Page 112 of One Night with a Prince
Their nurse came forward, her face filled with exasperation. “I’m sorry the children disturbed you andGenerated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlmy lady, but Miss Sarah ran downstairs to fetch her mother when my back was turned—”
“It’s all right. I know what a slyboots my daughter can be sometimes.”
“I wonder where she gotthat from,” Christabel muttered.
“Watch it, wife,” he teased, “or I’ll makeyou Tweedledee.”
“Mama can’t be Tweedledee,” Sarah said loftily. “She’s just Mama.”
When Christabel rolled her eyes, he stifled a chuckle. “Jane,” he said, “I hereby endow you with the authority to designate Tweedledums and Tweedledees. If either John or Sarah misbehaves while their mother and I are dining with our guests, you have my permission to turn them both into Tweedledees until they agree to behave themselves.”
“Very good, sir,” Jane retorted.
He cast his children a stern look. Or attempted to, anyway. “And if I hear one word about your giving Nurse any trouble, I’ll tell Grandmama Byrne and Grandpapa Lyon. They’ll be very disappointed to hear how their grandchildren are behaving.” He turned to offer Christabel his arm. “Shall we, my love?”
She took it, but as soon as they’d left the room, she said in a low voice, “Tell Grandmama Byrne and Grandpapa Lyon, indeed. As if that would do anything—they spoil the children almost as much as you do.”
“Every child deserves some spoiling,” he said.
She glanced up at him with a soft smile as they headed down the stairs. “Yes, I suppose they do.”
“But I wish I knew why they consider Tweedledee to be ‘bad’ and Tweedledum ‘good.’ In the bloody nursery rhyme, the two are interchangeable.”
Christabel chuckled. “Ah, but they’re children, Gavin. Logic doesn’t enter into it. Sarah decided that Tweedledum sounds like drums, so she associates it with Grandpapa’s tales of battle. Whereas, according to her, Tweedledee is the sound a bird makes, and that’s just ‘silly.’”
“And if Sarah says it, John follows right behind.”
“That won’t last once he’s old enough to assert himself, I suspect.”
He laughed. “True, true.” They’d reached the next floor and were heading for the staircase that led down to the drawing room when he suddenly pulled her into an alcove and kissed her hard. As he drew back, she was staring at him, bemused. “What wasthat for?”
“For marrying me. For giving me two beautiful children.” He settled his hands on her waist. “For believing in me when no one else in their right mind would have.”
It was her turn to kisshim, her mouth so warm and sweet that their kiss soon erupted into something hotter. This time when he drew back, her face was flushed, and her breath came in little staccato gasps that only enflamed him further.
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“We don’t have to go downstairs right away,” he murmured. “We could keep them waiting a few minutes more.”
“Don’t tempt me,” she warned, pushing him out into the hall and tugging him toward the stairs. “You know what happened the last time we kept your brothers waiting. We never heard the end of their teasing. ‘So, Byrne, did you and Christabel get lost on the way down? Perhaps we should send you a floor plan for next time. The drawing room is the one thatdoesn’t have a bed.’”
He laughed at her fairly accurate imitation of Iversley. “Point taken. My brothers are idiots.”
She snorted. “You’re as bad as they are with your swaggering answers.”
“You do know we only say such things to make our wives blush.”
“Yes, I know very well the whole lot of you are wicked scoundrels.”
Yet despite her grumbling, she’d never wavered in her faith in his character. She’d never been the clinging, distrustful woman she’d threatened to be as his mistress. And oddly enough, her trust in him made him even more determined not to disappoint her.
He bent to press a kiss to her ear. “That’s why you never find us boring.”
She gazed up at him with an earnest expression. “Do you ever miss your old life, Gavin?”
“You mean my whining mistresses, long, lonely nights at the club with drunken cardplayers, parties at Stokely’s where I had to be on my guard against treachery every waking hour—”
“That’s a no, I take it,” she said with a small smile.
