Yours Until Dawn (34 page)

On this, our third anniversary as man and wife, I feel compelled to point out that you are as impertinent, insufferable, and arrogant as ever, perhaps even more so now that you are so often to be found swaggering about the mansion with your daughter on your shoulder. Despite the misgivings of both myself and my staunchest ally, your dear, sweet mother, you insisted upon christening her “Samantha,” ensuring that both she and the dog come running whenever her name is called. For a while there, you could never be sure which one of them you would find chewing and drooling on your boots. Her table manners are remarkably similar to what her papa’s once were. She disdains both fork and spoon and flings her porridge about with a wild-eyed enthusiasm that makes both Beckwith and Mrs. Beckwith shudder with horror.

I am also writing to inform you that thanks to your devoted (and quite frequent!) attentions, I am once again with child. Perhaps this time I will give you a son with green eyes and golden curls. He can order the staff about with the high-handed imperiousness one would expect of a Fairchild heir.

Ever your adoring,
Cecily

16 December, 1809

My darling Lady Sheffield,

I should point out that our little cherub also shares many traits in common with her mother. She frequently likes to pretend she’s someone (or something) else, whether it be a fairy princess or a garden toad. She also has a tendency to disappear just when one needs her the most. Only yesterday, while I was frantically waiting for my newly trained valet, Phillip, to tie my cravat for church, I found her fast asleep in my dressing room beneath an enormous pile of hats.

So now you intend to give me a son, eh? No doubt he will be every bit as vexing and as irresistible as his mama and sister.

You asked me once if I would still love you when your lips were puckered with age and your eyes were faded. I can assure you that I will still love you when I have only the strength (and the scant teeth) left to gum those puckered lips. I shall love you when your bones are sharp enough to pierce my fragile flesh. I shall love you when the light in my own eyes fades for good and yours is the last sweet face I see. Because I am and ever shall be…

Your devoted husband,
Gabriel

New York Times
bestselling author TERESA MEDEIROS wrote her first novel at the age of twenty-one and has since gone on to win the hearts of both critics and readers alike. Teresa makes her home in Kentucky with her husband and two cats.

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Praise for

NEW YORK TIMES
BEST SELLING AUTHOR

Teresa
Medeiros

“C
reates magical and charming romance.”

Columbia State

“[
I
s] a joy to read… She offers a satisfying story written in a light, clear voice, unhampered by artifice or affectation…. [Her] flesh-and-bloodcharacters and richly described settings linger in the mind of the reader.”

Lexington Herald-Leader

“W
ill make you laugh and cry.”

USA Today

“M
edeiros’s talent touches every page.”

Publishers Weekly

“O
nly a select few have voices that sing on the page. Teresa Medeiros is such an author.”

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Books by
Teresa Medeiros

Y
OURS
U
NTIL
D
AWN
O
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N
IGHT OF
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CANDAL

Copyright

This is a work 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.

YOURS UNTIL DAWN.
Copyright © 2004 by Teresa Medeiros. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, 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 PerfectBound™.

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Microsoft Reader January 2005 ISBN 0-06-082866-8

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