Epilogue

“ B en, stop worrying. You’re worse than when I labored.”

“You aren’t my little girl,” Ben blurted as his fingers gripped the chair’s arms.

“No, I’m your wife.” Jemma huffed as she settled onto Ben’s lap just as she had for more than two decades. His arms came around her immediately, and she felt him relax. They awaited their first grandchild, who seemed content to take his or her time. They’d listened to their daughter’s agony for hours. She’d eventually sent Jemma to Ben because his incessant demands to know what was happening and what was wrong only made their son-in-law more anxious. The poor man was beside himself and refused to leave the bedchamber.

“I’m sorry.” Ben pressed his lips to Jemma’s as an infant’s wail filled the air. Ben nearly dropped Jemma in his haste to rise. He repeated himself, as he set Jemma on her feet. She was just as anxious as her husband, but after delivering five children of her own, she was far better at hiding her emotions than Ben.

“I have a son!” The proud new father burst into Ben’s study in the cottage where he and Jemma raised their family. It was more like a small manor house than cottage, but they’d always referred to it as such, since it felt homier.

“We have a grandson,” Ben and Jemma cheered together. They led a procession of siblings abovestairs to meet the newest addition. After kissing their daughter and grandson, Ben and Jemma stepped aside while their other children congratulated their sister.

“We’ve made a life far richer than anything we’ve ever smuggled,” Jemma said as she burrowed into her husband’s embrace.

“Never did I imagine I’d be so blessed to be a princess’s smuggler, but I would be no one else in this life or another.”

“I love you,” they said together just as they had every day since they married. They watched their family, feeling the love that filled their home.

Keith MacNeil, duke and privateer, remembers his little sister’s best friend as a young girl. Now Lydia Abbington is a young woman with secrets about his sister’s death. Will their attraction be enough for them to trust each other?