She faltered, tried to gage the expression in his eyes. Tested her own heart to realize that she was terrified he wasn’t being serious. She wanted this. Oh, Jamie, she wanted this.

“You don’t have to go to those lengths, Adam.”

His smile grew and softened. “Oh, but I do, Georgie. Please don’t make me face this dukedom all on my own. I need someone who understands how to be flexible and bold, brave and loyal.” Now, he was grinning outright. “It would help if she set my blood to fire with her kisses.”

Georgie blushed, her own blood heating quite effectively. “She does?”

“Most assuredly. I have a confession to make. I began to fall in love with you through Jamie’s letters. I tumbled the rest of the way when I watched you thoroughly rout the kidnappers with the help of people who you have inspired into loyalty and respect. They would all die for you. Our attraction is only the icing on the cake. You would make an exemplary duchess. I only hope you could find your way to being my duchess.”

Those pesky tears rose again. This time, though, they were cleansing, joyful, verdant. Spring had come to her soul, and the sun rose. “I believe I could,” she admitted.

He dropped his cane and caught her other hand. “And you could settle for an old soldier who comes to you a bit worse for wear?”

“With all my heart.”

He pulled her close, nestling her against his heart where she had so longed to be. “Do you think Jamie would have approved?”

“I think he made sure that if he couldn’t be here to see Lully and I through, you would. Do you mind?”

He laid his hand against her back and bent his head to hers. “I will be thankful every day of my life.”

For the longest time they remained where they were, pledging a new love, honoring an old one, setting a path for the future.

“Now,” he finally said. “Shall we go secure a duchy for your daughter?”

And for the first time in years, Georgie laughed with a free heart. “Yes,” she said, reaching up to kiss him one final time before sharing their news. “Let’s.”

ANYONE LOOKING on the tableau in the Marquess of Wyndham’s Great Parlor would at first assume that the family gathered before him was seeking a boon, not making an accusation. The Marquess, white-haired and rigidly erect, sat in his favorite chair, the one that looked suspiciously like the Regent’s throne, his beringed hands clutching the chair arms, his austere face set in a terrifying scowl. His wife the Marchioness sat alongside him, just as regal in her puce damask day dress and ropes of heirloom pearls. Her patrician face, though, betrayed a bit of bemusement, as if she had stumbled onto a conversation that had already been in progress.

Along one side of the gathered gilt-edged Louis Quinze furniture sat Georgie’s brother Jack, the Earl of Gracechurch, and his wife Olivia, both humming with tension, both carrying battle scars, even though faded with time. Side by side on an elegant straw settee, he brunette and she blonde, they held hands, much to the Marquess’s discomfort.

On the other side of the room sat Georgie and Adam, also holding hands. For the first time in her life, Georgie faced her father without fear. Without a word Adam reminded her of how strong she was.

“Where is the child?” the marquess barked.

“Why?” Georgie asked, knowing Adam would not intervene for her. “So you can try to nab her again?”

The marquess bristled. “Don’t be absurd, girl.”

The marchioness, her own white-haired head swiveling toward her husband, suddenly scowled. “What does she mean?” .

“This does not concern you, madame,” he snapped at her. “I am speaking to your daughter.”

“That daughter who has new groomsmen,” Georgie said quite as calmly as when she’d faced the kidnappers. She hoped Adam had the brandy ready for when this was over. “Jem is not coming back, father. I should probably tell you that Jem’s father will be joining his son at our home where he is assured no one will coerce his family into illegal and immoral behavior. No one will ever again try to kidnap my daughter, sir. ”

The marquess looked close to a seizure. “How dare you…?”

The marchioness stiffened. “Kidnap?”

“Don’t be absurd,”he barked.

Georgie had had enough of this. “I’m not being absurd when you try to lock my four-year-old daughter away in a home for the insane.”

That brought the marchioness to her feet. “You said you would send her to Aunt Marguerite!” she shrilled at her husband. “You said that Lilly Charlotte was in danger where she was! You said Georgiana knew!”

This seemed finally too much for the marquess. “It was where she was going! Marguerite was waiting for her. What do you think me, a monster? Who told you such a lie, Georgiana?”

“Your gamekeeper,” Georgie said.

“My late gamekeeper,” he retorted, then took his marchioness's hand. “I am strict, Leona. I am not a beast.”

Georgie slumped just a bit, relieved at her father’s words. Even as fraught as their relationship was, she hadn’t wanted to believe the worst.

Adam squeezed her hand and smiled for her. “See? Some good news.”

She smiled for him and turned back to see her mother regain her seat.

“Georgie’s marriage, father,” Jack said from the facing chairs. “What are we to do about it?”

“There was no marriage,” the marquess insisted.

“If you wish to see your granddaughter made a duchess instead of a scandal,” Georgie retorted, “this matter needs to be settled this afternoon, sir.”

The marchioness nodded. “We will acknowledge the marriage and be done with it.”

The marquess stared at her as if she had started speaking in tongues. “Madame….”

“Enough, Windham,” she snapped. “Georgiana is correct. We skate perilously close to scandal, and I won’t have it.”

The marquess seemed to swell. “That is not a matter for you.”

“I disagree,” the earl quietly said. “It is a matter for all of us. I have already told you quite clearly that if you attempt to interfere in our lives again I will separate us from you and we will never cross this threshold again until you are dead and I assume the marquessate. Did you think I was bluffing?”

The marchioness blanched and turned a condemning eye on her lord. “You would risk losing your heirs? You would send Jamie away again?”

“This has nothing to do with you,” his father told Jack.

Jack Wyndham sneered at his father. “Oh, but it is. I won’t waste my time appealing to your family feeling. As mother has said, you are far more interested in reputation. Consider this, though. If not for Georgie, you would have no heir of your blood for the title. She kept Gervaise from murdering your grandson. And do you really believe Gervaise would have stopped at Jamie and me? He would have gone after Ned next so that the title would have gone to him, who wasn’t fit to clean out your stables. Now, for all that is holy, father, get off your high horse and make it clear to all and sundry that you always approved of Georgie’s marriage, or you will be the loneliest, most despised peer in the realm.”

“If it means that much to you,” Georgie added, “you may comfort yourself with the knowledge that if he had lived, Jamie would have been Duke of Kintyre. I should think that would be notable enough even for you.”

“A Scottish title,” her father scoffed.

“A dukedom older than the marquessate,” Georgie retorted.

Good heavens. She was actually beginning to enjoy herself. It truly was all right to rely on someone else, especially someone you loved. She gifted that someone a sly smile to see the pride in his eyes and hung onto his hand for a little extra strength.

“Do you have my marriage lines?” Georgie asked her father, sitting as tall and proud as any in the room as she faced him. “Will you finally heal the breach, or will Jack be correct? I would very much like you both to know your granddaughter. But not if it puts Lully in any danger. And just to make certain, if you aren’t certain how well my child—and Jack’s, come to think of it—are protected, ask young Jem about our Murphy, who is up with both of them in the nursery right now. I will no longer live every day in terror that you will hurt my child.”

The duke actually looked stricken. “I would never hurt a child. You must know that.”

“How could I?” she demanded. “First you disowned your granddaughter and then you tried to kidnap her. Exactly what type of kindness is that?”

“Just so you know, Wyndham,” Adam said, dropping a kiss on Georgie’s hand, “your daughter and granddaughter are no longer powerless. In exactly three days, she will be a duchess with all the power and resources incumbent. She is no longer alone.”

Georgie wished she were surprised that her mother immediately brightened. It seemed a dukedom salved all wounds.

Her father turned to Jack where he’d been watching his sister with a half smile. “Do you know about this?”

“We are to be their attendants,” Jack said. “With the greatest pleasure. We just have to find a way to choose who gets Murphy.”

Georgie actually grinned. “I dare you to challenge Lully for him.” Turning back to her father, she kept her smile. “Well, father?” she asked. “What say you?”

The marquess gave her a long, assessing look, his expression oddly vulnerable. “I only wanted what was best,” he finally admitted.

“I had what was best,” she assured him, her own voice softening. “I had my Jamie, and I had my Lully. And when you considered the title to be more important than your own children, I had Olivia and Little Jamie. And now, I have Jack back, and I have Adam. I would also like to have you and mother and the rest of the family back in my life. That is what has been important to me. If you can bend a little, you might realize exactly what ‘best’ is.”

It took a long moment during which the room hummed with unspoken tension. Finally, without his posture easing by an inch, the marquess waved one of his hands. “Call for Williams. I will need the keys to the safe. I would also call for the children.”

Even as the over-starched butler opened the door and bowed, Georgie began to climb to her feet in protest.

Her father lifted a hand in her direction. “I would know my granddaughter, Georgiana. She is a duchess now. I would like to introduce her to the dignity of her position.”

He looked confused when the younger people in the room began to laugh.

Their laughter was quickly enough explained when a few moments later the same butler opened the door, bowed as if at a grand ball, and grandly announced, “The Viscount Amberly and Miss Lilly Charlotte Grace.”

At which point young Jamie came romping in followed by the lumbering Murphy who waited at the door for the very prim, very serene little girl who followed as if on the stroll in Hyde Park, her pretty green velvet dress spotless and unwrinkled, her green hair bow precisely placed in her bright red curls.

Jamie popped a quick bow to his grandparents and ran over to be folded into Olivia’s arms. Lully strode to the center of the room and gave Georgie her little-girl curtsy. “You called me, mama? Hello, Grace.”

Adam nodded, having long since given up trying to correct her. “Hello, Lully.”

“Lully,” Georgie said to her baby. “Allow me to introduce you to your grandparents, the Marquess and Marchioness of Wyndham. They felt you might like to learn a bit about the dignity of your family.”