Val kissed her cheek. “And the sapphires I gave you for Christmas? Are they not an adequate demonstration of my affection and appreciation?”
Under his gaze, she lifted her hand to the sapphire and diamond necklace that sparkled about her throat. “They are lovely, aren’t they?”
“They’ll be lovelier when you’re wearing them and nothing else.”
There was a commotion from the doorway that interrupted his seduction of his wife. The butler entered, clearing his throat loudly, before announcing as if it were a grand ball and not a small family gathering, “Douglas Ashton, Lord Deveril, and Wilhelmina, Lady Deveril.” The stiff and always dour man sketched a bow that was worthy of any courtier and then vanished once more, a skill all impeccable servants possessed.
But the rest of them were not so keen to observe formalities. Wilhelmina rushed across the room just as Lilly rushed toward her. The two women embraced and then giggled like school girls as they shared secrets and gossip. Effectively forgotten but hopeful it would only be temporary, Val made for his new brother-in-law.
“Congratulations are in order, I hear,” Val offered.
“On my wedding?”
“On the anticipated arrival of your heir,” Val answered.
“Oh, that. Hardly seems fair to be congratulated on something that seems to have damned little to do with me, doesn’t it?” Devil asked. “Look at them, would you? They’ve gone from being perfectly sensible women to sounding like those giggling magpies at Almack’s.”
Val laughed. “I’d hardly express that sentiment to either one of them. They’re rather like jackals, especially, I imagine, in defense of one another.”
“True enough,” Devil said. “I can’t have any brandy. Gave it up ages ago, but I’d certainly be up for a game of billiards if you’ve a mind.”
“Excellent,” Val said and led the other man toward the billiard room.
The minute the door closed, all hints of the affable rogue faded. “Now, you’ll tell me the truth,” Devil said. “Is she happy? Because I promised Willa that if she wasn’t, I’d run you through. I don’t want to, mind you, but rogue or no, I’m a man of my word.”
“She is happy,” Val answered. “And if she’s not, I’ll find a way to rectify that. I suppose this is the point where I tell you I was entrusted just this morning with the same task. I was informed that it was my duty to threaten you with grievous injury should you break my sister-in-law’s heart.”
Devil grinned and selected one of carved cue sticks from the rack in the corner. “All right. We’ve each performed our familial duty and made appropriate threats to one another. Are we playing for money or will that get us both in trouble?”
“It will get us both in trouble,” Val said. “But I like to live dangerously.”
“Twenty pounds per game?”
“Seems reasonable enough,” Val agreed.
*
“Are you really happy?” Willa asked.
Lilly rolled her eyes heavenward. “I’d ask you when you became such a mother hen,” she admonished, placing one hand on the slightly rounded bump of her half-sister’s abdomen. “But I think it’s fairly obvious. And yes, for the umpteenth time, I couldn’t be happier!”
Willa sighed. “I know. I’m a worrier. I can’t help it. But you all married so quickly!”
“As did you!” Lilly responded. “He is very handsome though. I can certainly see why he tempted you to impropriety, my always perfectly-behaved half-sister!”
Willa grimaced. “I’m not so very proper.”
“Yes, you are. And it’s glorious to me to know that someone in your life means enough to you to sway you from the straight and narrow.”
Willa eyed her with curiosity. “And what about your mother? How are the two of you faring?”
Lilly smiled. “Better than I anticipated. I do not think we will ever have a traditional relationship… not as parent and child. But I find myself growing closer to her daily and I cannot help but be grateful that we have found ourselves reunited through this awful mess.”
With that explanation, Willa linked her arm through her half-sister’s and they strolled about the room. The dowager duchess was perched with her back stiff on the settee, Elizabeth sitting beside her. Effie was in their little clutch, speaking softly to them.
“Everyone we love is under this roof, save for Marina who is tucked into the dormitory at the Darrow School and likely being spoiled shamelessly by the girls there,” Lilly reflected.
“So they are,” Willa agreed. “And that circle seems to grow daily. Not too bad for two girls who started out entirely alone in the world, is it?”
Lilly laughed. “No, I don’t suppose it is. I am thankful every day that Effie found us. And for the longest time, that was all I had to be thankful for. Now every day brings new joys.”
“I don’t have resolutions for the New Year,” Willa said. “There is nothing I would change about my own life. But I do have a New Year’s wish.”
“And what is that?”
Willa looked around the room and then her gaze landed on Effie. “I wish that everyone we love will find the same kind of happiness that you and I have.”
The butler entered the room then, once more using his greatest oratory tone. “Nicholas Montford, Lord Highcliff.”
Lilly watched Effie as the man entered the room. She saw the other woman’s spine stiffen, saw her chin come up. It was as if tension had filled every part of her body. Then slowly, Effie’s head turned, just slightly. She glanced over her shoulder in the direction of the doorway. Lilly saw such longing and such heartbreak in her friend’s face that it nearly brought her to tears. To Willa, she responded, “That is the most wonderful wish and I will pray that it comes true.”
The End
Author’s Note
Dear Readers,
Thank you all so much for the wonderful response that I’ve had to the first book in the Hellion Club Series, A Rogue to Remember. I hope that you’ve found just as much enjoyment in the story of Lilly and Val as you did in that of Devil and Willa. And I know that some of you all are chomping at the bit for the story of Effie and Highcliff. It’s coming. I PROMISE!!! But before Effie can have her happy ending, her charges need happy endings of their own. Effie’s story will be the last one in this series, but I promise to give you little glimpses of the burgeoning love story between our fierce headmistress and her obstinate object of affection as the series unfolds. The next book in this series will be What Happens in Piccadilly and I will be diving into it full force. Thank you again for reading!
Chasity Bowlin
About the Author
USA Today Best Selling author and Winner of the 2019 Romance Through the Ages Award for Georgian/Regency Romance, Chasity Bowlin is the author of multiple best selling historical romance novels, both independently and with Dragonblade Publishing. She lives in central Kentucky with her husband and their menagerie of animals. She loves writing, loves traveling and enjoys incorporating tidbits of her actual vacations into her books. She is an avid Anglophile, loving all things British, but specifically all things Regency.
Growing up in Tennessee, spending as much time as possible with her doting grandparents, soap operas were a part of her daily existence, followed by back to back episodes of Scooby Doo. Her path to becoming a romance novelist was set when, rather than simply have her Barbie dolls cruise around in a pink convertible, they time traveled, hosted lavish dinner parties and one even had an evil twin locked in the attic.
If you’d like to know more, please sign up for Chasity’s newsletter at the link below:
www.subscribepage.com/a6k1e7
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Barefoot in Hyde Park (The Hellion Club Book 2) Page 23
