Page 101 of When the Rogue Returns
“Your father enjoys teasing sometimes,” Isa put in, “but only if he really, really likes you. I think he must like you a great deal.”
Victor’s throat tightened. “Yes. I do. And I hope that one day you can like me, too. Even if I don’t know a damn—” He winced. “Asinglething about female fashions.” Or not cursing in front of young ladies.
Amalie sat quiet for so long that he began to despair. Then she said in a small voice, “I could teach you. About female fashions, I mean.”
“I would enjoy that immensely.” Right now, he would enjoy anything that got his daughter to feel more comfortable with him. “And in exchange, I will teach you how to swim. If you’d like.”
She cocked her head, and he could almost imagine her searching his face. “I would rather learn how to shoot a gun.”
“All right,” he said, willing to do anything to gain her favor.
“Victor!” Isa cried. “You arenotgoing to teach our daughter how to shoot!”
“Fine,” he said, then uttered a dramatic sigh. “It’s probably just as well. I’m told that guns are hopelessly out of fashion in Paris, and you can’t really wear one on your big hat. Oyster feathers work much better.”
“Papa!” Amalie cried, half laughing. “They’reostrichfeathers!”
His heart flipped over in his chest. She’d called him “papa.” He’d never heard anything so sweet. “Right,” he said. “So, what’s the name of those long lacy things that the ladies wear around their necks?”
For the next hour she regaled him with explanations and descriptions of every “fabulous” gown and hat and pair of slippers she’d ever seen, while he showed his ignorance about all things “fashionable.” After a bit, he thought perhaps she’d begun to catch on that he wasn’tquiteas ignorant as he pretended, but by then she apparently didn’t care, either.
Because by then, she’d started asking questions about the past and the future. About how they would go on. He and Isa answered as best they could, until her head began to nod and she began to yawn.
After she fell asleep, Isa laid her down on the seat and crossed to sit beside him. Victor slid his arm about her shoulders. “She’s as wonderful as her mother,” he murmured, feeling a painful tightness in his chest as he gazed on his daughter.Theirdaughter. “You did well with her.”
Isa leaned her head on his shoulder. “I’m sorry for the years you lost with her, sorry that—”
“No more apologies.” He stared down at the wife he was only beginning to know; the woman he would cherish until death closed his eyes and stopped his breath. “We both made mistakes, but we both paid for them in spades. Fate has given us a second chance, so it’s time we let our mistakes go. We love each other, and we love her. That should be all we need to start our new life, don’t you think?”
Isa stretched up to brush a kiss to his lips, and her smile made his blood heat and his heart swell. “I think that sounds perfectly fabulous.”
EPILOGUE
London
December 1828
WHENISA ARRIVEDat the Duke of Lyons’s town house to join the duke and duchess and Victor for dinner there, she was feeling rather blue. But she didn’t wish to put a damper on the evening, so she pasted a smile to her lips as she knocked.
To her surprise, her husband opened the door and he was alone. Usually the place swarmed with footmen and maids.
When he greeted her with a kiss, then took her coat, she teased, “Do tell me you haven’t left Manton’s Investigations to take a position as Max’s footman.”
“I doubt Max would approve of footmen who kissed the guests. I just wanted a moment alone with you.” He searched her face. “How was Jacoba?”
She should have known her husband would see through her determined good cheer. “How do you think? Her husband is dead, and she’s off to the Australian colonies in a few weeks.”
“You’re not regretting that we held firm on seeing her prosecuted.”
“Absolutely not. She helped her evil husband take our daughter! I can never forgive that, and she knows it. But seeing her there in Newgate, with the other women, and knowing that she would soon be half a world away...”
“Made you remember when times were good.”
She nodded. “When I was little, she was the one who coddled me, warmed chocolate for me to drink, and took care of my sore throats. I hate that Gerhart twisted her into someone I no longer recognized.”
“So do I, for your sake.”
Taking in a deep breath, she forced her frown from her brow. “Well, enough about that. I shall try to put it behind me for the evening. I don’t want to make Max and Lisette gloomy, too.”
