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Three Years Later
Flowers adorned the chapel, and Aria inhaled their floral scent. Happiness surged through her. Galileo ran up and down the aisle, apparently having volunteered to smell each and every flower to make certain the guests would delight in the experience.
So far, Galileo showed no signs of complaint, and Aria sighed happily.
“It looks beautiful, my dear,” the vicar said, and his eyes crinkled in a pleasant manner.
“I’m so glad.”
The vicar was not the same man who’d married her and the wrong Duke of Framingham so long ago. That man had obviously been a paid imposter.
Women streamed into the chapel, wearing pastel-colored frocks and clutching parasols. The Duke of Hammett pushed his wife, Daisy, in her chair to the front of the church.
“Darling!” A tenor voice she recognized at once sounded, and she turned eagerly toward it.
Rupert was there. Aria’s heart warmed automatically.
Perhaps they’d been married for three years, perhaps they’d been writing for even longer than that, but she never tired of hearing his voice. He was the man that she loved, forever and always.
“Mama!” Footsteps pattered toward her, and she bent down.
“Dolly!” She exclaimed, and in the next moment, she grabbed her daughter and lifted her into the air.
Dolly giggled merrily, and her dark brown curls swung in the air.
Finally, Aria held Dolly to her hip and glanced at Rupert. His eyes shimmered, and Aria wouldn’t mind staring at him the rest of the day. Her eyes drifted down and landed on Louis, her sweet baby and the future Duke of Framingham.
“He’s being good,” she said.
Rupert shrugged. “He might be conserving his energy to scream at the vicar later on.”
“He is very loud.” Aria smoothed Louis’s hair.
“Good quality to have in a castle,” Rupert said. “If he gets lost, he won’t stay lost.”
She clutched Louis toward her. “One day, you’re going to be the Duke of Framingham. And you’ll be a good duke, just like your father.”
Louis gurgled, and Aria glanced at her husband. “Do you suppose he was agreeing?”
“Most certainly,” Rupert said, and all was well as the rest of the guests strode into the chapel to witness his christening.
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THANK YOU FOR READING The Truth about Princesses and Dukes. I hope you enjoyed Aria’s and Rupert’s story. The next book in the Duke Hunters Club series is Can’t Buy Me a Duke. The first book in the series is All You Need is a Duke.