Page 124 of The Duke's Forbidden Bride
Spencer’s smile was slow and vicious. “The bastard managed to flee England, but when he was found, he resisted arrest. He was shot dead. It’s the only ending he deserved, although I would have liked to see him pay for a very, very long time for what he had done, and would have further done.”
For a brief moment, his eyes flicked to Charlotte, and they all knew what bullets she and Eleanor had dodged.
“And Frances returned,” Eleanor chimed in happily. “She was found locked up in Belgrave’s residence. From there, the constables traveled to the Caribbean to rescue the women sold through the operation. Some… some did not make it.But most have been reunited with their families, their stories finally brought to light. I believe Frances is helping others find employment and has started some sort of organization to counter operations like Belgrave’s.”
“I did hear something about that!” Katherine exclaimed, beaming. “I read about it a while ago. They turned St. Euphemia’s into a school for women, did they not? Hartswood House, they have called it—after the town, of course. I have heard of poor, ruined girls attending it. Even courtesans and widows. It’s a safe haven of sorts.”
Eleanor shivered as she nodded, overwhelmed by emotion for a moment. “It is.”
“I wonder who has funded it,” Charlotte mused aloud. “I heard they had a very large, anonymous donation to open up, and have received continuous funding.”
Spencer’s hand slid up and down Eleanor’s spine, a discreet smile on his lips.
“Have you heard from your parents, Eleanor?” Katherine asked, her brow pinched in sympathy.
But Eleanor did not need it.
She shook her head. Her parents had been a wound she had long closed.
“The last I heard, their shame over sending me to St. Euphemia’s and disgracing me publicly drove them to the colonies,” she muttered. “I begged them to listen and believe me, and they never did. Regardless, I will never reach out to them again. I do not need them.”
And she truly believed that.
She had her husband, her friend, and Theodore, who never hesitated to interrupt a moment between her and Spencer, only to find his moments with Charlotte interrupted in return. Always by Spencer, of course.
“Everybody got what they desired,” Charlotte murmured thoughtfully.
“They did,” Spencer agreed quietly. “It has been too long coming.”
They shared a look.
The siblings had worked through the argument they had had that terrible night. They had begun to discuss Anna rather than keep her memory buried, and slowly, Spencer had told Charlotte the truth about their father and mother and had held her through it all.
Eleanor had watched them briefly that day, her heart full of pride.
She leaned her head against her husband’s shoulder, pressing closer to him. She turned her face into him discreetly, closing her eyes she breathed in the scent of bonfires and cinnamon.
“You smell like home,” she whispered, and received a kiss.
Home.A thing they had both lost for different reasons years ago, only to find it in one another.
Home. Something neither of them would ever lose again.
“You are my home,” Spencer murmured, and they ignored the calls of their family as he kissed her again.
Later that night, Eleanor leaned back against Spencer’s bare chest, her eyes fluttering shut as the bathwater lapped at her.
“How you can look so relaxed in such a cramped space, I do not understand.” He laughed, his mouth pressed to her shoulder.
He hummed as she intertwined their fingers. The steam from their bath rose around her, dampening her hair.
Spencer was already half aroused beneath her, but she had yet to part her legs and let him slip inside, simply enjoying the moment, the languid relaxation.
“It is not my fault that my beast of a husband is too broad to fit into a tub with me.” She giggled. “Although I do enjoy the way your muscles move when youfit in, even if it’s just about.”
“Are we speaking about me and the tub now?”
His voice was low, his fingers already trailing down her stomach. She was sitting between his parted legs, his body a solid warmth behind her. She rolled her backside against him, unhurried and relaxed.
