Page 54 of Once a Scoundrel

Epilogue

Elmhurst Park

One Happy Year Later

“There you are!” Faith glided into the study with Charlie the dog as ever at her heels and Snowflake the cat nestled in her arms.

Stephen glanced up and smiled at the sight of her and her animal entourage.

They’d been married for almost a year, yet he hadn’t grown tired of seeing her beautiful face during long afternoons when he was working at overseeing the marquessate or going over whatever new matter in parliament needed his attention. And he doubted he ever would. Not Faith. Not the woman who brought him more happiness than he could ever have imagined. Just as he’d never grow tired of seeing that same beautiful face filled with pleasure when he made love to her.

He set down the letter he’d been reading, one from Mary assuring him that she and Jeremy were doing wonderfully well with the Llewellyns, that they’d fully accepted her and legally acknowledged Jeremy as their grandson. They adored the child, and they loved Mary as a daughter. Everything had worked out perfectly in the end.

He pushed himself to his feet and circled the desk toward Faith. When he lowered his head to give her a kiss, the cat hissed and swiped a paw at his chin.

“That’s enough from you,” he chastised and risked another scratch by setting the beast on the floor.

The animal, which had grown during the past year from a snarling kitten into a snarling cat, gave his boot an indignant bite before turning on Charlie and chasing the cowardly wolfhound into the hall.

“Now then.” He slipped his arms around her waist and drew her against him. Her heart jumped into a fast beat, and he grinned at her eager arousal. “You were looking for me?”

“I was.” Her arms encircled his neck. “And I’m glad I found you.”

“Me, too.” He lowered his mouth to her ear and brushed his hands up her sides as he rakishly murmured, “So why don’t you forgo whatever plans you have and join me in bed for the rest of the afternoon?”

She sighed. “Oh, that is so tempting...”

Stilling his hands in mid-caress, he raised his head to gaze down into her face and prompted knowingly, “But?”

“Something has come up.” She bit her bottom lip with a wary expression. “I’m needed in the stables.”

“I see.” He released her and leaned back against the desk, folding his arms across his chest before he grabbed her into his arms and carried her upstairs anyway, drama in the stables be damned. “What is it this time?”

She lowered her guilty gaze to the floor. “A cow.”

“Acow?” he blurted out. Well,thatwas new. Since they’d been married, she’d brought home nearly a dozen stray cats and dogs, two geese, and a rooster. Apparently, though, today she’d graduated to herd animals. Strathmore was certain to have a good laugh over this, now that her kind-hearted rescues had become Stephen’s headache.

“It was tangled in the reeds in the river, and the men helped me rescue it. The poor thing was so exhausted from struggling to free itself that I couldn’t just leave it there in the field.”

He arched a brow. “Cows live in fields.”

She wisely ignored his grumbling. “So they brought it back to our stables—”

“They?”

“Ibrought it back,” she amended with a sigh. “I want to care for it until I find its owner. Only until then. After all, it has to belong to one of our tenants.”

His eyes narrowed suspiciously, knowing her too well. “What aren’t you telling me?”

She ground her toe into the rug, refusing to look up at him. “Well, there’s a little...you see...just a little...” She hesitated, then admitted in a rush, “It has a calf.”

“Of course it does,” he mumbled.

“Two of them, actually.”

He fought back a grin. Dear God, how much he loved her! “I suppose we’ll just have to make room for another mouth to feed,” he capitulated. “Or three.”

Beaming a grateful smile, she threw herself into his arms with a soft laugh. Then she whispered into his ear, “Or four.”