Lady Gone Wicked (Wicked Secrets)(65)

Alice laughed. “Again, dearest? You have heard the tale a dozen times, at least.”

“But I love it, Mama. It’s so funny, and it has to do with all of you, even though you didn’t know it yet.”

Wintham laughed and then coughed. They all turned to look at him. He waved his hand dismissively. “I’m fine, I’m fine.”

No doubt he was. His heart still beat out of order, but it carried on just the same. Perhaps he would outlive them all.

Feeling his father’s gaze on him, Nick raised his brows in question. Wintham’s lips moved silently in answer. Forty-three. Nick grinned.

Forty-three times they had gathered thus, exactly as Wintham had once foretold so many years ago. Forty-three times they had sat under this oak tree with the children wreaking havoc and the grown-ups drinking their tea. They had talked of the weather and London gossip; they had laughed and argued.

Wintham had marked every time.

Nick did not. He did not count the thousands of joyful days, the kisses, the laughter, nor the annoyances and heart pricks. They all blended together into a long and happy life.

But every night, as he slid into bed next to Adelaide, he thanked God his wife was so very, very wicked.



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