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Author's Note (part one): This is a repost of the chapter I posted...oh, about an hour ago. Someone was kind enough to point out that I didn't include Benji in this final chapter. I hadn't really thought to, but now I at least have included an excuse for his absence.
My marriage now has a very sweet and lovely finish. Life is good.
- from Aylinn Wolfe’s Journal on Winemaking and Life
Chapter Twenty-One
“She terrifies me.”
“I know, love, but she is your sister now, and one of my closest friends. If we weren’t here for the birth of her child, she would slaughter us both. Trust me, you are far safer being here than not,” Douglass assured his wife as they stood on the doorstep of his brother’s cottage.
Eight months had passed since their emotional reunion in his brother’s front hallway. Eight wonderful, delightful months.
The Simvenians had become independent once more just two weeks ago, and together Aylinn and Douglass had gone about hiring more workers to fill the spots left empty by the hard-working Simvenians. A few of the giants, thankfully, had decided to remain behind and continue helping, at least with the grape-picking.
Solaria Winery was still one of the top-selling wines on the market, and their new product was swiftly becoming a household name. Aylinn continued to manage the business, as Douglass was often too busy managing the province to help, but he was always available if she had a difficult question or simply needed his authoritative presence.
While prejudices against women still ran rampant in the elder population, most others had begun to accept that all sexes were to be treated equally under the reign of Douglass Wolfe. One of his first orders of business had been to amend the law banning women from running businesses. Because Meyjian law forbade any ruling body to abolish a law once it had been approved and put into effect, he could not completely do away with the edict. So he added an addendum. No woman could own a business unless she first proved that she had both the means and the ability to take on such a task.
Nor could any man own a business without doing the same.
All in all, no one could say that Douglass Wolfe was a bad Duke. The Saphronians might not all agree with his politics, but life in that region was certainly improving on all accounts. Somehow he’d managed to mollify the greedy wine merchants without agreeing to a raise in the export taxes. That accomplishment had been the proof to one and all that Douglass Wolfe had what it took to rule Saphrone.
Now Aylinn felt like a veritable coward, trembling at the mere prospect of facing her sister-in-law. She and Douglass had been so busy these past months that they hadn’t had time for such a visit. Thus she’d managed to avoid the glaring viper her husband’s brother had married. What a kind and gentle soul like Devlin Wolfe saw in that harpy, she hadn’t the faintest idea. Yet they had seemed to get along reasonably well the one day Aylinn had spent in their presence before escaping back to Saphrone with her husband.
Dian’s father opened the front door and said simply, “Baby comes.”
“Damn. We’re just in time. Come on!” Douglass took her hand, and before she could object, he dragged her up the stairs and to the room where Trixie was shouting curse words and insults at her husband.
“I can’t. She won’t want me in there,” Aylinn insisted, trying to tug her hand free.
“Don’t you want to see what you’ll be going through in another five months, love?” Douglass cajoled.
His words were followed by a shriek of pure agony.
“No,” she insisted.
“Aylinn…”
Whatever he was about to say was drown out by another cry, this one of a more infantile nature. Giving up on her argument, Aylinn followed Douglass into the room.
A grinning woman of middle years, the giant butler’s wife if Aylinn recalled correctly, stood at the foot of Trixie’s bed, wiping her hands on a bloody towel as she smiled proudly at the new mother. Devlin had, at some point during the birthing, fainted into his chair and was just now coming to. Judging by the familial resemblance, she pegged the handsome gentleman attempting to revive the younger twin as Brendan, the elder brother. And from description alone she recognized the violet-eyed Lina, who was cooing over the baby her half-sister was gazing at with a stupid grin on her face.
Douglass spoke. “We made it. Don’t kill us.”
Trixie looked up at him, still smiling. “Oh, Doug, she’s so beautiful, isn’t she?”
As Douglass and Aylinn looked down at the red and wrinkled infant, they both smiled and nodded their agreement even as they silently prayed that their child would not look quite so ugly.
Since Devlin was now fully revived, they allowed the new parents a private moment as Douglass introduced Brendan and Lina to his wife. They accepted her far more warmly than Trixie had, although Douglass continually assured her that the spiteful elder woman would come around once she realized how blissfully happy he was now that they’d managed to straighten out the misunderstanding that had nearly driven them apart forever.
Even as his wife silently fretted about being accepted by her sisters-in-law, Douglass marveled at how much his life had changed in less than a year. A wife, a job, respectability…and his family. Not in eight years had he been in the same room as his brothers and felt so at ease. Not in his entire life had he felt as he did now. An equal.
Nothing could make this moment any better for him.
The thought had no more occurred to him than there came a discreet knock at Trixie’s bedroom door.
“I know that I am interrupting,” came a masculine and familiar voice, “but this is important.”
“Come in!” Brendan barked, immediately recognizing the voice of the man on the other side of the door.
Dressed as if he’d just come from a royal dinner party—attire quite normal for the lofty Duke of Laporia—Ryaden Davenson stepped into the birthing room, keeping his eyes politely averted from the bed. “It is good that you are all here, as what I have to say pertains to everyone.”
“You found him,” Brendan said flatly. At Ryaden’s curt nod, he demanded, “Where? When? Is he all right?”
“Calm down, Bren. There is no sense getting riled up. Not yet, anyway,” Ryaden said soothingly. “I assure you, your brother is in perfectly good health. In fact, we found him in Methysia, where he has been working aboard a ship transporting goods to Dmondia. A little less than a year ago, the ship’s captain died and left everything to Jack.”
“Where in Methysia?” Brendan wanted to know.
“The far south, I’m afraid. One of my men discovered that he will be setting sail in a matter of days for an extended trip. He will stop briefly in Dmondia to deliver a shipment, and before you get excited, it is doubtful you will be able to catch him there. Jack’s too smart not to notice if he’s being followed or watched. But at least he will know you are on to him. Looking for him. I suggest that you wait until he makes his return trip to make your move, however. One of his crewmen revealed that he will be traveling up the Melphous River, which empties into Lacone Lake in Laporia. He will be on my turf, then,” Ryaden advised.
“How long?” Devlin asked quietly.
“A few weeks. A month, maybe.”
“I can’t wait that long. It’s been nearly two years,” Brendan reminded him. “Damn it, Ry, he’s my brother. I have to see him. I have to talk to him.”
“You will,” Aylinn assured him. “It is just as you said. He is your brother. He cannot stay away forever, not if he loves you, and I don’t see how he cannot. But if you chase him down…” She shook her head.
“He’ll keep running,” Trixie agreed. “Let him know we’re looking, like Davenson suggested. If he wants to see us, he’ll meet with our people in Laporia.”
“He’ll meet with me,” Brendan said fiercely. “I’m coming with you, Ry.”
“But Bren…” Lina started to argue.
“We’ll wait until we know he’s almost there,” he assured her. “Don’t worry. I won’t allow Bryune to suffer for my desire to see Jack again.”
“It’s settled, then?” Ryaden asked.
“Yes.”
“Good. Then I’ll be on my way. Oh, and congratulations, Beatrix. You, too Aylinn, since I don’t know if I will see you again before your time comes.” That said, Ryaden bowed his way out of the room.
Aylinn’s mouth had dropped open, and Douglass spoke as if having read her mind. “How the blistering hell did he know? We haven’t told anyone yet.”
“He knows everything,” Brendan advised. “And congratulations. Can’t say I’m ready yet for one of my own after tonight, but I doubt your wife will be nearly as violent as Trixie was.”
Later, after a long evening spent in the company of family, Douglass and Aylinn lay in bed, naked and wrapped in each other’s arms.
“You see?” Douglass murmured. “That was not so bad.”
“I think the birth of her child must have affected her brain. She was actually nice to me.”
“Love, Trixie is not such a terrible person. She’s really quite likeable. If she likes you, that is,” he thought to add. “Just wait until you meet her brother. He was tied up with business in Dmondia and didn’t make it here in time for the birth. The poor guy has been run ragged lately because Devlin insisted that Trixie stop working this past month, but I doubt Trixie will see that as an excuse for him not being here. She will yell at him and call him an irresponsible jerk, after which he will smile and tell her what a wonderful sister she is, and then he will be forgiven of all infractions because he is Benji and everyone loves him. I swear, the two of them are so different, you’ll wonder that they shared the same parents.”
“I wonder that you and your brothers shared the same parents. You’re all so different,” she remarked. “Devlin’s so awkward and silent, Brendan’s emotional and passionate, and you…you’re like the steady rock amidst a storm.”
That caused his brows to raise. “Me? A steady rock? Darling, you must be talking about an entirely different man.”
Grinning mischievously, Aylinn slipped a hand beneath the covers. “Truly? You’re certainly hard as a rock.”
Eyes alight with desire and love, Douglass laughed as he captured her lips for a fierce kiss. It still amazed him just how perfect this woman was, as if Nature had made her especially for him.
“I love you,” he whispered into her ear some time later, as they lay side by side while he stroked her hair.
His answer was a gentle and contented snore.
Author's Note: And that was Book 3. Hopefully my little Mynk subplot didn't totally ruin the book for everyone, as it seems she wasn't precisely a favorite character. Not really sure how to fix that...Anyway, I make no promises for Book 4. School starts Monday, but then I have a second interview for a possible job on Tuesday. So either I'm going to be in school full time (and working full time) with very little time left over for posting or writing (I have yet to even start Book 6), or I will finally have a decent job and be able to, hopefully, continue posting and writing with regularity. Since Book 4 is already finished, I'll at least be able to get that one posted, regardless, but I may or may not be able to do two chapters daily. We'll see. And in case it wasn't obvious: Book 4 is about Jack.
