“Yes, My Lord,” he said, his pale eyes lit with amusement. “They do, indeed. Perhaps they should marry.”
“Oh, yes,” Lord Bradford replied, rocking back on his heels, also grinning from ear to ear. “After all, he did save your life. Er, how many times is it now?”
“More than enough,” Lord Willowdale replied. “More than enough.”
Epilogue
Six Months Later
“Freddie,” Thea said, protesting. “I do not mind a small wedding. Liam does not either.”
“But you are the daughter and sister of a Viscount,” Freddie replied, apparently exasperated by her need for a small private wedding in the chapel.
Liam, sitting at the vast dining room table that could easily seat fifty or more guests, adjusted his cravat. He was still getting used to dressing and behaving as a titled lord, though he would not truly become one until after the wedding. When one of the footmen filled his glass with wine, he started, then relaxed with a sheepish grin. Freddie eyed him with amusement.
“You will get used to it in time,” he said. “Just as I must get used to you not being a servant anymore.”
“Under your tutelage,” Thea commented, offering both her brother and her fiancé an impish grin, “one will never know he had ever been anything different.”
Liam felt his face heat. “Yes, well, there is so much to being a lord I never knew about.”
“Have you selected a valet yet?” Freddie asked.
“Must I?” Liam felt a tremor of annoyance rise. “After all, I have been dressing and caring for my own clothes for my entire life.”
While he expected Freddie to insist upon him having a personal servant, he thought Thea at least would let him have his own way in this. However, he was wrong.
“Of course you must have a manservant,” Thea replied, her light brown eyes snapping. “It is expected.”
Liam rolled his eyes. He also found the freedom of expressing himself odd as well, for footmen were never permitted to display emotion, much less roll their eyes at their betters. “Anything to please you, my love.”
“Good.” Thea grinned. “I always get my way.”
Now Freddie rolled his. “Very well,” he said with a deeply fetched sigh. “If it is a small wedding you want, then that is what you will have. Do you plan to invite any guests?”
Liam glanced at Thea and she at him. “I would like to invite Lord Bradford and his wife,” he said. “He has done a great deal for you both, as well as me.”
“Excellent choice,” Freddie said, nodding. “You are right. He was indeed instrumental in getting Littlefield hanged for his crimes. And Robert –”
Liam felt no surprise when Freddie fell silent. He and the now disgraced Baron of Ampleforth had been best friends. He had still not gotten over the shock of finding the Baron behind all the attempts to kill him. With Thea, Liam had watched his future brother-in-law go through a gamut of emotions – grief, anger, depression, making excuses for the Baron’s behavior – and only recently had he come to finally accept that his friend was never who he thought he was.
“He was insane, Freddie,” Liam said softly.
Freddie tried to raise a smile. “I know. I understand more now. especially after learning what he had done when we were children.”
Liam had finally told Thea and Freddie that it had been he who beat Robert of Ampleforth up after he had opened his clothes to the little girl Thea had been. Freddie, filled with disgust, had taken his horse and ridden out. He did not return until late and locked himself away in his chambers until the following day.
“I am very glad I do not remember that,” Thea said. “Liam was my protector even then.”
“He protected us all from the scandal that would have followed,” Freddie added, lifting his glass toward Liam. “Sometimes secrets are best left alone.”
Freddie eyed Thea apologetically. “Your instincts were spot on. You did not remember what it was he did, but deep inside, you knew exactly.”
“I could never explain it, even to myself, why I could not stand that man,” she admitted.
“And now you know what truly happened to your parents,” Liam said after sipping his wine. “The Baron will no doubt hang for that.”
Freddie set his glass on the table and rubbed his face with both hands. “The royal courts are still working on that. He confessed it to a commoner, and is now denying he said it, according to Lord Bradford’s letter.”
