Love Affair that Lasts Forever

Colin often found himself wondering how he had missed the signs that Penelope was the one. It was so obvious now. Little things such as her being the first person he sort out when he arrived at any ball. How he always felt so protective towards her.

When he had returned from Greece he had been overjoyed to see Penelope in his home. He had put it down to her being the only one who had responded to his letters at the time. Later at the races he felt and thought the same thing.

Pen always found a way to lift his spirits no matter the situation. And yet it had taken him until another man showed interest towards her for him to realise how important she was to him. How she was so much more than just a friend.

He found himself watching her with his son marvelling at how she seemed so natural as a mother. "How did you dream your life would turn out as a child?" He wanted to know every little detail no matter how small.

Penelope smiled to herself. "Eloise always talked about us growing old and being spinsters together. I thought that might be my outcome. But I dreamed of being your wife." She looked him straight in the eye. "I thought that was all it could ever be a dream."

"I am sorry it took me so long to see you. To realise that everything I had been looking for was right in front of me the whole time." Now he realised how patient she had been with him. She had even defended his foolishness with Marina.

"Stop apologizing. We have the rest of our lives to be together." Penelope gently placed their sleeping son in his crib.

"Then I will spend a lifetime making it up to you." Colin followed Penelope out of the nursery.

"And how will you do that?" Penelope walked into their bedroom. She had long forgiven Colin especially since she had thought in the beginning that her feelings were one sided. She, at the time had been grateful that he considered her to be a friend.

He wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and nuzzled her neck. "I have a few ideas." Even after a year and a child he was still attracted to her as he had been when she had walked into Lady Danbury's ball wearing that Emerald green dress.

"We are having dinner with your mother." Penelope giggled. "You do not have time to make it up to me."

Colin chuckled. She was right. When he made love to his wife, he liked to take his time. Mentally cataloguing every sigh, gasp and cry when he found the perfect spot. Her ability to observe served more than the Lady Whistledown paper. She knew all of his perfect spots as well. "Do you need help getting ready?"

Penelope gently pushed his hands away, turned and stood on tiptoes to kiss her husband. "We do not have time for that either." They had been late on a number of occasions because Colin had been 'helping' her.

"Well, we could send our apologies. I think I might be coming down with something." He pulled her back into his arms. "I think you will need to nurse me back to health." He started to kiss his way down her neck.

"If we send word to your mother that you are sick, she will be over here in seconds." Her words came out on a breath as he made his way across her collarbone.

Groaning Colin straightened up. She was right. If he tried to bow out of dinner by claiming to be sick, his mother and or a doctor would be showing up on their doorstep. "I will go and get changed." He felt his wife's tiny hand on his arm.

"We could leave early." Pen grinned mischievously. "Then you can begin your mission of making things up to me."

He loved the way his wife thought. Kissing his wife, he went to get changed. His mother didn't expect them to come by often but with half of her children married and Eloise still somewhat resistant to entertain the thought of marriage, she did try to get them together for dinner once a month. But Penelope had mentioned that Eloise's thought process was changing on that particular subject, be it slowly.

Dinner was slightly less chaotic than usual. Although that was probably due to only half of his siblings being there. His mother was more quite than usual. He asked if she was well and Violet reassured him she was fine. When he looked over at his wife he noticed she had been watching his mother, a thoughtful look on her face.

As Penelope had promised, they left early. Once they returned home she went to check on their son. When she hadn't joined him in their room five minutes later, he went looking for her.

When he stepped into the nursery, he found Penelope watching their son sleep. A pensive look on her face. "Pen?"

"I think your mother is lonely." Penelope knew the moment he entered the room. She didn't want there to ever come a time where she didn't instinctively know her husband was near. She could only imagine how Violet felt every day since her husband had died.

"What about your mother? Now all three of her daughters are married, do you think she will find another husband?" He hadn't known Lord Featherington very well before his untimely death and Penelope had only recently begun getting along with her mother.

"My parents marriage was not a love match as yours was. So perhaps now she can find that with someone." Penelope couldn't even begin to imagine life without Colin. She couldn't remember a time she hadn't been in love with him.

He kissed the top of her head. "Maybe both of our mothers will find love again." Something told him that he would never find a love like the one he had with Penelope. "Have I told you today how much I love you?"

Penelope smiled up at him. "Why don't you show me?" She led him out of the nursery and into their room. They spent the remainder of the evening making up for lost time.