Page 114 of A Scandal for the Beastly Earl

"What are you terrified of?"

"Everything. Being a terrible father. Something happening to you. Something happening to the baby. The dog teaching it bad habits."

"Thistle will be an excellent influence."

"Thistle is a criminal."

"A reformed criminal."

"I love your inability to see the bad in anyone except those who deserve it"

"And I love you, my reformed beast."

They fell asleep like that, wrapped around each other, their child growing between them, their criminal dog snoring at their feet, and their rescued cousin probably crying happy tears down the hall.

It was, Arabella thought as she drifted off, a perfect evening.

Not because it had gone according to plan, nothing in their life ever did, but because it had gone according to their lack of plan, which was even better.

Tomorrow they'd return to Blackthorn Manor with their expanded family. There would be more chaos, more challenges, more opportunities for Thistle to commit crimes.

But tonight, they were together, they were happy, and they were about to become parents.

Life, she decided, was absolutely perfect in its imperfection.

Chapter 18

The journey home the next morning was delayed by Cordelia's nervous preparations and Lady Agatha's last-minute attempts to prevent her daughter's departure.

"You're making a terrible mistake," Lady Agatha hissed at Cordelia while servants loaded trunks.

"The only mistake," Lucien said coldly, "would be staying here."

"She has obligations."

"She had obligations. Now she has opportunities."

"You're filling her head with nonsense."

"We're filling her head with the radical idea that she matters."

"Of course she matters. She's my daughter."

"She's your commodity," Arabella corrected, joining them despite Lucien's attempts to make her rest. "There's a difference."

"How dare you?"

"I dare because someone needs to. Mary didn't have anyone to dare for her. Cordelia does."

"Mary's situation was entirely different."

"Was it? An inconvenient pregnancy, a quick solution, a broken daughter. Sounds familiar."

Lady Agatha's face went purple. "You know nothing about it."

"I know Mary hasn't smiled since. I know she writes to Cordelia begging for news of a child she'll never see. I know you sleep perfectly well despite destroying your own daughter."

"I saved her reputation!"