Seeing tears forming in Cyril's eyes, Damon hugged him tightly. "You've been a wonderful father."
"But after all these years, I much prefer these islands, and I have friends in Jamaica, even a mistress I may marry now that I'm no longer wallowing in anger and self-pity."
"My mother isn't dead."
"She is to me," Cyril said a little too sharply. "I loved you from the day you were born, and loved her, too, for giving you to me. I'll always love you, Damon, never doubt that. But I understand you have new obligations now and we must live an ocean apart. I won't make the same mistakes to lose this second chance you're giving me. I swear it."
Father and son embraced, and both had tears in their eyes now.
Chapter Forty-Eight
JACQUELINE RAISED HER HEAD slightly from her pillow and opened one eye to see who had just burst into her bedroom without knocking, but she should have known. Only her cousin Judith would make such an entrance.
"Are you actually sick this time?" Judith demanded.
"No."
"A sprained ankle perhaps?"
Jacqueline put her head back down and dropped a listless hand over her eyes. "Ennui, if you must know. The last trip to the Caribbean was too exciting, which apparently has nasty aftereffects. Now, nothing interests me."
"Is that all? You're merely suffering from boredom?"
"What else?"
Judith plopped down on the bed and pulled Jacqueline up to sit in the middle of it with her. "Oh, I don't know-maybe you lied when you said you didn't fall in love with your pirate?"
"I did nothing of the sort. But I might be experiencing moments of-I don't even know what to call it. Misery, I suppose."
Jacqueline couldn't bring herself to talk about this yet, that she was worried that Damon didn't love her, that he'd only used her to get her father's help. He'd gotten that, and now she might never see him again!
"And tears?"
"Don't be silly, Judy, you know I don't cry."
"And yet boredom does not cause misery-"
"It does for me!"
"-while love certainly can cause misery for a number of reasons. When you're separated from your heart's desire, is one. When two people have unresolved feelings for each other, is another. When you think he doesn't feel the same way you feel about him, that's a hundred times worse than the other two reasons. When you think he's betrayed you, that's a thousand-"
"Judy! We were talking about me, not you, and why haven't you forgotten the miserable parts of your romance with Nathan? You're married now and over-the-top happy."
///
"Which is why I can think of that time of doubts now and laugh."
"I don't have doubts, nor am I miserable like that. I'm just so bored!"
"Well, lying in bed all day for no reason, of course you are. But your mother has a fix for that. She's going to host a ball."
"The devil she is! My mother never has parties of any sort unless they're for the extended family. She'd never, ever arrange a ball."
"Yes, she would." Judith smiled. "She is in your father's study making the invitation list right now."
"Why would she?"
"As I said, to get you out of bed."
Jacqueline snorted. "The Season is over."
"Yes, but that only means the debutantes have gone home-or are having engagement parties. London doesn't come to a halt just because the Season is over. The ton will still have their entertainments."
"But not my mother. Besides, Father wouldn't allow it."
"You really think he would butt heads with George about it? She is so thrilled to have you home, safe and sound, and wants to see you happy."
"Well, maybe not. She did cry for nearly a week after we returned, and he's still making amends as if it were all his fault."
"Joyful tears, but that's not the kind she shed while you were away."
"He knows. But my mother should have been reassured by Damon's note-I read it, and as he told Jeremy and me, it wasn't at all threatening."
"When do mere words reassure a mother? She was still worried sick about you the entire time you were gone, while you were off fighting pirates and having a grand old time. My mother even offered to buy them a ship so they could hie off to search for you themselves, but saner minds prevailed, since that would have been like looking for the proverbial needle."
"It wasn't all grand," Jack reminded her cousin.
"The last week or so was, to hear you tell it-well, until he went one way and you went another. For God's sake, Jack, the very moment he was no longer your enemy, you told me you were tossing him in bed. Admit it-or admit that you're in love."