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The duke kissed her softly then without another word. He required nothing more to show Caroline the true depth of his feeling. She could feel his smile against her mouth and felt a deep satisfaction that she had been the one to make him happy. Caroline threw her arms around his neck and pulled him close, reveling in the scent of him and murmuring her love to him over and over. If she had to tell him ten times a day so that he would always believe, that was a task she was willing to complete.
A long while later they were still holding one another close as they made their plans for the future. The duke had vowed to sell his townhome on Park Lane and buy another. As Lizzy had mentioned when she had implied that the house had been cursed, he felt that the current location carried too many bad memories. Caroline liked the idea of making a new location their own. He had also told her all about Heatherton Hall. His father and his brother had taken little pleasure in the country setting. He and his mother had been the only ones who had enjoyed spending time at the estate nearly equidistant between Northwick and the smaller village of Wollington. Caroline thought that it sounded like a small paradise.
“I have to ask,” he said when her fingers had drifted beneath the collar of his shirt to wander along his skin. “Are you certain that my scars do not bother you?” he inquired.
She hated that he felt the need to ask but understood his reasons. Had not Lady Lydia promised to love him and then been repulsed when the thought of living with his disfigurement had become a reality?
“Not in the least,” she had replied in earnest. Her fingers drifted behind his neck and kneaded the knotted muscles there. He closed his eyes and sighed with pleasure. “Besides, I now have two new scars of my own.” She raised the offending leg out in front of them and pointed her toe. The gesture was meant to remind him of the entrance and exit of the bullet wound on her calf that was now well hidden beneath her gown and stockings.
“New?” he wondered as he settled his hand below her knee and massaged the ache that he must have known was in her leg. He stayed well clear of the wound but soothed the muscles that had been forced to compensate for her injury. “Are you telling me that there are old scars as well?”
“One,” she admitted.
“Oh?” His hand was distracting her. She had closed her eyes to enjoy the relief, but the sound had brought her back to their conversation.
“It is approximately the size of my palm,” she said, holding her hand out before him so that he might gauge the circumference. “I acquired it in a riding accident when I was seven years old. I was thrown by a horse named Mayhem and landed upon a jagged rock.” The duke halted in his ministrations and Caroline bobbed her knee to remind him to continue. He did as he was bid, and she continued her story. “The flesh was peeled back on three sides and although they tried to lay it flat and allow it to heal back together the edges still formed a large curve. My mother used to say that Mayhem had marked with the shoe of a horse.
“Mayhem,” the duke laughed despite her harrowing tale, “a fitting name for such a horse, I am sure.” Caroline’s tone had revealed that she was unbothered by the ordeal and so he had not seen fit to coddle. She appreciated his response.
“Not really,” she grinned. “He was mild mannered most of the time, but reared something fierce whenever he spied a snake.”
“I see.” Caroline’s betrothed looked up at her with a devilish grin. “And may I be so bold as to ask where this scar is located?”
“No, you may not.” She emphasized each word in her pert reply.
The duke exclaimed with mock outrage. “But My Lady, you have seen most of mine,” he teased.
She blushed most profusely and he chuckled.
Caroline could not deny that she was aware of the locations of most of the duke’s scarring. Her flesh heated with the memory of when she had allowed herself to trail her fingers across the wide expanse of his back. She had also followed the long scar that made a dive down into the collar of his shirt. She did not know how Lady Lydia had been repulsed by it. Caroline ran her fingers over that same location now. If anything, the mark was like an arrow beckoning her to explore what was beneath the fabric that covered his magnificent form.
The duke seemed to read where her thoughts had gone because his voice was husky when he said he would look forward to finding out where her own scar was located.
Caroline pulled her hand away from its devilish explorations. Her only response to his question was a sideways glance that very clearly indicated that he would have to wait to discover its location for himself.
“Oh, you are wicked,” he growled as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her more firmly against him. His lips met hers with a promise—a promise of his love and protection, a promise of the future that they would build together, and also a promise in response to her challenge. She might not yet tell him where her own scar was hidden, but he had every intention of finding out.
EPILOGUE
Ayear later, Lady Caroline Bennington, the Duchess in every sense of the word, had just finished tying the last of the red velvet bows that held the trail of pine boughs to the banister of the main staircase in Heatherton Hall. Her father would arrive in the morning and so would no less than twenty other guests that she had been aching to meet. The duke’s men, most with wives and children, were coming to congratulate their friend on his nuptials. Some had been long delayed by the war, and the duke wanted to celebrate with those who recently returned from their service to the Crown. Although Caroline and Robert had exchanged vows over six months prior much of their public celebrations had been put on hold until after the sentencing of his brother and the others involved in the string of crimes that had brought Caroline and the duke together. No less than thirty-seven women had been granted their freedom with more being recovered every day. That process however had not kept them from having their own personal celebrations, she thought with a private grin. Still, she had been relieved to know that none of the criminals, those that had been allowed to keep their lives, would ever set foot on English soil again.
“What is that smile?” The duke asked with a cheery expression of his own. He came up behind his wife, wrapped his arms about her slender waist, and kissed her upon the cheek.
“I was only thinking how happy I have been these months,” she replied and turned in his arms to greet him more fully. The duke sighed contentedly pressed a kiss to her lips.
“Crowley found us a townhouse,” he revealed between kisses. “Marilee has already inspected it and said that you will find it just as you like.”
Caroline hummed against him. She was hopeful that her maid would find her own happy ending, or perhaps she already had. Caroline was now in search of a reliable lady’s maid but was glad that her dear friend could be a doting wife to a respectable man.
“Then I know I shall love it,” she replied. “Marilee has impeccable taste. Make an offer.”
“Don’t you want to see it for yourself?” he laughed. “We could go in a month, after the new year.”
Caroline looked up into her husband’s eyes and shook her head. “I don’t think I should be traveling in the winter,” she replied.
“Why not?” he asked. “The roads from here to London are well maintained. We ought to see the house before we make an offer.”
“I do not think that I will be travelling for some time,” she said as she placed her hand upon her still flat stomach. “I want to stay in the country for the birth of our child.”
The duke whooped with joy and pulled Caroline straight off her feet as he spun her about in the hall. His raucous cheers brought the staff out from every corner of the house. Even Lizzy, who had proven a quick study under the watchful gaze of her mother’s tutelage, made her appearance. The future housekeeper cheered and promised that she would prepare the new townhouse with everything that the duchess would possibly need for herself and the baby.
Caroline threw her head back and laughed at the purity of the joy that surrounded her. Never had she suspected that life could be this wonderful. This time last year she had not known whether she would live to see another day. Now, she was preparing to bring another life into the world and she knew beyond a doubt that this child would be protected and, more than anything, well-loved.
