Scandalous Duke by Scott Scarlett

Author:Scott, Scarlett
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Historical
Publisher: Happily Ever After Books, LLC
Published: 2020-01-27T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Johanna McKenna had worked some change over him, and Felix could not deny it any longer as he sat with her in the salon following dinner. Verity had been tucked into bed some time ago, yawning and smiling. When she had thrown her arms around his neck and pressed a kiss to his cheek, his heart had seemed to swell to thrice its original size.

And it was all the doing of the alluring woman seated alongside him.

He had not realized just how potent an elixir his daughter’s happiness could be until he had heard her laughing with Johanna McKenna. Nor had he realized how much Verity longed for his attention and affection.

When he had returned from his meeting with the Duke and Duchess of Arden, he had felt as if he carried the weight of a dozen worlds upon his shoulders. But then, he had seen Verity’s sweetly cherubic face, and he had known such a rush of gratitude for her. Thankfulness that she was alive, that she had not been injured or worse in the fire at Halford House. Humbled that she was his.

She had asked him, very seriously, if he wanted to play dragon and princess with her. And so he had. And he had chased her down the hall, laughing with her as if he were no more than a lad himself.

It had been nothing short of miraculous. Nothing short of wonderful.

“Thank you,” he told her.

She slanted a startled look in his direction. “What are you thanking me for, Your Grace?”

Now that they were alone, out of the listening ears of his daughter, he did not want the formality between them.

“When we are alone, I would prefer if you continue to call me Felix,” he said.

A charming tint of pink colored her cheeks. “As you wish, Felix, but you have nothing to thank me for. I have brought nothing but danger to your door, which is the last thing I would wish for you.”

The danger would have found him inevitably anyway. The Fenians were growing bolder in their plotting and their targets by the day. But she did not know the depths of his involvement with such matters. He had kept his work at the Home Office a secret from her out of necessity.

“I do not want to think about the danger now. We are safe here, and you have my word on that. As I see it, however, I have much to thank you for. You have brought happiness back into my daughter’s life.” He paused, struggling to find the proper words for what he wanted to convey. “I have not heard her laughter as many times in the last five years of her life as I have today.”

“Lady Verity is a lovely girl,” Johanna said softly, her wistful smile once more in place.

The one that told him she was thinking of her own daughter. She must have been an excellent mother. Watching her with Verity filled his chest with an odd tightness he could not explain.

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