Loved by a Duke (The Heart of a Duke #4)(91)

Then, they both wore a perpetual smile these days. He brushed his hand over the small tuft of hair atop the tiny babe’s head. Nay, his and Daisy’s babe. She opened her gray, cloudy eyes with effort and her lips moved in a slow, quiet suckle. Then she found him. Ah, God he loved her. She and Daisy were more joy than he, or any one man, had a right to. “Hullo, Lionella,” he said quietly. Her lashes drifted closed once more and she slept. A light sheen of tears marred his vision and he blinked them back.

This was peace. They three, in this moment he would forever freeze in time if he could. He reached into the front of his jacket. “I’ve brought you something.”

Daisy looked to him expectantly.

“I found it at our Gipsy Hill, and waited for the right moment to give it to you.” There would never be a more right moment than this one. He held up the gold chain given him by the old gypsy woman.

A gasp escaped her lips and she alternated a disbelieving gaze between him and the necklace. “I know you sought a heart pendant.” Daisy had demonstrated a singular interest in the heart. “And though it is not fancy and of the rubies and diamonds you deserve,” he murmured and leaned forward to hang it about her neck. “It seemed perfect.” Just as she was and always would be. He snapped the clasp closed with a soft click that echoed in the quiet.

He reached for Lionella and Daisy turned the precious bundle over. Love swelled in his chest as he rocked her in his arms. His body warmed at the sweet, gentleness of her diminutive frame against him.

Daisy touched her fingertips to the necklace. The muscles of her throat moved. He brushed his knuckles over Lionella’s satiny soft cheeks. “The Heart of a Duke,” Daisy whispered.

He looked at her quizzically.

“The necklace,” she explained, her fingers still at her neck. “Whoever wears it shall possess the heart of a duke.”

His lips turned up at the romantic dreamer she’d always been. He wanted his daughter to bear every characteristic of her brave, bold, spirited mother. Well, but for the taking it into her head to dash off through the streets of London without a chaperone.

“Do you know,” Daisy said softly. “I never wanted the heart of a duke, though.”

Her words froze him.

She layered her hand to his, as together they cradled their babe. “I only wanted you, Auric. Only you.”

And finally… he was complete.



The End