Absolute Surrender (55 page)

Five Years Later…

Amelia waited nervously on the bank of the pond, Tristan cuddled in her lap and Alexander by her side on the bench. She remembered the day she and Charles had first come here, their first outing. In some respects, it seemed only yesterday. While in others, it was so very long ago.

Not far away, Louisa and Maitland were chasing Kathryn, Gabriel, and Alice along the banks. The children
’
s laughter never failed to calm her nerves, even as she worried about what
could
happen. Amelia had been working with, in her estimation, a brilliant psychologist by the name of Clarke. He
’
d helped her so very much in the past few years, and her attacks, as they
’
d decided to call them, because that was how she felt at the time, had lessened for the most part. She still did have them. She still very much needed Hugh and Charles to help her at times, but for the most part she felt so much more whole than she ever had. As well, Dr. Clarke had helped to rid her of most of the need to collect things, which was an incredible relief to her.

Amelia took a few deep breaths to rest her mind—
the children are perfectly safe
—then looked back to the water.
Has it been to
o
long? Should someone see to them? It seems that it has been entirely too—
a whoosh of water and splashing stopped her internal maundering, and she stood, Alexander taking her skirts with his little fists and holding on. Tristan snuggled deeper against her chest as though nothing had happened.

“I am the champion!” Charles yelled.

Amelia smiled, watching as her men splashed as they moved toward her. She could hardly believe they
’
d found the thing.

“I call foul!” Hugh shouted in disagreement.

“You may have spotted the blasted thing, but I did the actual rescuing of it,”
Charles said.

“You never would have if I hadn
’
t seen it, as covered in muck as it was,” Hugh replied.

“Ah, yes, Hugh you always were better at locating frogs than I was!” Charles shoved him playfully, and Hugh launched back, the both of them disappearing momentarily in the waist-deep water before erupting once again.

“Now you
’
ve gone and lost it once more.
Well done,
” Charles grumbled as he turned in the water, searching the bottom of the pond at his feet.

Hugh dove in, then launched from the surface with a great shout. “Now
I
am champion!
”

Not for long, however, because Charles deftly tackled him back to the water.

This is going to take a while,
Amelia thought. She sat back on the bench and curled her fingers through Alexander’s dark blonde hair as he wrapped his arm around her leg, through her skirts, then stuck a thumb in his mouth, watching as his fathers tossed about in the water.

“Aren
’
t they silly, Alexander?”

“Papa,” he replied, pointing at the tussle before them.

“Yes. Papa,” she replied with a smile.

He looked up at her then and smiled back as he popped his thumb in his mouth again.

“Mama,” he said quietly.

The word tugged so hard, her heart knocked in her rib cage in revolt. He was such an incredibly dear boy. Amelia leaned over and kissed his forehead.

“Yes, my sweetling, I
’
m your mama.”

He giggled in response, then turned to the shouting and playing that grew suddenly louder. Tristan stirred against her breast, his little mouth opening and closing like a fish against her blouse, searching, and she knew they were running out of time.

“Charles…Hugh…I must be returning home!” she shouted, hoping they would hear her over the ruckus they created. Good thing this had been an early trip to the park. Certainly they would have gathered crowds at this point with the melee.

“Charles?”

He stopped and turned to her, and his face lit up. T
hen
Charles ran as best he could through the water toward her, water splaying from his careening body like the wings of a bird.

Charles fell to one knee in the grass at her feet, his hands raised before him, a soggy, moss-covered lump of…something across his palms. She watched it carefully as though it may flop, proving he had not, in fact, found her reticule but possibly a rather perturbed fish.

“My lady,” Charles said with all the knightly bearing he could pull from his soggy boots.

“My prize was stolen!” Hugh yelled as he approached, falling to his knees beside Charles, his hands crossed over his heart. “My lady, don
’
t believe a word he says, as it was I who found your misplaced reticule, not this thieving brute!”

Charles laughed and elbowed Hugh in the ribs, causing him to flop over to the grass from a mock wound.

Hugh let out a great roar of defeat, and Alexander let go of Amelia
’
s knee and threw himself on top of Hugh—obviously today
’s true champion.

Amelia laughed then turned back to Charles, who raised his palms higher and ducked his head in deference.

“I beg your pardon,” Amelia started, “but
that
cannot be
my
reticule. My reticule was quite lovely, and cheerful and intricately beaded. Pink, in fact. My reticule would catch the light and toss it about like so many ice crystals dancing on a lake. This…thing you have here is quite obviously”—she thought hard for a moment—“green, for one. As well, it
’
s slimy. More like a toad than a reticule.” She poked it with one finger, and Charles looked at it.

Charles flicked a few strands of moss from the side, then attempted to polish it on his sleeve. It didn
’
t work very well, leaving a green streak up his sleeve as he laughed. “It simply needs a bit of…cleaning. The handle could use a bit of polish and some, er, fresher water.”

“Perhaps…though I think it may need a bit
more
than that,” Amelia said.

Charles perked up, his smile returning. “Actually, if it weren
’
t for the large silver lid, we wouldn
’
t have found it. So have I pleasured my lady?” he asked.

“Pleasure?” Hugh said suddenly from the grass next to them, where he had Alexander rolling in a fit of giggles.

Amelia knew her cheeks pinked. Hugh stood and tossed Alexander in the air. “Did someone say pleasure?” he boomed. “This is certainly something I would happily search the muck for.” He grinned at her, putting the laughing, wiggling boy under his arm. “Again, and again, and again.” Hugh very nearly growled the words.

Charles stood and held his hand out to pull her to her feet. She shifted Tristan to her other arm, and he shook the water off his cleaner hand, then skimmed it across Tristan
’
s tiny bald head. “He
’
s going to need to nurse soon,” she said quietly.

Charles nodded and waved to his men, who jumped to the carriage, driving it closer to them then cleaning up the picnic rugs and leavings from their dinner. Charles lifted his hand and looked at the reticule, and Hugh
’
s gaze followed, as did Amelia
’
s. They stood there for a moment, contemplating the now-twice-offending bag.

“It
’
s going to start to smell bad,” Hugh said.

“Don
’
t be sore because I brought the prize to our princess,” Charles replied.

Amelia had to laugh at that. She looked at the reticule she
’
d spent years wishing she still had—if only to help her remember the moment she
’
d lost it—and she realized that it wasn
’
t the reticule that she wanted to keep close to her heart. She looked at the men, who stared at her bag. She no longer had need of so many things when she had so much love.

“Actually,” Amelia said with a sniff, “I believe it already might smell.” She looked at Charles apologetically. “I believe, St. George, that we should return this dragon to the depths from whence it came.”

“Truly?” Charles asked.

“Yes, truly. I believe our dragon would be much happier if left to its natural habitat.”

Charles shrugged then turned. He tossed the bag in his palm once, to measure it
s
…current buoyancy, then drew his arm back, took a step and let the reticule take flight…right back to the spot where they
’
d so recently discovered it.

“
Well done, sir,
” Hugh said with a broad grin.

Charles turned to Amelia and gave her his cheek. “I believe I
’
ve earned a kiss from my lady?” he said, pointing to his cheek.

Amelia took his chin with her free hand and lifted up on her toes, being careful not to touch any part of his wet self. She sniffed his cheek, then brought her lips to his ear. “Perhaps…after a bath.”

Thank you, dearest reader.

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