Chapter Twenty-Six

20 Portman Square

London

T he following Friday in London at his townhouse, Ram stood in the salon awaiting the appearance of his bride-to-be. For the unexpected occasion of his wedding, he'd summoned his tailor for a special suit of clothes. He felt new, different, at ease. Most of all, he wished to appear as he was—content.

The woman he could not live without was about to marry him. Live with him. Love him for decades to come in all the wedded bliss they would shower upon each other.

Furthermore, his bride was well. Very much so. As the second physician that saw Amber had declared—and she repeated to Ram after her announcement—Amber St. Antoine had suffered a severe case of nausea and discomfort with the onset of her pregnancy.

"Some women do suffer in the extreme," the man told Ram the day after Amber revealed the news to him. Ram had to call the fellow back to the house just to hear the assurances from his lips. Plus he had to ask about the effects, if any, of what she had endured upon the babe. Assured of her health and the child's, Ram asked about traces of poisoning.

"I find none," the physician replied.

Ram, who had stood dumbfounded at Amber's spectacular declaration, recovered only after he kissed Amber and swept her to the lawn chaise and his lap. He had to sit, of course, because the joy of her announcement had doubled his delight that his lady had just agreed to marry him.

"I would like to help your mother and grandmother tend their roses," Amber had said with a nonchalance that had him clamping her close and kissing her breathless. "Then, too, I must win back some of my gambling losses to your grandmama."

"That will take some time, I fear, my love," Ram told her.

"I know it! The woman counts her cards better than Aunt Cecily. I must learn how she does it!"

His nana, however, was showing no signs of allowing her soon-to-be granddaughter-in-law win anything except the bounteous approval of her marriage to her grandson…and her love. Ram's mother, overjoyed as well at the news of a grandchild, announced she would not play cards with Amber. "Discourteous, but I know not how I win at cards. Honestly, I cannot teach you. I simply…intuit!"

At the moment, both women stood talking with Scarlett Hawthorne. Ram and Amber had agreed the lady should be a guest at their wedding. It was she who, in a way, was responsible for their happiness. Plus a friendship between Scarlett and Amber now seemed assured. Scarlett had come to luncheon last week, and, during the purely social call, the two women who had got on famously. They had also speculated that when they were children they had met briefly when their parents socialized together in Paris.

At the end, Scarlett had indicated that she had need of both Ram and Amber for work in London. She asked if they would consider it—and they took only a second before agreeing. Ram had asked Amber, after Scarlett's departure, if indeed she would do that.

"Why not?" she asked. "You and I have, as you once said to me, a certain knowledge of life in Bonaparte's midst. We should use it to defeat him. Besides, I would wager good coin we join Kane and Gus in the effort. That will make the mission more successful, don't you agree?"

Ram did.

He glanced at the man before him. Today, Scarlett had been accompanied by her chief clerk, Todd Carlton. Her watchdog, Carlton resembled a large jungle cat. Muscular, with ink-black hair and a white streak across his brow, the man wore a black eye patch. Carlton had been hired by Scarlett's father years ago to protect her. He took his job very seriously. If he ever smiled, Ram had never seen it.

"I am to tell you," he said to Ram as they stood there drinking bubbling white wine from Reims, "that we have heard from Dirk Fournier."

"The best news I've heard in a while," Ram said. "We worried about him. For months."

"He never sent word to Paris of his activities because he feared any message would be intercepted. But he regularly sent word north to Amsterdam and onward to us at the office. He fears for his family, his friends…and works to get them out."

"He'll remain, then?"

"We hope," Carlton said, and shook his head, "not for long."

"And what of Lord Appleby?" Ram asked. "Before I left Paris, just as war was declared, I had not heard from him in days."

Carlton winced. "We fear he was caught up by gendarmes. We have agents attempting to find him. One, we think, is close."

"I don't suppose you will reveal who that is?" Ram asked.

Carlton slowly smiled, giving his rough appearance a handsome veneer. "A lady who does very well for us."

"I wish her well." Ram nodded, then glanced at the door. His butler was showing in Kane and Gus. "Excuse me a minute, Carlton, as I welcome Kane and Augustine."

The Ashleys had come earlier in the week to greet Ram and Amber. Because Gus had recently given birth to her and Kane's first child, the two stayed for only a few minutes. But all four had time to exclaim over their escapes from France, and their relief at being in Britain now that hostilities were upon them. Gus and Amber had renewed with great affections their sisterly relationship. All delighted in the news of Amber's condition and in the birth of the heir to the Ashley earldom.

Ram now kissed Gus on her cheek and shook Kane's hand when Amber appeared on the threshold. She wore a dress of cambric muslin atop a mint-green muslin lining. With pearls entwined in her upswept red hair, she glowed as she came forward to put her hand in his.

Ram took her to one side for a private moment. "My darling, as ever, you are lovelier today than yesterday."

Her brown eyes danced. "And I hope less trouble to you today than any before."

"All that you are, I wish to have beside me forevermore. What came between us in the past is no more." He lifted her hand and kissed it.

"I love you, Ram. I told you that months ago. It was the true then. It is now. It will be from this day forward. Only love will I give you until the day I die."

THE CHALLENGES CONTINUE…