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doubt in my mind. I know what I want now.” She wanted this, wanted both of them, and to hell with convention and the potential backlash. Being loved by them would make it worth it. “The answer is yes. Yes, I will be your wife, Lord Ricborough—Will. And I’ll gladly welcome Percy into our bed and between my thighs.”
    “Do you hear that Percy? She agrees.”
    Their lover only grunted. He was already sleeping soundly.
    Will dropped a kiss upon her nose. “Stay here for the rest of the night, so that we can see you when we wake.”
    “If I do that, there’ll be no hiding what we’ve done.”
    “I don’t want to hide it. I want to scream it out loud to everyone, so that they know that you are ours.”
    “Yes,” she agreed. “I’ll always be that.”

Epilogue
     
    “What do you have to say for yourself, sir?” her father demanded of William the following morning. Aunt Clara had eventually realised that she was missing from her room when she hadn’t risen when called. It’d taken her no time at all to decipher where she’d gone, and to gather her father so that they might storm the room.
    Poor Percy had been obliged to hide on the balcony so as not to cause too great a storm, while they were both marched down to the study.
    “I should have you expelled from this house immediately. You bed my own daughter, in my own house, and at Christmas no less. It’s not done, sir. It’s not lordly. It’s not right.”
    William failed to look contrite. “What I have to say is this—May I please wed your daughter.”
    “What?” Mr. Marsh huffed and spluttered, his face turning even redder than hers. She guessed he’d assumed Lord Ricborough to be an irredeemable cad. “Marry her? Well yes,” he blustered. “I damned well think you better had, and soon too.”
    “I’d be happy for the vicar to read the first banns today,” William remarked amiably.
    “Good,” her father said. “Good.” She’d never seen him quite so lost for words.
    “May I please join with the family and guests for breakfast?” Viola asked him. Strictly speaking, she was not invited to mix, but was supposed to return to her quiet life in the nursery on Christmas Day.
    “I rather think you had better. It seems I’ve an announcement to make. You’d best go and make yourself presentable somehow.”
    Aunt Clara tugged her away. “Leave them to work out the details. Let us go and find you something decent to wear. Perhaps the yellow and blue sprigged muslin could be made presentable. We’ll have to send for some dresses to be made and order stockings and shifts and all manner of new things. If you’re to be a lady, you’ll have to be well turned out.”
    “Of course, Aunt,” she agreed, though she didn’t think Will would mind what her clothes looked like, as long as they were easily unfastened.
    Percy stood poised at the bottom of the staircase. He met them in the centre of the hallway, shot her a questioning glance and beamed in response to her nod. “I hear that congratulations are in order, Miss Marsh. It seems were about to be cousins.”
    “That’s right,” she agreed.
    Aunt Clara tutted.
    Percy stepped forward a pace, so that he was only an inch or two away from her. “Then allow me to be the first to offer you room in our heats as one of our family.” Then raising a sprig of mistletoe above her head, he kissed her. “I know you’ll make William the most splendid wife.”
     

Introducing the Scandalous Seductions series.
     

     
    A Gentleman’s Wager (Scandalous Seductions Book 1)
     
    When Bella Rushdale sets out to win Viscount Marlinscar’s hand, she doesn’t expect her rival to be another man. Vaughan, the decadent Marquis of Pennerley has desired Lucerne for years, and now, on the wild Yorkshire Moors, intends to claim him.
     
    A scandalous and passionate struggle results between the debauched aristocrat and an improper young lady. Ultimately, it will be up to Lucerne to choose the outcome — a decision