The Duke Jokingly Asked Her to Find Him a Wife — “You May Be Looking at Her, Your Grace!”
Chapter 14
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"Before I answer, Your Grace," she whispered, her voice wavering between a laugh and a sob, "there is one matter of the utmost importance."Maximilian blinked, his heart suspended. "Name it.""Do you still dislike pears?"A breathless, joyful laugh tore from his throat. The tension shattered into pure, radiant warmth."I detest them," he swore, smiling up at her with his whole soul. "I shall banish every pear tree from the estate if you command it.""Then you leave me no choice," Cecily said, bending down to him. "Yes, Maximilian. With all my heart, yes."He rose and drew her into his arms. The kiss was not the tentative embrace of strangers, but the deep, quiet reunion of two people who had recognized each other across a crowded room and had finally found their way home.Edmund Bennett received the news the following morning with tears in his eyes and a quiet, profound pride that needed few words. He shook the Duke's hand, embraced his daughter, and remarked that he had known since the matter of the mill road that his filing cabinets would never be the same again.The wedding took place two months later, in the village church where Florence and Samuel had been married.There was no fashionable crush in Mayfair, no endless parade of London gossips. It was a day filled with the people who loved them: Florence crying happily into her handkerchief; Samuel grinning from ear to ear; the village baker and bookseller sitting proudly in the nave; and Mrs. Corbold, the Westhaven housekeeper, wearing her finest bonnet and dabbing at her eyes with a starched linen cloth.When Cecily walked down the aisle on her father's arm, wearing an ivory silk gown that caught the winter sun, Maximilian stood at the altar waiting for her. He did not look like a duke wrapped in ancestral pride; he looked like a man who had won the only battle that ever mattered.After the ceremony, at the wedding breakfast in the great hall of Westhaven House, Samuel rose to propose the first toast."To the Duke and Duchess of Westhaven," Samuel declared, raising his goblet high. "And to the greatest piece of advice I have ever heard given: that when a lady tells you she is the wife you are looking for, a wise gentleman does not argue. He simply spends the rest of his life being grateful she was right."The hall erupted in laughter and cheers.Maximilian turned to his bride. He took her hand beneath the table, lacing his fingers through hers, exactly as she had once taught Samuel to do."Are you happy, my love?" he asked softly.Cecily looked around the warm, sunlit room, then up into the eyes of the man who had loved her for everything she was."I am remarkably happy, Your Grace," she said, leaning close to him. "And what is more, I have already informed the kitchen that pears are strictly forbidden for the next 40 years."Maximilian laughed—the rich, unrestrained sound echoing up into the ancient timbered rafters—and kissed his duchess before the whole room, completely and beautifully content.