Somehow that did not surprise her. “Mary is also part of it. I am certain it was her!”
“I have my suspicions, as well,” Simon agreed.
Anne quickly relayed her talk with her grandfather. “I have asked him to formally apologize to you for judging you and wronging you,” she told him.
With that, Simon kissed her. It started soft and tender but quickly grew ravenous. Her heart began to pound as her body heated, and she feared she would not have the will to stop him should he want to take the kiss somewhere more scandalous. Just as she felt him start to pull away, the door behind them banged open.
They broke apart and both turned toward the door as Mary marched in with a look of hatred on her face. “I knew it!” she hissed. “You’re a traitor to the Sisterhood and to me, Anne!” Mary flung out.
Anne sucked in a sharp breath to blast Mary with, but Simon beat her to it. “Ye’re a liar and a deceiver,” he growled. “Ye know I never seduced ye.”
“You cannot prove that,” Mary snapped. “Just as neither of you will be able to prove that I did not see you two in here in a lurid embrace! I will ruin you, Anne! And as for you, Simon—”
“You will do no such thing!” Fanny burst in with Lord Rutledge at her side and a triumphant look upon her face. In her hand, she held what appeared to be a diary. “I have proof that you lied about His Grace seducing you, and I am willing to tell all who will listen that I lied about Rutledge seducing me and your part in ensuring I did so.”
Lord Rutledge blinked at Fanny while taking her hand. “You would do that for me?”
“That and more,” Fanny professed.
The tenderness Anne saw between the two of them made her smile.
“Give me my diary!” Mary shrieked, grasping for it.
Simon snagged her by the arm and held her back. “I think not,” he scolded. “Tell me, Lady Fanny, does Lady Mary’s diary say why she lied about me?”
Fanny nodded. “Oh yes. Right here!” She quickly turned to a dog-eared page and read aloud,“‘I stupidly slept with Roger, the stable hand, but I have a solution. I don’t wish to marry the decrepit Lord Darwimple, and Rowan will not listen to reason. I shall seduce the very attractive Simon who will one day be a duke…’”Fanny looked up, her eyes narrowed. “I could read the rest, but we all know what truly must have happened.”
Simon released Mary and gave her a look that made Anne shiver. “Yer plots are exposed, Lady Mary.”
Anne nodded. “His Grace had no interest in being seduced by you, and you lied to save yourself from Grandfather discovering you had slept with the stable hand!”
“It is very good to finally hear the truth.” Grandfather appeared in the doorway. Anne felt Simon take her hand in his and pull her close as her grandfather walked toward them. He looked directly at Simon. “I owe you a heartfelt apology.”
Simon nodded his acceptance with a smile. “And I owe ye thanks.”
“Thanks?” Anne and her grandfather said in unison.
Simon looked at Anne, and the love she saw in his eyes made her heart squeeze. “Ye have cared for this daring woman beside me,” he said, “and I hope she will soon agree to be my duchess.”
Anne smiled, liking the image of them that appeared in her mind. “Your daring duchess,” she murmured to Simon, ignoring Mary’s wailing, which now filled the room. “I love the way that sounds.”
“As do I,” Simon said, “as do I.”
Epilogue
Two Months Later
Anne lay at one end of the bed while Simon reclined against the other. She looked up from the book she was reading when her husband’s work papers brushed her foot. Her breath caught in her chest at the sight of Simon in nothing more than leather breeches, which he had donned to go in search of the documents that Perceval had forgotten to put on the breakfast tray. The sculpted muscles of Simon’s chest made Anne’s stomach tighten with memories of the passion and the undying love she had found in his arms. The look of possession and hunger her husband gave her told her he was recalling the moments they had spent locked in each other’s embrace, as well.
Simon grinned, looking rather like a wolf about to pounce on his prey, and he reached toward her, plucked her book from her hands, and took hold of the ankle of her shorter leg.
“What are you doing?” she gasped, as he pressed kisses from her toes all the way up to her thigh.
He paused in his ministrations and arched his eyebrows. “Isn’t it obvious?”
She shook her head, repressing the urge to moan as he trailed his fingers over the sensitive flesh of her inner thigh.
“Well, my duchess,” he said, as he’d taken to calling her, “I am seducing ye as I vowed to do every day for the rest of our lives.”
