Enchanting the Beast, page 28
“I love you, Tup. I always will.”
“I know,” he said, rather smugly. “Don’t worry, now. Ye’ll get along just fine, what with yer wolf-man and all.”
Phil nodded, her lips clamped together for fear she’d start sobbing. He drifted closer, until she could feel the chill of his spirit. Tup kissed her cheek, an odd combination of warmth and cold. “I love ye too,” he whispered.
And then he disappeared.
Her son started to cry, as if he didn’t want Tup to leave either, and Phil kissed his downy head and then put him to her breast.
Nico woke and smiled at his son eagerly taking his nourishment, then frowned at the tears in Phil’s eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“Tup is gone. Forever.”
Her husband didn’t disappoint her. He had yet to disappoint. His handsome face softened in understanding and he crawled onto the bed and gathered Phil into his arms, careful not to disturb their nursing son. “Then you did well. It’s what you’ve always wanted for him, isn’t it?”
Phil nodded.
“You’ll be busy with our son, after all.” His voice lowered with a trace of anticipation. “And I have no doubt that you’ll have plenty of other ghosts to vex me with.”
Phil smiled through her tears. “I thought you said you loved my ghosts?”
He kissed her cheek. “You know I do. Did my teasing help?”
She nodded, turning her face to his for a kiss that warmed her to her toes. And then Nico tucked her head beneath his chin, fiddling with a lock of her hair as a quiet peace descended over them. Only the sounds of her son’s satisfied grunts and the creaks of their castle disturbed the silence.
Phil’s sadness over the loss of Tup lessened as the warmth of her child and Nico’s arms around her stole into her soul.
Nico huffed in exasperation at a knock at the door. “Come in, if you have to.”
Sarah slid into the room, her eyes eagerly landing on the baby. “When he’ss finished, do you want me to take him, misstress?”
Phil didn’t want to let him go. But Sarah’s face looked so hopeful that she couldn’t bear to disappoint her. “Perhaps in another hour or so.”
Those glossy black eyes lit with happiness and Sarah nodded in that sinuous way of hers. “Ssir Nicodemuss, I have some letterss for you.” She glided over to their side, handing Nico the envelopes but never taking her eyes off the newborn. “He’ss a beauty, issn’t he?”
Phil caught herself nodding with arrogant pride. Nico unwrapped his arms from around Phil and sat back in the chair by the bed. Sarah glanced at Nico and then quickly left the room.
“We’ll have to have a dozen children to keep your assistant happy,” he complained with a smile.
Phil smoothed her palm over the baby’s fine hair. “She needs children of her own.”
“Well, she has been spending a lot of time with Cheevers lately.”
“Don’t be…are you serious?”
Nico laughed. “Quite. A duck and a snake, who would have thought it?”
“Certainly not I.” Phil’s head swiveled toward him of its own accord. He went from merely handsome to entirely devastating when he laughed, and she couldn’t resist looking at his face. His brown eyes met hers, the specks of gold in them almost appearing as if they danced with his humor. Her heart squeezed a bit and she tried to regain her composure. “Who are the letters from?”
He glanced down at the envelopes and frowned. “One is from Roy and I must say it’s about time. Surely Edwina’s trial has been settled by now and he can come home. The other one is from…Jane. Well, what do you know?”
Phil heard the hurt in his voice. Jane hadn’t forgiven him for accusing her of murder, and until she did, Nico couldn’t forgive himself. They’d returned to Grimspell after their marriage to find that Jane had left the shire for a grand tour of the continent. Nico had always thought of Jane as a sister, and Phil knew that he missed her and their old relationship.
“Which will you open first?”
“My brother’s, of course.” Paper crackled and tore.
Phil waited impatiently while he read the letter. “What does it say?”
“Hmm. Edwina received a lighter sentence than she probably deserved, thanks to young Prince Albert. Royden has decided to petition for a divorce…let’s see. He says he can forgive her, but not forget. And he’s…bloody hell. He’s not coming home. Hopes I’ll understand…he’s going to the island of Mogow.”
Phil rolled her eyes. “Dr. Darknoll.”
“Apparently he regaled my brother with his stories when he stayed with him. Witch doctors—Roy’s liable to lose his head.”
His wolf shadowed him and Phil reached over and stroked his jaw until it faded. “He just needs time to heal, Nico. It doesn’t matter where he goes.”
“I suppose you’re right.” He swept the hair from his eyes. “I just hope he doesn’t get into any trouble that I have to get him out of.”
“You mean we. We make a rather good team when it comes to trouble, you and I. What does Jane write?”
Nico opened the next letter and read, a bemused look forming on his handsome face. “Little Jane has gotten married.”
Phil breathed an inner sigh of relief. Sibling feelings or not, she felt glad that Jane had found someone to replace Nico in her affections. “To whom?”
“To another were-wolf. She always wanted to marry another wolf and I guess she found one. Jane wants to know if she can bring him home to see if I’ll accept him in the pack.”
“And will you?”
Nico shrugged. “Of course. If Jane chose him, he’s good enough for me.” Then he paused, a devilish glint in his eyes. “Although I’ll make him work for it.”
Phil smiled at the wolfish look on his face. Her wild husband who could only be gentled by her touch. How desperately she loved him.
He watched her and the baby through the screen of his hair, as if he didn’t want her to see the vulnerability there. But he couldn’t hide from Phil. She saw his soul in that gaze and felt humbled by it.
He reached out a muscled arm and carefully peeled the edge of the blanket away from the baby’s face. He stroked his son’s cheek, his finger looking brown and huge in comparison. “I hope the baby gets bigger fast, so I’m not afraid to break him.”
Her child stopped suckling and promptly fell asleep. Phil lifted him and leaned forward. “The baby won’t break, I promise. It’s time you held him.”
Panic warred with yearning until Nico finally held out his big arms. He took his son with a gentle reverence that made Phil’s heart clench and she couldn’t stop the tears that gathered in her eyes again.
“We can’t keep calling him ‘the baby,’” Nico said, his voice lowered to a soft whisper. “Have you decided what we should name him?”
“How would you feel about Nicodemus Syrus Wulfson?”
He looked up at her in surprise. “That’s quite a mouthful. And wouldn’t it get confusing?”
“I know, so I thought…” Philomena’s breath caught. “We could call him Tup, for short. I think my spirit-boy would have liked that.”
“Tup,” Nico repeated, gazing down at his son with adoration in his eyes. “Yes, I think that will do. That will do just fine.”
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