Free The Water's Kiss by Harper Alibeck Page B

comfort her; no one stopped him, though Landsdown’s fists curled into balls.
    “It’s almost too perfect,” he continued. “Claire came to me a few months ago to discuss her feelings for you, Michaelson,” he announced, making Evan pull back, staring to and fro between father and daughter. “And now here we are, with my daughter in a delicate way, forcing me to do that which you both wanted all along.”
    “I assure you – ” Evan interrupted.
    “Do not. Assure me of nothing. I do not want to hear another word!” Papa shouted. Mama put one careful, soothing hand on his shoulder and he eased back, like a lion pulling away from an attack.
    “I am so sorry,” Claire sobbed, unable to stop. Her stomach heaved and she retched. That seemed to still Papa, for everyone went silent, as if they held their breath, Evan patting between her shoulder blades, just under her neck, a gentle, relaxing touch.
    “In time, Christian, in time this will be fine,” her mother said, her voice so faint Claire could barely hear her.
    He nodded, then looked at Evan. “You go tonight. You find a way – I’ll not help you! Steal her off to Scotland. Pretend I know nothing about it. You and Claire will elope and we will act as shocked as two parents in our position should be.” He shook his head. “Are.”
    Mama’s surprised look told Claire she had no knowledge of the plot, and Evan seemed nearly offended by the strange demand. “Your Grace, you wish me to engineer an elopement? With your consent?” Confusion tinged Evan’s voice.
    “Yes!” Papa said, exasperation permeating his entire being. “This is for the best. It gives you and Claire the ability to be married, it makes it look like I have been thwarted by your love for each other, and it takes the embarrassment of an early baby out of my hands. Off with you!”
    He stood and walked around the desk, placing his hands on Claire’s shoulders. She could barely think. Elope? With Papa’s permission? “But isn’t the point of elopement to do so without the father’s permission? To defy the law?”
    He smiled, a bittersweet look that made her eyes fill with tears again. “Is that not what you and Evan have done? Just with,” he waved at her belly, “ this , and not with an elopement. Now you can defy me twice – but the ton will only know of the elopement. If I’m to be made a fool of, I would prefer it be this way.”
    A slow, sly grin stretched Evan’s face into a look of schoolboy mischief, blue eyes twinkling like an imp’s. “As you wish, Your Grace.” He bowed to Claire, her mother, and her father. “With your permission – no, on your orders – I will elope with Claire.”
    “Then be off!” Papa dispensed a quick kiss to Claire, then a cold, curt nod to Evan, and walked out of the library, muttering to himself. Mama followed him, turning back to flash a true smile to Claire.
    “A fake elopement to hide a real baby,” Evan laughed, pulling her into his arms.
    “A real baby and a very real marriage to celebrate my only true love,” she replied, his lips taking hers before the last word poured from her.
    He pulled back, a deep reservoir of love reflected back at her, his eyes safe and excited. “We have engineered it, have we not?”
    “You were right,” she sighed, shaking her head as they dashed for his carriage. “I had to lose all control in order to gain it.”
The End

Meet the South American Triplets
    In 1783, in the wake of His Majesty’s loss in the New World, sisters Katherine and Felicia Bonham diverged in more ways than one when choosing husbands. While the ton was rocked by Lady Katherine Bonham’s decision to marry young Spanish army officer Manuel de Vargas and move to the savage jungles of New Granada in Spain’s South American colonies, Lady Felicia Bonham worked to secure the attentions of the more staid, dependable Christian Hanscombe, heir to the very established Earldom of Landsdown, and produced four daughters in five