Page 96 of A Virgin to Tempt the Duke

“If it takes more than eight words I won’t remember it.”

Thomas considered. “You’ve done well,” he said. “We both have.”

“That will do,” Frederick said, and they clinked their glasses.

Across the room, Rachel was talking to Anna with the animated energy of a woman who would have approximately eight hours of undivided conversation before the next several weeks demanded otherwise and was intending to take advantage. Thomas watched his wife attentively, and Frederick watched Thomas watching Rachel. He could not have imagined all those years ago at Eton that his dearest friend would marry his only sister. It would be Thomas’ duty to protect her now.

“Take care of her,” Frederick said.

“You know I will.” Thomas looked at him sideways and drained his champagne flute. “Take care of yourself, for once. You have someone who will actually let you now. A true partner, with a lifetime of happiness ahead.”

Frederick said nothing to that. He just looked across the room at his Anna, who had caught him looking and smiled.

Thomas is not wrong.

As the breakfast slowly came to a close, they left in pairs. Rachel and Thomas first, amid considerable noise and flowers, Rachel embracing Anna in the doorway for long enough that Thomas’s expression turned gently, if fondly, resigned.

“It is time, my love,” he said as he gently took her shoulder.

“I know,” she said as she smiled. “I just need to say goodbye to this reformed grump.”

Rachel turned to her brother and looked up at him with those clear, direct amber eyes that were very like his own. They said nothing for a moment, because there were some things that had no adequate words. They had both always known it.

Frederick reached out and straightened the edge of her veil. It was a small, loving adjustment, the gesture of a man who had been doing small protective things for her since she was aninfant. He did not quite know how to stop, but knew it would come naturally.

“Thomas is a good man,” he said.

“I know,” Rachel said.

“If he is ever otherwise?—”

“Frederick.” She took his hand from her veil and held it. “I know. You have told me. Several times this week in fact.” Her eyes were so bright. “I am going to be very happy. You are going to be very happy. And without you organizing it, which is, I suspect,exactlywhatweboth need.” She squeezed his hand once, hard. “Take care of Anna. Let her take care of you. Those two things are permitted to happen at the same time, in case no one has told you.”

“Rachel—”

“I love you,” she said plainly. “More than you’ve ever made it easy to say.”

He pulled her into an embrace, which was not something they did often but felt right when they did. Thomas appeared in the doorway with Rachel’s coat and his best attempt at patience. Frederick released his sister to her husband, and stood in the doorway of his house watching the carriage until it turned the corner and the street was quiet. Anna appeared beside him, andslipped her hand into his, and they stood there for a moment together.

“All right?” she said.

“Yes,” he said, and was surprised to find he entirely meant it.

The staff had been given the evening. Frederick had been extremely clear about this, specific to the point of redundancy, and the house received them in intimate silence after all had left. She turned to walk upstairs to their quarters when Frederick scooped her up effortlessly into his broad arms.

“I think it is time I carried my bride upstairs. What do you think?”

“I think that is a grand idea, husband!” She laughed as she kicked her feet playfully and he ran up the stairs, as if she weighed no more than a sack of flour.

Someone thought to draw a bath.

Anna stood in the doorway of the dressing room and looked at the steam rising off the clear water, the candles arranged along the edges of the room in warm light that turned everything to amber. Rose petals floated on the surface of the water. She felt something in her chest ease open, realizing that this would be her life now.

“You arranged this,” she said.

“I may have given some directions,” Frederick said, behind her, pulling her tight against his body.

She turned to face him. He was looking at her with the expression she had decided was her favorite of his many expressions. It was the one where he had stopped arranging himself carefully and was simply present, simply there, wanting to be precisely where he was.