Two Months Later
Their wedding day was resplendent with a crisp autumn breeze and a fresh wind off the coast.
Kathryn’s mother and father sailed over from New York for the occasion. Maddie and Lexie were matrons of honor, of course. Henry Megowan served as a groomsman, along with Lance’s first lieutenant from the Defiant, who managed to secure leave from the Navy.
The ceremony was held in the chapel at St. Gabriel’s Mount. Kathryn wore the white lace gown and veil that Maddie had worn at her wedding in Cornwall, a fabulous creation by Worth which only required slight alterations to fit and meet the changes in fashion over the intervening years.
Lance wore his Royal Navy dress uniform, a sword belted at his side, and atop his head a traditional cocked hat from the days of the age of sail. Kathryn thought her heart might burst with pride at the sight of him as she walked down the aisle on her father’s arm.
“You look every bit as dashing in that uniform as I always imagined you would,” Kathryn whispered in his ear, after the clergyman pronounced them man and wife and they had kissed to seal their vows.
“And you look more beautiful in that gown than I could have ever imagined,” Lance murmured in return, his eyes blazing admiringly.
As they left the chapel hand in hand and emerged onto the sunlit terrace, Kathryn asked Lance, “I hope you’ve made peace, my dearest, with the idea of being retired from your life at sea?”
“I have,” Lance replied, drawing her into his arms for another kiss. “I have no desire to go back. Only forward to the life we will build together.”
Kathryn smiled into his dark blue eyes, never ceasing to be astonished by and grateful for the affection she saw written there.
The celebratory breakfast was held in the great hall. Kathryn still hoped to someday redo the hall’s ceiling, but in the meantime, she had supervised a master cleanup and had the walls coated with fresh white paint until they gleamed. Garlands of flowers hung from the rafters and adorned the tables, imbuing the room with their sweet scent. Musicians played lively music as everyone dined and chatted and danced and laughed.
“Welcome to the family, Kathryn,” the dowager duchess said, beaming beneath an enormous hat. “You look radiant today.”
“It is the happiest day of my life, Your Grace,” Kathryn admitted.
“Oh, stop with that Your Grace nonsense,” the duchess insisted. “Henceforth you will call me Grandmother.”
“Yes, Grandmother.” Kathryn kissed her on the cheek, thrilled and grateful to have such a dear person in her life.
Kathryn’s mother hadn’t stopped beaming since she’d set foot in the castle a week before.
“You know how proud I am of your sisters,” Josephine Atherton said as she took in the festivities with a smile. “Alexandra is a countess. Madeleine, when her husband inherits, will be a marchioness. But you, Kathryn, have out distanced them both. You are a duchess!”
“That was never my aim nor my ambition,” Kathryn replied, “but if my being a duchess makes you happy, Mother, then I’m glad.”
“Oh, it makes me more than happy, my dear. I have it on good authority that when Mrs. Astor read about your engagement in the New York papers, she gasped in shock, dressed immediately, and arrived uninvited at the door of Ward McAllister, the only person alive who owns her confidence. Just think of it: the Duke of Darcy! And to live here at St. Gabriel’s Mount! Of course, your father and I have already been on Mrs. Astor’s list of Four Hundred ever since Alexandra married, but this raises our level of prestige to the highest ranks. Now she must include us forever.”
Kathryn had declined the job offer from Mr. Patterson, deciding she’d rather risk operating on her own in a freelance capacity than continue in the employment of a man who had so readily stolen her work. To her delight, she had discovered that there was a great deal of work much closer to home, which would allow her to spend more time with Lance.
They had agreed to put off the renovations to the castle for a while, preferring instead to update the buildings in the village, a project which Lance had turned over entirely to Kathryn. And that was just the beginning. With the Lloyds Bank building and all the projects of the past two years on her résumé, further aided by Lance’s growing contacts in the community, Kathryn had already taken meetings with prospective clients in Rosquay and Falmouth, and had been signed to design a new house in Penzance in the coming year.
When they were at last in the privacy of the master bedchamber later that night, and Kathryn was snuggled into her new husband’s embrace after making love, Kathryn said, “Lance. There is something I have been meaning to ask you.”
“Yes, my love?”
“Oh, how I adore it when you call me that.”
He smiled and kissed her. A kiss that lingered and continued for several delectable minutes.
“I can’t think when you kiss me,” she said breathlessly.
“Then don’t think.” His eyes glittered as his hand roved up to cup her breast. “Just feel.”
“But I’m curious about something,” Kathryn said, her body tingling with desire all over again. “That night in London . . . what did you say to all those men at your club?”
“Do you really want to talk about that now?” he asked as he kissed the sensitive skin at the side of her throat.
“The fact that they all capitulated at the drop of a hat. I’ve often worried that you . . . paid them off.”
Lance stopped kissing her neck and looked at her. “Paid them off? Not at all. It would never have occurred to me.”
“Then how did you convince them?”
“I told them you were incredibly smart and talented, you had done the work, and you’d earned it. I said it was almost the twentieth century and time to let a woman into the fold.”
“That’s it?”
“Well, I may have waved my ducal power about just a bit.”
Kathryn laughed as she drew a fingertip along the seam of his lips. Oh, how she loved those lips. “I’m relieved to know that money wasn’t involved. But dismayed that you had to bully them into it.”
“What fun is there in being a duke if you can’t put the position to good use?” He grinned, then added: “Trust me, if you hadn’t been qualified, my title wouldn’t have helped. You have changed history, my darling. You are the first woman architect in Great Britain. And I couldn’t be more proud.” He kissed her again as his hands continued their exploring.
“I couldn’t have done it without you,” Kathryn said, struggling to maintain her wits, despite the sparks that were igniting everywhere he touched. “Dukes are like gods. People will jump through hoops to make your every wish happen.”
“Would you jump through a hoop for me, my love?” His voice was deep and sultry as he moved on top of her.
“I would,” Kathryn replied with a gasp.
“Good to know,” he said softly. “But in this case, I would rather be the one . . . taking the plunge.”
And all thought vanished from Kathryn’s mind as she gave herself over to the pleasure of making love to the man she adored.