Upstairs in the quiet solitude of a charming bedroom with blue walls and yellow curtains, a very surprised – and very elated – Marcus stood over the crib of his two newborn daughters. His wife was sleeping in the room right across the hall, thoroughly exhausted but happy beyond measure. Just as Marcus turned to go be by her side, he felt a tiny tug on his trouser.
“And what do we have here?” he said, bending down to scoop up his now eldest daughter. Elizabeth smiled at him, revealing her brand new front tooth. He kissed her round cheeks and nuzzled her tuft of blond hair. She pointed at the crib and correctly interpreting her desire to meet her two new siblings, Marcus brought her over to where they peacefully slept.
Elizabeth gazed down at Sarah and Abigail, her blue eyes bright with interest, before she looked back up at her father and puffed out her cheeks. Shifting her to his hip, Marcus began to rock her back and forth. “Do you want me to tell you a fairytale, love?” he asked. Elizabeth gurgled and cooed, which Marcus decided to take as a definite ‘yes’.
“Well,” he began softly, so as not to wake the sleeping newborns or their mother, “it started when a handsome prince met a beautiful princess. They fell in love and were soon married, but the handsome prince was foolish and left the beautiful princess to search for gold…”
The sun was setting by the time Marcus got to the end of his tale. Elizabeth was sound asleep, her head resting against his shoulder, her tiny fingers curled around his neck. He kissed her brow and went back to the crib to check on the twins one more time. Abigail – or was it Sarah? He wasn’t quite sure – stared up at him with eyes the color of sapphires.
“Would you like me to finish the story?” he asked.
She blinked owlishly at him.
Marcus smiled tenderly. A surge of love swept through him, love for his wife, love for his three beautiful children, and love for the new life they had given him. A life filled with joy and laughter. A life meant to be lived.
“I would like to hear the end of the story,” said Catherine. Appearing in the doorway dressed in a loose fitting robe with her hair unbound and swept across one shoulder, she went to her husband. Marcus pulled her tightly against him and she curled into the crook of his shoulder, resting her head over his heart. Together they gazed down upon their sleeping children. Overwhelmed by the poignant sweetness of the moment, Marcus felt his eyes fill with tears.
“They all lived happily ever after,” he said huskily, pressing his lips to Catherine’s temple.
And they did.
Read on for a preview of A Ravishing Redhead the next novella in the Wedded Women Quartet!
Please enjoy a sneak peek at chapter one of A Ravishing Redhead, the next novella in the Wedded Women Quartet!
Available on Kindle May 1st, 2012
Chapter One
Margaret had been married to her husband for eight months, sixteen days, and – if her calculations were correct, which they almost always were – approximately two and a half hours. During those seven months, sixteen days and (approximately) two and a half hours she had seen her husband a total of one time. At their wedding, no less, where he had arrived drunk, slurred his vows, and sealed her fate with a sloppy kiss that had landed on her left earlobe instead of her lips.
She did not blame him for imbibing in a bit too much whisky before walking down the aisle. She would have gladly gotten drunk herself had it not been for the watchful eye of her mother. But Nettie Combs, knowing full well the willful nature of her eldest daughter, had kept Margaret under lock and key until it was time for the ceremony to begin.
Lady Combs had been carefully planning the ‘wedding of the season’ (as it was now referred to since no one else of importance had gotten married since that fateful November day) since the engagement had been announced and she had been determined not to let anything – or anyone – ruin it.
“Well you certainly got what you wanted, Mother,” said Margaret to no one in particular, for no one in particular was around. “I am wed to a Duke, and your grandchildren shall one day carry titles higher than your own. I hope you are very happy, for I am not, and I fear I never will be.”