Epilogue

The four members of the Traitor’s Club and their wives sat on blankets spread out over the grass near a stream at Southern Oaks. The day was beautiful, the time they’d spent together some of the most enjoyable any of them could remember.

“Did you ever think this is how we’d end up?” Ford Remington asked. He raised his glass of wine and took a drink. “It seems like yesterday that I walked into The Crown’s Shipping Company and saw Callie for the first time.”

Ford turned his gaze to where his wife sat beside him, and they shared an emotion-filled smile.

“I took an instant dislike to him,” Calinda said. “Even though he was the most handsome man I’d ever met.”

“And that made you distrust me even more.”

“Of course it did,” she answered. “Who can trust a man when every female in London is falling over themselves to get his attention?”

The other women laughed at Calinda’s statement, even though their husbands were some of the handsomest men in all of London.

“I had to nearly get myself killed before Callie realized she couldn’t live without me.”

“You could have saved yourself a lot of pain and misery, Ford. I knew long before that.”

“You did?”

“Of course. I knew as soon as my grandfather told me you were the perfect catch and I’d be a fool to let you go.”

The other couples cheered when Ford leaned over and kissed his wife.

“I want you all to know that I’m the luckiest one of you. I found the perfect wife.”

Comic grumbles and denials echoed from the others.

“You may think you are,” Hugh said, kissing his wife on the lips, “but I am. And I knew it from the moment I laid eyes on Nellie. As you all remember, I fell at her feet and declared to the world that I had just discovered the most beautiful woman in the world.”

The roars of laughter caused the earth to tremble.

“You were so sotted you couldn’t even speak intelligibly,” Nellie said. “And I remember exactly what you said. You looked me in the eyes and told me I was so perfectly ugly that I must marry you at once and let you save me from the world.”

“I’m sure you don’t remember the incident correctly. I would never have said anything so false.”

“Oh, but you did, my love. In fact, you came by the next day and accepted my offer to run your estate so you could drink, gamble, and wh—”

“I doubt I used those words,” he said, placing his fingers over her mouth to halt her from continuing. “How could I consider living such a life when I’d just met the woman of my dreams?”

The snickers he heard told Hugh he could spin a false tale all he wanted, but none of his friends would believe him. They were well aware that had it not been for Nellie, he would be an unhappy bachelor.

“Very well,” Hugh said. He wrapped his arm around his wife’s shoulder and brought her close to him. “I can’t imagine how miserable I’d be if I hadn’t fallen at Nellie’s feet. She changed me from the wastrel I was and has given me more than I ever thought I’d have.”

Hugh kissed his wife’s forehead, then turned to Jeb. “At least I didn’t have to travel to Scotland to find my wife. I only had to fall over a terrace wall.”

Hugh laughed as he added wine to his glass, then his wife’s glass, then passed the bottle to Jeb. When Jeb filled his glass and Mariah’s, he passed the bottle on.

“But how many men can say they went to Scotland empty-handed and returned with a fortune in the Queen’s jewels? And that the jewels weren’t half as valuable as the woman who brought them back with me?”

“And Her Majesty offered you one of the jewels as your reward?” Eleanor asked.

“She offered me something much more valuable. She gave me two of her prize thoroughbreds.”

“Your stable has earned quite a reputation for breeding some of the best horses in England,” Hugh said.

“I owe Mariah for that,” Jeb said. “Without her at my side, none of this would have been possible. When it comes to breeding, she makes the best decisions on which horses have the strengths the client prefers.”

Jeb leaned down and kissed his wife.

“Jeb gives me too much credit. All I do is agree with him when he’s right. And disagree when he’s wrong.”

“Which I hardly ever am,” Jeb added.

Another round of laughter rang out. When there was a lull in their conversation, the sound of children’s laugher could be heard in the distance.

“I have to admit that you surprised me the most, Caleb,” Jeb said as they listened to the happy sounds. “I always knew you had a soft side, but I never imagined that you would be so happy being father to scores of children.”

“That’s because of their mother,” Caleb said, wrapping his arm around Eleanor’s shoulder. “How could I not be happy when I’m married to the most wonderful woman on the face of the earth?”

“We all feel the same way,” Ford said as he lifted his glass of wine. “To the men of the Traitor’s Club and the women who turned us into much better men than we ever thought we could be.”

The four traitors lifted their glasses in a toast, then kissed the women they loved.

And the children they’d made and gathered and rescued frolicked ’round, heirs to the world opened to them by four former traitors and the women who’d shown them what love is.