Ice Cold Duke (Frigid Dukes #2)

Extended Epilogue

“Papa, you are trodding on my toes!” Marianne shouted, as, indeed, Lucien’s toes trod on hers. “Mama, I thought you said he was a good dancer!”

Marianne turned grumpily toward her mother, who was sitting at the edge of the ballroom, holding her infant son in her lap and watching the dancing lesson that was taking place with barely-disguised amusement.

“I am a good dancer!” Lucien complained, turning also to his wife as if in need of confirmation. “But I’m not used to having a partner who is about three times shorter than my usual dance partner!”

Marianne folded her arms and turned back to her father. “A gentleman doesn’t make excuses.”

Lucien sighed and then swept into an elaborate bow, holding his hand out to his daughter. “Of course, you are right, My Lady. Now, may I please have this dance? I promise I will not be as hopeless at it as I have been in the past.”

Marianne giggled and took her father’s hand. “Alright then, I suppose you may have this dance.”

“Alright then?” Lucien repeated with mock horror. “Never in all my years has a lady ever sounded so half-hearted to accept a dance from me.

Marianne giggled harder, her eyes lighting up with delight in the exact same way that her mother’s always did. She released his hand for a moment and curtsied deeply. “I would be honored to dance with you, Your Grace,” she said, and Lucien’s heart swelled with pride.

“That was very eloquent and sophisticated,” he said, as he took her hand. “You are turning into a truly proper young lady.” He lowered his voice slightly. “Much more so than your mother, by the by.”

“I heard that!” his wife shouted from across the ballroom.

Lucien laughed and threw her a mischievous grin. “Yes, my dear. I meant you to.”

“If I didn’t have a baby in my arms I would march over there and give you a piece of my mind!” Emery said, grinning at him. “Fortunately, you are saved by the presence of the cutest infant in the universe.”

“He isn’t cuter than I was when I was a baby, is he?” Marianne asked her father as the two of them began to dance. Lucien smiled and ruffled her hair.

“Of course not, darling. All of our children were equally adorable when they were born.”

“Even Edward?” Marianne looked shocked.

“Even Edward,” Lucien said, inclining his head as memories of that long-ago day when his eldest son had been born filled his head. In some ways, it felt as if it were yesterday. Time moved so quickly when one was a parent of young children. The cliche that they grew up in the blink of an eye was certainly true in his case. Had it really been eight long years since his eldest son had been born? He might not have believed it if he weren’t currently dancing with his six-year-old daughter.

“Believe it or not,” he said to Marianne, “your brother wasn’t always a rule-breaking rascal. He was once a very sweet baby who was the apple of his parents’ eyes.”

“He’s still the apple of our eyes,” Emery called from across the room. “He’s just sometimes…”

“An apple with a worm in it?” Marianne suggested, and both Lucien and Emery laughed. They exchanged a glance from across the room.

“That’s a good way of putting it,” Lucien said, looking back at Marianne. “But perhaps let’s not tell him I said that.”

“I won’t tell him,” Marianne promised, and Lucien knew she wouldn’t. His daughter was really closest in personality to his sister Leah: she liked to tease her parents and siblings now and again, but mostly she was a sweet, thoughtful child who never drew too much attention to herself. Edward, on the other hand, had much more of his mother in him. He wasn’t really that mischievous, but compared to what Lucien had been like, and the level of discipline and rule-following he had demanded of his siblings, Edward was a wanton lout.

Fortunately, the years had mellowed Lucien out to the point where he could hardly even recognize who he had been back then. It’s not that he had completely discarded the rules of the ton, but when one had a child who marched to the beat of his own drum, and whom one loved more than life itself, one found one’s self becoming more flexible in order to accommodate that child’s wild and curious nature.

Wild and curious isn’t so bad, anyway, he thought now, as he and Marianne swept around the room. That’s my wife in a nutshell.

As if she could hear him thinking about her, Emery looked up at him, and he caught her eye. She smiled at him, and he grinned back. In truth, Lucien couldn’t think of a more perfect life than the one the two of them led together with their three children and many, many nieces and nephews.

At that moment, the door to the ballroom opened, and Edward dashed inside, looking more pleased with himself than any child of eight had the right to be.

“Hello,” Edward said, skidding to a halt and staring around at them all. “I didn’t realize we were having a dancing lesson.”

“We were looking for you all morning,” Emery said, frowning at him. “Where have you been?”

Edward grinned mischievously at his mother, and Lucien felt his trepidation build. Oh no. What has the boy gotten up to now?

“First, you have to promise not to be mad,” Edward said.

Lucien’s brow furrowed. “We aren’t going to promise that.”

“Just tell us what you’ve been up to, darling,” Emery said. “I’m sure it isn’t as bad as you think it is.”

I wouldn’t be too sure about that, Lucien thought grimly.

Edward crossed his arms. “Actually, I’m the one that should be cross with you two.”

“Oh really?” Emery and Lucien looked at each other, amused. “And why is that?”

“Because you never told me there was a treehouse on the estate! I found it this morning!”

“A treehouse?” Lucien repeated. He wasn’t sure if he had heard his son right. “What are you talking about? There isn’t a treehouse on the grounds of Dredford Castle.”

“Yes, there is,” Edward insisted. “I climbed up it this morning. You can see almost all the way to Grandpa and Grandma’s house!”

“You can see Hillsborough House? Really?” Marianne asked, looking intrigued. “I want to climb up it too! Can I Mama?” She turned her large, pleading eyes to Emery. “Please?”

“I don’t know,” Emery said, biting her lip. “An old treehouse sounds very dangerous. I’m not sure you should have gone up there, Edward.”

“Wait a second,” Lucien demanded, and they all turned to look at him. “I still don’t believe there is a treehouse at Dredford Castle! I never played on one growing up--”

“Well, you hardly ever played growing up,” Emery pointed out slyly.

“--nor would I have allowed my siblings to have one?”

“Why not?” Marianne asked.

“Your father was a tad… serious… when he was younger,” Emery said with a secret smile. She then turned to her husband. “But there was a treehouse. Remember, Lucien? Henry and I used to play there as kids.”

Lucien shook his head. “I don’t remember.”

“Let me show you, Papa!” Edward said eagerly. “We can all play on it as a family!”

Which is how they found all five of them--the baby still in Emery’s arms--marching across the lawns of Dredford Castle just five minutes later. They followed Edward as he took them down around the pond, then left by the old apple tree, down a path in the woods, until at last, they reached an old rickety-looking treehouse, covered in vines and leaves. There was a small platform at its base, from which a rotted-looking rope ladder led to the lookout high in the trees.

Emery gasped when she saw the ladder and seized Edward by the shoulder, pulling him back, away from the treehouse. “I absolutely forbid you to go up that!” she commanded.

“But, Mama--”

“We can have the ladder fixed and everything checked for safety, then I will allow it. But until then, absolutely not!”

While Edward tried to argue with his mother, Lucien was examining the treehouse with interest. A vague memory was coming back to him. Something about Emery, Henry, and pirates…

Suddenly, he turned around to face his wife, an astonished look on his face.

“Good heaven!” he shouted. “I remember! This is where I caught you and Henry playing once when you were still children. And I reprimanded you for playing together without a chaperone!”

“Yes,” Emery said with a laugh. “I’m surprised you didn’t remember right away. You were very displeased with us, and you didn’t seem to think of us as children then.”

“Well, it was unseemly,” Lucien said with a grin. “After all, you were spending time alone with the man you were going to marry!”

“What?” Edward said, whirling around to stare between his mother and father. “Mama was supposed to marry Uncle Henry?”

“Er…” Lucien felt as if he had just revealed a terrible secret, and he looked sheepishly at his wife. She, however, was smirking, as if trying to keep herself from laughing.

“It’s a long story,” she said, patting her son on the head and then leaning down to plant a kiss on his forehead.

“Will you tell it to us?” Marianne asked, wide-eyed again. “Please?”

“Maybe someday,” Emery said. “But for now, all you need to know is that it has a happy ending.”

“What’s the ending?” Edward asked.

Emery looked at Lucien, and they shared a secret smile, so full of meaning and shared memories that it made his heart ache. “The ending,” Lucien said, taking his two eldest children by the shoulders and drawing them closer to him, “Is that your mother and I ended up together, and then we got you.”

The End