Page 63 of The Silent Duke
“I’m fairly certain you have usurped a certain order,” Graham Everly, Duke of Northfield said as he raised his glass toward Ewan with a laugh. “Adelaide and I are getting married in two weeks, and here you and Charlotte show up with your lives united already.”
The group as a whole laughed even as Simon Greene, Duke of Crestwood, said, “Not quite a toast, Northfield.”
“Then let me try,” said James Rylon, Duke of Abernathe and unofficial leader of their group. He rose, patting the hand of his very pregnant wife, Emma.
Ewan gripped Charlotte’s gently, still loving to stroke his thumb over the band on her left hand that reminded him she was his.
“A life is led in many parts,” James began, and the crowd of dukes and duchesses—which also included Ewan’s cousin and aunt, and Charlotte’s mother and brother—settled into silence. “There are befores and afters for us all, good and bad.” He looked around the room. “May the after that you and Charlotte share contain nothing but the happiest of days and nights. And may any pains of the befores be left behind you, lived and learned from. To Charlotte and Ewan.”
“To Charlotte and Ewan,” the group said as a whole, glasses lifting to celebrate their marriage.
“Now,” Meg, Simon’s wife, said as she squeezed his hand and hurried to the sideboard. “Who would like some cake?”
Adelaide moved to help her and the others began to buzz into conversation. Charlotte smiled at Ewan and drew him away from the group, back into a corner of a room. She smoothed a lock of hair from his forehead and whispered, “Are you happy?”
He wrinkled his brow and then leaned forward to rest it on hers. Her eyes fluttered shut, and for a moment their breath was all that passed between them. But then she looked at him and he signed, “You are mine. I am happier than I deserve to be.”
Her expression softened as she leaned up, oblivious to their friends, and kissed him. And in that kiss held the promise of all those afters that James had described, and a future so bright that it felt like nothing else existed in his world.
In her arms, nothing else did.
