“I know. But by telling you this, he’s going to feel betrayed again.”
“Non, ma fille. You leave Lance to me.”
He reached in his pocket for his cell phone. “Henri? Will you phone my son and tell him he needs to come to the château immediately? That’s all you need to say.”
Damn if Lance’s flight to Paris hadn’t been delayed due to engine trouble.
At least Andrea was on her way to Connecticut out of harm’s way. That is if her plane got there safely, but he couldn’t deal with that kind of nightmarish possibility right now.
Growing impatient, he pulled out his phone to call another carrier. Maybe he could make another flight leaving in the next ten or fifteen minutes. As he started to ask for information, a call came through from the château.
He clicked on. “Salut, Henri.”
Without preamble the older man said, “Your father asked me to call you and tell you to come home immediately.”
Since Andrea was gone, there could only be a few reasons for such a gut-wrenching request. His hand tightened on the phone. “Is he ill?”
“He wouldn’t tell me. He just said for you to hurry. I gathered from him that it was critical.”
Maybe Corinne had paid him an unexpected visit. No one knew her exact whereabouts. A cold sweat broke out on his body.
“By some stroke of fate I’m still in Rennes. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
His meeting with the attorney forgotten, he dashed out to the car park. Breaking all the speed limits, he made it to the château in a half hour.
To his shock and relief, his father came out the front entrance and hurried over to the car looking perfectly well.
He searched his father’s eyes. They searched his with such pain and pleading he was floored. “Papa? What’s going on? Why did you send for me?”
“There’s someone inside who will explain. Please hear her out first, then you’ll understand.”
A shudder passed through him because he knew who it was…
The blackness he’d lived with for the last ten years caused something to snap inside Lance. In a white-hot fury, he got out of the car and raced inside the château.
“Corinne?”
Andrea, who’d changed into a robe and was resting while she waited, felt her husband’s deep voice. It shook the very beams of the green room.
“No, Lance—” She could hear Geoff’s panic all the way down the hall to the staircase.
She raised up from her pillow. He was here so soon? How could he have gotten back from Paris this fast?
“You can try to hide, Corinne, but it won’t do you any good.”
If Andrea had been Geoff’s stepdaughter, she would have fled for her life. Instead she got up and stood inside the open doorway with fear and trembling in case Lance couldn’t forgive her.
The second she saw him coming down the hall, she could tell by his body language he’d slipped into military mode. Seek and destroy.
I’m not your enemy, darling.
His hands started to reach for her when he realized he’d caught hold of the wrong woman.
“Andrea—” came his strangled cry. He looked like he was seeing a ghost. His sudden pallor was testimony of his shock.
“What in God’s name are you doing here? Not two hours ago I put you on the plane.”
“I couldn’t leave you, Lance. You’ve carried your burdens too long by yourself. It’s time you let your father and me help you.”
“Your wife’s right.” Geoff walked up to them with Percy at his side.
Lance shot her a wounded glance that made her reel before he addressed his father. “My wife had no right—”
“If the woman who loves you with all her heart and soul doesn’t, then who does, mon fils? Do you think Andrea or I care if Corinne wants to blacken our name forever? The three of us know the truth. So does God. He’s the only judge who matters. Forget the tribunal.
“I’ve phoned our attorney and asked him to give Corinne her inheritance now. It’ll be more money than she would win in a judgment, therefore there’ll be no case and no media frenzy.”
Lance’s eyes closed tightly for a moment, reflecting his pain. “That’s like making a plea bargain with the devil.”
“As Andrea said, it’s only money, and I had planned to will it to her. She can never hurt us where it really counts. If she ever comes near anyone in the family again, she’ll be arrested.
“Your wife has not only saved you a needless trip to Paris, she’s put this family back together. Today it feels like Joyous Gard around here. Que Dieu te benisse, ma chérie.” He kissed her on both cheeks.
“Now I don’t know about you two, but I have other plans for the rest of the day. Come on, Percy.”
Andrea moved back in the room and waited on the bed for Lance. At first she was afraid he wouldn’t follow her.
An eternity had to pass before she felt him stare down at her through his dark lashes. She could only see little slits of blue.
“If all the sins of omission and commission were supposedly exposed through you today, why did you leave my father with the impression that you’re in love with me?”
The air caught in her lungs. “Because I am.”
His hand went to the back of his neck in a gesture she’d come to understand helped prevent him from doing damage. Lance was going to need some convincing.
“That night in the forest, love happened to me, Lance. I heard your tread. At first I thought it was the sound of an animal carried by the night breeze. Then I saw your face. When you took my camera, I felt your touch for the first time and was never the same again.
“On that warm summer night I’d gone there a widow who’d long since done her grieving, yet found herself in mourning for something she couldn’t put a name to.
“In one chance encounter you transformed me into a trembling woman who recognized she’d met the man who would change the tenor of her life forever.
“Lie down with me, Lancelot Du Lac. I want to feel that marvelous joy come over us as was never heard or known.”
The hand at his neck slowly fell to his side, as if dropping an invisible sword that had become too heavy to wield. “For how long?” came the husky question. “A night and day?”
“For as long as you want me. Have no fear I’ll ask for more.”
He leaned over her until their breath mingled. “What if I want more?” His eyes had ignited into blue flames.
She took his hand and pressed it against her heart. “Feel that?” His breath stilled. “It’s yours.”
He sank down beside her.
Growing more emboldened, she moved his hand lower, giving him permission to explore her burgeoning body. “One day soon you’ll feel our baby move inside me. I’ve pledged him to you. Not for a night and a day, but a lifetime and beyond if you’ll have us,” she whispered against his lips.
The sweet, liberating calm of a woman who knew she was loved washed over Andrea. It was the trembling of her beloved’s body that fed the wildfire running through her veins.
Filled with desire, she wrapped her arms around his neck and drew his head down to her heart. To her delight his hair had grown longer over the last month. As her fingers made furrows through the black curls, he buried his face in the warmth of her ripening body.
Yearning toward him, she cried out in joy.
Lance came out of sleep hungry for his wife. He wanted nothing but her. He needed her and reached for her beautiful body the way he’d done over and over again in the night.
To his shock, the place where she’d lain beside him was empty.
The green room had no windows. In panic he felt all around him in the darkness. Nothing.
Had he been dreaming?
Grabbing her pillow, he pressed it to his face. The scent of her still lingered.
He jackknifed into a sitting position. “Andrea?” he cried, fearing Merlin had tricked him with one night of fantasy, and now he was left with nothing but memorie
s so fantastic, he would never recover.
“I’m right here.”
The vision of her body outlined against the hallway light started his heart beating frantically again. She held a tray in her hand. “It’s almost noon, mon amour. I’m quite sure my knight needs to feed his other appetite. Turn on the bedside lamp.”
Feeling like he was under some hypnotic spell, he did her bidding. She closed the door before coming to him all glowing and fresh from the shower.
The soft light picked out the gold in her flowing brown hair. Above the neckline of her creamy nightgown, a flush tinted her high cheekbones. Combined with those dark velvety-brown eyes and that mouth made for him, her beauty transcended any image of Guinevere.
She put the tray on the bed, then knelt next to him to serve him. He caught her hand and kissed the palm.
“I think I’m going to commission an artist to fill a room in our home with full-size pictures of you.”
Her mouth covered his. “You don’t need to do that. I plan to be by your side and in your arms from here on out.
“And after the baby comes, I plan for the three of us to go to the Galerie Bouffard so that predatory female with the swivel hips will eat her heart out!” She bit into her toast.
He grinned before consuming several strips of bacon at the same time. “When we bought those things for the crib, I decided maybe there was hope for you loving me after all.”
“Liar,” she whispered. “You knew how I felt about you from the beginning.”
After finishing off his eggs he said, “You gave me some bad moments when you wouldn’t open your door. That decided me on a campaign to win you over no matter how long it took.”
“All of an embarrassingly short four days as I recall.”
He trapped her gaze. “We had a marriage on paper. But it requires more than that to make it real. I rushed you into something you weren’t ready for.”
“Lance…” She put down her juice glass. “Just a minute. There’s something I want to show you.”
She slid off the bed and went over to the chair where she’d put her overnight bag. After drawing something out of it, she came back to the bed and handed it to him.
It was the baby book he’d given her. Surprised she’d brought it with her, he glanced up at her.
“Go on, darling. Open it.”
Sensing her urgency, he turned the cover to the first page. At the top he read, My name is Geoffroi-Richard Fallon Malbois Du Lac.
Below the writing she’d left a blank place for his picture.
“Keep going.”
The second page said, In memory of my father, Richard Fallon, the brilliant professor and scholar who gave me life. He descends from a long line of French-Canadians.
Andrea had inserted six pictures of her deceased husband in various settings and poses with her.
Lance had never seen him before. He was a nice looking dark blond man. They made an attractive couple, yet Lance couldn’t relate to the woman in the picture. These had been taken at a different stage in her life when he hadn’t known of her existence.
“Look on the next page.”
He did her bidding. The second he saw what was there, his throat swelled with emotion. She’d put in an eight by ten photograph of Lance in uniform. It was an enlargement of a snap he’d sent his father soon after he’d been commissioned in the elite force.
This is my father, Lancelot Malbois Du Lac, son of Geoffroi Malbois, the current Duc Du Lac. His ancestry goes back to Clovis. The greatness of a king flows through my father’s veins. He served with honor in France’s elite force.
“Andrea…”
He felt her arm slip around his shoulders. “There’s more.”
After he turned the page, Lance found himself having to blink back the moisture.
Staring at him was an eight by ten photo Henri must have taken at their wedding ceremony. It showed the two of them staring into each other’s eyes while they were repeating their vows.
His eyes went to the top of the page.
My father married my mother, Andrea Gresham Fallon, on June the seventh. My mother told me it was a marriage of the heart.”
EPILOGUE
“AFTER he’s taken two ounces, don’t forget to burp him each time.”
Geoff looked up at his son in consternation. It made Andrea laugh. “You’d think I’d never been around a baby before. With Brigitte and Henri here to help me, my little grandson and I will get along just fine.
“Why don’t you leave so he and I can finally get acquainted! We have a lot to discuss. One day he’ll be Duc. It’s not too soon to let him know about his responsibilities.”
In six weeks their bald baby still hadn’t grown any hair. Lance seemed worried about it until she told him it might be months before it started coming in.
He had the cutest little face and sturdy body in the world. He was half Richard, half Andrea. She’d thought she might feel pain to see Richard’s resemblance. She knew Lance had been secretly worried about it, too. But the reverse happened. All they felt was joy in this new life who’d come to live with them.
Lance took great pride in his son’s strength. When he put out a finger, the baby grabbed hold and wouldn’t let go even when Lance started to pull him up. He loved to diaper him and take care of him. It was a revelation to watch.
“If you need to reach us, we’ll be at the Chez Juliette in Lyseaux.”
Geoff waved him off. “I won’t need you!”
“We’ll be back by eleven so Andrea can nurse him. He doesn’t like the formula that much, so don’t be surprised if you have to coax him a little bit. He likes the back of his head rubbed, but do it gently.”
“Sacré bleu, mon fils—assez!”
After being in France over a half a year, Andrea understood her father-in-law’s French very well. Geoff had been living for this moment, and her husband was ruining it. If she couldn’t drag him away, there were going to be fireworks.
“Come on, darling. They won’t hold our table forever.” Andrea was so excited to be going out with her husband. She thought he was anxious to get her alone, too. That’s why she was surprised how much trouble she was having to tear him away from his little raison d’être.
Fatherhood agreed with him. In fact he’d embraced it so wholeheartedly, she understood a certain scene in her favorite old film a lot better than she did in her teens. The one where the father brings home a gift for the baby and the mother is lying there in bed ignored.
“Hey—Remember me? I’m your wife. I don’t suppose you thought to bring me a gift, too?” the woman had said.
Andrea didn’t want or need gifts, but she did want Lance’s complete and undivided attention for a change.
“Lance?”
He kissed the baby before striding toward her. “I’m all yours.”
Her eyes widened. “Promise?”
“Do you trust me?”
Uh-oh. “Always.”
“Good,” he said as he helped her out to the car.
Her premonition that he was up to something grew stronger the minute he made a turn that led to the woods. “Where exactly are you taking us?”
“Tonight there’s going to be a full moon. I thought you’d enjoy a swim in the enchanted pool.”
“In January?” her voice rose several decibels.
“Just a dip. I’ll warm you up after.”
“Lance Malbois—you stop the car right now and turn around.”
He let out a devilish chuckle. “Not on your life, mon amour. The last time we went swimming together, you were enceinte. That’s not your problem anymore.”
“You wouldn’t really make me go swimming with you tonight, would you?”
“I want to prove it’s my face you see in the water.”
“How much more proof do you need that I love you?”
While her question reverberated, he pulled the car off the road beneath a huge oak and turned off the engine.
In the next instant he’d
crushed her to him. “I don’t need proof. I simply wanted an excuse to get you alone so I could tell you I’m so in love, I’m frightened. Tu compris?”
Yes, she understood.
Several things had happened to liberate him. It was discovered Corinne had suffered a complete psychotic breakdown, forcing Odette to get her the professional treatment she’d needed for so many years.
Learning this, Geoff decided on another course of action and cut her out of his will. But he agreed to pay all her hospital expenses and provide for her comfort on the condition she told the truth about Lance. Geoff would love her but not at the expense of his son’s future.
To Andrea’s and Lance’s joy, she eventually did admit her lies, wiping the slate clean.
As for the tribunal, Lance’s father hired the best attorney in France to get at the truth. It didn’t take long for the woman who’d scarred him to confess to her lie.
When the highest medal of honor was awarded to Lance for his invaluable service to France, the whole country read about it in the newspapers. He’d become one of Brittany’s most famous celebrities.
He hated the publicity, but Andrea reminded him their son would love it.
She loved it.
She loved him.
Wrapping her arms around his neck she began showing him just how much. She had an idea they wouldn’t be getting home to their baby before morning…
ISBN: 978-1-4268-0686-5
THE DUKE’S BABY
First North American Publication 2007.
Copyright © 2007 by Rebecca Winters.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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