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.Gingerly fingering his swollen abrasion, he slowly raised himself into a sitting position and then, as he gazed lovingly into her eyes, he shook his head in disbelief.‘What a fool I am!’ he groaned.‘To think that I actually had you there in my bed next to me and was too damned foxed to realise it!’Lifting her hand, he pressed her fingers to his lips, saying, ‘I’ll do far better next time—you have my word!’As Helena dropped her eyes, and blushed yet again, he let out a little chuckle and, rising to his feet, put out his hand to help her up.‘First things first, however,’ he said, as he frowningly surveyed the damage all around him.Then, beckoning one of the men over to him, he took him to one side, in order to confirm his supposition that his cousin had, indeed, perished in the explosion.The arrival of the doctor who, after checking the earl over, affixed a court plaster to his wound and pronounced him fit enough to carry out his normal occupations, also revealed the full extent of Standish’s wily duplicity—although Richard was no longer surprised to learn that his cousin had made no effort to contact any of the doctors after Fuller’s accident, since it was now clear that he had banked on the man dying without recovering consciousness.Hence his desperate attempt to silence the young worker for good, Helena’s interruption presumably being the catalyst that had finally tipped him over the edge into total insanity.Although the earl could not help but feel a deep sadness that his young cousin’s thinking had become so warped during his own extended absence from the family estate that he had actually been prepared to kill to ensure his own succession to the property, it was impossible for him not to cast up a prayer of thanks that all of his efforts had failed.And now, as he looked across the hall, to where Helena was already engaged in the business of directing the clearing-up operations, he felt his heart swelling with so much love that it seemed it might almost burst and he swore that never again would he allow anything to come between him and his beloved angel.As she lay curled up in her husband’s arms that night, Helena was filled with a deep and drowsy contentment, coupled with an absolute certainty that Richard’s love for her was as real and true as hers was for him.Having heard the full story of Charles Standish’s treachery she, too, had been sickened to learn that the young man for whom she had begun to develop quite a fondness had turned out to be such a treacherous fraud and, whilst she was deeply sorry that he had gone so far as to take his own life, she could not help but feel profoundly thankful that he had been the one to die and not her beloved Richard.Raising her head, she pressed a teasing kiss against her husband’s throat, causing him to tighten his hold and hurriedly capture her lips with his own.But then, as he felt himself being swept up in yet another current of breathless exhilaration, he reluctantly drew away from her and, mindful of the rapidly approaching daylight, murmured, ‘You really need to get some sleep now, my love—we have a full day’s work ahead of us, remember.’‘A good many full days, it would seem,’ she replied with a soft laugh, as she snuggled even closer to him.‘And, if tonight’s performance is anything to go by, a good many full nights, too, I would imagine!’‘You tempting little minx,’ he growled huskily, pulling her swiftly into his arms once more.‘Who would have thought that an angel would be so very accommodating!’EpilogueAlmost a year to the day of the explosion the Earl and Countess of Markfield decided to hold a celebratory ball.The renovations to the Hall were now complete and to commemorate this happy event—in addition to the happy event who lay sleeping peacefully in his cradle in the newly furbished nursery wing—the idea of so grand a celebration seemed entirely appropriate.Thanks to Helena’s prompt intervention, Ben Fuller had survived his injury, the rapidly fading scar on his left brow being the only reminder of that dreadful time [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]