Three Years Later

Ernest always told her that motherhood looked good on her, but as she stood in the mirror, analyzing the blue dress she had selected for the occasion, she couldn’t help but feel shabby.

“You’re absolutely glowing,” Molly called to her as she entered the room with tea.

“I look like a whale,” Helena moped.

“You certainly do not,” Molly snickered. “Though, I suppose all women feel that way in the late stages of carrying a child, don’t they? You look to be due any day now.”

“Not soon enough,” Helena sighed. “Though, who am I kidding? I am not looking forward to giving birth again. It was too dramatic and painful with Simon.”

Molly gently pushed Helena to sit down at her vanity so she could do her hair. “Yes, Your Grace, but it will all be worth it. Besides, I have heard that girls are easier to deliver.”

“Oh, you and your theories,” Helena laughed.

“Well, I was right about Simon, wasn’t I?” she grinned.

“That you were,” Helena agreed.

“Do you have names picked out?”

Helena nodded and rested a hand on her stomach. Picking Simon’s name had been such a chore, the two of them stressed that it had to be the perfect name. The little thing didn’t even have one until he was already a month old. This time, however, it felt easier. It was less pressure than their first, as Simon would be the heir to the dukedom. “If it’s a boy, we have agreed on Alexander.”

“A strong name. I believe it means defender of men.” Molly nodded along as she finished arranging Helena’s hair.

“And if it’s a girl, Caroline.”

Molly rested a hand on her chest as they held one another’s gaze in the mirror. “Oh, that’s a beautiful name, Your Grace. I absolutely love it.”

“Thank you, Molly,” Helena smiled. “Between you and me… I have a feeling it’s a girl too.”

“Well, I’m sure Caroline will be arriving any day now to prove us right.”

The two shared a giggle and moved out into the hallway. The chatter and laughs of people gathered below could already be heard. Everyone was arriving to celebrate Ernest and Helena’s third anniversary. Normally people only celebrated the landmark years, but Helena and Ernest were simply too in love and hosted a dinner party every year.

As she approached the stairs, her face was pulled into a huge grin at the sight of Ernest and Simon. The little one looked just like his father, only with Helena’s dark hair. The duke and his heir stood at the banister, Ernest whispering to the little boy as he pointed to random objects. They approached and Ernest looked over and shot her a loving expression.

“You are a sight for sore eyes,” he purred to her.

“I think that’s the two of you. How charming!” she exclaimed as she noticed they were in matching navy jackets with gold trim. She fanned her eyes, the sight making her emotions spike and her eyes become watery with tears. Another reason she was sure the child in her stomach was a girl, her emotions had been uncontrollable this time around.

“I thought you would like it,” he chuckled.

“I simply love it,” she gushed, kissing her husband’s cheek before her son’s. “We will need to make this happen again for his birthday in the summer. I can’t believe he will be three in just a matter of months.”

“About nine months,” Ernest chuckled. “He just had a birthday a few months ago, my love.”

“It’s still too soon,” she sniffled.

With Simon on his hip, Ernest offered his other arm to his wife. “We have guests waiting. Shall we join them?”

She nodded and fanned her eyes some more. They descended the stairs and wandered over to the dining room. The room was filled with loved ones. Her father, Aunt Martha, Ernest’s father and his wife Victoria, Uncle Edward, Anthony, and even a couple of friends Helena had made during her time being duchess with their children. She was brought back to the evening of their wedding and how they had spent their evenings separate and alone. Then, just three years later, they had almost too many people for their table, with a child and another on the way. How lovely life could turn out to be sometimes.

They took their seats, Simon glued to his father as he took the head of the table. Helena had witnessed gentlemen of his status be cruel to their children in her life, but never Ernest. He was so gentle and patient with little Simon, it warmed her heart to see it. Never did he grow irritable with the child, even when he climbed all over him while he was talking or spilled important papers in the office. Ernest thrived as a father, and often said that they should just keep having them until they couldn’t anymore. Helena loved the sentiment but wasn’t sure her body could handle much more.

She rubbed her stomach as the baby kicked away while the meal was served. Once the servants left the room, Ernest stood, Simon still on his hip. The entire room turned to him with smiles and sparkling eyes.

“I would like to thank everyone for joining us here today. I’m sure you all may be growing tired of my frequent speeches about my darling wife,” he began, the room letting out a low rumble of laughter. “However, when you find a wife as lovely as mine, you simply want to share that love with the world.”

He cleared his throat and adjusted Simon slightly before he launched into his speech. His eyes held Helena’s gaze and never faltered as he spoke. “It was three years ago this very day that before the Ton and God, you joined me as my wife. I recall that neither of us were thrilled about the idea,” he chuckled a bit, an easy smile stretching his lips. “Our hearts were torn with wanting to remain as we had before in our own separate lives or trying out this thing called marriage. I was so torn about the two, I had kissed your cheek instead of your lips because I was too busy overthinking it all.”

“And now, as I look back on that day,” he continued, “It doesn’t even feel like that was us. I, the silent and brooding Duke of Atholl, and you, the timid and flustered daughter of Baron Guthrie. You once called us the most unlikely pair in all of London, and my darling, you were right. However, I wouldn’t have it any other way. As the last three years of my life have been nothing but unbridled joy and hope. The kind that writers inscribe long poems and even entire novels about but had always felt too fictional to ever be real, at least for me.”

He had to clear his throat to keep back the tears that were beginning to mist his eyes. “You have taught me what love is meant to be and have given me the most unconditional of all loves,” he said, looking to his son with a gentle expression. He then picked up his glass of wine and raised it in the air. “Helena Marie Cecil, I love you and our children endlessly. I would like to make a toast, yet again and every year to come, for a lifetime of loving celebrations just like this.”

“Cheers!” the guests all sounded. Everyone clinked their glasses as Ernest pulled Helena to her feet. There, in front of all their guests, he kissed her lovingly and deeply. The old Helena would have blushed horribly at such a public display of affection, but she was well past those sheepish days. She knew in that moment that it was to replace the kiss she should have gotten three years ago. Helena kissed her husband back and when she pulled back to look deeply into his eyes, little Simon pressed a wet kiss to her cheek. They burst into laughter as she kissed her son back.

They settled in to enjoy their meal. The room was filled with happy chatter and laughter, and Helena just didn’t think that life could ever be better. While there had been emotional highs and lows through their years together thus far, the lows were merely blips – tiny drops in an ocean of joy. Never would there be a perfect relationship. There would always be miscommunication and disagreements from time to time, but what gave Helena hope was their ambition.

Their ambition to be better. Their ambition to make the other as happy as possible. The ambition to ensure their children had two role models of strength and love to look up to and strive to be. It would be these forces within them that drove them to their happily ever after, the ones that her aunt told her were for novels.

Helena’s eyes shifted about the room at that thought, looking over to her aunt. Aunt Martha simply didn’t seem to age, did she? She was still as beautiful as she had always been, with only the addition of wrinkles at the corners of her eyes that remarkably made her look even more distinguished.

She was laughing heartily at something Uncle Edward was saying, her hand batting away whatever it was. “Oh, you are simply too much Edward,” she giggled.

“Oh, I assure you. I am more than you can imagine,” Edward replied.

It was then that she saw the gleam in both of their eyes and Helena’s heart pattered in her chest. It was a gleam of attraction, of companionship, of interest. She thought about how sad Aunt Martha had been when she had talked about her belated husband. How loveless her life had been, and how she had hated the thought of being part of the reason Helena had been thrust into a similar situation.

They had long since put that behind them, as Helena was endlessly grateful for the life her aunt had not so subtly or patiently shoved her into. Truly, there wasn’t another reality that Helena could dream up that she would be as happy as she was as Duchess of Atholl. However, Helena hadn’t given much thought to Aunt Martha’s side of things. Of how she had been in a loveless marriage, lost her husband, and had spent the last couple of years alone – that was, when she wasn’t visiting and doting over little Simon.

She recalled how she had seen that look on their faces before, when they had chatted in such a way at their very first dinner party together. At the time, she had taken it as two lively souls feeding off one another’s energy, but she saw it then for what it really was. Mutual attraction.

Helena felt a gaze on her, and she peered over to her husband and nodded discreetly in their direction. She watched as he analyzed and recognized the same thing she did. Ernest shot her a quizzical look, and she rested her hand on his, giving a little shrug. “It’s never too late for love.”

Ernest nodded and looked over the table fondly. Helena hoped that their love and union would spark something more between the two. They truly did deserve love and she just had a feeling they really were a match made in Heaven.

The group enjoyed their meal and took turns telling stories to one another. Simon made his rounds, toddling about the table to visit his grandfathers and great aunt and great uncle. He even sat atop Anthony’s lap, and Helena found herself hoping he would soon have a wife and children of his own so that Simon and Caroline would have little friends. There was no rush, though. What Helena cared about most of all, was that everyone was happy. And by the looks on the faces there at their dining table, her wish was a reality.

How lucky they all were to have one another, and how fortunate she and Ernest were that their unlikely and tumultuous relationship had blossomed and grown to new heights, like the most fertile and lush garden of all. She hoped that their mothers were both smiling down on them then, joining in on their celebration in spirit. For that would be the only thing Helena could think of to make the moment even more magical and special than it was.

The couple held hands under the table and laughed well into the night with their guests, as they would for the years and decades to come.

If you haven’t already, please leave your review on Amazon

Readers who enjoyed this book also bought

★★★★★ 86 ratings

Read the book

★★★★★ 86 ratings

Read the book

★★★★★ 109 ratings

Read the book