The Debutante's Wish Bonus Scene

Sebastian

Three Years Later.

“Seb! Seb? You are needed.”

“I’m coming,” Sebastian called back to Elisabeth’s cries. He closed the lid on the tramp art box, hiding the letters that had been stuffed inside long ago. From what he’d recently heard, Bona Dea, the legend, was not yet finished with the world. Though neither he nor his mother picked up a quill to write as Bona Dea very often, others frequently did. Whenever she was needed, letters would be left in the notch in the oak tree, and someone would come to the letter writer’s aid.

Sebastian smiled as he tucked the box away and hid it in his wardrobe. He still took a thrill in knowing that the legend had lived on, even as it evolved and moved with the times.

Bona Dea, the idea, will remain alive!

Turning in his chamber, he found he was not alone.

“Marty?” he called to his valet who struggled in the wardrobe.

“Coming, my Lord. Ah!” He tripped as he fell back out of the wardrobe and landed on his back. “Here it is.” He thrust up the dark green tailcoat into the air that Sebastian had asked for.

“My apologies. Next time, bring me whichever tailcoat is easier for you to find,” Sebastian said as he took the tailcoat from his valet’s proffered hand.

“I do not mind,” Marty said as he scrambled to his feet. “Right, are we ready for that picnic?”

“We’ll have to see. I believe Sarah was watching over the preparations for the food,” Sebastian explained as he pulled on the tailcoat.

“Sarah? Then I shall go and help her.” With no other words, Marty threw himself out of the door and into the hallway.

“Watch the hall rug!” Sebastian called after his friend. He heard the thud a second later of his valet tripping, but fortunately, no second heavier thud followed, showing that this time at least, Marty had been able to stay on his feet.

Chuckling, Sebastian adjusted the cuffs of his tailcoat and moved into the hallway, peering down over the banister as he watched Marty hurry to Sarah’s side. She walked through the hall carrying a vast basket before it was swiftly taken out of her hands by Marty. They both blushed a deep shade of red as their hands touched on the basket, then Marty led the way out of the house with Sarah following on behind.

“Things are changing,” Sebastian remarked softly as he watched them leave.

When he and Elisabeth had first been married, he knew Sarah had been in the throes of heartbreak, for she had talked of it in her letters to Bona Dea at the time. The liking she had been harboring for a certain coachman for so long was plainly never going to be one that was returned. In contrast, the moment Marty met Sarah, he was practically a puppy at her heels. Her heartbreak might have taken some time to get over, but this last year, she seemed to notice how loyal a friend Marty was to her.

“Maybe they’ll be married soon,” Sebastian whispered as he heard a clatter at the end of the corridor. Freezing, he turned around and stared into the distance of the landing.

A beat of silence followed the clatter, then abruptly, a child’s wail began.

“Sebastian!” Elisabeth called loudly for him.

“Coming.” Sebastian ran down the hallway, fearing what could have happened. Had their boy fallen over? Had he gravely injured himself?

He pushed the door open of the nursery and hastened inside, having to jump over discarded wooden horses that had been left across the floor.

“Goodness, you are mischievous today,” Elisabeth protested as she lifted the toddler off his knees.

Their son, young Daniel, or Danny, as they preferred to call him, named after Sebastian’s father, was wailing and crying loudly.

“What happened?” Sebastian asked with fear and hurried forward, where he then saw the source of the loud clatter. Danny had knocked over a stack of building blocks.

“He’s fine,” Elisabeth assured him with a full smile as she placed Danny on her hip and turned around. “Our son seems to have taken great joy in knocking things over this morning. When I refused to stack the bricks back up for him again, he proceeded to have a tantrum.”

“Ha! He likes to get his way.”

“Something we must make sure he grows out of,” Elisabeth said with warmth and rolled her eyes. “Here, you take him whilst I tidy up this mess. We must be going soon, or Kathryn will be most upset with us.”

“Here you go my boy, come to your Pa.” He took Danny in his arms and held him high in the air, making faces and blowing raspberries. The boy’s face stopped contorting, then he laughed, that brilliant smile appearing which Sebastian loved so much.

He returned his son to his hip and bobbed his nose a few times, then tickled him, making the boy laugh harder still.

He was a true mix of the pair of them, bearing Elisabeth’s golden hair that was cropped short and had a habit of sticking up at odd angles. He also had the hazel eyes that both Sebastian and his own mother, Arabella, bore. A happy and smiling child, he seemed only to have tantrums when he really wanted something.

“You causing trouble again? Or are you simply enjoying irritating your mother, eh?” Sebastian teased, watching his wife out of the corner of his eye.

Elisabeth broke off from what she was doing and laughed, moving to his side with some of the bricks in her hands. As she neared him, Sebastian felt that familiar heat and excitement.

She was everything to him. These last three years together had been even happier than he could have possibly anticipated. They’d grown closer and closer over the years, until they now knew everything about one another. If Sebastian ever had to go away on business, he missed her, and usually found her standing in the hallway awaiting his return. Most of those reunions ended up with them sharing a bedchamber that same night.

“Behave,” she whispered, stepping toward him.

“I didn’t say anything,” he said, yet his eyes wandered still, looking down her body.

“You didn’t need to.” She nodded at his eyes then stood on her toes to kiss him, pressing his lips to hers. He indulged in that kiss, maintaining it for as long as he could when Danny started to wail in his arms. “Oh, who isn’t getting enough attention, I wonder?” Elisabeth teased as she stepped back and returned to her task of tidying the bricks.

“There now,” Sebastian said and hitched Danny higher on his hip. “You will be much fussed over today. We are going to see your aunt, and we both know how much your Auntie Kathryn adores you. She will not stop playing with you the whole picnic, I am certain.”

“Something tells me that Kathryn might have some news for us today,” Elisabeth said as she put away the last of the bricks and led the way out of the nursery, adjusting the creases of her gown.

“Some news?” Sebastian asked distractedly, making faces at his son again. Danny giggled raucously.

“Are you concentrating?” Elisabeth said, turning at the top of the stairs to look back at him. She plainly attempted a stern look, though the glimmer of a smile showed through.

“Completely. I am listening attentively.” Despite Sebastian’s words, his son laughed louder, as if the young boy was trying to out his father’s playfulness on purpose.

“Hmm.” Elisabeth didn’t sound convinced as she turned and walked down the stairs again.

“You trying to get me into trouble?” Sebastian whispered to his son and tickled him once more. The boy laughed and buried his head into Sebastian’s side.

“I was saying that I think Kathryn has some news for us. She intimated as much in her last letter, did she not?” Elisabeth reminded him as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

He nodded, recalling the letter as Kathryn had talked about how happy she was with her husband. The two were a well-matched pair indeed, complimenting each other where it was needed, and Sebastian liked her husband immensely. He was a good man that took care of her, so Sebastian had pored over his cousin’s letter, eager to read of her happiness.

“She did suggest she had something to tell us, yes,” Sebastian confirmed as they reached the door. Elisabeth pulled on her pelisse and walked down the front steps, hurrying toward the carriage that awaited them. Sebastian followed, still carrying his son. “Did you have any guesses as to what it could be?”

“A few,” Elisabeth said as she climbed into the carriage, then waved her arms at him, eager to have her son back.

“I thought I had to look after him and his mischievous ways for a while?” Sebastian reminded her with a chuckle.

“I’m missing him already,” she said and pouted in a comical way. “Give me my son back.”

He laughed and sat beside her, shifting Danny so he was sat in his mother’s lap, but turned toward Sebastian. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out one of Danny’s favorite toys at present, another wooden horse. He handed it to the boy who at once made neighing sounds and tapped the horse on his own knee, as if trying to make the toy gallop.

As the carriage set off, Sebastian sat back, looking out of the window as he eagerly awaited to see his cousin again.

“Go on then, what is your prediction?” Sebastian asked his wife. “What do you reckon Kathryn will be telling us?”

“Well, I was thinking there could be a reason why the last time we saw her she was feeling under the weather. She also dropped her coffee cup as if it was the worst thing she had ever smelled in her life,” Elisabeth said, wrinkling her nose.

“Knowing my cousin’s clumsy ways, that could have nothing to do with the scent of the coffee,” Sebastian reminded his wife.

“Yet when one is with child, such things can be off putting,” she said with a smile. “Do you remember how much I disliked the scent of brandy and port?”

“Yes, I remember, oh…” Sebastian sat forward, a smile overtaking his lips. “You think Kathryn could be with child?”

“It is simply a guess, we shall have to see,” Elisabeth declared happily and rearranged the horse on their son’s lap, so he focused on the toy. “What a joy that will be, another child to add to the happy family.”

“My parents will be delighted. I do not doubt they will buy their child as many toys as we currently get. We have so many of these wooden horses they will not all fit in one room,” Sebastian said pointedly as he reached into a different pocket of his tailcoat and found another smaller horse. “I didn’t even realize this one was here.”

“Well, let us wait and see her news. I could be wrong, after all.”

When the carriage pulled up outside Kathryn’s horse, Sebastian was the first to jump down, eager to see his cousin. The door was thrust open and not by a butler or any footman, but by Kathryn herself, who flung her body from the door and waved eagerly.

Sebastian’s eyes flitted down to Kathryn’s evidently growing stomach, then he looked back at his wife.

“An accurate guess indeed, love,” he whispered, for her ears only. “Kathryn, shall we take a guess at what this great news is you have to tell us?” he teased as he reached for his cousin.

“Oh, Seb. I have never been so happy!” She ran into his arms, with so much force that he was knocked backwards. He chuckled and held his cousin back, thrilled that she had the happiness he had in his own life at last.

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