The Bridgertons Happily Ever After - By Julia Quinn Page 0,90
concluded. “I think we’re all done.”
“Barring surprises,” Violet added, because truly, she wouldn’t mind if one of her children managed to produce one last grandchild.
“Well, yes,” Daphne said, with a rueful sigh, “I know all about those.”
Violet laughed. “And you wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Daphne smiled. “No.”
“He just dropped from a tree,” Violet said, pointing toward the lawn.
“A tree?”
“On purpose,” Violet assured her.
“Of that I have no doubt. I swear that boy is part monkey.” Daphne looked out over the lawn, her eyes moving swiftly from side to side, looking for Edward, her youngest son. “I’m so glad we’re here. He needs siblings, poor thing. The other four hardly count; they are so much older.”
Violet craned her neck. “He appears to have got into an altercation with Anthony and Ben.”
“Is he winning?”
Violet squinted a bit. “It looks as if he and Anthony are working together . . . Oh, wait, here comes Daphne. Little Daphne,” she added, as if it were necessary.
“That should even things out,” Daphne said, grinning as she watched her namesake box her son’s ears.
Violet smiled and let out a yawn.
“Tired, Mama?”
“A bit.” Violet hated to admit to such things; her children were always so quick to worry about her. They never seemed to understand that a seventy-five-year-old woman might like naps for no other reason than she’d liked them all her life.
Daphne didn’t press the matter, though, and they lounged on their chaises in companionable silence until, quite out of the blue, Daphne asked, “Are you really happy, Mama?”
“Of course.” Violet looked at her with surprise. “Why would you ask such a thing?”
“It’s just . . . well . . . you’re alone.”
Violet laughed. “I’m hardly alone, Daphne.”
“You know what I mean. Papa has been gone for nearly forty years, and you never . . .”
With considerable amusement, Violet waited for her to finish the sentence. When it was apparent that Daphne could not bring herself to do so, Violet took pity on her and asked, “Are you trying to ask if I’ve ever taken a lover?”
“No!” Daphne burst out, even though Violet was quite sure she’d wondered.
“Well, I haven’t,” Violet said matter-of-factly. “If you must know.”
“Apparently I must,” Daphne mumbled.
“I never wanted to,” Violet said.
“Never?”
Violet shrugged. “I did not make a vow, or anything so formal. I suppose that if the opportunity had arisen, and the right man had come along, I might have—”
“Married him,” Daphne finished for her.
Violet gave her a sideways look. “You really are a prude, Daphne.”
Daphne’s mouth fell open. Oh, this was fun.
“Oh, very well,” Violet said, taking pity on her. “If I’d found the right man, I probably would have married him, if only to spare you from expiring from the shock of an illicit affair.”
“Might I remind you that you are the one who could hardly bring herself to speak to me about the marriage bed the night before my wedding?”
Violet waved that off. “I’m long past that awkwardness, I assure you. Why, with Hyacinth—”
“I don’t want to know,” Daphne said firmly.
“Well, yes, probably not,” Violet conceded. “Nothing is ordinary with Hyacinth.”
Daphne didn’t say anything, so Violet reached out and took her hand. “Yes, Daphne,” she said with great sincerity, “I am happy.”
“I can’t imagine if Simon—”
“I couldn’t imagine it, either,” Violet cut in. “Yet it happened. I thought I should die of the pain.”
Daphne swallowed.
“But I didn’t. And you wouldn’t. And the truth is, eventually it does become easier. And you think that perhaps you could find happiness with someone else.”
“Francesca did,” Daphne murmured.
“Yes, she did.” Violet closed her eyes for a moment, recalling how terribly worried she’d been for her third daughter during those years of her widowhood. She’d been so terribly alone, not shunning her family precisely, but not truly reaching out to them, either. And unlike Violet, she’d had no children to help her find her strength again.
“She is proof that one can be happy twice,” Violet said, “with two different loves. But, you know, she’s not the same kind of happy with Michael as she was with John. I would not value one higher than the other; it’s not the sort of thing one can measure. But it’s different.”
She looked ahead. She was always more philosophical when her eyes were on the horizon. “I wasn’t expecting the same kind of happiness I had with your father, but I would not settle for less. And I never found it.”
She turned to look at Daphne, then reached out and took her hand. “And as it happened, I didn’t need it.”
“Oh, Mama,” Daphne said, her eyes filling with tears.
“Life hasn’t always been easy without your father,” Violet said, “but it has always been worth it.”
Always.
About the Author
A New York Times bestselling author of twenty-two previous novels for Avon Books, JULIA QUINN is a graduate of Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges and lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family.
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By Julia Quinn
THE BRIDGERTON SERIES
The Duke and I
The Viscount Who Loved Me
An Offer From a Gentleman
Romancing Mister Bridgerton
To Sir Phillip, With Love
When He Was Wicked
It’s In His Kiss
On the Way to the Wedding
OTHER ROMANCES BY JULIA QUINN
A Night Like This
Just Like Heaven
Ten Things I Love About You
What Happens in London
Mr. Cavendish, I Presume
The Lost Duke of Wyndham
The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever
How to Marry a Marquis
To Catch an Heiress
Brighter Than the Sun
Everything and the Moon
Minx
Dancing at Midnight
Splendid
Copyright
This is a collection of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
“The Viscount Who Loved Me: The 2nd Epilogue” was originally published as an e-book. Copyright © 2006 by Julie Cotler Pottinger.
“An Offer From A Gentleman: The 2nd Epilogue” was originally published as an e-book. Copyright © 2009 by Julie Cotler Pottinger.
“Romancing Mister Bridgerton: The 2nd Epilogue” was originally published as an e-book. Copyright © 2007 by Julie Cotler Pottinger.
“To Sir Phillip, With Love: The 2nd Epilogue” was originally published as an e-book. Copyright © 2009 by Julie Cotler Pottinger.
“When He Was Wicked: The 2nd Epilogue” was originally published as an e-book. Copyright © 2007 by Julie Cotler Pottinger.
“It’s In His Kiss: The 2nd Epilogue” was originally published as an e-book.” Copyright © 2006 by Julie Cotler Pottinger.
THE BRIDGERTONS: HAPPILY EVER AFTER. Copyright © 2013 by Julie Cotler Pottinger. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
EPub Edition APRIL 2013 ISBN: 9780062096531
Print Edition ISBN: 9780061233005
FIRST EDITION
13 14 15 16 17 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Table of Contents
Dedication
Dear Reader
The Duke and I
The Duke and I: The 2nd Epilogue
The Viscount Who Loved Me
The Viscount Who Loved Me: The 2nd Epilogue
An Offer From a Gentleman
An Offer From a Gentleman: The 2nd Epilogue
Romancing Mister Bridgerton
Romancing Mister Bridgerton: The 2nd Epilogue
To Sir Phillip, With Love
To Sir Phillip, With Love: The 2nd Epilogue
When He Was Wicked
When He Was Wicked: The 2nd Epilogue
It’s In His Kiss
It’s In His Kiss: The 2nd Epilogue
On the Way to the Wedding
On the Way to the Wedding: The 2nd Epilogue
Violet in Bloom
Violet in Bloom: A Novella
About the Author
By Julia Quinn
Copyright
About the Publisher