Page 84 of A Lady's Heart Deceived
“Just think, if I had refused to see you that day at the Horse Guards, none of this would have happened. You wouldn’t be mine from this day forward.” He slid his hand under her waist, dragging Maggie up and over him. As she settled her legs over his, she bent and kissed him once more.
She tapped her finger lightly on Piers’s chest. “That will teach you for sending me a terse letter. You now have a lifetime in which to regret it.”
He pulled the coverlet over them and as Maggie nestled against him, Piers whispered. “I will never regret anything with you.”
Chapter Fifty
The official letter from the head of the British Army arrived at the Grange a week later. Piers’s gaze was still on the letter’s wax seal as he strode into the breakfast room.
“I received a letter,” he announced.
Maggie gave a merehmmto his words.
“This morning’s newspaper has a report from a special correspondent in Amsterdam. Rumor has it that the King of the Netherlands is going to commission a great statue and monument on the site where the Prince of Orange was injured. They say King Willem plans to spare no expense,” she said.
Piers looked up. His wife’s nose was firmly in the daily newspaper. Had she even heard him? She most certainly hadn’t noticed the letter.
“I can’t imagine how much that is going to cost,” she continued.
Clearly not listening.
He tried again. “I received a letter from the British Army this morning.”
She lifted her head from the paper, took one look at the letter, and sighed.
“Why didn’t you say so? We have been expecting that.”
Piers lifted an eyebrow. In the week since their wedding, he had already learned a great deal about his bride—one of which was her habit of scanning the morning’s newspaper each day, cover to cover, looking for interesting pieces of news.
From his jacket pocket, he produced a second letter. This one had been marked as having been sent from Europe by the Thurn-und-Taxis postal service.
“There is another letter. This one, interestingly enough, appears to have come from Brussels.”
Maggie scrunched the paper closed and tossing it onto the table, quickly rose. She was at Piers’s side in an instant.
How wonderful it was to have such an enthusiastic woman in his life. From the bedroom to the breakfast table, Maggie was full of vigor. Especially in the bedroom.
A hand slipped under his arm and snatched the second letter away. She waved it in the air. “First, the letter from the army.”
Piers wasn’t about to argue. He was as keen as Maggie to read the contents of the letter from the Commander-in-Chief.
The wax seal gave a loud, satisfying crack as he broke it open. The single page opened to reveal a scant few lines.
HRH The Duke of York and Albany
Commander-in-Chief
His Majesty’s British Army
Horse Guards, London
To Captain Piers Denford,
I wish to thank you for your service and sacrifice as a member of the British Army’s Grenadier Guards. Your request to resign your commission has been accepted and you are hereby granted an honorable discharge. A separate letter of commendation will come from His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, in due course.
His Royal Highness, the Duke of York and Albany
Commander-in-Chief
