“There is something more,” she said.
She felt the subtle change in the room, not tension, but anticipation once again. They would have expected a public display of their love for one another, but what she was about to say was something that none of them were aware of.
“We are expecting a child,” she said.
The words were given simply, without embellishment, but their effect was immediate. Anne let out a soft breath that was almost a laugh.
“Well,” she said. “That explains a great deal. You almost fell asleep at tea last week. I thought that I was boring you!”
“Anne, you and I both know that you never could.”
Laughing brightly, Anne took Eleanor’s hands in her own.
“Eleanor, this is wonderful.”
“It is,” Eleanor replied, and in spite of herself she wondered if it would soon be her friend’s turn, too.
Anne had been forthcoming in her assertions that she would marry one day, but that she would have to find the perfect person, and Eleanor could not argue with her about it. She was fortunate in that she had found the perfect gentleman for herself, and she held out hope that such a man existed for her friend, too.
Henry looked at Julian again, his expression more thoughtful now.
“You will take care of them, I have no doubt,” he said.
“I will. It will be the greatest honor to do so.”
There was no need to say more. The conversation resumed, though it carried a different tone now. Questions followed, gentle, curious, though not invasive, and Eleanor answered them with ease, Julian adding where needed, the two of them moving through it together without effort.
At some point, Eleanor’s hand found his again, and she did not let go for the remainder of the night. There was something in the way he held her that had not existed before, something that did not require explanation.
She understood then, fully, what had changed. She meant everything to him, and their family was only going to blossom from there. It did not matter how they had come to that point, and yet it also meant so much more that they had succeeded in spite of everything.
Because of everything, she corrected.
The evening continued around them, everyone seemingly closer than they had ever been before, and Eleanor felt such peace that it astonished her. And this time, she did not observe it from the outside.
She was part of it.
EXTENDED EPILOGUE
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PREVIEW: THE DUKE’S ACCIDENTAL FAMILY
“This is not your child.”
“No. But someone believed it should be ours.”
Alastair Reed offers Penelope Hartwell an impossible bargain: become his duchess to silence a scandal and protect a secret child. But Alastair Reed never intended to keep a wife… and now the woman who was meant to solve his problem may become the one he cannot bear to lose.
CHAPTER 1