and had only accepted the responsibility because of his own wife.
"No. And I'm not bloody likely ever going to get used to the damn thing," Gabe grumbled just as the earl greeted them.
"Lord Hastmann, a pleasure to see you again. Lady Hastmann, we hope you are well," the earl said as he extended his hand to Luc. Peggy and her father were still working on rebuilding their relationship. Luc hoped they would hurry it up so they could stop being so damn formal with each other.
"A pleasure, my lord. And we are quite well." Luc heard his wife snort at his last comment. To avoid reopening that discussion he turned to his mother-in-law. "Lady Kiterman, you are looking lovely today."
"Merci, Lucien," the countess returned. She was having no problems whatsoever in accepting her new family. Luc hoped that her ready acceptance and warmth would eventually thaw father and daughter.
"Your Graces," the earl said as he turned to Gabe and Katie. He bowed politely and then continued. "It is a pleasure to see you again as well."
"Gabe or Gabriel, Marcus." His brother said firmly but politely. "We are all family now, and I see no reason to stand on formalities."
It wasn't the first time his brother had made the request. Luc just hoped it was the last time.
"Certainly, your . . ." Marcus grimaced, "Gabriel."
Luc's heart went out to the man as he eyed his own daughter from across the room and yet made no attempt to go near her. Marianne had no such difficulty. She gave Luc a quick hug and kiss on the cheek before hurrying over to Peggy.
He started to turn and watch aunt and niece greet each other although they were also now stepmother and stepdaughter. But before he could turn, a huge shadow darkened the doorway. The sight so astounded him that Luc’s mouth fell open, and he gaped.
Joc stood in the doorway, dressed in the height of fashion. Blue coat, red waistcoat, and immaculately tied cravat. His hair had been tamed and cut in the la
test fashion as well. In short, the man looked ridiculous and elegant all at once. Much like the first time Luc had seen the man on the streets of Rochester.
Luc was so startled by the sight of his other in-law that he nearly missed the pretty, mature woman at Joc’s side. Her hand was delicately laid upon the man's arm. But when his eyes turned to her he staggered back several steps.
"Aunt Edwina, Uncle Jocquelin," Peggy cried from behind him. "You've made it back to London."
"Of course we made it back, child. I told you I'd be here. Didn't I?" the woman said in a husky voice.
The voice was the same. So were the mannerisms. But this was not the pirate Luc had met six months ago. This was a gently born and raised woman. A woman of some years but not nearly as many as the pirate Luc had met in Tripoli.
Stupefied, Luc watched as his wife enthusiastically hugged the woman. Then the Earl of Kiterman stepped forward and greeted the woman warmly and then the countess did so.
"Well, Edwina?" Marcus asked the woman carefully.
"Marcus," the woman returned casually if not somewhat hesitantly.
A moment of silence was broken when the countess elbowed her husband sharply in the side.
There seemed to be a moment to Luc. A moment of great importance that seemed to pass between the woman and the earl. Then the earl let out his breath and enfolded the woman's in his arms. "So is it to be sister or cousin?" Marcus asked the woman.
"Cousin, once removed, I would think, Marcus. There are still many who would recall you had an older brother and know that no sister existed," the woman replied. Her consternation melted away in the face of the earl's obvious acceptance.
Marcus Hennessey smiled down at the woman. "Cousin it is then," he said and winked at her, "once removed."
"Once removed and from France," Jocquelin added as he stepped forward and proffered his hand to the earl.
Marcus looked down at the hand offered and then up into the hopeful face of the former pirate. He smiled and nodded his head as he accepted the hand. "Once removed and living these past years in France." He firmly shook the man's hand and added, "How have you been doing, my old friend?"
The two men walked off to the other side of the room as they caught up on their lives. Eddie took the countess' arm and moved to the vacated chairs. What they were talking about Luc had no idea, which worried him just a little.
Turning back and forth, he watched the older couples conversing as if they had known each other for years and only been apart a short time. His eyes finally settled on his wife, who was standing in front of Luc and watching him intently.
"Luc?" she asked.
"Just to be clear, that is who I think it is. Isn't it?" he asked.
She swallowed then nodded her head. "Yes, husband, it is."
He glanced over at the woman. Somehow this persona made a great deal more sense to Luc than the one that cast the woman in the guise of a Barbary pirate.
"It is the only way they can legally live together in England. And Eddie has always felt more like a woman than a man, Luc. Most of the time while I was growing up, Edwina, or Eddie was the one I knew. Not Edward. In essence she was my mother, Luc. Jocquelin was my father. It is how I have always seen them. As my adoptive parents. If not by blood then by them always being there for me. Loving me and raising me as their own child."
Luc regarded the woman again and allowed the truth of his wife's words to settle in. The game they were playing was a very dangerous one. If anyone should find out, the both of them could be hanged. Luc didn't understand the love they felt for each other. Or this new aspect of the pirate he had known as Eddie. But during his years as a soldier, he had seen similar things more than once and had long ago decided that it was none of his business whom another person loved or how they lived their lives as long as they were not hurting others.
"Luc, say something," his wife entreated.
He turned to her and saw the hope and anxiety on her face. When he had been told she had gone down with her ship, Luc would have given anything to have her back. And God had granted him his wish. So he would keep her secret and guard those that she loved with his life.
He cupped her face between his hands and brushed his lips across hers reassuringly. He had meant the kiss to be chaste. But his wife had other plans. She usually did. The kiss soon turned passionate and consuming.
"Boy! Unhand my niece," Eddie’s voice finally broke through his deepening erotic haze. "At least until I've had a chance to visit with her."
"And they're in their bedroom," Marcus grumbled from behind them.
"Why?" Marianne asked. "We rarely wait until we're in the bedroom for such things. She is half French, after all. And we French do not need to wait for a particular room for our passions to run wild."
Luc smiled at his wife. For what he wanted to do with his angel he needed to wait until he got her up to their room. For his Fallen Angel had saved him and given him the life he had always wanted.
THE END
Other Books by Julianna Hughes
Book #1, Fallen Angels series,
To Save a Guardian Angel
RELEASED September 29, 2018
Also by Julianna Hughes
The Fallen Angels NOVELLA series
Book #1, The Fallen Angels NOVELLA,
The Christmas Promise
RELEASED November 20, 2018
Book #2, The Fallen Angels NOVELLA,
Alison’s Scandalous Affair Book
* * *
RELEASED October 23, 2018
Upcoming Titles
The Earl’s Night of Being Wild
Coming April 2019!
To Save an Angel
Coming Summer 2019!
About the Author
Julianna Hughes is a retired police sergeant who has spent her life creating romantic stories about pirates and heroic women who are powerful and capable of saving the men they love. After more than thirty years in law enforcement, she is now sharing her thrilling and romantic stories with the world.
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To Save a Fallen Angel (The Fallen Angels series Book 2) Page 28
