The Inheritance (42 page)

“I suppose we’d better be going now,” Priss said as she buttoned her bodice under the blanket. “I’m so glad everything turned out all right. Tell Daisy I’ll be by to see her and Beatrice as soon as she’s feeling well enough for company.”

“Thanks for coming to help me through this,” Nicholas said to Charles.

The earl grinned ruefully. “I think you just wanted to know there was someone down here pacing the floor in your stead.”

Nicholas managed a smile. “Did you wear a hole in the carpet for me? I want to point it out to Daisy when she mentions having another child.”

“Damn near did.” Charles slipped an arm around Priss and headed for the library door. “We’ll come visit soon. Congratulations again, Nick.”

“Good-bye, Charles, Priss. I’ll send word when Daisy’s well enough for visitors.”

Nicholas filled his glass a third time and crossed to stare out the twelve-paned window, shifting his gaze outward to the pond and the forest beyond.

“There’s a ship leaving for America at the end of the month,” Colin said. “I plan to be on it.”

Nicholas didn’t turn to face his son. It was one of those cruel twists of fate that he had gained a daughter but was losing a son. “I won’t be going with you, Colin.”

“I didn’t think so,” Colin said. “I’ll miss you, Pa.”

Nicholas took a sip of brandy and nearly choked trying to swallow it over the lump in his throat. He turned and threw the glass at the fireplace, where it shattered into a thousand pieces. He continued his turn and found himself hugging Colin. He rocked
his son back and forth in his arms, as though he were a young boy instead of a grown man.

There were tears in his eyes. Of relief. Of joy. Of bereavement at the loss of his firstborn to manhood. His fledgling was ready to fly free and alone. He released Colin at last and held him away so he could look at him.

“You’re crying, Pa,” Colin said in astonishment.

“I’ve been known to do so.”

Colin shook his head. “I never saw you cry before, Pa.”

“Everybody cries, son.”

Colin stared at his father and saw him for the first time as he was. Not always right. Not invincible. Merely a man with flaws like any other. He could be hurt. He could feel joy. It was all there on his lined and weathered face.

“I’ll come visit, Pa, I promise,” Colin said. “Maybe someday you and Daisy can come see me and Simp in Texas.”

“No maybe about it,” Nicholas said. “We will.”

“Daisy must be really happy, huh, Pa? I mean, that you’re going to stay in England.”

“She doesn’t know yet.”

“You’ve got to tell her, Pa. Right away.”

“I will, son. As soon as she wakes up.”

Daisy slept the night through and woke at dawn the next morning. She felt like she had been run over by a beer wagon. Her breasts were tender, her legs felt tied together, and her belly was cramping. She felt plain rotten. She closed her eyes, intending to go back to sleep, which seemed the best state to be in under the circumstances.

Then she remembered. Beatrice.

She leaned over and saw her daughter sleeping soundly in the crib beside the bed. The little girl had woken her once in the middle of the night to be nursed and then had fallen back to sleep. As had her mother.

Daisy’s mouth curved in a smug, self-satisfied smile. She had done it. She had borne a living child. A beautiful little girl. And Nicholas had been by her side to experience the miracle with her.

Daisy sat bolt upright. Nicholas had promised he would tell her his decision when she awoke. She pulled the cord to call Jane. She must look a fright. There was no way she was going to allow Nicholas to see her looking anything but her best this morning.

Instead of her maid, Nicholas appeared in reply to her summons.

Daisy covered her face. “Go away! I must look horrible. I wanted to be beautiful for you,” she wailed.

Nicholas grinned as he crossed the room and sat beside her on the bed. His arms slid around her, and he kissed her on the forehead. “You look wonderful.”

“If you like rumpled sheets,” she mumbled against his chest.

“You’ll always be beautiful to me, Daisy. Whether you’re rumpled or pressed.”

“Pressed. As in flat?” Daisy said indignantly. “That doesn’t sound very attractive, either.”

“There’s no pleasing you this morning, is there?” Nicholas teased.

Daisy broke into tears.

Nicholas took her by the shoulders and tried to get
her to look at him. “Daisy? What’s wrong, sweetheart? I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, truly I didn’t!”

“You’re being nice to me,” Daisy wailed.

“And that’s bad?” Nicholas asked, perplexed.

“I want my barbarian back,” she said, sniffling. “At least I knew that he wanted me.”

“I want you,” Nicholas protested.

Daisy shook her head forlornly. “If you did, you’d be yelling at me.”

Nicholas felt his temper slipping. He grabbed for it, but Daisy shoved it out of reach.

“You’re a brute and a beast. I don’t know why I ever married you!”

“So I’m a brute, am I?” Nicholas snarled. “You nearly died giving birth to a child I planted in you. I was trying to be considerate. I was trying to be kind.”

“Kind!” Daisy exclaimed as though he had offered her a snake. “If I’d wanted a kind man I could have married somebody else.”

“What the hell
do
you want, Daisy?” Nicholas roared.

“Oh,” Daisy said, pleased to see she had provoked him to incivility. “You, Nicholas. Just as you are. For now and always.”

She offered her mouth, and he took it like the barbarian he was, with all the hunger and longing he felt. She returned the favor, driving him crazy, making him want her as she wanted him.

Nicholas tore his mouth away, his breathing harsh and ragged. “Don’t try that again, Daisy,” he warned.

“What did I do?” Daisy said, eyes wide with false innocence.

Nicholas snorted, then broke into laughter. “I love you, Daisy.”

Daisy stared at him with her heart in her eyes, her mouth half open with the words she had been about to speak, which had caught in her throat. It was the first time Nicholas had ever declared his love for her aloud. And about time, Daisy thought. She crossed her arms over her chest and demanded, “All right, Nicholas. So you love me. Now what?”

“What?” Nicholas was caught totally off guard by Daisy’s attack. “What more do you want from me, Daisy?”

“I want to hear you say it. That you’re going to stay at Severn and raise cattle and hay and babies with me.”

Nicholas grinned. “Oh, is that all? Well, of course I am.”

“Of course you are? How long ago did you make this decision?” Daisy asked.

“The first day I laid eyes on you.”

“Oh. You …”

“Barbarian?” he offered in a husky voice.

Daisy’s eyes welled with tears. “I do love you, Nicholas. So very much.”

The duke pulled Daisy into his lap and held her close. “I promise to do something truly primitive as soon as you’re able,” he murmured in her ear.

“Something savage and uncivilized?”

“Something wild and wanton.”

“Oh,” Daisy said with a sigh. “That sounds wonderful.”

“Wonderful?” Nicholas said with a chuckle.

“Oh, yes.” Daisy grinned. “You see, I’ve developed quite an appreciation for barbarians.”

The duke slowly lowered his mouth to meet Daisy’s as he did his best to live up to her expectations.

Simp took one of the two diaper pins from his mouth where he had put them for safekeeping and used it to secure the right side of the clean diaper he was putting on Colin’s son. “Just be a minute here, young’un, and you’ll be right as rain on a desert,” he mumbled over the other pin. Then he retrieved the second pin and caught up the cotton on the other side. The baby waved his arms and legs, making the chore more difficult. “Settle down there a minute, Brody, and let me finish.”

When he was done, Simp picked the child up and held him high, waggling him from side to side in his hands.

The baby grinned and gurgled.

Simp grinned back. “Look just like your pa and your grandpa both, young’un. Charm oozin’ from ya every whichaway.”

“Simp?”

Simp turned and greeted Colin’s mother as she entered the bedroom he and Colin had built onto the ranch house outside Fredericksburg especially for the baby. She was a purty little gal, full of grit and gumption. Twisted Colin ’round her finger, but no
more’n he thought a wife ought to. “Just changin’ the boy,” he said.

Simp handed the black-haired, blue-eyed baby over to his mother and watched her hug him.

“He’s growing so fast! I can hardly believe he’ll be a year old tomorrow,” Roanna said.

“I’ll just be takin’ myself off. Got some supper to get started,” Simp said.

Roanna stopped him on his way out of the room. “Thanks, Simp. I don’t know what we would do without you.”

She reached up and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

Simp flushed and wiped his cheek clean. “Diapered your husband when he wasn’t more’n a few days old. Once you know how, ain’t nothin’ to it.” Simp quickly made his escape. Colin’s wife had a way of making him feel mighty good. Come to think of it, life was mighty good lately. ’Specially with the company they had these days.

“Roanna? Where are you?”

“In the bedroom with Brody.”

A moment later Daisy appeared with Peaches—the nickname had stuck—in her arms. “Our husbands are planning a picnic this afternoon. Are you interested?”

“That sounds wonderful,” Roanna replied. Before she could say more, they were joined by Priss, who had Alex in her arms.

“Your father doesn’t think you should be going anywhere in your condition,” Priss said to Roanna.

Roanna looked down and patted her rounding belly. Then she looked up and grinned. “He should
know by now I’m determined to decide these things for myself.”

The three women exchanged rueful glances. There had been hell to pay when the Earl of Rotherham learned from the note Roanna left him that his only daughter had taken ship with Mr. Colin Calloway, bound for America. He had wanted to follow after her, but Priss had forced him to wait.

“She’s a woman, Charles,” Priss had said. “She knows what she wants.”

“A bastard!” Charles had ranted.

“He’s a good man. And it won’t matter what he is in America. Things are different there,” Priss had argued.

Charles had simmered with anger for months before they had word from Roanna that she and Colin were married. Apparently, Colin had tried to get her to return to England, but she had perservered. He had finally admitted that he loved her enough to do whatever it took to make her happy. They had been married by the ship’s captain before they made landfall in America.

Thus, the two families that were friends and neighbors in England had been joined by the marriage of their children. When Nicholas suggested it was time to visit Colin, Daisy had immediately suggested to Priss that she and Charles should join them. So they had come together, the two sets of grandparents, to see their children and their grandson, Brody Calloway.

There had been a surprise when they arrived. Roanna was pregnant for the second time.

“I suppose if your father complains too much, we
can always use our other ammunition,” Priss said, sending a sly look toward Daisy.

“What ammunition?” Roanna asked.

“Priss and I are each expecting another happy event,” Daisy said with a grin.

“What?”

Daisy turned at the sound of a deep male voice. “Uh-oh. I think our secret is out, Priss.”

Three men, their husbands, were crowded into the bedroom doorway. “What’s going on in here?” Nicholas demanded.

“We were just discussing how much we would enjoy a picnic,” Daisy said.

“Daisy,” Nicholas said in a warning voice.

“All right,” she said. “If you must know, I’m expecting again.”

“Me, too,” Priss said as Charles crossed the room and put an arm around her shoulders.

Colin had already slipped his arms around Roanna from behind, and his hands rested on her burgeoning belly.

“Good grief,” Nicholas said. “We’re going to have babies coming out of our ears.”

“I don’t think that’s where babies come from,” Daisy teased.

Everyone laughed.

“Shall we all go on a picnic?” Roanna asked. “It sounds like so much fun.”

Charles opened his mouth to object, and Priss put a hand over it. “Absolutely,” she said.

“I can’t wait to enjoy some more of that Texas sunshine,” Daisy concurred with a smile.

Daisy and Nicholas were the last to leave the bedroom. Nicholas stopped her and put his arms
around both her and Peaches. “I love you, Daisy,” he murmured in her ear.

He said the words often now, and she repeated them back to him. Nicholas Calloway, bounty hunter, was a man who existed only in memory. Nicholas Windermere, beloved barbarian, had finally accepted his rightful place as the eighth Duke of Severn.

LETTER TO READERS

Dear Readers,

I hope you enjoyed my first venture into the English countryside as much as I enjoyed writing it. I’m heading back to the American West for my next book,
Lord of the Plains
, but I’m taking some English characters with me. You’ve already met Lord and Lady Linden in
The Inheritance
. Their thrilling story also involves a second set of star-crossed lovers. Sparks fly and cultures clash when a half-breed Sioux captures Lady Winifred Worth, a precocious Englishwoman who prefers to wear trousers and is better known to her friends as Freddy. Secrets and past mistakes ensure that the path of true love is strewn with obstacles, all of which you’ll enjoy seeing the lovers overcome.

I always appreciate hearing your opinions and find inspiration from your questions, comments, and suggestions. It would be fun to know more about you—your age, what you do for a living, and where you usually find my books—whether new or used.

For those of you who may be interested, I also write contemporary westerns. You can look for The Children of Hawk’s Way trilogy from Silhouette Desire, beginning with
The Unforgiving Bride
in September 1994, followed by
The Headstrong Bride
in December 1994, and finishing up with
The Disobedient Bride
, a Man of the Month in April 1995. These books are a spinoff from the original Hawk’s Way trilogy, which was published last year.