Chapter 14

S urprisingly, the prince was not the pompous person Glain had expected him to be.

He’d conducted himself with distinction during battles with Napoleon. He continued to serve as a diplomat and did not think anything of talking about those topics with her, a woman.

He was handsome, with a tall, slender frame, pleasing face, and clever mustache.

But none of it mattered.

He was not Abaddon.

He didn’t speak about books and literature or ask for her opinion. Rather, he spoke about himself and his accomplishments, and seemed just as content speaking to her father as he did, her.

At that particular moment, the prince sat across from the duke, both men speaking about matters of horseflesh.

As they did, she welcomed the reprieve from having to be polite and pretend to be interested in him and whatever he spoke about.

Her gaze drifted over to the window. The curtains had been drawn back which placed the grey London sky on display. Then she saw it. A single flake. So faint, she may as well have imagined it. So small she blinked but when she opened her eyes again and looked, there was another. And another.

As the men’s conversation droned on, her mind drifted to another day not so very long ago, but also one that may as well have been a lifetime past…to the time she and Abaddon had frolicked in the fields of snow, hurling snowball as their laughter had echoed on the still winter air.

She registered the frantic flurry of footfalls and looked up, just as the door was drawn open, and the family butler revealed the quartet behind him.

Her gaze bypassed the duke and her siblings for the tall, powerful man whose presence commanded greater than any mere title could.

Her heart tripled its beat. “Abaddon,” she whispered, his name emerging noiseless.

A smile twinkled in the old butler’s eyes. “A Mr. Grimoire to see Lady Diamond,” the butler announced in his slightly nasally tones.

“What is the meaning of this?” her father demanded, surging to his feet. “We are entertaining.”

Abaddon stepped into the room. “You forgot something, Glain,” he called, easily overpowering her father’s lofty tirade. Reaching inside his jacket as he came forward, he stopped before her, and withdrew a book.

She stared dumbly at the title she’d left behind that day. “Oh,” she said, deflated.

His gaze locked with hers. “And you forgot something else…me.”

His quiet pronouncement slammed into her, and incapable of words, she shot her eyes up to meet his.

Abaddon sank onto a knee beside her.

“Get away from her this instant!” her father shouted. Thumping a fist on the arm of the chair, he thundered for footmen.

Abaddon ignored him. “Every day since you’ve been gone, I’ve missed you,” he said quietly, stroking her cheek. Closing her eyes, Glain leaned into that bold, familiar, and magical touch. “I’ve missed your smile and debating you. I’ve missed watching you scour shelves, and…and…I miss the way you dog-ear your pages.” He paused, and she opened her eyes. “I love you, Glain, and I want to spend every day of our lives continuing to make you smile and finding out everything there is to know about you.”

Her chest quickened and tears filled her eyes. “You love me,” she whispered.

“And it is my hope that you can one day love me—”

“I love you,” she rasped, launching herself at Abaddon.

Abaddon, who easily caught her, and kept on his feet, holding her close.

Opal and Flint let out a triumphant cheer, clapping wildly.

“Footmen!” her father bellowed and then looked frantically to the prince. “You must forgive me. This upstart has no place—”

“It seems the couple is in love,” the prince said, with a smile in his voice.

Her father seethed, turning his wrath back on Glain and Abaddon. “I’ll see you destroyed.”

“Actually, you won’t,” Abaddon’s friend intoned from the doorway. “Mr. Grimoire has enough powerful patrons that your word will have no impact, one way or the other. I’ve as much if not more influence than you because I’m not a bastard about my title.” He spoke with a haughty cool that only a duke could manage, and one to rival her father’s.

“Strathearn,” Glain’s father muttered. “I see you turned out nothing like your father.”

“Thank God, for that .” The younger duke flicked an imagined speck of lint from his shoulder. “It is interesting you should mention my late father. I’d be remiss if I failed to mention, thanks to he and his journals, I’ve a substantial bit of information that serves as a reminder to me.”

“Oh?” Her father peered at the other, formidable man. “And what reminder is that , Strathearn?”

The Duke of Strathearn locked his gaze with the older nobleman’s and smiled. “Not all of us are as illustrious as they may seem. Lady Diamond marrying Mr. Grimoire, and your younger children being free to visit whatever circulating library they so choose would really be no grand scandal in the scheme of…say, other things.”

Glain’s father blanched. He cast a frantic look at the frowning prince, and then returned his attention to the duke. “Are you th-threatening me?”

“I wouldn’t dare.” Strathearn inclined his head. The feigned levity vanished, as his eyes hardened. “I trust, given the circumstances, I won’t need to threaten you.”

His meaning remained clear.

The Duke of Devonshire cursed roundly.

Opal clapped her hands happily. “You’re definitely moving up in my estimation, Duke,” the girl praised.

Strathearn shot her a wink.

Abaddon rested his brow against Glain’s, drawing her attention back to him.

“I’m not a prince,” he said quietly, caressing her cheek once more. “I’m not a lord. I’m nothing more than the owner of a circulating library with a modest townhouse and even more modest wealth—”

“None of that matters,” she interrupted, her voice breaking.

He continued over her interruption. “—asking you to marry—?”

Glain kissed the remainder of the proposal from his lips, and he returned that kiss.

Ignoring more of her father’s blustering, Abaddon drew back and grinned. “Is that a ‘yes’, darling?”

“That is a yes,” she murmured, and a giddy laugh spilled from Glain’s lips, as he kissed her and, in his arms, she at last found herself… home .

The End

Be sure and check out the next Carmichael Saga installment, featuring Lady Opal Carmichael and the Duke of Strathearn. A Duke for Opal is out January 2025!

And if you’re looking for your next great read from Christi Caldwell? Be sure and check out her latest, bestselling, Regency series—Seven Deadly Sins series.

19th century London. Two rival gaming hells that cater to sin and vice are at war for supremacy.

These ruthless men will fight it out to become the king of London’s gaming world.

Except the greatest battle each man will face is the one waged by the innocent young woman determined to bring him to his knees in the name of love.

Wrath—The Devil Duke

Lust—The Bad Earl

Pride—The Rogue—Out December 2024