The Pleasure of the Rose

by Jane Bonander

  One of the twins began to squeak. Rosalyn unfastened her bodice and Fletcher brought the wrinkled little thing to her breast.

  He watched her nurse. “I wish I could do that.”

  “What? Deliver twins?” Her eyes twinkled.

  He grinned. “You know exactly what I mean.” He was quiet a moment, then said, “Until you came into my life, I didn’t know what this kind of love was. I love you, Rosalyn.”

  “And I love you, my husband. I’m afraid from nearly the moment I saw you I thought of you in very unladylike ways.”

  “It was probably my bag of tricks you couldn’t resist.”

  Rosalyn’s laugh became a little snort. “That trick bag. I’m forever grateful for it.”

  They lay quietly together, watching as one bairn nursed and then the other.

  “Fen will insist she find you a wet nurse,” Fletcher mused.

  “Well, I’d like to think I could do it all by myself, but I know I can’t. I trust she’ll find someone wonderful.”

  Fletcher put his arms behind his head. “I think I’m going to like this fatherhood thing.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  The next morning, everyone was abuzz with curiosity. Fletcher had gone out to tie up some loose ends, and when he returned, they were all gathered in the morning room.

  “Apparently MacNab had been up to no good for a few years. He was killing the horses, removing the hides, and preparing them for sale to someone on the mainland.”

  “No wonder the herd was so low,” Rosalyn mused.

  “Was he doing this alone, or did he have help?” Duncan wanted to know.

  “His brother-in-law, Douglas the Lum, kept the fifty-pound bags of salt in his shed to be used for curing the hides to keep them from rotting.”

  “How did you discover that?” Gavin asked.

  “When I went to see about the goat he’d shot, I noticed that his shed windows had been painted over. The same was true of the old cottage I’d come across in the forest. And then, I ran into Douglas himself at the shack.”

  “How will you handle Douglas, since he was implicated?” Rosalyn tucked a twin close to her chest while Kerry cuddled the other.

  “He was under MacNab’s thumb and Nessa is his sister. And MacNab threatened to hurt Nessa even more than he already had if Douglas didn’t become his accomplice. In any case, I have a feeling everyone connected with that family will have a better life from now on.”

  “Will Nessa MacNab run the pub?” Rosalyn asked.

  “Dan McKay, who runs the distillery, had shown interest in buying it a couple of times but MacNab wouldn’t sell. Maybe now she can get rid of it and finally concentrate on her children.”

  There was a rather feeble knock on the door and Barnaby poked his head in. “There’s a gentleman here to see Miss Kerry, Your Grace.”

  Kerry sat up straight. “Me? Who can that be?”

  Fletcher took the baby from her. “You’d better go out and see.”

  She threw them all a skeptical glance and disappeared. In a very short moment, they heard her shout. “Mariah!”

  Rosalyn looked at Fletcher, who explained, “Douglas the Lum had been ordered to get rid of the mare but he couldn’t do it. That’s another reason I think he’s paid his dues.”

  • • •

  Two weeks had passed, and everyone in the castle, from the family to the help, was immersed in the care of the twins. They still had not been named; there was some disagreement among the parties involved. Duncan and Kerry both agreed they should be Abe and Gabe, after Abraham Lincoln and Gabriel, the angel they’d heard about in their father’s Bible. At least the names rhymed, they said. Gavin thought they should be Hamish and Shamus. Ham and Sham. No one liked that idea, either. Barnaby suggested Albert and Victoria, but he had to be reminded that they were both laddies.

  Rosalyn and Fletcher were in the sunroom, the boys asleep nearby, Sima as close as she could get without tipping the cradle over, when Fen and Geddes peeked in.

  They exchanged shy glances, something that wasn’t lost on Rosalyn.

  “What? What is it, you two? Is something wrong?”

  Fen bent down and brushed Rosalyn’s cheek with her lips. “Not a thing. At least it now seems that everything is grand. We just came by to see the boys.”

  Rosalyn gave them a skeptical look. “Really? That’s all?”

  “Well, of course. You have named them, haven’t you?” Geddes put his hand on Fen’s hip and Fen didn’t push it off.

  “If you two don’t tell me what’s going on, I’ll never tell you what we’ve named the twins.”

  “Well, you may as well know. Geddes and I are getting married.”

  Rosalyn’s mouth hung open. “You’re what?”

  “Getting married. You know, like the two of you.” Fen rested her hand on Geddes’s chest.

  Rosalyn bit down on her lip. “But I thought you didn’t like each other.”

  “We discovered we like each other very much, dear sister. Now, are you going to be up and about for the ceremony?”

  “We wouldn’t miss it,” Rosalyn and Fletcher both answered.

  “And you’ve named the twins?”

  Fletcher lifted the double-wide cradle and set it in front of them. “This is Rory,” he said proudly, touching the bairn’s head with gentle fingers, “and this is Robert. They will be Rory and Rabbie.”

  “After Rosalyn’s Rabbie Burns, no doubt,” Geddes said, his voice warm.

  Rosalyn continued to study the babes. “Indeed.”

  “How do you tell them apart?” Geddes peered into the cradle, his expression bemused.

  “’Tis easy, really. Rabbie has a tiny mole on his left thigh.”

  “So that means every time I want to know which boy I’m holding, I have to undress him.” Fletcher returned to sit beside his wife.

  Everyone laughed, and Rosalyn snuggled against her husband. “Yes, my husband is quite a handy man to have around the bairns.”

  Geddes handed Fletcher a letter. “I received this the other day. It’s a response to the letter I sent Fergus MacBean, explaining that you had been found, and that there was an heir on the way. And that he need not come by to claim the inheritance.”

  Fletcher opened it and read it, shaking his head. “Not a very pleasant chap, is he?”

  “I shudder to think what might have happened if I hadn’t found you,” Geddes admitted.

  Fletcher clamped a hand on his shoulder. “But you did, old man, and since you’ve been my brother-in-law for many months now, and you’re marrying my wife’s best friend, you’re going to have to stop Your Gracing me and call me Fletcher. Agreed?”

  Geddes grinned. “I believe I can do that now, Fletcher.”

  • • •

  Later, when they were in bed together, the twins between them, Fletcher told Rosalyn of his grandfather’s part in MacNab’s mission to slaughter the herd.

  She sighed. “’Tis a shame, to be sure. We all knew he had been a wily old Scot, but somehow, this is different.”

  “Yes. And after speaking with Douglas, I learned that MacNab sold the horse meat to someone on the mainland, and also used it himself to feed his customers.” He shuddered, wondering if that was what he had smelled that day in the pub.

  All things settled, Fletcher tugged his wife closer and murmured, “My heart is full.”

  “As is mine.” Rosalyn didn’t try to stop the tears of happiness that sprang into her eyes.

  “Our life has a new beginning,” he reminded her.

  Yes, she thought, touching the dark hair on Rabbie’s head. And nothing could be more perfect. They had procured a tutor for the children and Gavin absorbed everything the tutor said. Duncan, on the other hand, had become sullen. Kerry willingly did her lessons and helped with the bairns as often as possible. Evan had joined the children in their lessons and was doing well. And Rosalyn had the love and respect of a wonderful man. There was nothing more she could want.

  More fro
m Jane Bonander

  Dragon Tamer

  "Ms. Bonander writes with an easy style that brings her characters and timeframe to vivid, entertaining life." —RT BOOK REVIEWS

  Widowed, alone, and penniless, Eleanor Rayburn is devastated when she learns that her late husband sold his shares of the ship before he died. Desperate to take back what she believes is rightfully hers, she sets out to fight back against the handsome but arrogant owner of the whaler.

  Marine naturalist Dante Templeton survived a hard life, and has found success as an activist against the killing of whales or any marine animal for profit. But it’s his own personal grudge against an enemy from his past that fuels his disdain for Eleanor, and his determination to keep her from reclaiming her share of stocks in the whaler.

  As the feud heats up between Dante and Eleanor, so does the blaze of passion. But is Dante’s love for Eleanor enough to smother his fiery hatred for her husband?

  Dancing on Snowflakes

  Susannah Walker has fled to Angel's Valley with her three-year-old son, seeking safety and a place to anonymously restart her life. What she didn't count on was bounty hunter Nathan Wolfe being hired to find her and take her home to stand trial for her crimes. Carrying his own wounded past in his heart, Nathan is committed to fulfilling the job, until he gets to know Susannah and begins to wonder if she's truly the criminal he's been told she is. But in order to get to the bottom of the mystery he'll have to gain her trust, and trust is one thing Susannah does not give easily.

  Fires of Innocence

  An act of kindness may lead to her greatest loss, or the greatest love she's ever known.

  The wilderness of Yosemite Valley is no place to be caught alone. When Scotty MacDowell rescues a wounded stranger from a fierce blizzard, she is thinking only of saving a lost traveler. She never expects to find a passionate lover in Alex Golovin through nursing him back to health.

  Seven months later, Alex returns to Scotty's tiny cabin in the wilderness, but not to take her back into his arms. Instead of the man she loved, Alex returns as an angry lawyer, determined to run Scotty off of her beloved land. Caught between passion and responsibility, Scotty and Alex endure a daily struggle to stay true to their hearts, no matter the cost.

  Winter Heart

  Desperate to escape a dark past, Dinah Odell will do anything, even risk her freedom by posing as a nurse and accepting a job to care for Tristan Fletcher's mentally fragile sister. She thinks she's prepared for anything, except the sensitive, generous, and mysterious man behind the facade that Tristan Fletcher presents to the world.

  With a dark past of his own, Tristan survived the barbs of childhood by closing his heart off from the rest of the world. He sees something similar in Dinah, a desire to flee, and it sparks his desire to protect her. To marry her, even. But to love her? When Dinah's secret past is revealed, it threatens to ruin everything she and Tristan have worked so hard to create. Will it tear them apart, or strengthen their bond even more?

  Warrior Heart

  After losing his wife in a vigilante attack, Jackson Wolfe ran from his grief and his guilt, leaving behind his baby daughter to be raised by strangers. Twelve years later, he knows it's time to quit running. He's learned everything there is to know about vengeance in his travels around the world, but now it's time to settle down and take up a new mantle: father to Dawn Twilight. He knows that if he finds her, he'll be the best father a little girl ever had. But when he arrives in Thief River to be the new sheriff and claim his daughter, her adoptive mother has other plans. Liberty O'Malley has never loved anyone like she loves Dawn, but she knows she would lose in a legal fight against the new sheriff. Maybe there's a way to keep her daughter, and soothe Jackson's wounded heart in the process.

  Wild Heart

  Living as a spinster and caring for her sister's illegitimate child, Julia Larson has never known passion. So she's surprised by the feelings that are stirred up when a secretive new ranchhand shows up to work on the Larson ranch. He's not a man she can trust, but as a violent fight for her land's water rights heats up, he may be the man she needs.

  Wolf McCloud charms the ladies, but never sticks around long. Having traced the mother who abandoned him to Northern California, he never expects to be drawn to Julia Larson as more than a means to an end. Wolf wants to track down his past, but the possibility of a passionate future with Julia may be a call too rich to resist.

  Forbidden Moon

  A girl's crush grows into a woman's passion.

  When Buck Randall met Molly Lindquist, he knew she was the only person he would ever love. Only a girl when they met, the proud and arrogant Buck promised to wait for her, until she was old enough to become his.

  As an adult, Molly is looking for her ticket out of a life that she hates. Engaged to a powerful Texas rancher and determined to put her unhappy life behind her, she's all but forgotten the pact she made as a child. But when Buck returns to her life, a romance is rekindled that burns too brightly to ignore, and a promise must be kept—at all costs...

  Heat of a Savage Moon

  A young widow searches for her husband's killers, seeking justice—and revenge.

  Rachel Weber arrives in Pine Valley a new bride—only to discover that her husband has been murdered. While she hardly knew the man that brought her to the frontier, Rachel is compelled to seek retribution from the men who killed her husband, even as the most powerful man in town, Jason Gaspard, warns her to stay away.

  Jason Gaspard, an educated man proud of his half-Karok Indian heritage, is infuriated by Rachel's ignorance-fueled vendetta against his people. But as their opposition grows, so does a passion too strong to hide.

  Secrets of a Midnight Moon

  Every road away from her troubled past leads into the arms of a dangerous man.

  After being abandoned by her lover and shunned by her family, Anna Jensen decides to make a new start in the rugged wilderness of the California mountains. But before she can reach her destination and begin her new life as a humble schoolteacher, she's captured by a brooding warrior known only as "Bear."

  Her kidnapping wasn’t entirely random, though. Bear is actually Nicholas Gaspard, the half-Indian son of the rich rancher who originally hired Anna. He intercepted her for what he believes to be a greater cause. Nicholas is a local hero, rescuing abandoned and abused local children, and he kidnapped Anna to educate them. Anna, furious at being tricked, initially resists. But sparks fly between the reluctant teacher and the complex man, revealing a reckless desire that cannot be tamed.

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