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still at war, Chloe, and I doubt he could leave the sea right now even if he wanted to. Verity has a perfectly good family to love and care for her and, in his shoes, I wouldn’t even try to prise the child away from a woman she has no intention of being parted from.’

      ‘Thank you for being ready to take us both on then, but I can’t pretend he doesn’t exist, can I?’

      ‘Hardly, but come downstairs and dine with me, my darling. If I manage to stay awake long enough, we can talk about where we shall live and love and, if we’re lucky, raise the rest of our vast tribe of children yet to be born.’

      ‘I haven’t officially agreed to marry you yet.’

      ‘Then you’d better do so, Lady Chloe Thessaly. I’ve waited long enough to be your lover and refuse to be gainsaid much longer.’

      ‘You’re too tired to make love to Venus herself, if she bothered to step down from Olympus for such a disagreeable bear as you are tonight,’ she told him as he took her hand and tucked it into the crook of his elbow. ‘But I’m saying yes anyway,’ she added.

      ‘Good, I’ve waited over a decade for one of those from you, Mrs Wheaton. I intend to hear you say it again and again as soon as I’ve got my ring on your finger.’

      ‘Not before then?’ she asked, all her scruples forgotten as she stared up at him with a scandalous invitation in her eyes.

      ‘In three days if I can get a licence quickly enough, lover,’ he said implacably.

      ‘You’re turning into a puritan,’ she said sulkily, rather insulted he could resist her now their marriage was so close. ‘Three days?’ she asked incredulously as that part of his statement finally got past the heady promises of their marriage bed.

      ‘Our courtship has been quite long enough, we can marry as soon as you’ve found a gown that isn’t made up from black bombazine.’

      ‘I have a very nice grey-stuff gown for best,’ she told him solemnly, running through an inventory of all the gowns unsuitable for a housekeeper Lady Virginia had pressed on her over the years in her head and selecting the most unsuitable of all.

      Luke did his best to hide his horror at the idea of meeting her at the altar dressed so and Chloe laughed, then met his tired eyes with a teasing smile.

      ‘It’s all right, love, the neighbours will be shocked when they see me walk up the aisle in the splendid white ball gown Virginia gave me for my last birthday. As they will already be reeling at the secrets we will have to reveal about my past, present and future by then, I suppose we might as well give them something else to wonder about.’

      ‘True. How do you feel about being the focus of gossip for miles around, my lady?’ he asked as Oakham opened the door of the Green Parlour the family used before dinner when not entertaining.

      ‘Indifferent on my own account, but a little worried about how it will affect Verity and Eve,’ she replied, then Eve and her governess greeted them with a flurry of questions about the Captain and Verity and even that concern was laid aside for another day.

      * * *

      It took Captain Revereux two days to evade his nurse and make his way downstairs without Culdrose knowing he’d gone. Luke found him ensconced in the family sitting room before dinner and began to dislike him all over again. Eve was busy finding cushions to make the chair by the fire where Luke usually sat more comfortable for the interloper and Chloe was ordering a feast fit for a king in honour of his recovery.

      Trying hard to be fair, Luke could see why an impressionable young girl like Daphne Thessaly would fall so hard for the young Adonis Revereux must have been, but couldn’t quite suppress a sting of jealousy when Chloe fussed over the man as if he were a fallen god. He felt much better when Revereux fidgeted uncomfortably at so much feminine attention, then wondered if he might even learn to like him one day when the man called a halt.

      ‘I am very well now and have always healed quickly,’ Revereux said, so they sat and wondered who would ask the rush of questions they all wanted answers to, but felt too polite to launch straight into as soon as the man was feeling well enough to come downstairs again.

      ‘When does your ship sail, Revereux?’ Luke asked, as genially as he could when he was trying not to wish it might be tomorrow.

      ‘In three weeks’ time,’ the Captain said with a frown and Luke felt a twinge of guilt at reminding a guest he would soon have to depart, but only a twinge. He was feeling very impatient to get on with his wedding. ‘She’s been in dry dock for a refit, then I am to get her back for sea trials in a fortnight and, all being as it should be, we will embark a week later.’

      ‘And where will you be bound, Captain?’ Chloe asked, looking relieved he would shortly be out of the country, but Luke knew they would have to resolve Verity’s future before the man left.

      ‘I’ll be sailing under sealed orders, Lady Chloe, so I really don’t know.’

      ‘How exciting,’ Eve said with stars in her eyes, as if she dreamt of sailing the seven seas in a state of constant adventure and upheaval.

      ‘Not really,’ Revereux argued with an indifference to the idea Luke must remember to thank him for later. ‘Apart from the danger and upset of a storm and the rush and alarm of battle, life at sea is sadly tedious and the men dread serving on the Caribbean station because of the yellow fever and the like. I hope we’re not bound there, Miss Winterley, for I can’t like the place for all its warmth and natural beauty.’

      ‘Is it so beautiful, then?’

      ‘Aye, and rich and devilish hot at times and the sugar plantations are worked by unlucky slaves I don’t blame in the least for feeling rebellious and running away whenever they get the chance.’

      ‘Oh,’ Eve said, looking a little downcast. ‘I’m sure I should as well and I’m very glad Papa has no business interests there after all. Will you not tell us how you found out about Verity and tracked her down and rescued her from her wicked uncles though, Mr Revereux? It sounds a very dashing tale and quite fit for one of Mrs Radcliffe’s novels.’

      ‘I dare say it was nothing of the sort and anyway it is a story that can wait, love, if the Captain wants to tell his private affairs to such a curious miss at all, that is,’ Luke intervened before the poor man felt obliged to recount his ill-fated love story between entrées.

      ‘Indeed, and dining en famille is a treat that can easily be withdrawn from young ladies not yet out.’ Chloe reinforced his warning with a stern eye on Verity and both girls rolled their eyes at the unreasonable nature of parents, then behaved like a pair of unlikely angels.

      * * *

      ‘Would you like to take a brandy or shall we join the ladies and be sociable over the teacups, Revereux?’ Luke asked at the end of the meal and thought he saw the man pale at the idea of returning to Culdrose’s stern rule before he had to.

      ‘I’d best avoid brandy for the time being. I don’t want to risk lurching about like a drunkard until I’ve got my land legs again.’

      ‘Then I’ll bring my glass to the drawing room, if you ladies don’t object?’

      ‘I think we might bear that much dissipation calmly enough,’ Chloe said.

      Luke grinned, knowing he’d never find her company tedious if they lived to be a hundred, when she gave him a look that warned him she knew he was up to something and was in two minds about putting a stop to it.

      At last Oakham and his acolytes were dismissed and Miss Yorke, Eve’s governess, excused herself to write to her elderly parents. It was very close to Verity’s bed time, but Luke was glad Chloe didn’t send her away. This tale needed to be told and arrangements about her contact with her father and where she would live made before the man went back to sea.

      ‘I think the time has come to tell your story, Revereux. I hope you won’t

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