Part 39 (1/2)

”She's you,” Colin said. ”Or she could be. My memory can't be playing me so false.”

”The thing of it is, Greydon,” said Decker, ”you should have been a girl. You were the prettiest baby. Mama and Papa both thought so. They remarked on it often enough.”

Berkeley laughed as Grey flushed deeply. ”I think you'll have to get used to your brother teasing you,” she said. ”I imagine he intends to do quite a lot of it during his stay.” She reached for Rhea, but Colin shook his head and held the baby closer. He couldn't look away, and he couldn't release her. It could have been Greydon in his arms.

”No,” he said. ”Let me have her just a bit longer. You can't know what thisa”” He broke off before his voice broke. He bent his head and his face hovered about Rhea's. She stared up at him, her blue-gray eyes at once curious and trusting. When a single tear splashed her face she accepted it without a murmur.

Decker stared at the floor and blinked hard. Berkeley's own tears fell quite freely while her beatific smile never faltered. She went to Grey and took the hand he extended to her. She allowed herself to be pulled onto the bed beside him. His arm slipped around her shoulder and he gave her one corner of the coverlet to dry her eyes. Her watery smile deepened because he made no effort to do the same to his own.

The solemn silence was itself distracting to Rhea. She filled it with an abandoned little gurgle that was not meant to be ignored. Colin smiled as the vibration of the tiny bundle in his arms tickled him. Rhea squealed with delight and punctuated it with a hiccup. Decker chuckled at the abrupt quiet and surprise on her face. In turn that brought another peal of Rhea's infectious and bright baby laughter.

In the end they all succ.u.mbed. This time the tears had a different flavor.

Colin caught his breath first. He carried Rhea to her mother and pa.s.sed her over, then he picked up his gla.s.s and raised it toward his brothers. Grey and Decker extended their tumblers in a silent toast.

Berkeley touched the tip of her daughter's nose. ”They're going to get pie-faced,” she said. ”All three of them. Your father and your uncles. And they'll be no closer to sorting things out by morning. Just see if I'm not right.”

It more or less turned out that she was.

Epilogue.

Berkeley slipped into bed beside her husband, careful not to jostle the splint that protected his leg. She laid her hand lightly on his naked chest. His skin was warm. Berkeley snuggled closer, resting her head in the crook of his shoulder. She yawned hugely.

Grey chuckled.

”You're awake,” she said, startled. ”I vaguely recall your brothers sneaking out through the sitting room sometime ago. I tried to come back here, but I couldn't lift my head then.”

”And not now either,” Grey said, judging by the weight of it against him. ”I think there are times that you're not at all sorry I'm virtually bedbound.”

She raised herself up, kissed him on the mouth, and immediately resumed her position. ”That's an awful thing to say. And why does your mouth taste like peppermint? I expected to be pie-faced myself just from kissing you good night.”

”Colin gave me a handful of mints. He said you'd be appreciative.”

Berkeley pressed another kiss against his skin. ”He was right. Perhaps you have a smart brother after all. Did Decker give you anything?”

”As a matter of facta” Grey eased Berkeley up so he could reach across to the bedside table. He felt around on the top until he had what he wanted. ”These are for you. Hold out your hand.”

Berkeley's first reaction was to obey blindly but at the last moment she realized what he might be ready to drop into her hand. Her ringers folded convulsively, and the heirloom earrings glanced off her knuckles and fell harmlessly on the coverlet. Moonlight turned the gold to silver and made the pearls appear translucent. ”Oh, Grey,” she said, touched and saddened at the same time. ”I thought Decker would know I can never wear them.”

”He remembered, but when I wouldn't accept Rosefield, he said I should take these.”

Berkeley peered closer into Grey's face. She searched his eyes. As far as she could make out they appeared quite clear. His speech wasn't slurred, even if he didn't make any sense. ”I don't understand,” she said. ”Rosefield is Colin's property. He's the earl.”

”He has the t.i.tle and a portion of the estate, but the manor itself he arranged for Decker to take. It seems Decker's been waiting to hand it over to me. He has no use for it living in Boston with Jonna. I'm not certain I understand his reasoning, but then things got a little muddled after midnight.”

Berkeley c.o.c.ked one eyebrow and gave him a knowing look. ”The earrings are the only inheritance he's ever cared about,” she said. ”Give them back to him and accept Rosefield graciously.”

”You want to live in England?”

”No. Or at least I've never thought about it. But it's your heritage, Grey. Your true heritage. And Rhea's. You've built something here for Nat, for all of us. But don't deny Rhea a glimpse of your past, even if you would deny yourself.”

Grey was quiet. He picked up the earrings and turned them over in his palm. ”I hadn't thought of that,” he said at last.

”As you said, things got a little muddled.” She watched him put the earrings aside and was grateful for the arm he slipped around her again.

”You should have made them leave instead of falling asleep on the settee with Rhea. They felt very bad about that.”

”I wanted you to have time together.” She stifled a yawn. ”It's odd how it turned out, isn't it? You've been afraid you could never convince them you were their brother, and they recognized it before you told them anything at all.”

Grey pressed his lips to the pale crown of Berkeley's hair. ”That's because you had the foresight to give me a daughter who apparently looks just like I did.”

Berkeley smiled. Beneath the covers she found his palm and absently ran her thumb across the base of it. ”Grey?”

”Hmmm?”

”Was it your letter that brought them here? It's been so longa I wondered if they might have heard froma””

”It was the letter. Not Anderson or Garret.” He turned carefully on his side and propped his head in one hand. He let Berkeley keep the other. ”You need to know, Berkeley. They're both dead.”

”What?”

Grey waited for her to absorb the truth of what he said before he went on. ”I was telling them about Anderson and Garret. They told me about the Albany. It went down in a storm near Tierra del Fuego. Word of the wreck reached Boston before Decker and Colin left. They didn't realize then that they knew anyone aboard. The s.h.i.+p was splintered between twenty-five-foot waves and the rocky coast. There were no survivors, Berkeley.”

”Oh, G.o.d.” She closed her eyes, squeezed them shut really, and tried to block out her last vision of the Albany in San Francis...o...b..y. Dizzying sparks of color replaced the outline of the s.h.i.+p against the sky and its reflection in the water. She felt a pa.s.sing sadness for the souls lost, save two. For the man who had been both stepfather and husband, and the one who had been her half brother, there was no sense of loss. Word of their deaths brought a measure of relief, and for that she felt guilty. ”Then Anderson was never able to spread his lies.”

”No,” Grey said. ”They died with him and with anyone he told on board.”

It struck her then that Grey had been as worried about Anderson's next move as she. ”You thought he would tell Decker and Jonna about us, didn't you?”

”Yes.”

”You never said anything to me.”

”Neither did you.”

Berkeley opened her eyes and tilted her head up at him. ”I can't be sorry that he's gone,” she said in a rush. ”I can't feel anything for Garret's pa.s.sing either.”

”It's all right.” He ran his fingers through her silky hair. The gesture slowly calmed her. ”It's not so different for me. Anderson was determined to separate us. Garret, too, in his own way. They both meant us harm. I'm not sorry they can't try any longer.”

”It's ironic, don't you think? Anderson wasn't satisfied that what he told me on the dock would hurt us enough, so he paid the Ducks to ruin us. The firea””

”Ruin us?” Grey interrupted. ”He meant for us to die in that fire.”