Ever His Bride (50 page)

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes, I am. Aren’t I, Papa?”

“She can’t go!” Giles’s face had gone red,
and he was up on his knees again. “Tell her she’s too young, Mr.
Claybourne, and besides, she’s a girl!”

“Course I’m a girl.” Betts leaned forward
just as Hunter had gotten the bow tied, and her silky hair slipped
out of the ribbon and fell back on her shoulders. “You and I
couldn’t ever get married, if I weren’t.”

“Get married to you!” Giles looked stunned,
and Hunter held back his laughter. “You’re a lunatic! I’m not going
to marry you! Tell her, Mr. Claybourne!”

“Papa, why does Giles call you Mr. Claybourne
and not Papa?” Betts was a master at piercing Giles with her words.
She seemed to know just what to say and when to say it.

Hunter had never insisted, but he could guess
Giles’s reasons. “Giles is my legal son now, as Andy is, and you’re
my daughter, and that’s all that matters. He can call me anything
he likes: Mr. Claybourne, Hunter, Father, Papa—”

“Pinchfist!” Betts said, with a boisterous
giggle.

“Pinchfist?” Hunter growled and pretended
outrage. He tickled Betts’s ribs and raspberried the back of her
neck.

“Not fair!” She shrieked with laughter and
launched herself toward Giles, her ribbon sailing like a streamer
into a bush.

“Don’t—!” But Giles caught Betts square in
the chest, and went sailing backward with her into the grass.

“I got you, Giles!” Now Betts was tormenting
the boy with her quick little fingers, and he was laughing too hard
to stop.

Hunter was about to rise and rescue Giles,
when a pair of short, chubby arms came around his head from behind.
He saw the red lollipop only an instant before it affixed itself to
his forehead.

“It’s for you, Papa!” Andy shrieked, and
hugged Hunter tightly.

“Your papa loves sweets, Andy.”

Felicity’s voice swept around him like a
vapor, drew him to his feet with Andy clinging to his back.

“You look wonderful, Mrs. Claybourne.” Hunter
knew he was smiling like a fool, but it felt good to stand there
and just stare at his wife.

“I feel like a steamship,” she said, frowning
as she pressed her hand against her lower back.

“Giles and I had just been discussing load
lines.”

“Yours is pretty low, Mama.” Giles laughed as
he pulled Betts to her feet. “I do believe you’d sink.” He turned
to Hunter. “What do you think . . . Papa?”

Papa. Hunter’s throat seized up for a moment,
but he managed to nod, and held out his arm to collect his son
against him.

“But she’s a good risk, Giles. I’d put my
trust in her every time.”

Felicity felt her eyes well up with tears,
but brushed them away so that she could take a good look at her
family. Giles was standing close enough to Hunter to be his shadow,
and holding Betts’s hand as she beamed up at him. Andy was clinging
to Hunter’s neck, his head resting on Hunter’s shoulder.

And Hunter himself stood as steadfast as a
spreading oak, grinning at her, the red lollipop still stuck to his
forehead. What a dear man she had married. Her champion, her
love.

She would have gone to him, but another pain
had begun to plague her, a great squeezing pressure low in her back
that made it difficult to breathe.

Hunter yanked the lollipop from his forehead
and frowned at her. “Felicity?”

She managed to smile, even managed to speak.
“Giles, would you take Andy and Betts into the house? It’s nearly
dinnertime, and I need to speak with your father.”

“I’ll get ’em washed up.” Giles gave Felicity
a watery grin as he collected Andy off Hunter’s back. “Come along,
Betts. I think Mama and Papa want to be alone.” Giles threw the boy
over his shoulder, then took Betts’s hand again, and started toward
the house.

“I only have a moment, Hunter—”

Before she could say another thing, Hunter
had swept her into his arms and was kissing her.

“I have a great need for you, wife. It seems
I can never get enough of you.” His breath was fresh with rosemary.
“I think of you all day at the exchange, through those bloody
foundation meetings that have become so popular—”

“Hunter, tomorrow is our anniversary.”

“One year; I haven’t forgotten. Couldn’t
ever.”

“Do you mind if your gift comes today?”

He looked charmingly confused, and his
forehead tasted of cherries when she kissed him there.

“I don’t need a gift, Felicity. I have
you.”

“Well, this one is coming today, Hunter, and
you do need it. And I know you will love it. As you love all our
children.”

“Children?” She saw the light dawn in his
dark eyes. He stood away from her and formed his hands across her
belly as he had so often. “The baby?”

She nodded. “I love you. Hunter.”

“And you, love, are the stars and the moon to
me, and all the goodness in my life.” His eyes were soft and damp
now as he enfolded her in his arms, touched his salty mouth to
hers.

Felicity kept the rising pain to herself,
needing this last, quiet moment with her magnificent husband, the
most grand-hearted man she had ever known.

“Oh, Hunter, what lucky children we
have.”

“Not half so lucky as their foolish father
has been— to have found you—”

“And a railway in the bargain.” She
grinned.

Hunter’s laughter echoed across the gardens.
And as he lifted his exquisite wife into his arms and carried her
and her kisses toward the house, he offered up a prayer for Uncle
Foley’s safe return from the gold fields.

He owed the man a miracle.

AVAILABLE March 20th, 2014

for the 1st time as an eBook

A LADY’S CHOICE

Frustrated by the outrageous demand that she
choose a husband or have one chosen for her, Mackenna Hughes
blindfolds herself and vows to wed the first man she touches in the
circle of eager suitors that surrounds her. But as she swirls among
the village merrymakers, Mackenna suddenly crashes into a towering
rocklike body… and looks up into the dark penetrating eyes of a
total stranger!

"You find my company less pleasing than
Walter’s? Why? Do I crush you?"

"No, milord." Mackenna sighed. She’d only
meant that Walter wasn't such a huge presence in her life.

"Do I block the sunlight from your sky?"
Montclaire opened arms that encompassed the world, and knocked over
a candlestick.

"Not often, milord." Mackenna pinched off the
flame before it could set fire to the stack of parchment.

"Have I gone to fat since becoming the lord
of Fellhaven?"

"Oh, no, milord, I've not seen a dram of fat
anywhere on you." She stumbled over the memory of a huge, naked
warrior lowering himself into a steaming tub of water.

"Must I travel on my knees to gain your
favor?"

Puzzled by the meaning of the question, she
paused and stared up at all that bottled bluster. "Do you seek my
favor, milord?"

“Do I—?” He drew himself upright, huffed then
bellowed, "Hell, no!"

A LORD’S CHALLENGE

Lord Thomas Montclaire has been sent by King
Edward to take over Mackenna’s village and a long abandoned castle.
Now he lays claim to the reckless, scarlet-haired rebel who blindly
made her choice, yet denies his right to either her village or
herself. Her brazen courage amazes him, but her stubborn pride and
fiery beauty stir a storm in his blood, and he vows he will wed
her, tame her, and claim her wild, rebellious heart as she claimed
his.

For more Information about FOR MY LADY’S
KISS

http://LindaNeedham.com/books/for-my-ladys-kiss

LINDA NEEDHAM won the Romance Writers of
America’s 1995 Golden Heart for her first novel,
For My Lady’s
Kiss
, and received “the call” from Avon Books two months later.
A USA Today bestselling author of ten historical romances,
For
My Lady’s Kiss, Ever His Bride, Her Secret Guardian, The Wedding
Night, The Maiden Bride (an RWA Top 10 Ten Books of 2000), My
Wicked Earl, The Bride Bed, The Pleasure of Her Kiss, A Scandal to
Remember and Marry the Man Today,
Linda lives in Oregon with
her husband and Pippa, the amazing Portuguese Water Dog.

Visit Linda’s website
http://LindaNeedham.com
where you can sign
up for her email newsletter and follow her at
www.Facebook.com/AuthorLindaNeedham,
on Twitter
@TheLindaNeedham & Google+ at
https://plus.google.com/+LindaNeedham

*

If you enjoyed reading about Kailey and Simon
as much as I loved writing their story, I invite you to post a
review of EVER HIS BRIDE at your favorite eBook Retailer.

For My Lady’s Kiss

Ever His Bride

Her Secret Guardian

The Wedding Night

The Maiden Bride

My Wicked Earl

The Bride Bed

The Pleasure of Her Kiss

A Scandal to Remember

Marry the Man Today

The road to publishing this eBook edition of
EVER HIS BRIDE would have been rocky and strewn with caltrops if
not for the generous advice from my Author Friends, the
professional services of Kristen Freethy at
KLF
Publishing and Promotions
, Google’s brilliant search
engines, and the encouragement of my dear husband, Brad, for his
love and all the roads less traveled.