by Brenda Joyce
“Cliff! I do not despise you.” She hesitated, her heart pounding madly. She had hurt him and she genuinely hated the choice she had made. Worse, he still didn’t understand and while she was afraid to confess her love, she had no choice. He deserved the entire truth. “My feelings haven’t changed. They will never change,” she whispered, reaching out to touch his cheek.
He caught her hand and gripped it tightly, against his chest. “Then I don’t understand. How could you leave me?” he demanded. “Do you still love me? Because I made love to you, Amanda, and I have never made love to a woman before.”
Amanda cried out, incredulous.
“It was the most miraculous experience of my life, next to the realization I had in the front hall when I saw you in your ball gown. I believe I have loved you since you were a wild child, roaming the beaches of the island. Or maybe I began falling in love with you at King’s House, when you tried to assault the governor.” His eyes blazed with emotion. “I tried very hard to deny not just my passion for you, but the feelings in my heart. I have never been in love before! Various members of my family have accused me of being obtuse, and now I agree with them. It took that eighteen-day separation for me to realize that I missed you the way I had never missed anyone before. When you came down those stairs, I realized I was fighting not lust, but love.” He took a breath and finally, he smiled. Then the smile vanished. “Honor has nothing to do with my proposal.” His gaze was fierce. “If you still love me, I must know now.”
Amanda was dazed. She went into his arms and allowed the tears to fall freely. “I have never stopped loving you. How could I?” Then she looked up. “Is this a dream? Do you really love me? How can you love me?”
“Well,” he said, smiling, his eyes going soft and dark at once, “if I exclude the obvious, such as your beauty and courage…” His smile faded and his expression became serious. “I admire you as I have never admired anyone. But there is something more. When you were gone—when you left me—I felt lost and incomplete. I felt confused.” He hesitated. “I felt fear and panic.”
Amanda embraced him, realizing this man had probably never been afraid in his life. “I never wanted to be a shopkeeper,” she whispered against his chest. “I never wanted to leave you and I never want to leave you again.”
For one moment, he wrapped her as tightly as he could without crushing her. “Thank God,” he whispered back, tilting up her face. “Once, you told me you could think of nothing you would rather do than sail with me.”
Her heart leaped wildly, explosively. She reached up so she could clasp his beautiful face in her hands. “There is nothing I would rather do.”
His smile returned, beatific. He lifted her into his arms. “Then we are going cruising, my darling.” He carried her to the bed. “I have missed you. And I intend to show you just how much.”
He bent his head and he kissed her deeply. Amanda kissed him back, her heart exploding with so much love and joy, the emotions were almost unbearable. “I feel like Cinderella,” she gasped as he laid her down.
He moved on top of her, his smile tender. “I am no prince.”
She laughed. “Cliff, you are Prince Charming in the flesh—and I think you know it!”
He grinned with a dimple and began kissing her in a very leisurely and torturous manner. “I am not taking over command of this ship,” he murmured when they both came up for air.
Amanda could guess what that meant—ten days spent in his cabin and in his bed. She could barely wait. “I am very pleased. But my darling, do you wish for an audience?”
He smiled at her. “Actually, I wish to give you something, and I do not mind an audience.” He sat up, reaching into the pocket of his pale doeskin breeches. Then he held out a huge diamond ring.
Amanda gasped.
“May I?” he asked.
“When did you get this?” But she held out her hand, stunned and amazed.
“Hmm.” He slid it on. “You were probably boarding this ship and about to make sail while I was making this purchase.”
Her smile vanished and their gazes locked. “I am so sorry,” she said.
“I should have told you that I loved you when we were making love.”
She touched his jaw. He turned his head and kissed her hand, then he smiled, his eyes taking on a familiar gleam. “How badly do you wish for a society wedding?”
She became still. “I haven’t given a wedding of any kind a single thought.”
He leaned close, kissed her for a while, then murmured, “Could I persuade you to allow Mac to marry us?”
She sat bolt upright. “Yes.”
“That was easy enough,” he said, clearly smug and pleased. “But I had hoped for the opportunity to show off my powers of persuasion.”
“You can show them off after we are wed,” she breathed, shaking in disbelief. “Do you mean…now?”
He stood and held out his hand. “Yes, I do.”
She removed her ring, giving it to him, and then took his hand, their gazes locked. With a soft smile, he led her from the cabin, only pausing to retrieve his Bible from his desk. “Mac. You have a wedding to perform. Hand over the helm to Clark.”
Mac grinned. “Aye, sir!” He leaped down to the main deck. “Sir, permission to call all hands?”
Cliff shrugged. “I am not captain here. Do as you will.”
Mac turned and nodded at Clark. Amanda faced Cliff, who squeezed her hand as footsteps sounded, the sailors from belowdecks racing up, those in the yards lithely dropping down. An eternity stretched out and she realized that her every dream was coming true. She was a lady at last, and she had Cliff’s heart.
Images of a beautiful life flashed in her mind. She saw them with Ariella and Alexi at Windsong, spending a cozy summer evening on the balcony overlooking the turquoise sea. She saw herself and Cliff in his ebony four-poster bed, lost in the throes of passion. She saw herself cradling an infant child in her arms, with Cliff leaning over her, smiling at them both. Tears blurred her vision.
“Ready, sir?” Mac asked.
“Yes, I am,” Cliff said, clearing his throat. “But I would like to say something first. I must make my own vows.”
He took both of her hands in his. “Amanda. I hardly know where to begin.” His eyes became moist. “You became the center of my life, of my existence, the day I rescued you at King’s House. Shortly after, I vowed to protect you and secure your future. Today, I am making those vows come true.”
She started to cry.
He smiled, his nose red. “I give you more vows now, my darling. I vow to honor, cherish, respect and admire you. I vow to forsake all others, and most importantly, I vow to love you, with all of my heart and my entire soul, now and forever. Life is uncertain, but I vow now that I will move heaven and earth to give you a life filled with comfort, luxury, joy and peace—a life you so sorely deserve. And Amanda? I will do my utmost to keep the bad at bay and to bring good fortune to our home. I want you to be utterly happy.”
Amanda was crying and she could not stop. Cliff de Warenne was a man of his word, and her future had been secured. She took his face in her hands, trembling. “I love you so. You have been my protector and my friend, my guardian and my champion, my lover and my hero, too. You have been everything to me and you are everything to me—you will always be my life. Cliff, you are my heart!” She paused to wipe her eyes.
He bent to kiss her, his expression serious and intent.
“I am hardly done!” she cried.
He smiled. “Please, then.”
She inhaled. “I already love Alexi and Ariella, Cliff. I vow to be a loving, kind, compassionate mother to your children. And—” she became shy “—I would like to bear you more children, if you will let me.”
His gaze finally swam with tears.
His eyes blazed. “I should like that, too.” He was hoarse.
“I gave you my heart on this ship, many months ago, shortly after we made sail,” She smiled tremulously at him. �
�You are my Prince Charming, and I will never stop loving you, Cliff.”
His gaze held hers, searching and moist, and she gazed back, overcome. Then he began to smile and he leaned forward to kiss her.
Mac coughed. “No kissing yet, Captain!”
Cliff straightened in surprise as above them chuckles sounded. “I had forgotten,” he murmured. “Please, Mac, do proceed.”
“Do you, Captain de Warenne, swear to honor, love and cherish this woman, forsaking all others, until death do you part?”
“I do,” Cliff said, now grasping her hands.
“Do you, Amanda Carre, also swear to honor, love and cherish this man, in sickness and in health, in good times and bad, until death do you part?”
“I do,” Amanda said tremulously.
Mac said firmly, “By the power invested in me as captain of this vessel, I now pronounce you man and wife.”
Cliff slid her beautiful ring back on her finger. Amanda went into his arms, and above them in the rigging, around them on the deck, all hands hurrahed.
And then, suddenly, Amanda stiffened, and glanced over her shoulder.
Papa stood there, smiling at her, and then he gave her a small salute. I’ve been waiting for this day, Amanda girl. I’ll be going now.
And he vanished.
“Papa,” Amanda breathed.
“Amanda?” Cliff asked with concern.
Still in his arms, she raised her face to his, smiling. “Have I told you lately that I love you?”
He smiled back. “Pray tell me again.” He started kissing her. And again.” He continued kissing her. “But I believe in show and tell.”
Amanda closed her eyes as he kissed her, showing her his love. He hadn’t just secured her future, he had secured her dreams. He was so wrong—he was most definitely a prince—he was her prince and nothing was ever going to change that.
EPILOGUE
Windhaven, Ireland
THE BALL WAS IN full swing. As it was the first ball held by the once very notorious—and still rather notorious—Captain de Warenne in the home he had built for his bride, everyone in the three southern counties had come. Just two hours from Adare, the mansion sat on the cliffs overlooking the sea. From outside, it resembled a French palace more than it did an Irishman’s country home. Within, it was almost shocking, as the decor was an eclectic mixture of oriental, Middle Eastern and European influences, the furnishings from every corner of the world. Gossip abounded. After all, no one had ever dreamed the greatest rogue of his era would ever marry, much less for love. The whispers held that he had not only built such a grand estate as a testament of his undying love, but that he had put the entire property in his wife’s name.
“They are a magnificent couple,” The ancient dowager Baroness O’Connell cackled. “He is the most handsome man in Ireland, and she is so delicate, so graceful and so beautiful!”
“A perfect match!” Her good friend the dowager Countess Marion shook her head in agreement, using her quizzing glass to follow the movements of the waltzing couple. The captain and his wife were alone on the dance floor, as this was the first dance of the evening. “He is a very strong dancer,” she pronounced. “But she is a bit more advanced, I think. They do not waltz, my dear Katherine, they float!”
“It is as if they have danced together forever. How romantic they are!” She sighed. For one moment, as the members of his family took to the floor, the earl and Countess of Adare ahead of the others, she watched the newlyweds, who seemed entranced by one another. She sighed again. “They are so in love. He cannot keep his gaze from her.”
“Well, that is the fate of the de Warenne men—to find true love, never mind the scandal the finding causes, and to love once and forever.”
And recalling several recent scandals, including that of the earl and countess Adare, both cronies laughed. For to them, it was but yesterday.
The baroness leaned close and lowered her voice to a whisper. “I did hear the most absurd and ridiculous rumor.”
Eagerly, her friend bent to her. “Oh, do tell, Katherine.”
“I heard,” her whisper lowered, “that Mrs. de Warenne is a pirate’s daughter!”
For one moment, the countess blinked, and then she started to laugh, shaking her head, the baroness joining her. “Look at her! She is the epitome of elegance—all young ladies should aspire to such grace and beauty! It is impossible!”
“I agree,” the baroness chuckled. “Simply impossible!”
And the two old women laughed at the sheer absurdity of the notion.
Dear Reader,
I hope you have enjoyed Amanda and Cliff’s story. As you probably know, A Lady at Last is the sixth book in the de Warenne dynasty series, and the fourth to be published by HQN. Historical romance is the genre I am most passionate about, and it has been an exciting adventure to take my favorite family and bring them to Regency Ireland and England. The de Warenne and O’Neill men are heroes a woman cannot help but love—they are privileged, powerful and oh so passionate, and they love once and forever.
I fell in love with Cliff in The Stolen Bride, and he remains one of my all-time favorite heroes. But this story has a very special place in my heart, for Amanda Carre came to fruition after my sister’s death. Amanda and Cliff’s love story, in a way, is resonant of my sister’s life, and perhaps that is why I will always cherish it.
In case you haven’t already stopped by to learn more about the de Warenne and O’Neill men and the women who dare to love them, please check out www.thedewarennedynasty.com. Visit the Lounge for sneak peeks and excerpts, including posts on the next de Warenne novel, The Perfect Bride, on sale August 2007. There, after eight long years, Rex de Warenne finds out that perfection can mask all kinds of secrets. He doesn’t care; for in his eyes Blanche Harrington is the perfect bride—but not for him, of course!
And have you entered my contest yet? A very lucky reader will win an amazing trip for two to a five-star resort in Adare, Ireland, the seat of the de Warenne dynasty. So hurry on over to www.thedewarennedynasty.com for details!
Now, let me introduce you to the most powerful, sexiest heroes in the world (to quote Claire Camden): the Masters of Time.
If you have loved my historical heroes, you will love the Masters of Time—medieval Highland warriors sworn to protect Innocence through the ages. These are the most powerful and most arrogant alpha heroes you will ever meet. However, the Masters take their vows very seriously. The world is a dark, dangerous place, and these men exist to defend God and mankind.
The Masters have the ability to time travel. Courageous, smart, witty and sexy contemporary heroines become caught up in the classic and eternal struggle between good and evil in the present day—only to find themselves suddenly whisked back to fifteenth-century Scotland by a medieval hero, a hunk who’s impossible to resist, no matter how hard she tries. In Dark Seduction, on sale May 2007, Claire Camden is in for the adventure—and love—of her life.
She is a Manhattan bookseller, and one fateful night her entire world is turned upside down. Her store is burglarized by a maniacal female cat burglar, and then a gorgeous oversexed hunk costumed as a medieval Highlander appears. Suddenly Claire is in the midst of a battle, surrounded by giant knights. Her only ally is a medieval macho man who thinks he’s the Terminator—when he isn’t trying to seduce her. And she isn’t in New York City anymore! She’s in 1427…
Of course, there is an upside to being trapped in the Middle Ages with a hunk of all ages…
I hope you will check out Dark Seduction in May 2007, and Dark Rival in October 2007. I had the biggest blast ever writing Malcolm and Claire’s story and I cannot wait to start Black Royce’s next. These books are sexy, romantic and exciting; the Masters are heroes to die for. Please visit www.mastersoftimebooks.com, where you will also find news on and excerpts from Dark Seduction and Dark Rival, as well as information about the Masters of Time posters, coming soon.
See you at Dunroch in the summer of 1427!
/>
ISBN:978-1-55254-722-9
A LADY AT LAST
Copyright © 2006 by Brenda Joyce Dreams Unlimited, Inc.
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 M3B 3K9, Canada.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
www.HQNBooks.com
Coming Next Month
If you enjoyed the eBook you just read, then you’ll love what we have for you next month!
ON SALE IN JANUARY 2007
SIZZLING by Susan Mallery, HQN
DELICIOUS by Susan Mallery, HQN
SUSAN MALLERY BUNDLE by Susan Mallery, HQN
BLAME IT ON CUPID by Jennifer Greene, HQN
BE MY VALENTINE by Debbie Macomber, MIRA
DEBBIE MACOMBER’S CEDAR COVE SERIES by Debbie Macomber, MIRA
6 RAINIER DRIVE by Debbie Macomber, MIRA
44 CRANBERRY POINT by Debbie Macomber, MIRA
311 PELICAN COURT by Debbie Macomber, MIRA
204 ROSEWOOD LANE by Debbie Macomber, MIRA
16 LIGHTHOUSE ROAD by Debbie Macomber, MIRA
